The Best Way to Plant Spindly Tomatoes for Tomato Tuesday

Tomato seeds should be started four to six weeks before transplanting them to the garden.

Most gardeners, myself included, sometimes get overly excited on late winter days and start their tomatoes way too early. Even if you get your timings correct, sometimes the weather doesn't cooperate and you are forced to keep your tomatoes under lights or on a windowsill for an extra few weeks.

A common result of either of these two scenarios is tall, leggy, spindly tomatoes.
Many times, even plants from a garden center are like this.

The good news here is that even if your tomato plants get too tall and spindly, you can always correct that at planting time. Tomato plants
can be planted very deep in the soil. In other words, it is okay to "bury" that long stem because new roots, called adventitious roots, will grow out of that buried stem. This can actually strengthen the plant. So having too-tall plants which was a negative aspect, turns into positive one!

If your garden is like mine, after you decide to bury part of the tomato stems, you have a new challenge. I only have good loose soil in my garden on the top foot or so. Burying the tomato plant two feet deep or more is not possible. So pictured below is what you can do.

If you can't get a deep enough hole, you can plant the tomato sideways in a trench and carefully bend it upright so the above ground portion is straight.

Even if it isn't all the way straight, the plant will adjust itself later. Be careful not to bend it too far, or you may snap it in two! It is okay if necessary to snap off the lower branches that would otherwise get burried.

When planting this way, you can't even tell the tomato plant was too tall when you're finished.

Look at how much taller the plants are in the cell pack. The tomato plant on the right is the one just planted with the trench method, and it came from that same cell pack.

Also, remember to mark which side your original root ball is on so you can water it in the right location while the plant is young.

 

This post is part of Tomato Tuesday. I started the Tomato Tuesday meme by hosting it at TomatoTuesday.com but i think it will be easier to keep it here at GardenDesk.

I know it still may be early in the season for most, but if you have written anything recently about your tomatoes, or tomato growing in general, you are invited to join in! Just sign your name in the mister linky below with a link to your tomato post and then leave a comment. Remember to make the link be the url of your new tomato post instead of your main blog address.

Happy Tomato Tuesday and Happy tomato planting!

Comments

[Donna]

tomato plants going in this wekend under cover so will join in another time...great tips

[Bill Brikiatis]

Marc -- I have a question about Tomato Tuesday. Does the orginal post on my blog need to be on Tuesday or does it just need to be about tomatoes?

[Marc]

Thanks for stopping by Donna. I'd love for you to join in next week or any future Tuesday.

Hi Bill, Thanks for the question. Tomato Tuesday is still getting off the ground so I can't expect bloggers to write about tomatoes only on Tuesdays. I will post the new meme each Tuesday, but your article doesn't have to be on Tuesday. It would be best if it were a recent post you've done, but as we are still ramping up you could include a past post as well.

I will be more specific when I post on Tuesdays and invite others to link to a tomato post they have written in the past week. That way, if someone writes about tomatoes a lot like I do, they may be able to join each week.

I would love to have you link up to something of yours Bill. Your posts are always fantastic. If you have any suggestions about how I should do Tomato Tuesdays, I'd love to hear them. I just want to have a place for us to coordinate our tomato blogging as the season progresses.

- Marc

[Julianne Idleman]

Hi Marc,

Wrote this new post just for you and Tomato Tuesday. Hope you enjoy reading about the tomato trials we have going this year at Dirt to Dinner.

Thanks for the meme! Great idea.

Julianne