imafan26
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Re: Planting tomato plants deep: does it work?

I always take off the lower leaves and plant as much of the stem as possible. I leave only the top set of leaves. The plants do grow adventicious roots and if I leave more stem, I just get a taller plant. Except for tumbling Tom which is a basket tomato, the tomatoes I grow are caged and usually 7-8 ft by the time they are in full production. I grow them in 18 gallon containers and the roots will still go out of the pots and into the ground. Tomatoes need a lot of root space as well as headroom.

What I find is that most beginners choose a pot that is too small and don't plan on a support system at the start. The support system should be in place when the tomato is planted so it is strong enough and does not damage the root system when it is being installed.

The other thing that beginners often don't realize that plants are living things that need air, light, water, food in the right quantities and that all things have a life span. They don't live forever.

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jal_ut
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Gary350, growing in Tn is likely to be a lot different than here in Northern Utah at 5000 ft elevation. With a little luck we get June, July and August frost free. Though one year I got frozen out on July 5.

Here is a good read: https://soilandhealth.org/wp-content/upl ... 7ch26.html

gumbo2176
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I've had such horrible luck with tomatoes the past few years I've decided to not grow them in my backyard garden this year. I did have a very large plant in a huge pot on my front porch that died this past winter when it got down to the low 20's a few nights in a row and I finally got that root ball out of the pot and decided to put just one cherry tomato plant in it surrounded by a few low growing flowering plants. That will be the extent of my tomato crop this year I do believe, unless I decide to put more of them in large pots.

The first several years of growing my garden found me with beautiful tomatoes each spring/summer and again in the fall before the real cold weather killed the plants off. However the past few years have seen the plants succumb to various diseases, fungal issues and an influx in pests that destroy the fruit before it ripens. I've planted my tomatoes in various locations over the years and by now there isn't a place in my garden where I can rotate them too that hasn't seen them planted there before.

But the good thing is, when tomatoes are getting ripe in my garden, the local tomato crop is too and the price of them drops considerably, making them almost not worth growing with the issues I've dealt with.

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lakngulf
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gumbo2176 wrote: making them almost not worth growing with the issues I've dealt with.
almost I still work thru the issues and to me those home grown are worth it.

Vanisle_BC
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I'm very interested in this question (benefit - or not - of deep planting for tomatoes) and especially TZ's comments. Over many years I've tried lots of variations on the theme of raising and setting out transplants for best root development. I won't go into details here, but I was just today reflecting that when I first grew tomatoes and hadn't yet "learned how it should be done" I do believe my results were quite as good as after I began following many of the techniques I read about - but with much less bother/effort. This year I'll be going back to my older, simpler way of doing things.

The BIG things I've learned to be fussy about are 1) Keep the deer out of the garden :) and 2) Protect the plants from rain late in the season. When I didn't know I should "spank" or shake the blossoming plants my results were not noticeably poorer than after I began to do that. To me it's often difficult to distinguish gardening fact from dubious "common knowledge" and rational speculation.

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applestar
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Is it this post you are talking about?

TZ was the resident tomato expert around the time I first joined this forum. In fact he was the one that got me started growing my first selection of huge varieties, along with a couple of other members, too, and set me along this path of craziness nutz:

He hasn’t been here in a long time and I miss him. His archived advice are worth paying attention to.

Vanisle_BC
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applestar wrote:Is it this post you are talking about?
Hmmm - applestar, is it me you're talking to ? :lol:

Really I was/am very interested in just about everything TZ and most others had to say on this thread; but specially the comments about various tomato raising & planting techniques. Thanks to you all.

By the way I apologise for my irrelevant (to the topic) statements about protection from deer and rain. Sometimes can't resist flippant interjections intended as humour. It's too late to edit them out, but mods please feel free.

But off-topic again: I LOVE this forum.

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jal_ut
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When planting tomatoes I always dig a little trench and kind of lay the plant down in it and cover up all but the top leaves. The plant will send out roots all along any buried stem. Water and weed as required and you will succeed.

Vanisle_BC
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applestar wrote:Is it this post you are talking about?
No, it was No.3 in this thread where TZ_OH6, relates his experience & rationale for tomato transplanting, when to bury stems deep and when shallower:
I never see a significant amount of roots growing out above the original rootball for plants that had loose root balls going into the garden.
This makes sense of my own observation that burying a lot of stem makes little difference if transplants are already sturdy with well developed roots.



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