Bobberman
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2437
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2010 10:31 pm
Location: Latrobe Pa.

Hole for the tomatoes !

Planting the tomato in the hole I think is important. Early spring planting of tomatoes you have to remember that the deeper soil is cold! Laying the tomato down planting shallow sometimes is a good idea! iusually put a few in early and most are planted by june in Pa. here! I like my method the best and have very good results! As I mentioned before I take a pry bar or something with a pointed end like a metal pipe. Last year I had a old table with metal legs that were pointed. I attached a 6 inch square piece of ply wood to the 2 inch diameter of the leg so my hand could push down on the leg to go into the ground a foot or more. I then made circular motiomand the result was a funnel shapped hole. The top of the hole was 6 inches diameter and the bottom only 2 inches. I even pushed the metal leg in deeper when I had the funnel shaped hole made. I would say the hole went down15 or more inches. I filled the hole up with water or a mild fertilized or manure tea put the tomato in 6 inches and covered with a slight hill at the top! It seems to me that the tomato roots would get really deep this way and have no trouble with water and deep nutrient!. If the tomato was bigger with a long stem I would put it down even a foot! I could make these holes fast like a dozen in 2 minutes! I was even thinking of putting two night crawlers in each hole! Ground up bananas eggsheels wold work! Anything you put in goes to the bottom of the hole and provides nutrient for a long time. I will try Osmocote this year which gives of nitrogen slowly for months! Those old metal table legs work great for all kinds of plantig even peppersor broccoli!! I can make holes in groun even with lots of clay that has not been tilled for years! I also put a compost dirt to fill the hole once the tomato is in place and you have a 6 inch area where no weeds will grow around the tomato with this method! I planted tomatoes this way in a grass lawn and placed a one foot diameter piece of card board around the tomato with a small hole in the center and never had to do anything else and had really nice tomatoes! Any other ideas



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