Finally The Toms Are Planted

The wait has been long and the spring has been cool.
The tom seeds were germinated, the plantlets served time on the windowsill and then were hardened-off on the front balcony. It was a long developmental road but finally it was time to take the gangly plants to the lottie to be planted in the greenhouse.

The boxes of plants were standing by....


The first thing to do was to prune all the leaves off the stem, leaving only the distal 2-3 ones.


One can't be shy--all except the last two leaves have to come off.


I just kept going until that stem was as bare as a newborn rat.


Then a small trench the length of the tom plantlet was dug at an incline--that is to say that the root ball end was deeper than the leafy top end. Then the plant was laid in the little trench with the plant lying slightly uphill, the leaves against the tonkin stick.


Next the watering bottle was placed directly over the root ball. This is where the water will be taken up by the plant. Of course more roots will be formed along the long, bare stem. They will be more superficial and take-up the nutrition from the soil. This is why I remove the leaves and plant the plantlet horizontally instead of vertically.


All that is left to do is cover the plant and water it in.


Then wait for the next stage of the process--to begin feeding when the first blooms appear... and pruning. Prune pro re nata.

 

Fingers crossed, Eileen.
Have you already made the soil in there ready with compost and other goodies?

 

I've been wanting to do your method, but my seedlings never grow bigger than 2 inches in the pot.
When do you plant your seeds and how do you get them to grow so big before planting them outside?

 

I planted all my toms this way. They are now about 2 1/2 ft tall. It worked so well for me last year that there is no other way to plant now.

 

I planted mine last weekend. I plant them very deep so that roots will grow from the stalk, but I have not heard of planting them bent over like that. We have clay soil and so I think that deep works here because of the water table ... they do not dry out down deep. I also have a little 'formula' that I add to each hole, with compost, epsom salts and milk powder.

 

I saw some tomatoes seedling for sale in the farmer's or Saturday street market in Brioude, in South France. They were really tall and made mine look like shorties. There were also freshly pick tomatoes of different species and they all look yum!!!

 

That's what ours look like in their pots now Sjoerd!!! We've had lots of wicked stormy weather, but looks like we have a couple days of sun, so we should be able to transplant them today and tomorrow! Great tutorial!

 

We planted ours a few weeks ago inside our green house. We planted them deep and added some well aged manure as we planted them. I planted marigolds behind and in front of them to try and discourage the root knot nematodes. Our chard, carrots, and sugar snap peas are up. I'm hoping they'll survive the rain we've had almost every day for the last month. We've already had to re-plant some of the peas.

 

BEEKER--Hey there miss! Good to see you.
What I do to get them this long is to transplant the seedlings a couple of times while they are still on the windowsill. I plant them in a deeper pot each time. I use clematis pots for this. For instance when I buy a Clematis, I save the pot for this purpose. Some other plants from the garden centre come in these type of pots as well. I am talking about the plastic pots here.
so, after I have transplanted them a number of times and the have grown tall enough I try and have them planted by the middle of may (in the greenhouse). when I actually plant the seeds varies from year to year, based on the weather trends.
I leave these plants on a west-facing window and turn them 180° every day. They just grow long by themselves. Also I use a seeding soil that has sand in it so that the water drains well. When I plant them on the first time and subsequent times i use a potting soil that has fertilizer in it (bought from the garden centre).
Let me know if this is not clear for you.

DONNA-- I am thrilled beyond words to hear of your success. When you dug those toms up at the end of the season, did you look at the roots growing out of the stem that you had covered up?

That sounds mysterious and interesting, NETTY.

They grow good toms in France, KK.

It sounds like things are going well for you, 2OF. The rest of your veg also...but too much rain is a bit worrying. I am hoping for you that it will lessen.

Thanks so much, BUNKIE--I hope that the weather improves for you and that you have a good harvest.

 

It is great to see you too!
That information is perfect! Thank you!
So when did you start your seeds for this year's toms? February? January?

 

Hiya Beeker. I apologize deeply for not seeing this earlier. I could just kick myself. .......OUCH!! There--I did it.

I planted the seeds in march or april so that they would be this long by the middle of may. It is a process of looking at the calender and also guessing based upon how the season is shaping up....I also use a weather service to consider long-term predictions.

It isn't really very scientific...t'is more more of a feeling, based on past experience...y'know what I mean?
Having said that, the use of a weather service and how the season feels does give me a good idea of when to begin. The end point is always mid may, the day I actually plant the seeds is what I have to try and figure out.

 

Wow! Thanks for this post Sjoerd. If I can find a tomato seedling this late in the season, I will try your method. I did take the bottom set of branches off my tomato plants before planting & planted them a bit deeper. I hope I can still find a seedling because I am intrigued to try your method.

 

You are as welcome as can be. I am chuffed that you want to try the method that I use. My fingers are crossed for you finding a tom plantlet this late. If you are able to find one, it ought to catch up and do alright. I will say, it is on edge of the planting schedule though....almost too late. That said, If I want to try something, I often ignore boundries and timings if i get into a time crunch. hahaha.

 

The bottle idea is really good, all of this was very helpful. Thanks for sharing