The toms are calling to me to give them more room. They are all crowded together on the windowsill bending towards the light...but they are not alone. If I bend over and look down the row of the toms I can see my little ID flags standing proudly. It was time with the grey weather today, so we loaded them into a cardboard box and biked off to the lottie to plant them. Our technique is simple, but goes against the usual way that folks here plant their toms. To begin with, we make a slanted groove in the soul running from the bamboo stick toward the path. At the end of this groove, I dig the deep hole for the root ball. The inclining groove is for the stem. I watered in the groove. Before planting the plantlet, I trim off the lower leaves, leaving only the topmost leaves. You then just lay the plant more or less horizontally in the groove. ****The philosophy here is: We know that most plants (tomato's included) take up water from the deep roots. This is why the root ball goes in the deep hole. We also know that tom plants (as well as others) do their feeding from the more shallow roots. This is why we lie the plantlets horizontally--so they will form more superficial roots with which to feed themselves.The more they can eat, the more they will produce. Next step then is to cover your plantlets all the way up to the leaves. Make sure that you put in some kind of watering tube/bottle that sends the water directly to the root ball. Once all the plants have been planted, water the whole bit in and close up the greenhouse to warm the soil back up. "Klaar is Cees", as we say....meaning "Bob's yer uncle"---the job is finished. Now to just wait. Tomorrow the leafy bits will already be standing up straight, and the growing will have begun. The next thing to look for are blooms... and then the soon after it will be time for the first "haircut" to remove excess foliage in order to expose the blooms, making pollination easier.
Thank you GF. MG--It really is a simple method and works like a charm for me. They perform so well with this method.
Sjoerd, I may try this method with a few plants. I'm growing all mine from seeds saved last year, except one packet I bought and two grape tomato plants bought.
I'm about to transplant my tomato plants so will give your method a try. Thanks for the photographs which show clearly how it should be done.
Good luck with the method, GROWINGPAINS--I hope you have good success. EILEEN--You are welcome. Fingers crossed for you. If you want to be amazed...pull up the roots and look at what was once stem and see how many roots the plant produced at the end of the season. By doing this you can see how well the method works.
Sjoerd your method is great and I will definitely do it this way when I start my project yummy tomatoes. Thanks :-D
Sjoerd, I always knew that was a good way to plant them but I never had anyone have such good instructions. Thank you, my dear friend. I will do that this year.
KK--You are quite welcome. I hope that you can begin your project there soon...This will then of course mean that all your refurbishing has been completed. WARE--You have good natural feel for gardening, don't you. I hope that you get a chance to try this way of doing the toms. TINA--I do my toms this way every year and am always pleased with the results. I will show some progress foto's now and then though. Hee hee hee CHERYL--You just won't do, meid. --Go out and buy more toms to try this. chortle. Ach, perhaps next year. Thanks CAROLYN--Glad you liked the posting. Boy, every time I see that avatar, it makes me want to go and get a bowl of yoghurt to go with the berries.
I do and I will do all of mine that way. I usually bury them very deeply because I know they will do better that way. Now I think this is better. I have 150 plants ready to go in as soon as we can till the garden. I may only plant 75 and give the rest away. This year I want to make very very thick tomato sauce with Italian flavorings. That way I can add it to pizza and spaghetti dishes. I also need more whole tomatoes put up. I have used allot from my pantry this year.
That's great! Well, I do hope that you will have success. BTW--when you will plant them (I am assuming you will plant them out-of-doors) do you first amend the soil in the place where you will plant all these plants, making the soil extra nutritious for the plants? I mention this because as you know toms are heavy feeders. What kinds of toms will you use this year? You have some delicious-sounding plans for your toms.
