You posted how you plant your tomatos.I saved it to Heather's computer.I need to reread it and I am sure others would love to read it.I have looked and looked for it to save and use .Please repost it for this dummy .
Hi Glenda, Well...I hope this is what you were talking about. This is just an explanation, my website has pictures to illustrate my words in case I'm not being clear to you. ***(1) Warmth...(2) feeding...(3) water uptake are for me the three essential factors of tomato survival and production. Horizontal planting is what I do rather than the more convential vertical method. It's the way I plant my tomatoes...and there is a reason. In order to understand why I do it this way, you need to know a little bit about how the tom works underground. On the rootsystem of toms, the upper roots near the surface, are the ones that take-up "food". The deeper ones are the ones that take up water for the plant's hydration, which is so essential to the fruit. As tomatos are basically a 'water fruit', you just have to bite into one to know what I mean. Toms need warmth. Warmth on the leaves, on the soil and on the roots. Warmth is more important than sunlight, actually. Now with the basics in mind, I will next tell you that I plant my toms horizontally instead of vertically so that it has more top feeding roots and that it's roots are more evenly exposed to heat. So finally, to come to the answer to your question: I pot them on each time they grow too tall for their container, and bury them to the top two leaves each time (removing all other leaves on larger seedlings--not the first time I transplant). Why do I do this? Because the old stems which wind-up underground will form and produce ever more roots along it's length. I like to let my plantlets grow long and lanky to this end. Finally I plant them in a quart milk or juice carton as the last stage before they are put into the ground for good. You can see something of this on my website page: http://www.volkstuindersvereni...nghoor ... age22.html There is always more than one way to do something, you just have to find or develop a way that YOU like then stick with what is successful for you. I hope that this all didn't sound too acedemic, I was just trying to be clear. Good luck on your toms.
