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Dot's on transplanting tomatoes

>From British Columbia, which despite its latitude really is probably at
least as warm as USDA zone 7/8, Dot said,
>I have just transplanted my first new tomato plants and from what
>I've read they should be planted deep to encourage more roots.  They look
>healthy but I really don't have anything to compare them with.  I've given
>them some Miracle Grow, any comments on this?  What about green peppers >or
hot peppers.  When they are ready to be transplanted should I bury the
>stems down deep like the tomatos?  Also, they will probably have to be
>transplanted several times before going outside, do I continue to use the
>starting soil or potting soil or should I mix in some compost?  I apologize
>for asking what may seem like a dumb questions, but this is really my first
>year at growing a veggy garden, and I have no practical experiences to go
>by.

In my experience, tomatoes are very forgiving plants.  They probably don't
require the multiple-transplantation hand-holding you're talking about, Dot.
If you began their life in a Jiffy-7 or -9 or other small receptacle, by all
means pot them up once, as soon as their roots are visible on the outer
surface of the Jiffy.  You could take them directly to perhaps a 3-inch pot
filled with a mix of sterile potting soil, vermiculite, and perlite.  It's
just not required that you stairstep them into larger pots by small
increments.  They're tough, and remember this maxim, which applies to
everything green:

They Want To Live.

When you have done your first [and maybe only] potting-up, mix your
Miracle-Gro at about half-strength and begin to use it to water them every
time. Chemical fertilizers like M-G can burn the tender roothairs and roots
of plants if the mixture is too strong.  Baby rootlets are especially
sensitive--hence the half-strength prescription.  [Full-strength M-G or
other synthetic fertilizer is fine for the garden, but *never* increase the
strength beyond the label recipe.]

Make sure your plants have lots of artificial light (18 hours a day is
recommended by some authorities).

The stems of tomatoes will put out roots if the stems are submerged in soil.
That's why the books say to continually plant your toms deeper at every
transplantation.  When they go into the garden to their final resting place,
each tom can be planted with its stem submerged clear up to the first true
leaves.

I don't have any evidence about whether peppers should be treated to the
same ever-deepening planting plans as tomatoes.  I don't *think* I've seen
their stems put out roots the same way as toms, but I don't have much
evidence either way.

For future reference, most plants will die if you treat them like tomatoes
in this regard.  Unless specific instructions say otherwise, it's best to
plant seedlings with their original soil-line at the same place as you go to
larger pots and out into the garden.

Re putting compost into the soil mix in your transplant pots, I'd save it
for the garden outside.  Plants make their own food ; they're not eating the
compost or any other nutrient per se.  But making sure your soil carries the
three building blocks of photosynthesis--nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium
(the N-P-K on the fertilizer label)--is what the Miracle-Gro and all other
fertilizers are all about.

You've started your babies a few weeks earlier than optimum for your
plant-out date of mid- to late May.  (I've done this *many* times--it's hard
not to get overeager late in the winter.)  The goal is to have fairly short,
stocky tomatoes with significant root structures to put into the garden.
Yours will likely be a foot tall by the time your dirt is warm enough for
them to do well outdoors.  Very likely, just to keep them from toppling over
at that stage, you will have had to pot them up to at least a
4-inch-diameter pot and give them some kind of support, like a mini-stake.

Good luck and keep us posted on your seedlings' progress.

--Janet Wintermute
Also zone 7, just outside D.C.




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Janet Wintermute             jwintermute@ids2.idsonline.com
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