This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Re: Tomatoe torture

In my cool climate I need to give tomatoes all the help they can get. 
One of my tricks is to set out a tomato plant that is about a foot
(30cm) tall.  I pull off all the leaves on the lower third to half of
the plant and lay the root ball and stem in a shallow trench that I dig
where I want the plant to grow.  I then gently curve the stem up so the
remaining leaves are above ground level and then carefully fill in the
trench with soil.  The soil covers the bare stem up to the first leaf.

This technique has two advantages for me.  First, it keeps the roots in
the upper soil to take advantage of the warmth in the surface soil
layer.  As the soil gradually warms the roots work their way farther
down.  Secondly, it causes additional roots to spread from the stem that
take advantage of more of that warm surface soil area that they would be
able to if the transplant was buried vertically.

I also use a dark mulch (switching to compost this year for reasons
mentioned earlier) and a tunnel cloche to try to get the heat units up
as much as possible.  You folks who can set a tomato plant outdoors on
Memorial Day and expect fruit in July don't realize how good you have
it!  Where I live you'd be lucky to get a ripe tomato at all except from
the very earliest, cold tolerant varieties.  And they don't taste as
good.

Steve  (Maritime...)


Theresa Robinson wrote:
> 
> Hey stan and all,
> your looking for tests for thoes tomatoes why not the same test as the
> potatoes? If you lay a tomatoe on its side in the ground it will make roots
> along all the stem that is covered by dirt..Would it not then make roots
> covered by straw?
>  Theresa
> WV zone 6
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index