Lessons in Transplanting Tomatoes, Part 2

After my last experience with planting tomato transplants in the garden I can tell you that yes, watering the root ball well does make a difference before removing the plant from the pot. I gave them at least 30 minutes to soak in all the water and get evenly wet. I didn’t see any wilting or transplant shock at all after transplanting batch 2 into the garden. I guess that’s an advantage of working small sections at a time - if you make a mistake you have time to correct it before you ruin the whole batch.

Early Gardening is about experimenting

And isn’t that really the golden rule of early gardening? Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. If you start your own transplants you probably picked several varieties - some early, some cold tolerant, some heirloom, some late season, some storing varieties, some disease resistant hybrids, etc. If one variety fails for any reason, you probably have others that will succeed.

Amend your soil - conservatively

I also decided to experiment a bit with what I plant in the tomato holes this year. I don’t want to take a chance with all tomatoes so on each stake I put a length of fabric duct tape that I could write on with a permanent marker. It tells me when I seeded the tomato, what variety it is, when it was transplanted, and what amendments went into the hole. I should have written planting depth as well. This year’s amendments, in various different holes, include gypsum, bonemeal, 29-14-0 and compost. I’ve always had good luck with bonemeal and deep tomato transplants but I decided it was time to try some other suggestions - conservatively of course - and not on all my plants.

Record your experiences

Keeping a record of each attempt and what you did is very important to your future success. Typically we learn about a plant, grow some and note the result. But over the course of the years we forget what we did and wind up repeating our mistakes, or worse yet, jumping to the wrong conclusions. Keeping a gardener’s journal, on paper or online, or an online blog, is a great way to let you look back at what you did. Starting an online journal or blog, such as you are reading now, is a great way to share your experiences with others so everyone can benefit from your results.

Tomatoes in clay pots - HUGE clay pots

Well, not a clay pot, but clay soil. In our clay soil I noticed in the past that shallow plantings with no amendments weren’t that successful. Typically the plants grow between two and 3 feet tall, appear to suffer a deficiency of iron, manganese or magnesium, but otherwise do well. Fruit is usually quite late in August. Upon removing the plant in fall we noticed an abundance of roots stretching out very far but staying right underneath the topsoil. In some cases we were able to pull up a plant and pull the root out from under the adjacent crop. This is why I’m not a fan of shallow trench planting for tomatoes in our clay soil.

In contrast, a deeply planted tomato with bonemeal added at planting time seems to do better. First, the clay soil must be sufficiently warm to bury the tomatoes deeper. This means digging the holes ahead of time and placing clear plastic over the area to help warm it up. This year we got lucky - an entire week of 90F weather while I had the holes dug and plastic on which warmed it up nicely. Planting deep on clay soil typically isn’t recommended because clay is a poor drainer and doesn’t warm up quick. I’ve found that this method, when warmed up ahead of time, gave us plants 5 - 6 feet tall with enormous amount of fruit. In our Northern Canadian climate we had a great harvest of Brandywine tomatoes starting mid-August until frost, so about two weeks early. Experts tell us that clay soil has an abundance of nutrients locked up that are hard for the plants to get. I believe that planting tomatoes deep so they can grow more roots along the stem means that they have more roots available to more areas to retrieve more of those locked in nutrients deep from within the soil. Another benefit is not having to water as much which typically means a more flavorful fruit. Some experts suggest not watering deeply planted tomatoes AT ALL after the fruit sets unless the plant shows signs of stress. In fact, the first year I grew Brandywine I used this technique. I had so many tomatoes that I gave them away by the shopping bag full and had people literally coming back begging for more. If this is your first time try it with a couple plants, see how you do and record the results - or share them here. Dig deep holes maybe a week before planting, warm the soil (check with thermometer), amend the soil (add some compost, bonemeal, etc), plant deep, water infrequently after fruit set and enjoy some great tasting, early tomatoes.

Keep the soil loose and care-free

One thing I discovered in planting this batch is that it is very easy to compact the soil while working. Especially with something as intensive as experimenting with deep plantings. I had to walk around while I dug a deep hole with a post auger, I watered and laid down the clear plastic after the holes were dug, measured the transplant, trimmed the leaves and separated the roots, put in the soil amendments, checked the soil temperature, planted, watered, topped off the soil, watered again, put on the season extenders (kinda late but why take chances with frost), and finally drove in the stake. All that really compacts the soil, especially the heavy clay soil we have that was a bit moist. Make sure you turn up the soil around where you plant so those roots near the surface (along the length) of the plant get a chance to spread out. We added a couple of planks for walkways where we can reach the tomatoes from so we don’t have to walk on that soil again until end of season. We are watering with soaker hoses as well. Apart from a heavy rain the soil should stay nice and loose for those tomato roots to sprawl.

Fabulous early tomatoes

Thanks to some simple techniques it should be pretty easy to get some more fabulous tomatoes this season. Early tomatoes are within the reach of any gardener provided they pick the right varieties, make sure to pay attention to details so nothing stunts their growth, and consider some season extenders for planting extra early. By paying attention to these little details you’ll be enjoying early tomatoes well before your main crop. Mmmmmmm…