Tomato Planting Time

The tomato call.

“The tomato plants are already too tall. You need come get them today, before the rain gets here.”

That was my dad’s message late in Mother’s Day afternoon. Dad is the tomato plant supplier for our whole family. He starts the plants from seed and passes the plants to us.

So we spent a lot of Mother’s Day putting out tomato plants in the garden.

Easy tomato planting method.

I like to do mulch gardening. Each summer I cover the ground with grass clippings. In the fall I add chopped up leaves.

When spring comes I use this planting process:

• Pull back the mulch to expose the earth.
• Dig a hole big enough for the tomato plant.
• Plant the tomato plant and water it in.
• Replace the mulch around the plant.

Two ways to plant tomatoes.

These were really tall plants. Rather than plant them at the same depth they were in the pots they were started in, it’s best to take off the bottom leaves and plant most of the stem in the ground. New roots will form along this stem making a stronger plant.

You can do this in one of two ways.

1. Dig a really deep hole. I use a post hole digger for this. It makes getting all that dirt up out of way a simple thing. Stick the plant in the hole, pack the dirt back in around the plant, and water.
2. Plant the tomato plant in a trench and bury most of the stem in this trench. As you bend the plant up out of the trench to get it pointing straight up, it’s very easy to break the plant. Careful handling in required.

I did 20 plants with the deep hole method. I used the trench method for the other 5 plants.

Yes we put out 25 tomato plants.

I’ll post a list of varieties later.

Tagged as: garden, mulch, mulch gardens, planting, planting tomato plant, planting tomatoes, plants, tomato, tomato plants, Tomatoes