Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Why Do You Plant Your Tomatoes So Deep?

We have had many people walking through our garden lately and I believe the biggest question asked is "why do you plant your tomatoes so deep."

Tomatoes have this great advantage over many other plants because their stems can grow roots when they're in contact with the soil. When you plant deep you are giving your plant a stronger root system and a strong stem. When we do this we always remove a few lower leaves( if you don't do this the leaves will wilt under the soil or they will rot and cause disease problems) then place the plant deep into the soil just up to the leaves.

We have bought many tomato plants at garden supply stores and they look so leggy...we try to dig a deep enough hole but there are times when we have had to plant the tomato plant sideways...to do this dig a shallow ditch sideways and lay your tomato plant on the ground with it's head just sticking out of the soil we then scoop up the soil around the stem and the leaves. the plant will look like a small tomato plant but within a few weeks your plant will grow into a big strong tomato plant. I can almost guarantee you will get more tomatoes then ever before!

We have done this ever year... and we actually look for those sad leggy plants at the store now mainy because we can get them pretty cheap.

How do you plant your tomatoes?

Happy Gardening..

Lynn

1 comment:

Cheryl in Tn said...

This summer is my first time planting tomatoes. I did plant them deep only because the directions told me to. Now I'm glad i did. I got a bit concerned when they looked like little bitty weeds poking out of the ground. Now thanks to you i actually understand the reasons behind planting them deep. Great Blog! Great Advice! Thanks :)