Transplanting Tomatoes
Why grow tomatoes?
Growing tomatoes is one of the best plants to grow in the garden. Gardeners of any level can find success in growing these beautiful fruits.
Tomatoes offer a variety of flavors, colors, and shapes and are very versatile in their uses. Whether you are growing tomatoes for fresh eating or canning sauces, learning how to accurately transplant your tomatoes into the garden will be worth your time. Want to know my best tips for transplanting tomatoes? Keep reading because we are going to go more in depth of how to grow the best tomatoes.
Effective ways to acquire tomato plants
I got so carried away my first year of growing tomatoes. I was overwhelmed and excited over all the beautiful varieties I saw at nurseries, that I didn’t even consider where I was going to put them all.
Luckily this year, I smartened up and got into seed starting.
Starting your seeds indoors is super helpful for several reasons…..
- Grow as many as you need at a very low cost
- You have control over all the varieties that you start
- Learn how propagation works and where your plants come from.
After this, click the button below to read in more detail how to start tomato seeds indoors
Informative ways to know when to start transplanting tomatoes
Knowing when to plant tomatoes outside is the toughest part, because the waiting can be really hard on a new gardener’s patience.
Trust me I know
My first time growing tomatoes I planted out all my starts exactly on my last frost date and killed them all due to the temperatures not being high enough.
Rather than throw your tomatoes out then, wait until the nighttime temperatures are at least 45-50 Fahrenheit at night minimum.
Another piece to this puzzle is making sure that you harden off your plants long before transferring out to the garden.
Not familiar with the term?
Hardening off is conditioning your plant to acclimate to its surroundings. By exposing the tomatoes to the weather little by little they are well accustomed to the outdoor setting by the time they are ready to permanently go into their beds.
Key takeaway…. tomatoes love sun and heat so wait until they have the weather to thrive.
How to grow the best tomatoes
Growing the best tomatoes starts at the beginning. There are five main things tomatoes seek during the growing seasons and they are:
- Rich soil
- Full sun
- Space to grow
- Trellis/support
- Pruning
I’ll be going into more detail about all of these in future articles, so subscribe to get all the updates throughout the growing season!
However, as a quick run down let’s go over them.
Tomatoes are heavy feeders and require a healthy mix of compost and soil. In addition, tomatoes love the sun so plant them in a place where they are at minimum going to receive at least 6 hours of direct sunlight.
Tomatoes can get very big. I had one get 10 feet tall last year! So give them ample space to grow. Growing tomatoes in containers can be a great way to go. Tomato container gardening can offer the roots of tomatoes to grow deeply in loose soil.
Because they get so tall you’ll want to look up some tomato support ideas. Growing them close to an arbor, trellis, or cattle panels can be a great way to tie them up as they grow taller. If they are in stand alone pots a tall stake can be more than sufficient.
Another part of tomato plant care is how to trim tomato plants. By pruning your tomatoes, you force them to put their energy into producing fruit rather than growing more foliage.
Easy steps to transplanting tomatoes
Ok let’s get into the meat and potatoes of this article and actually go over the proper steps to transplanting tomatoes.
Like I mentioned earlier, it’s so important to amend your soil with a rich compost. Do this every growing season to refresh the soil so your plants have food to grow. I like to pick up G&B organize purely compost. I mix a thick layer of that in with the previous years soil mix.
Next I get out all the starts from out and organize where I intend to put them.
Then I dig a hole deeper than I think they will need, I’ll explain this next.
I’m trying something new this year with half of my containers. My favorite gardener Jess from Roots and Refuge Farm, slightly cracks an egg and places it at the bottom of the hole. She swears by its effectiveness. So naturally I’m testing that theory out this year.
Grab your tomato plant and look it over. Depending on how large your start is, you’ll want to remove the lowest one to two set of leaves.
Don’t worry this won’t hurt your tomato plant.
You’ll notice that on the stem of the plant are these fuzzy little things. If planted under the soil, those fuzzy things will turn into more roots. Hence the deeper hole we dug.
After removing the leaves, bury the plant until there is about 2 inches of space under the next lowest set of leaves.
We want to make sure that the leaves are not touching the soil. Tomatoes are very susceptible to disease and moisture can easily cause that to be a problem.
Lastly you want to water in the plants. Tomatoes like to be water deeply less often, the goal is to get enough water down to roots so the roots are encouraged to grow deeper to find water.
See totally simple
What’s next?
As the weeks go on you’ll want to continue to watch the progress of your garden. Your plants should have an established root system and will be ready for a little bit of plant food. I like to use a fish emulsion once a month. Follow the instructions on the back of the bottle for measurements.
You will also want to keep up on pruning your plants every week of two. Pruning is easy. Simply look for the little branches in the elbow so the main stems and pick them off or use sharp pruners if they are larger. We will get more into this topic a little later.
There you have it. I hope this sets you and your tomatoes up for success this growing season. Happy gardening, friends!
