Transplanting Tomatoes

Well, the time is here. You've been growing and nurturing your little tomato seedlings the last six to eight weeks and it's time to put them in the garden. Don't worry. You'll be fine. Transplanting tomatoes really isn't rocket science.

For those gardening in the upper two-thirds of the country, don't plant your tomatoes outside until at least Memorial Day. In fact, when I lived in Vermont, we never planted hot season crops until the first moon in June. Tomatoes are part of a crop of what's known as "tender" annuals.

What makes them tender? The cold. Anything below about 55-60 degrees at night and tomatoes aren't happy. Planting around Memorial Day weekend will ensure that you won't lose your tomatoes to a cold snap. No, you won't have the first ripe tomato by Fourth of July. But you'll have a strong yield in August when the early bird plants are starting to die back.

Prepare the bed in the garden before removing the seedling from its cup. You'll want a nice deep trough to plant them in. Instead of digging a deep hole, make sure you dig a furrow to lay your tomato plant down. The root ball lies in the foot of the trough and the plant goes at the head. You may not need to secure the plant to a trellis or tomato cage right away but just be prepared to do so.

Next, remove any seedling stakes and plant ties that have been supporting your tomato plants while they grew in their seedling cups. Next, gently massage the sides of the seedling cup to loosen the soil. Place your hand over the top of the cup with the stem of the tomato plant between your first and second fingers. Turn the cup over so the root ball lands in the palm of your hand and pull the cup off with your free hand.

When you have gently removed the plant from its seedling cup, lay the root ball and the stem in the furrow up to the true leaves. They're the very first set of leaves that were produced during germination.

The best thing about this process is that tomatoes will grow roots along the stem as well as continue growing roots in the root ball. Planting tomatoes this way will ensure a stronger root base and better fruit. Does this mean you can't plant the traditional deep-hole way? No, you certainly can. I've found, though, that my tomato plants are stronger when they're laid in a furrow instead of planted in a hole.

Tomatoes are voracious eaters so feed them every two weeks or so with a liquid fertilizer. Toward the end of the summer and into early fall, keep your eye out for a nasty tomato muncher called the tomato hornworm. They're clever and disguise themselves like the color of the plant so they're hard to see. Look for tomato plant green with white stripes. These pests will destroy a tomato plant in the time it takes to change your mind.

Well, maybe not quite that fast but I've seen them reduce a plant to stubs and half-eaten fruit in the course of a few days. When you see one ... and you will ... clip the branch that they're resting on and kill them. I may get some comments about killing a living thing but I can't imagine one beneficial thing a tomato hornworm does. If you know of one, feel free to email me.