These tomatoes stayed in pots longer than I wanted and lost most of the bottom leaves. Is it better to plant them sideways ? or should I just plant them 6 more inches deep and let some of the stems re-grow. They all have new stems emerging.
by Individual_Ratio_937
12 Comments
Ive always wanted to try. If it weren’t so stiff you can sort of coil them at the base and drop the lead down.
What have you got to lose?
You can bury them as deep as you can, or sideways (look up youtube videos). Your tomatoes can bounce back from this once they’re outside.
i am new to gardening but i hear that planting deeper is usually a safe bet. i hope someone else might chime in, because I wonder if fertilizer would help at all once you replant.
Deep or sideways will work. I prefer deep because I have accidentally broken the stem before trying sideways, but it’s doable.
Harden them off first. Then when you plant them out, if you are going to plant them very very deep, make sure you water deeply until they grow roots closer to the surface.
I take a pole and stick it in three places around so there is a more direct funnel for water to the roots for the first week.
Dig a hole deep enough to bury at least 2/3 of that stem. But more importantly, you need to move your grow lights closer or get stronger ones immediately. They’re leggy because they’re stretching for light. If you don’t fix the light situation, the new growth will just do the same thing.
lol holy shit dude
If you live somewhere with colder soils and cooler summers, plant them sideways instead of deep. But that being said, I’ve planted mine deep here in Alberta and they’ve been just fine. I throw a bit of compost, bone meal, and blood meal into the hole when I plant my tomatoes. I’ve had years where my tomato starts look leggy like your do and I’ve still had a great harvest once they are in the ground and grown out. Tomatoes are pretty resilient.
If you damage the stem (if it snaps or breaks), wrap it back together with wet paper towel immediately and shockingly, it works to keep the plant alive. I’ve only tried it with tomatoes, and only a couple of times, but it worked both times. The paper towel decomposes pretty quick and will hold in moisture while the plant creates more roots around where the break occurred.
Based on our garden we sorta trench then depending on how big as digging deep hits clay quickly.
The testing I’ve seen shows trenchng as the best though I so wonder if it depends on the watering. I figure watering and heat probable determine where the roots grow.
If i were you id try the side thing. Burying them that deep is going to put the root ball in cold soil. Ive tried that before and it grew but it was stalled for like a month and a half before i saw any growth. It may suit you better to start a whole new set of plants and get them out when they are 4 inches tall. A well started small plant is going to grow better and healthier than a large plant that has been through stress.
I’ve never seen tomatoes like this… leggy might not be the right description… while fitting, it usually means weak. These look like they have trunks.
lol holy cow
I am not an expert, but I see a lot of leaf nodes on the stem. So to me they look like rather mature tomato plants that have lost series of leaves from the bottom – maybe from repeated heat or draught stress?
What I call leggy (again, not an expert) is when saplings stretch too much to reach strong-enough light, giving them a weak stem. Since the stems on this seem pretty thick and stand up without support, my hypothesis is these are grown plants that have seen some s#!t.
PS: Apocalypse Ready in the background of an indoor tomato grow op – 10/10.
PPS: no drip tray above that carpet? Do you water to the point of water coming out the bottom? If you’re dealing with hydrophobic soil (after forgetting to water one-too-many times), try dunking each of them for 20min, possibly in water with one or two drops of dish soap.