transplanting leggy ones

[ronsmith100]

I'm getting good at watching germination and controlling heat and moisture nevertheless I am still getting some leggy ones. Dont want to toss them out though... breaks my heart.

So I have one that is about 8" tall and there is at least four inches from soil level to the first leafy branch which is healthy as heck. I notice that the purple hue rises to about two or three inches.

Last frost of the year is tomorrow so I want to put these girls in the ground Tuesday. How deep?

lots of thanks

Ron

[platys]

Plant them up to their bottom leaves. The more stem you can get underground, the better.

[geeboss]

You can trench them so that the long seedling slightly rises from 7" to the top of the soil.

[Sunsi]

ronsmith100

I notice that the purple hue rises to about two or three inches.

I have a lot of leggy ones too but like platys and geeboss have suggested I'll bury them deep--the thing that caught my eye is what you said about "purple hues" what's that all about, please? Is it a good thing/bad thing?

[tuk50]

I only plant 30 or 40 tomatoes a year and actually don't mind them being leggy... Here on the desert I like the roots as deep as possible to withstand the heat. Like platys said bury them deep as possible.. I actually trim off the bottom leaves and set them in to their little chins.... LOL. I usually manage to bend some of them, but this won't hurt just get them buried in deep in rich soil and they will love you. The purple stems is usually just because they are stressed and no problem after they start getting nutrients in warm garden soil.

[ljp]

You can bury too deep. I had one brandywine 8" into the soil and another 8" of tire. I expected it to do really well; but, it was well behind its neighbours only 8" deep. I suspect the soil was cooler in the root zone.

[ronsmith100]

Originally Posted by Sunsi

ronsmith100


I have a lot of leggy ones too but like platys and geeboss have suggested I'll bury them deep--the thing that caught my eye is what you said about "purple hues" what's that all about, please? Is it a good thing/bad thing?

It seems that most tomatoes I get from seed have a not-green hue for the first half or so before turning green. Especially the leggy ones.. I though that was normal.

[brokenbar]

I find that no matter how much I "micro manage" light, some tomatoes still get leggy and Tomatillos are tomatoes on crack. I prune my tomato seedlings (and peppers too!) about every 10 days. I would like to tell you that I proceed with slow determination when pruning() BUT...I just clip off the tops like I was using a hedge trimmer! When I was in Wyoming, weather could halt plant-
out for days. It was pruning or falling over in the containers. I have found that I get a much thicker main stem and an audacious root system! The pepper plants really produced lots of side stems and branches which eventually, aided in shading peppers from sun-scald due to the thicker foliage. I actually compared a "non-pruned" pepper to a "pruned" pepper and the pruned pepper had about twice as many branches and stems and was easily double bushy. Tomatoes and Tomatillos did not get a lot of side stems but really increased main stem size and root system.

For me, this always worked well and I continue to do this.

[tuk50]

ljp, I can't bury too deep... LOL... it may make sense to plant horizontal North of here where it is much colder.. but my soil if not mulched in the summer will literally scald your feet inside your boots. 100 - 110 degrees sometimes 30 days in a row and not one drop of rain. I'll trade you some of my sunshine for a little snow in June.... LOL.
Something else that works in my favor is our humidity is some times in the single digits... this allows a moist mulch to evaporate and cool the soil dramatically ... ie.. swamp coolers we use here, but when I was a kid in Oklahoma temps in 90's and humidity in 90's the swamp cooler just blew hot damp air..... I also believe this is why some of my tomatoes will set fruit in June.. I had a green zebra set fruit on the interior during a week of 105degrees every day.. and I didn't use shade just mother natures evaporation ... I use over head sprinklers in my garden twice a day and I can't wait to hear how terrible this is... It Works.

[brokenbar]

Originally Posted by tuk50

ljp, I can't bury too deep... LOL... it may make sense to plant horizontal North of here where it is much colder.. but my soil if not mulched in the summer will literally scald your feet inside your boots. 100 - 110 degrees sometimes 30 days in a row and not one drop of rain. I'll trade you some of my sunshine for a little snow in June.... LOL.
Something else that works in my favor is our humidity is some times in the single digits... this allows a moist mulch to evaporate and cool the soil dramatically ... ie.. swamp coolers we use here, but when I was a kid in Oklahoma temps in 90's and humidity in 90's the swamp cooler just blew hot damp air..... I also believe this is why some of my tomatoes will set fruit in June.. I had a green zebra set fruit on the interior during a week of 105degrees every day.. and I didn't use shade just mother natures evaporation ... I use over head sprinklers in my garden twice a day and I can't wait to hear how terrible this is... It Works.

Overhead sprinklers work great in really hot, dry temps with no humidity. In Arizona, evaporation probably takes all of a nano-second!

I'll trade you some of my sunshine for a little snow in June....

OH YEAH SURE!!! If I never see the "white *@#&%^!$^" again, I will go to my demise a happy gal! I really do love Arizona and the California desert. Except for the cold, Wyoming is mostly all high desert and conditions were similar otherwise.

[tuk50]

LOL!!!!

Me too. I lived in Flagstaff, Az for 15years at 7200ft.. I promised myself when I moved to Tucson, that I would never shovel another driveway full of snow and ice in my remaining days. Even had a large porch that required shoveling the roof every winter.