Planting Sauce Tomato Plants

Helping my tomato plants adjust right away allows them to quickly get to the business of producing tomato sauce. Choosing healthy plants and minimizing stress at planting time are the best ways to do that.

Tomato plants come in many types, shapes and sizes. It doesn't matter whether you grew them from seed or plan to get them from a grower, there are several things to keep in mind when selecting the plants that will grow in your tomato sauce garden. Choose plants with thick, strong stems and all green leaves. If there are some discolored leaves, it may mean that the plant suffered some stress already in its life and that may affect fruit production. If the cotyledon (baby) leaves at the bottom are yellow and falling off, that's not a problem--those need to go anyway. Make sure the plant is standing tall (no drooping) and that the soil in the pot is plenty moist--that tells you that it's been cared for properly. I like to select shorter, stockier plants rather than tall, gangly ones whenever possible. The taller ones just seem to be more work to plant because there is more stem to bury.

Almost time to plant! It's so exciting to see my tomato sauce garden neatly planted with the promise of things to come. However, I know from experience that things can go bad really fast if my plants become stressed.

First of all, have you warmed up your garden beds? This is a great thing to do if you still have about a month to go before you will be planting.

Next it is recommended that you Harden-off your plants, which just means getting them gently acclimated to the area where they will be planted. Going straight from the greenhouse or indoors to outdoors can be stressfull for plants that are not used to direct sun, breezes, and temperature changes. If you acquired plants from a grower, make sure to ask whether the plants have already been hardened-off. Since my plants are going from my greenhouse to a bed that is enclosed in plastic (essentially another greenhouse), I don't have to worry so much about hardening-off.

Click here for details on hardening-off tomato plants You can decide whether or not you will need to include this step based on your planting situation.

Next, have you checked to make sure it's safe, weatherwise, to plant your tomatoes? You can check with your local agriculture extension office to make sure it's past the last frost date for your area.

Now the last thing Before digging is that you'll want to gather up all the necessary tools to have them handy:

--Sauce tomato plants in pots

--Companion plants (seeds and/or potted plants).

--Scissors or pruners

--Large Shovel

--Cultivator

--Water source

--Fertilizer with measuring scoop or spoon. I recommend using an organic fertilizer designed for growing tomatoes. I have had great results using a product called, Tomatoes Alive. It's available by catalogue and online from the Gardens Alive! Company

Gardener's Supply Companyalso has a fertilizer product specifically for tomatoes. I haven't tried it yet but it looks like it contains everything you would need. You could also create your own homemade fertilizer--there are many recipes on the internet. Mainly, you want to make sure you have an organic fertilizer that contains calcium (prevents blossom end-rot), magnesium and phosphrous. Many organic fertilizers now also contain microbes for the soil. You want the nitrogen content to be low--too much nitrogen makes the plant grow stems and leaves with less flowers and fruit.

--Plant supports. Click here for options.

Once all of these items are gathered and placed nearby, the planting will go quickly and easily following these steps:

1)Dig a hole for each tomato plant. I place the holes 10-15 inches apart. The hole should be deep enough to bury the stem of each plant up to about the 3rd or 4th leaf branch. This allows more roots to grow out of the buried stem which are important for supporting the plant and it's sauce production.

If your tomato plants happen to be quite tall (I would say, over 18 inches), your best bet would be to plant them trench-style. Click here for tips on trench planting tall tomatoes. Otherwise the hole will be deep in a colder zone of soil possibly causing the plants' roots to get chilled and become stressed.

2) Measure out fertilizer according to directions on the label for transplants and sprinkle it into the bottom of the trench or hole. Scratch it into the soil with the cultivator or trowel and then soak the hole with water.

3) Trim off the lowest 2-3 branches on the plant that would otherwise be buried when the plant is placed into the hole.

4) Remove plant from pot without pulling on the delicate stem, place the plant in the hole, fill in with soil around the plant and gently firm the soil around the plant and stem.

5) Place supports around the tomato plants.

6) Plant companion plants and/or seeds around the tomato plants where they won't disturb the roots.

I don't like to water the plants at all for the first couple of days. I already soaked the hole before I planted and that should be enough. Plus, I'm paranoid because one year, after I moved my tomato seedlings from trays to 4" pots and watered them, they all died. Afterwards, I talked to someone from Territorial Seed Company who told me the same thing happened to him. He said it was because the newly buried part of the stem could not breathe in the wet soil. It seems to me that the same thing could happen when planting tomatoes in my garden so I refrain from watering them for a couple of days.

8) If you will grow your tomatoes under a moveable cover as I do. Now is the time to cover the bed supports in clear plastic, and then attach the plastic to the pvc pipe so it stays put.

Hurray! Your garden is planted!

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