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.

I love planting tomatoes every season. 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 one month in advance of planting. It may seem daunting, but it's actually very easy to do and makes a huge difference to the tomato plant.

Next (about 2 weeks prior to planting tomatoes), it is recommended that you Harden-off your plants. Personally I skip this step since my plants are going from a greenhouse to a bed that is enclosed in plastic (essentially another greenhouse).

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?

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 planting tomatoes. I have had great results using a product called, "Tomatoes Alive". It's available by catalogue and online from the Gardens Alive! company

--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 about one foot apart (sometimes a little closer). 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 so deep that the plants' roots will 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 in the way 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 to when planting tomatoes in my garden so I go easy on the water until I feel they are acclimated.

8) Cover the bed supports in clear plastic, clipping the plastic to the pvc pipe.

Hurray! Your garden is planted!

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