Tomato Trench Planting Method
I recently did a couple of posts about starting tomatoes in a tray, then transplanting the seedlings deep into a pot.
Tomatoes are one of the few plants that benefit from being transplanted deeply, because they can grow new roots from the part of the plant buried. If possible it’s good to transplant tomato seedlings a couple of times in the course of moving them out to the garden.
Marc of Garden Desk just made a post that goes along with this idea nicely, about planting tomatoes with the trench method.
I mentioned before that since tomatoes are one of the few plants that can develop roots along a buried stem, that other vegetable plants should be buried to about the same level when transplanting. Mostly this is true. It’s come up in discussion recently that if you have a leggy seedling of almost any vegetable variety, that planting deep can help with the legginess. This can be a reason to plant a non-tomato plant seedling deep. Just be reasonable, and keep in mind that some plants may not like being planted too deep.
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Hi Patrick,
We’ve been planting tomatoes trench style because of the adventitious roots, but also because we are planting in good rich built up soil on top of a horrible clay base.
I also think it is warmer near the surface, and there is more microbial action in that area as well.
I plant them deep too but because it is cooler and moister down there to get the roots going, here in Adelaide, where dryness and heat are most of the problem.