Happy Spring! Transplanting Tomatoes Technique

Mesembryanthemum blooms bright purple during sunny weather, attracting lots of bees that literally hum with pleasure and the first Painted Lady butterflies (Remember the masses we had last year?)!

Meiwa kumquat skins split from too much rain.

Minnie Royal cherry full of fruit, despite no pollinator in my garden. Thanks for someone else having Royal Lee or another one!

First Sugar Snap peas almost ready for eating.

Broccoli raab and other brassicas begin to bloom but are still tender and sweet.

August Pride peach fruit set. I'll wait a bit longer before thinning. I'll thin especially the "doubles".

Mulberries getting riper and riper.

Volunteer tomato has roots along its stem as well as rootball -- this demonstrates why we always urge planting tomato seedlings deeper than they were in the pot. Before transplanting, I'll remove the blossoms to force the plant to establish a great root system before setting more blossoms when the plant gets to about 2 feet tall.

Coffee grounds spread about 1 inch thick on top of the soil where I'll transplant my tomato.

Turn the soil with its amendments with a hand tool.

Brace the plant between two fingers.

Turn the plant over so pot comes off.

Massage the potting soil off of the root system, and shake the plant to release whatever potting mix doesn't easily fall off.

Mix together the potting mix and the soil and amendments in the hole to create a "half-way" mix.

Hold the plant in the hole so the bottom of the root mass is barely touching the bottom of the hole.

Pull the "half-way" mix around the plant, and "puncture" the mix to stabilize the plant upright with only your fingertips and thumg. You don't want to compact the soil too much.

Fill the basin 3 times to thoroughly moisten the entire area so new roots can develop nicely.

     March has certainly turned out to be magnificent in the amount of rain we’ve received, making our gardens stand up tall and perky.  Wonderful harvests of bok choy, chard, cilantro, kale, assorted greens, lettuce, parsley, first peas, and spinach make for fantastic salads, soups, stews, stir-fries and whatever other methods of preparation we can imagine!  And, more rain is promised for next week along with continuing cool temperatures. 
     The timings between rains have been especially effective – slight droplets, heavy downpour, light again, and then several days of no rain – enabling the soil to fully absorb the moisture as a marvelous resource for later this summer.
     My Meiwa kumquat even had too much rain, splitting its skin because the cells of the interior flesh expanded more quickly than the cells of the skin.  This is the tell-tale sign of too much water, whether now because of rain or later if we irrigate using too much water after a dry spell.  While it’s generally better to water less frequently and deeply, the splitting is the result of too much of a good thing (water), so adjust your watering pattern to a bit more frequently.
 
Transplanting Tomato Technique
     I’ve developed a technique for transplanting tomato seedlings that may appear to be drastic, but I assure you that it results in healthier root development of the plant and consequently more color and food.  Instead of digging a hole barely larger than the size of the rootball and then setting the rootball into the hole and watering it in, my technique is much more extensive and fosters lots of new root growth and access to more soil nutrition and water.
Here are the steps:

1. Dig a hole one foot wide and about 9 inches deep, preferably in soil that you’ve already incorporated manure, compost, and perhaps some coffee grounds.
2. Water the tomato seedling in its pot so the soil mix is thoroughly moist.
3. Upturn the container, bracing the tomato stem with your fingers, so it gently falls out of the pot into your hand.
4. Turn the plant upright, and gently massage the potting soil out of the rootball, letting it fall into the hole you dug.
5. Shake the plant in the hole to remove any more of the potting soil than has naturally fallen off.
6. If there’s a plentiful amount of roots hanging down about three inches, rip off any excess below that and toss it into the hole.  You want the plant to have only that nice clump of roots that will easily reach out into the soil.  Any stragglers hanging down further will crumple when you transplant it and have a hard time untangling before they can reach out into the soil.
7. Mix the loose potting soil mix from the rootball and the soil from the hole so it combines together to be a “half-way” mixture of what the plant roots originally grew in and the new soil that you want them to grow into.
8. Scoop out about half of the “half-way” mixture to the sides of the hole.
9. With one hand, let the tomato plant hang into the hole with the roots barely touching the bottom of the hole.
10. With the other hand, scoop the “half-way” mix around the rootball and up a couple of nodes (the joints where some leaves emerge) until the plant almost stands upright by itself.
11. With finger tips and thumb only (not your whole palm or hand), puncture the soil mix around the plant to stablilize it.  Don’t mash the woil in the hole, or you’ll compress it too much.
12. Rearrange remaining “half-way” soil mix into a berm about 6 inches away from the plant stem.  This will be the watering hole for the plant.
13. Water three times:  Fill the hole once, again when it sinks in, and a third time (it’ll sink more slowly this last time).  This makes sure that the entire rootball and surrounding soil is thoroughly moist so roots are in direct contact with the bits of soil and tiny air pores.
14. Repeat this 3-times watering the next day.
15. Place your trellis or cage over the plant and stabilize it with a pole.
16. In a week or so of dry weather, fill the berm with water again.
17. Then, water as dictated by the weather.  A moisture meter  probe (about $9 at Home Depot) will help you determine how frequently to water.

 
When Should I Let Blossoms Set?

1. As the plant grows, remove any blossoms that set.  You want all the plant’s energy to go into developing its new root system, not side-tracking it into developing fruit.
2. When the plant foliage reaches the second rung of the tomato trellis or cage – about 2 feet tall – then you can let blossoms set.  By this time, the plant has established its extensive root system so you can afford to let some of the hormones shift to blossoming and fruiting.
3. When the plant foliage reaches about 3 feet tall, toss a handful of fertilizer (I prefer EB Stone or Whitney Farms) into the watering hole of each plant, and water it in.  You want to provide this additional fertilizer at this time because the blossoming-and-ripening fruit stages take a lot of additional energy.

 
For more garden tips, see March and April.
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