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Prep Time: 0 Minutes Cook Time: 0 Minutes |
Ready In: 0 Minutes Servings: 8 |
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A few days ago I ran into a person buying tomato plants. I was describing how to plant a tomato and he did not know this information so here is how to plant a tomato. Click on any pic to enlarge and really see the plant. Ingredients:
tomato plants |
tomato and plant food |
good soil (soil is alive with quadtrillions of microbes, dirt is dead stuff) |
water |
fish emulsion |
Directions:
1. Rototill or hand dig area.
2. Make a round ring for plant
3. This is very important, remove all lower branches from the tomato plant, leaving top three branches, see pics.
4. Remove plant from container.
5. The roots are root bound even in peat containers as per pics. Although they say to plant the plant and peat container, the roots as you can see are root bound even in the peat container.
6. Using your fingers break loose the roots per pics. Now the roots will start growing outwards and the plant will do well.
7. Now dig a hole deep enough so only two inches of the stem and the top three branches will be exposed.
8. Pour a couple of cups of water in the hole.
9. Place plant in hole.
10. Push dirt in around plant.
11. Sprinkle a hand full (per pic) on the ground around the plant.
12. Mix into the soil.
13. Water the area.
14. Sprinkle a small amount on the surface. It will dissolve with the next watering.
15. Apply a think layer of leaves, grass clipping, anything to prevent weed growth and keep the moisture in the soil.
16. The best tomato cages are made of concrete reinforcing wire. You can buy flat sheets of this wire 4x7 feet for $5.96 at Home Depot. Carefully form a round basket and secure with 5 nylon zip ties. Now you have an indestructible tomato cage.
17. I added some more pics. They show how the plant looks with heavy mulch and with the mulch. The last pic shows how the mulch kept in the moisture. I pulled the leaves back and you can see the moisture around the plant and how it is dry where there was no mulch.
18. A couple pics of other veges and the pic with the 1 gallon bucket is to show the current size of the plant. Planted 3 weeks ago and has increase in size from 6 inches to 18 inches. Going to be 100 this week in Sacramento 5-14-08 and the plants are going to go crazy.
19. The tomato is the only vege I know you can plant like this. Some people do it by laying the plant on its side and covering the stem. The reason to plant the stem deep is roots will grow out from the stem and you have a larger root system, bigger and more tomatoes. My Cherry tomatoes one year grew to a height of 12 feet. Ace tomatoes exceeded 4 lbs, not beefsteak, but 4 lb Ace tomatoes.
20. Twice a week feed with diluted fish emulsion. Be careful as the plants get so large they attack.
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