![]() ![]() Sometimes we dunk each transplant in dilute fish emulsion, other times we’ll ‘drench’ the roots and overhead water them.Before we answer our guiding question-what’s the difference between beefsteak, cherry, grape, heirloom, and plum tomatoes-we have to address another one: Why are grocery-store tomatoes so bad? ![]() With over one hundred micronutrients, fish emulsion inspires quick yet robust plant growth. Speaking of fish emulsion, before we transplant anything, we water each one with one ounce of fish emulsion diluted into one gallon of water. The water allows each root hair to hold the soil around them, as well as to quickly grow, exploring the new soil surrounding them. We use our potting mix and augment it with our organic granular fertilizer, 1/4 cup thoroughly mixed in each gallon of soil, so your plants have slow-release organic nutrients to enjoy all season. Finally, source the richest, most nutrient-dense potting soil you can find. Also, darker containers absorb more heat for tomatoes to revel in save your lighter-colored containers for lettuces. The containers we love most are recycled plastic water bottles woven into a fabric so they drain and plants air-prune rather than becoming root-bound, you’ll find them here. If you’re growing full-size slicers, fifteen gallons is my go-to. Ten gallons is the minimum I recommend for dwarf and cherry tomatoes. – If you’re growing tomatoes in a container, go big! More soil and more nutrients mean more abundance. – For a quick cold-frame that can also protects greens, cucurbits and other plants in your garden, place spring steel hoops every 5′ and secure floating row cover over them. Covering them is an option, though bringing them in often optimal if the temps drop into the 40s. – For cold-sensitive transplants, it’s ideal for them to experience night-time temps above 55 F. Moving them out on an overcast day is the dream. – As much as you can, gradually increase their light over 5 days until they experience a full day’s sun and know how to drink it in. – Resist watering your plants unless you have to letting the soil surface get dry is totally fine. The key variables are temperature (fluctuating) and water (less regular, less overall) as well as light (which full sun, as most vegetables crave, is a dramatic transition). ‘Hardening off’ is the ~5 day transition time, acclimating your tender indoor transplants to life in the great (and variable) outdoors, before tucking them in the ground. Any plant you want to fruit, let it focus on vegetative growth for at least two weeks once planted. Pluck flowers on your eggplant, tomatillos, peppers and ground cherries, as well. Simply pluck the flowers off for the first two weeks and then your plant will be ready to photosynthesize, flower and fruit abundantly. A young transplant already flowering is simply responding to stress, thinking the end is near, and it’s now or never in the reproduction department. The irony: We love to see the harbinger of fruit to come, but don’t be fooled. Transplants focusing on their vegetative growth when planted are healthier and more abundant than transplants already beginning to flower and fruit. Here’s perhaps the most counter-intuitive insight: please please please pluck every flower and fruit from your tomatoes before you transplant them! We grow thousands of organic transplants, including dozens of varieties of tomatoes to share, so visit on a Saturday or Sunday between 10 and 2 through the first weekend in June! For our full list of available transplants, hop on over here. Our goal with any transplant is to grow the shortest, stoutest and deepest green transplant we possibly can. ![]() We start our tomatoes ~6 weeks before final frost. ![]() Grow or Find Yourself a Gorgeous Transplant Without further ado, here are the 7 Steps to Transplanting Tomatoes: 1. Wait til both the soil and air temps are consistently cozy (above 55 F) and their growth will be quick, healthy and the subsequent abundance astonishing. You can plant early and cover such crops, but I’ve found it’s largely not worth it. Every time.Īlso, think of tomatoes, basil, peppers and other warm season crops as ‘cold-sensitive’ rather than ‘frost-sensitive.’Ī pepper, for example, experiencing temps less than 55 F will cross her proverbial arms and pout for a few weeks (if not months) in protest of her apparent lack of proximity to the equator, the cradle of her evolution. It’s counter-intuitive in our short seasons to not plant warm-season plants like tomatoes as early as possible, but here’s the thing: Young, healthy transplants yield greater abundance compared to older, stressed transplants. Here is exactly how we transplant tomatoes, after years of trial and error, and I hope these keys surround you with great abundance! Doing it well is the difference between harvesting a bit and harvesting abundance. Here in Zone 5, we’re so ready to transplant tomatoes.Īnd Friends, transplanting is deceptively simple. ![]()
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