Tomatoes, shallow and deep planted experiment

I tried an experiment with tomatoes this year, planting transplants both shallow and deep. The shallow plants were transplanted at the same depth as they were in their pots. The deeper planted went down at least 6" deeper than in their pots.
I did this with 4 different varieties of tomatoes.

Here are my pair of Super Marmondes planted May 15. Left planted shallowly, right planted at least 6" deeper than pot.
With four pairs of different varieties including the above plus Pasquebot Roma, Velvet Reds and Green Zebra, I found that the deeper transplants soon caught up with the shallowly-planted ones in height and grew taller and stronger by the end of the season thus producing more tomatoes.

On Sept 22nd I dug up the stems of Pasquebot Roma to check their root systems. The Velvet Reds are still producing a little so couldn't use those and the other two pair are past it. As you can see here:

On the left the shallowly-planted has a smaller root system compared to the one planted deeper on the right. The main stem is also thicker on the right.

My findings: In future, I will continue to plant my transplants 6" deeper than they are in their idividual pots for better production and size.

Excellent! Thanks for posting the results. How were the yield compared to each other?

Camprn.....The yield may have been roughly 15-20% more.

quiltbea wrote:Camprn.....The yield may have been roughly 15-20% more.

ooooooh! NICE!!!

Wow, quiltbea, that's great to know!

On similar lines, I've heard or read somewhere that if your tom seedlings get too leggy (seeds started too soon, waited too long, etc.), that they can be buried sideways (gently) in the square, which basically accomplishes what you did: exposes more stem to dirt.

Has anyone tried this method?

I've never started tom seedlings before, always bought from the nursery, but next tax day (I'm told that's a good time for my region) I want to start some in flats & see how it goes. If my babies get too leggy, it'll be good to know what to do about it--makes me nervous to have less than a foot of dirt to plant in. How deep are your beds, quiltbea, if you don't mind me asking?

I planted my tomatoes across the length of the square, burying the stem almost the entire foot width. Perhaps next year I'll do a side-by-side comparison. My vines were thick, the plants very sturdy and the yield was good. The root system took up the entire square, and then some.

So if I combine both suggestions & bury the plants sideways as deep down as I have stem, that should do the trick. Thanks to you both for the tips!

My beds happen to be 12" deep. I've tried tranplanting them horizontally before and it worked but I didn't test for production, etc. Still, if I only had 6" of soil depth, I'd plant horizonatally and know the roots would fill in well and make a sturdy plant.

I plant my toms in a standard 6" deep square my box is 2'X8'
and holds 16 plants, my 4 pear toms 2 red & 2 yellow have
exceeded 10' I also have Cherokee Purples that are over 10'
there main stems are 1" to 2" thick, the rest are determinants.
I plant them all the way to the bottom of the box when I
transplant them. Ill get some current pictures tonight when
I get home. My Pears toms are also producing Roma sized fruit.

That's awesome quiltbea! I remember this conversation in the spring and was very excited to see the results! Thanks for the post!

Thanks quiltbea. I have been doing this for years but this is the first time anyone has taken the time and effort to validate what I have been doing. I plant my tomatoes as deep as I can because the soil is moisture further down. The root zone will not dry out as quick. If your bed is not deep enough, then lay the stem down. This promotes more roots but they are not at the same depth as if the tomato was planted deeper.

I always have laid my tomato stems down and buried as much of the lower stem as I could. If the plant isn't leggy enough to do this, I've removed the bottom sets of leaves. Also, this year, when a stem broke off of a plant and it had flowers, I stuck it in the soil as far as I could go and it took and gave tomatoes. I haven't done any comparisons. But from my 10 or so plants this year, I harvested well over 65 pounds of tomatoes. That may not be a large amount (!) but for me, it was excellent.

thanks for sharing your results with us quiltbea!!
we appreciate the side by side pictures too!

hugs
rose

Here are the tom pictures I promised, I took these last night.
There is Still a lot of green fruit and I have topped all of the
branches to encourage more ripening but as soon as I clip one
3 more pop out.

Wow Hoggar, I am a little jealous right now They look fantastic!

Hoggar.....I envy you with those tall plants full of green toms. Except for my 2 Velvet Reds, my toms are done here in Maine.

quiltbea wrote:
On Sept 22nd I dug up the stems of Pasquebot Roma to check their root systems. The Velvet Reds are still producing a little so couldn't use those and the other two pair are past it. As you can see here:

On the left the shallowly-planted has a smaller root system compared to the one planted deeper on the right. The main stem is also thicker on the right.
.

Thank you so much for this whole trial. So now we know it is well worth it even in our cooler soil areas. I love the picture of the roots

I tried to plant some of my orphan tomatoes shallowly to compare also and they looked so exposed and untucked in I just couldn't leave them like that.

Hoggar wrote:Here are the tom pictures I promised, I took these last night.
There is Still a lot of green fruit and I have topped all of the
branches to encourage more ripening but as soon as I clip one
3 more pop out.

WOW! 12 inches deep? Really? This blows my mind!!!

edit to add: What soil did you use in the box?

Hi Ezzirah,
My boxes are only 6" deep I just dig the dirt out down to the
hardware cloth set the sprouts in and bury them up to the
bottom leaves.

This was a new box this season and I didn't have a lot of spare
time so its straight outta the bag Mel's Mix. Nothing added but
toms and water.

If I may bug you again, when you say down to the hardware cloth, what does that mean? I am a noob to squarefoot gardening...


Thanks!

Those are beautiful!!!

is that under the bed? If so, how far down?

ezzirah wrote:is that under the bed? If so, how far down?

when you build the bed, you attach this to the bottom. It prevents animals from climbing in through the dirt and feasting to their little hearts' content.

Sorry its been a busy week.
Thank you camprn for answering the question.

I cover the bottom of all of my boxes with hardware cloth then I
then I lay in Weed cloth and news paper to keep the weeds & critters
out.

I see, that is a good idea!

If it wasn't going to be raining here I would start me a tomato box. I love how that is designed! Every year it is a big question for me of where and how to plant the tomatoes.

Just beautiful!