The Big Planting, Part I

This past weekend, I completed a marathon.  A planting marathon, that is.  My dad and I were up early on Saturday to start the long process of planting the 100 tomato plants sitting on our deck, under our make-shift greenhouse.  The morning started with a quick rototill and rake of the garden where we were going to be planting.  From there it was all digging, planting, and staking our tomato seedlings.

Ok, I'm missing a few steps.  We first laid out where we were going to plant the tomatoes,  deciding to make each row and aisle 2".  That will give the tomatoes plenty of room to spread their little leaves and us enough space to walk down the aisles without fighting the plants.  The two middle tomato rows were combined into a 4" section to conserve space, because what would we do without 100 tomato plants?!

The next phase of planting began with my dad giving the little guys a prep talk (pictured above), then involved separating the plants into groups by number.  (I think we both got a good enough workout sorting and carrying the tomatoes over to the prepared soil to call it for a day, but that's for the weak gardener :P).  My dad brilliantly numbered each type of tomato so while were staging planting and transplanting the seeds, we would be able to tell what type was what.  This year we planted 8 different tomato varieties, so having a system of knowing the type each tomato was essential!  I highly recommend labeling your plants, regardless of the size of your garden because sometimes you just forget.  Not to say there is anything bad about eating a mysterious tomato, however it makes good conversation to know the variety.  It also helps to know if you want to make sauce, salsa, sun-dried tomatoes, etc.

When we went to actually plant the tomatoes:

1. We dug holes about 1' deep and 1' wide, and about every 18-20".  Next, we sprinkled some good-quality garden soil on the bottom and then placed the tomato plant on top.  It wasn't necessary to add too much additional soil because we have been working our front garden patch for many years now, and the soil is very nutrient rich.  Sadly, the same can't be said about our back patch.
2. We filled in the sides around with the soil we dug up, then mounded the soil on top.  You want to cover the bottom few leaves of the tomato plant because they will sprout roots from the bottom stem, and it makes for a heartier plant.  If you want to know exactly why this happens, drop a comment and my dad will get back to you.  I'm no tomato connoisseur like him:) 
3. It was then time to stake the tomatoes.  This is super important, as tomato plants are vine plants, and like to climb. If you don't properly stake them the wind can easily blow them over and snap the stem.  For the past few years we have been using tomato cages to support the plants, but this year we branched out (and we had about 80 more plants than we did last year!), so we attached most to wooden stakes, and are going to train them to climb.  Using plant ties (more like double sided velcro), we loosely attached each plant to it's stake.

What's the difference between tomato cages and wooden stakes?

Tomato cages are so last year when it comes to growing tomatoes.  At least, every gardening magazine I have read says this, however I still think that cages do the job.  This might be because we have never staked our tomatoes, instead our caged plants have always grown well over 5' tall, and nobody can complain about that!

However, there are good points that point to staking tomatoes for maximum tomato production.  One reason to stake this year is the tomatoes will not grow bushy, as they do when they are caged, and less leaves will allow the plants to push more fruits and well as ripen faster because there will have more access to the sun without all the leaves.  Staking is also a convent solution to harvesting.  Instead of having to reach inside the cage, and dodge leaves to pick ripe tomatoes, they will be easily hanging next to the stake, free of tomato leaf jungle!  Overall, staking seems to be a better solution for both the plant and gardener, so I hope to successfully confirm this statement mid-summer.

If you go the cage route, make sure to drive a small wooden stake in next to the cage to support it, it's so sad when a big bushy full of tomato plant falls over because the cage couldn't support it (experience talking). Unless, of course, the plant is on your deck.  If you have deck tomatoes, your house/apartment will probably sufficiently block the wind and you won't have to worry about the wind knocking down the plant.

I hope I leave you today with a new-found excitement for planting tomatoes.  If you love pizza, pasta, salsa, bruschetta (the list could to on and on), then you love planting tomatoes.  Just plant one, even if it's on your deck, or heck, inside your house by the window!  You'll thank me in a month or two trust me.

PS.  While we spent a casual nine hour day in the garden, my dad had the smoker on with a delicious organic pork shoulder in it.  Just living the dream: gardening, drinking (water, obviously ;), and feasting on some smoked pulled pork!