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Just realized I was planting my tomatoes way too deep for years
I always dug a deep hole for my tomato starts because I read somewhere that they grow roots from the stem. But last spring I noticed my plants were all stunted and yellowing by July. My neighbor came over and pointed out I was burying them right up to the top leaves, which was smothering the main stem. Turns out you only need to plant them an inch or two deeper than the pot, not half the stem. Now I leave at least 4 inches of stem above ground and my plants are twice as big. Anyone else make this mistake or have other tomato tips?
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blair_davis1mo ago
You buried them right up to the top leaves? That's not planting tomatoes, that's performing a stem burial at sea. I'm surprised they didn't send up smoke signals from the root zone asking for air. At least you figured it out before you ended up with a compost pile masquerading as a garden bed. I swear, half of gardening is just learning what not to do from the school of hard knocks.
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noahbaker1mo ago
@blair_davis you make it sound like gardening is rocket science with all that talk about smoke signals and stem burials. I mean, yeah, you can overdo it a little, but tomatoes are tough plants. They'll root along the stem if you bury them deep, that's the whole point. I've seen folks do way worse and still get a decent harvest. Half the time it's just luck and good soil anyway. Not everything has to be a precise operation.
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