Transplanting Tomatoes

A few weeks ago I planted tomato seeds. I usually start seeds in those clear plastic boxes that cherry tomatoes come in from the grocery store. I leave the plastic cover on until they sprout, and then I cut it off so they have less humidity and more air movement.

I put the seedlings in a sunny window, under lights. The light was not enough for them, though, because they grew up tall and skinny--what garden people call "leggy." This means a plant is looking for more light and for most plants, this is a disaster, because you can't fix it and it means the plant will forever be weak and spindly.

With tomatoes, though, you have a second chance. Unlike most other garden plants, you can transplant them and bury them deep, up to their necks. That long stem, once buried, will produce roots all along its length, and in the end you'll have a much stronger plant. Tomatoes thrive on being transplanted. When I start tomatoes from seed, I usually end up transplanting them two or three times, always into deeper and bigger pots, before planting them outside. Every time I transplant them, I plant them deeper.


These tomatoes are from free seeds. A few years ago I saved seeds from tomatoes I got at a farmers' market, and every year since then I've planted them and saved the seeds from that year's tomatoes. When I travel, I look for unusual heirloom (non-hybrid) tomatoes and save their seeds as a souvenir. This year I'm growing tomatoes from seeds I got while visiting relatives in Lebanon.

Sometimes a farmer's market will list tomatoes as heirloom, but they may not be. A few years ago I bought a gigantic, pale-yellow tomato with a smooth, mild flavor. I saved seeds from it and planted them the next year. I got two kinds of plants. One produced medium-sized, bright yellow-orange tomatoes with a bright, sunshiny flavor. The other produced big red beefsteak tomatoes. Clearly, my pale yellow tomato was a hybrid. This year I'm growing seeds of the bright yellow-orange offspring to see what I get. 

Here's one of those leggy plants after being transplanted. It looks much happier now.