First Sign of a Tomato - Week 9, Day 63

Last weekend, I got my first sight of a tomato forming. Now a week later, I have over 20! Start looking in the middle of the flowers for a little green tomato. Pretty exciting!

Types of Tomato Leaves

There are 2 basic types of tomato leaves, potato (PL) and regular (RL). When you are planting different heirloom tomatoes it is important to make sure that the seeds you have gotten are what's advertised. In the few I am planting this year, the Brandywine Sudduth Strain is the only potato leaf. More information can be found on gardenweb about tomato leaves.
PLs are more rounded.

How To Plant Tomato Plants In The Ground

Planting tomatoes is very similar to planting anything else with one small exception. It's a good idea to trim the bottom few sets of leaves off and plant the tomato deeper in the ground. You can see on the picture small spikes coming off the stem. These will turn into roots!

1. Trim with gardening sheers the lower few sets of leaves

2. Dig hole and measure height up to new lowest branch

3. Remove from pot. This seems easier with the plant is dry. 

4. Plant and cover with soil up to new lowest branch

5. Water

If you are going to support your tomato plants with a stake go ahead and put it in the ground so you don't damage the roots later.

That's it. There are tons of youtube videos on how to do this and sometimes it's better to watch than read.

Note for next year: Peat Pots might not be such a great idea. The roots can grow into the side of the pots and get stuck. Plastic pots might be better plus you can reuse them and not have to waste $.

Edit: The small spikes/hairs coming off of the tomato stem are called Trichomes. From wikipedia: "Hairs on plants are extremely variable in their presence across species, location on plant organs, density (even within a species), and therefore functionality. However, several basic functions or advantages of having surface hairs can be listed. It is likely that in many cases, hairs interfere with the feeding of at least some small herbivores and, depending upon stiffness and irritability to the "palate", large herbivores as well. Hairs on plants growing in areas subject to frost keep the frost away from the living surface cells. In windy locations, hairs break-up the flow of air across the plant surface, reducing evaporation. Dense coatings of hairs reflect solar radiation, protecting the more delicate tissues underneath in hot, dry, open habitats. And in locations where much of the available moisture comes from cloud drip, hairs appear to enhance this process."
The roots that come out of the stem are called adventitious roots. From wikipedia: "Adventitious roots arise out-of-sequence from the more usual root formation of branches of a primary root, and instead originate from the stem, branches, leaves, or old woody roots. They commonly occur in monocots and pteridophytes, but also in many dicots, such as clover (Trifolium), ivy (Hedera), strawberry (Fragaria) and willow (Salix). Most aerial roots and stilt roots are adventitious. In some conifers adventitious roots can form the largest part of the root system."

All Grown Up - Week 7, Day 49

Well, well, well...The plants have grown up and I have procrastinated. I will soon post an entry on how to plant the plants in the garden. Meanwhile, I realized Green Zebra is not a true heirloom. Stay tuned for more on heirloom tomatoes plus a post on potato leaf versus regular leaf.