This week, we are delighted to see the first of the tomatoes starting to appear. Here’s a diary piece on how they were planted, written by Sustainable Farming Assistant, Frances Weeks.
How we planted out the tomatoes:
These were all cordon tomatoes which had previously been potted on into 1 litre pots and they were now ready to be planted into their final places. Some of the plants had got quite leggy which made handling them a bit tricky as they couldn’t keep upright without support and were liable to snap. (we had some concerning bends but no snaps!).
Wires had been set up running along around 7-8ft above the beds from which we tied long pieces of twine (10 ft-ish?) at 18” intervals (after quickly consulting Dr Hesayon who advised that this was optimal spacing for tomato cordons.) The beds were prepared with compost as usual. We discussed the practice of putting some compost in each hole and watering pre-planting but this is extra-special and time consuming treatment – not appropriate for the scale on which we are working. We dug deep holes, between 1-2 feet, and removed the lower leaves of the plants accordingly, as well as any side-shoots which were growing between the main stem and the side trusses. To plant, we placed the plant in the hole with the twine running underneath the root ball. Pulling the twine taut, we wound the remainder around the root ball so it would be anchored firmly as the plant grew. We also twisted the cordon around the twine so it was well supported then back-filled with earth. Charlotte watered in then set up the irrigator so everything got a good soak.
Charlotte planting out tomatoes