Bumgardner Farm: Tomato Planters

In the past, I have had terrible luck with tomatoes. Last year, we planted 5 plants and picked about 5 tomatoes. I know exactly what I did wrong too. I planted them in really awful soil which had been graded the summer before and lacked all topsoil, watered the plants when I remembered, and pretty much ignored them until I realized that we should be getting some tomatoes from them. By that point it was too late. The only thing I did that would have helped (if I had of paid them more attention) was plant them near the house. Our reasoning was to be able to check on them more often. Oops.

This year we're planting them near the house again but are using shipping crates filled with a wonderful mix of topsoil and barn composte, a.k.a. manure. You can see the mix in the picture below.

First planter with topsoil and compost

Next, I planted my Moutain Pride tomatoes. Thanks to Google (again) I learned an interesting technique to help them get a sturdy root system: dig a ditch shaped hole, lay the tomato plant on it's side after picking off the bottom few leaves and cover an inch or two up the plant holding the top part out of the dirt. Now I don't know if this works but my tomato plants have alread straightened up since planting yesterday.

Tomato plant on it's side ready for planting

Here are the first four Mountain Pride tomatoes I planted. These guys really needed a home outside. They've been in my kitchen for the past few weeks and obviously needed more room.