If you grow tomatoes and start with starter plants instead of seeds, there are several good tricks to help grow healthier tomato plants.
Unlike many other vegetables, tomatoes can be planted very deep. The stems will turn into roots and you’ll have a much larger root system if you bury the plants deeper. You can even take a branch from a healthy tomato plant and plant it, and end up with a second tomato plant.
One tip to develop a really good and strong root system is to plant your tomato plant sideways in a trench, instead of just digging a deeper hole that goes straight down.
But you have to be careful, because it’s easy to break off the top of the tomato plant if you plant sideways and try to bend the top of the plant too far upwards.
Fortunately, there’s a solution to make it a little less likely to break the top of the plant. Instead of planting sideways immediately, put your starter plant on the ground the day before you plant, putting it on its side. As the plant reaches toward the sun, it will naturally start to bend upwards.
The next day when you dig your trench and plant, the starter plant will already be reaching upwards and will be much less likely to break off when you set it in the trench.
Should you add some epsom salt in the planting trench? Here’s how to find out.