Join Lindsey as she shares a progress report on some transplants that are now ready to go into the ground. Learn how to plant tomatoes with tips on spacing, soil preparation, and irrigation. Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or a beginner, you’ll find plenty of useful tips and tricks in this video.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 From Seeds to Transplants
2:28 Soil
5:43 Spacing
7:08 Grow
TRANSCRIPT FROM VIDEO:
Hi, my name is Lindsey and I’m here at the Urban Farm. And today I wanted to do a progress report of some transplants that are now ready to go into the ground. So in the previous video we planted these from seeds and I did a lot more trays of tomatoes and peppers and squash following that planting video. And this is how big they are now. So they are ready to go into the ground, they’re getting a little bit unhappy in their small containers and you can see their roots are starting to come out of the bottom. So that’s a good indication that this container’s getting a little bit small for them.
They’re also getting a little bit tall and this can be an indication that they’re kind of fighting each other for the light Inside the indoor space, we grow them and then the squash just needs a healthy bit of fertilizer to get rid of some of those yellowing leaves. The true leaves are still green, so this is a good indication when these leaves turn yellow. That just means they’re gonna fall off soon. But these leaves are the true leaves. So as long as those are green and looking good, we can have a happy plant in the ground. And then we also have some peppers and those look happy and healthy. So altogether these are ready to go into the ground. It’s warmer now, especially in the nighttime. So once we have danger of frost gone and once we have warmer nights and we’re making sure that sunlight is gonna be hitting our plants, when the sun starts to change its angle, that is a good indication that our plants are ready.
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So this bed has been freshly composted and it is ready to go. I have some tomatoes that overwintered against the wall and as they get bigger I’m gonna trellis them up the wall. So we’ll be flat against the wall and then I’ll put more tomatoes in front in cages or staked up.
I’m just gonna plant these right where there are existing irrigation heads just to make it easier for myself. And you can see that the soil is this beautiful, rich, it’s nicely, it’s a little bit fluffy, it’s not too compacted. So our plants will be very happy in there. If you do have soil that hasn’t been moved in a little bit, just kind of shake it up, especially where the initial root zone of the plant is gonna go. It’ll just make it a little bit easier for your transplant to get established. And then a good way to also tell if your transplant is ready is just kind of squeeze it out.
And if it holds its soil by itself, like this is the roots are holding that soil in, that’s a really good indication that it’s ready to go in and that it has a healthy full root system. And I’m just gonna loosely undo some of those roots. And this allows the plant to just spread out. We don’t want it to continue going around in a circle. We want the roots to spread out and reach out for water. And I’m gonna plant it a little bit deeper because tomatoes have these root hairs and if you plant those and they come in contact with the soil, they will just grow more roots. And this also helps keep the tomato a little bit sturdier while it’s in this younger, more vulnerable stage. I’m just gonna pat it gently in there. And then with tomatoes and other nightshade crops, especially any plant that has these fuzzy like leaves, so eggplant and tomatoes, especially using irrigation like this where it drips out and this one kind of just makes like a little little water spout out of it, but this is really good because we don’t tomatoes and such don’t like water touching their leaves. So I just have that plant deep in there. So this will just cause water to go around the root zone, but no water will actually be touching the leaves, which is ideal.
For spacing for tomatoes. I usually do about a foot and this will give them plenty of canopy space as well as just make sure they’re each getting enough water. And then again, just gonna bury it a little bit, just make it more sturdy in the ground. And once these get a little bit bigger, we’ll start to trim them. And this will help with fruit production. Right now this area in the farm gets a little bit of afternoon sun and as we get further into the summer, it’ll get more full day sun. So right now, this is a really good way to ease the tomato into the environment to make sure that we don’t have way more sun than it’s used to. It still gets some protection from this wall. So in case we have a windy day, it’s protected from mostly every side here in this part of the farm. So this is a great area to put our transplants. And now I’m gonna show you how I plant the peppers.
This is a another really great protected spot on the farm for transplants that’ll eventually get a lot of summer sun. And right now we have garlic growing in this bed as well as some celery. And this area is freshly cleared and composted, so it’s ready for plants. And eventually we’ll do more cucumbers and squash once we have more space. Again, just going to slightly break up those roots fruits. And then peppers I don’t really bury, I just kind of put them so they’re equal with the original soil line. Just kind of make sure it’s in there really well. And again, I usually do about a foot. Peppers can have a little bit, they’re a little bit more stout of a plant, so usually their foliage is a little bit closer to the ground than a tomato when you trim it up. So spacing is a little bit more critical for peppers, I think, but you don’t need a ton of space for each one. And I kind of space mine randomly. I’ll do like a one forward, one back kind of pattern. You can do them all in a row, whatever suits your garden bed the best and just like that.
And then I will continue planting out this garden and eventually in the summer, once these are much larger and it’s much hotter and sunnier, we do have shade cloth that goes over this part. So if we do need shade cloth, these will be protected. But having shade and having protection of some kind is always a good assurance that you’re prepared for the summer months. And this is the transplants that we started from seed. I hope this helps you kind of see a little bit of the progress. Transplants grow really quickly and really well indoors, and that’s a great way to get a head start on your year. We live in a warmer climate here in Arizona than some places, but even so, I’d say that comparatively, if I were to put a seed in the ground right now, I would still have to wait six weeks or seven weeks for this to get this size. So by putting it in the ground now, I have almost a six week head start. And that is major, especially since these grew faster because they were in a warmer environment. A seed I put into the ground might not even be the same size at a comparable amount of time just because it’s still a little bit colder in the night than the conditions I grew it in indoors. So starting seeds indoors is always a great idea. It gives you a header on the season, but regardless, this is how I plant the transplants here at the farm.
