Transplant & Fertilize Like This For TREMENDOUS TOMATO HARVESTS + Determinate & Indeterminate Tips

Hey guys, it's Bridgette with San Diego Seed Company. And today we're doing part three of our tomato series of all things tomatoes. And basically I'm going to keep going in the life of a tomato. We're going to talk about how to transplant. I'm going to talk about the different types of tomatoes. The number one question we get, and there's a lot of confusion about indeterminate versus determinate. Do you prune? We're going to go through all of that. But before we do that, I want to let you know about something really cool that we're doing. So we're going to do a giveaway for people who comment on this video of some neat, rare tomato varieties that I have in my personal collection. So they are tomatoes that I have been gifted by breeders or I've collected through my years of being a seed woman. And I want to share those with you guys. Help me grow them out. Find out if they're cool, you know what they're like. So comment on the video. We'll select somebody and we'll send you some neat, rare seeds. So don't forget to like and subscribe. All right. So let's get into all things tomato. So the other videos I went over how to seed start. When to seed start all the stuff you need to know from seed form to plant form. So we've planted over 400 tomatoes at our Ramona farm, and we still have so many more to plant. Went a little wild this year and my back is definitely paying for it. But I am excited to say that we're going to introduce several new varieties of tomato seed into our catalog from the varieties that were going out this year. So let's talk first about the number one question that I get. And the confusion that is out there regarding indeterminate or determinate tomatoes. So I remember when I first started gardening, it is kind of confusing because these two terms that are very similar. I'll give you a little cheat on how at least I remember the difference. So indeterminate tomatoes will give you tomatoes at an indeterminate time. I don't know if that's a good way of thinking of it, but basically it's going to give you tomatoes over a long period of time. I kind of imagine like a cartoon tomato that's like lollygagging and it's like, well, I'll give you a tomato now, another tomato in a few weeks. You know, it's not determinate. It's not determinate, determinated, determinate. See, it is confusing. It's hard. But the point is, it is going to give you tomatoes over a long period of time where determinate tomatoes is going to give you all its tomatoes at once. Now, let's kind of group this together in types of tomatoes. So a determinate type of tomato might be something like a sauce tomato. Why is that? Well, if you're going to make sauce, you need all your tomatoes at once. You can't go out and pick one, wait a few weeks, pick another. You need a bucket of tomatoes at once to make sauce. So it's kind of a cheater, you know, a cheat way to remember. Think of sauce tomatoes as determinate tomatoes. Now, that's one part of the equation. The other part of the equation is how they grow. So indeterminate tomatoes sometimes can be referred to as pole tomatoes because they're really long and really lanky and they need a lot of structure to grow up. Most heirloom tomatoes are indeterminate pole tomatoes. Most. There are exceptions to everything, but as a general rule of thumb, you know, if you think of black Cherokee or or purple Cherokee or any of those tomatoes that are quintessential heirloom tomatoes, they're going to need a lot of structure. They're going to grow very long, kind of almost vine like plant structures. And you can take a look here at one of these guys, just how tall it is. And it's a it's a small tomato, long, big. OK, this is going to get very lanky. It's going to continue to grow. And if I were to put this around a tiny little tomato cage, it's not going to do very good because the tomato cage is not going to hold up enough of that plant. So that is indeterminate. Now, a determinate tomato is much more bushy, stocky and doesn't need as much trellising. Think of like Tasmanian chocolate is a really good variety of a pot tomato that stays bushy, stocky, doesn't need as much pruning. One part of the equation is how they bear their fruit. Another part of the equation is how they grow. A third part of the equation that we always, you know, the question that we always get is how you prune them. So remember, with indeterminate tomatoes, you're going to want to prune the suckers off of them. So if I'm following this up, there's a sucker here. I'm going to pop that guy off, OK? Another part that makes this a little confusing is in our climate. It is very hot and the sun is very strong. So if you're in, especially if you're in a part of like East County, San Diego, Zone 9, Zone 8, where the sun is really hot, sometimes you want to lessen the amount of pruning you do because the leaves actually cover the tomatoes and prevent sunburn. So that's why there's such an argument in the gardening community about do you prune, do you not prune, how much do you prune? It's very specific to your garden. But I've explained the thought process behind why you do it. So another part of understanding the types of tomatoes, there is two different types of leaves. If you look at this, this leaf is very different than this leaf. This is called a potato leaf, and they call it that because it looks like a potato leaf and some heirloom varieties have that. This is a Marianas piece. And we've actually had some customers say, wait, I didn't plant a tomato. Well, you did, but the leaves are just a little bit different. So those are the types of tomatoes. And now I think we should go out to the garden and talk about what it really looks like to transplant your tomatoes. OK, so let's talk about where in the garden you're going to put your tomatoes. The biggest factor that I really want people to understand is tomatoes are a full sun crop. They love being in the full sun. And I know in our hot climate, that can seem counterintuitive because it's so hot and dry. But the better your soil is, the more moisture it can hold on to and the happier the plant will be. The plant itself needs at least eight or more hours of sunlight to really be happy and to prevent some foliar diseases that are common when you try to grow a tomato plant in partial shade or even full shade. So I've picked a spot in my garden that's full sun and let's go plant these. OK, so this spot that I've picked in my garden, full sun, it's going to get sun all day. And the other really important part of it is it's on irrigation. Now, you if you're growing tomatoes in pots, you don't necessarily have to put it on irrigation if it's on your patio and you're looking at it every day to make sure it needs water. Well, on our farm, I get too many plants, too many things going on. I have to have irrigation. So we use tea tape. This is what you would use like on a farm, but there is inline drip irrigation. I talk about it a lot in other videos. If you're in zone nine or 10 or any hot, dry area of the United States, you're going to need drip irrigation for really happy plants. You don't want the plant to wilt, come back, wilt, come back. And by having it on regular irrigation, not only are you keeping the plant alive and happy, you're also feeding all the microbes that need to stay alive in the soil that also in turn feed the plant. So I've got an area that's kind of clear here, and I want to show you how good the soil looks. This is beautiful, dark soil. It's a little dry. We haven't gotten rain. I'm going to want to put some moisture in there. But you can see that there is lots of organic matter. We've been composting. We've been adding tons and tons of organic matter. If your soil doesn't look like that, that's OK. It does depend on where you are in the United States and what your soil composition is. But the biggest part of this is, see, it is light, it is fluffy. And we've added compost. We've added organic fertilizer, horse manure, all kinds of things to make the soil much more conducive to quick, happy root growth, which is what you want on any plant, particularly a tomato. So I'm going to you know, it's good soil when you can just dig it with your hands. If you can just use your hands to dig a hole, you've you've hit the jackpot there. So remember that when you plant any plant, whether it's a tomato or something or or, you know, arugula, you really want to make sure that you're putting the plant into moist soil. And let's think about why that is, especially if you have a tiny little pot like this. If I were to take this tomato plant and stick it in dry soil, there's a very small sponge here that's holding on to moisture. And this huge dry sponge that is the soil that has no moisture in it is just going to steal it from here. And you'll see this wilt very, very quickly. My kind of beginner advice for beginner gardeners is when you're transplanting, if you're transplanting in a hot part of the year, transplant in the evening so that the plant doesn't get pulled out of its pot, put into into soil that's, you know, kind of dry. And then the hot beating sun is sitting on it all day. You really want to give this plant the best chance to survive, especially when it's going from an ideal condition, which is my greenhouse, into the garden, which is less ideal. So I will always pre-water whatever area that I'm planting. And you don't necessarily have to water this way. You could turn on your irrigation. I'm not going to irrigate this whole row just to plant this tomato. But what I am going to do is make sure that there's ample water in here so that when I transplant this, at no point does that tomato have a chance to wilt. And that is the most important part of that. You you have this tomato that is already being shocked and then you're you're making it wilt and then you're having the sun hit it. And it's just too many factors for it to really bounce back. Excuse me. Do you want me to plant you, kitty cat? Get out of here. Now, I poured a lot of moisture in here because I really want to make sure that there's ample moisture for my plant. I'm going to let this soak through. And keep in mind, especially if you're planting in really dry soil, dry soil can be hydrophobic, meaning it takes a while to take on moisture. That's why there's flash floods in in desert communities is because there's just nowhere for that moisture to to really get sucked up. So I'm going to let this percolate through. Once it has is gone all the way through the ground, I'm going to transplant my tomato. And while that's happening, let's talk a little bit about fertilizing. So I've got really good soil, and I know I do because I've worked it for a very long time. It's happy, it's healthy. If you're planting in a brand new, let's say, raised bed like a birdies box or in a pot or outside in the ground that is less than ideal, you want to think about fertilizing. And that's because tomatoes are very heavy feeders and there may not be enough food or plant food or nutrients in the soil to feed that plant. Fertilizing can be very simple. I recommend that you use an organic granular fertilizer or organic liquid fertilizer that you put directly in your potting area. And the reason why I mention organic and I really like granular is because you can get organic fertilizers that have beneficial nutrients in it as well. So not only are you giving the plant food, you're inoculating the soil with beneficial microbes. It's kind of like how we take probiotics or we, you know, we eat fermented food items so that we can help inoculate our stomach with good bacteria. You want to think about the same thing with your soil. It's really important. Your plants are only going to be as happy as the soil that they're planted in. And the soil is only going to be as happy as as how many microbes are growing in it. And, you know, it's earthworms, it's beneficial bacteria, it's different strains of fungus. It's all the things in the soil that really make it a vibrant community of organisms that will feed your plant. So I'm not going to fertilize right this second because I know I've got really good soil. If you are in doubt, read the directions on the bag. Every manufacturer has different recommendations on how to fertilize, but the instructions are right on the product. So the soil has accepted that water, which is great. And I want to show you what a good, nice, healthy root ball looks like on here. So this plant, I potted up. It was actually in a small size like this, and I potted it up to this size because I knew I wasn't going to plant it for a couple more weeks. And you can see that the roots are not wrapped completely around here. They've started filling out this area, but they're not totally root bound. The soil is a little loose, which is good, which means when I plant this, these roots can go searching for more nutrients and water and go deeper into the ground, which is really important. Now, with tomatoes, they're a neat, special crop in the sense that you can plant them much deeper than you do other vegetable plants because roots will actually form on this stem. If you have a very tall plant, and especially if you're planting an area that's windy or has harsh weather, you really want to plant deep in the ground for two reasons. One, you don't want the wind to come along and snap your plants. And two, the deeper that you plant it, the more access it has to moisture. And you're kind of like protecting the plant in a sense from temperature swings, from, you know, insects on top of the soil coming and getting the plant. You just give it a better head start, basically. So I'm going to dig this tiny bit deeper here. And plop this guy down in here. Now, we've got some leaflets here. Totally OK to bury them. They're just going to decompose in the ground. It's not a big deal. I'm going to cover this guy up here. And this is a when we plant our tomatoes on our farm, you know, we're planting four or five hundred plants or if we're planting it here in our garden. I like to see about this much tomato sticking up out of the ground. It could even be slightly a little bit deeper. And the reason being is I know that all the area of the stem that's underground is going to send out roots and can become a stocky, healthy plant. It also is going to be less likely to snap from wind being blown. It's just going to be a healthier plant. Now, I've got some soil moisture in the ground. It's not totally dry. But when in doubt, always make sure you water in your plants. And again, it's because you really don't want to expose the plant to any more extra stress than possible. And having it wilt because you took it out of the greenhouse and put it in a dry soil is one way in which you can really stunt it in the very beginning of its life. So now that I've got it planted, what's next? Well, I know this is a indeterminate tomato variety that's going to be very long and lanky. And so I want to make sure that I set up some type of trellis system. We've got different options on the farm. I can show you what those look like. If this was a determinate tomato that was going to stay bushy and stocky, maybe I could use a tomato cage. Personally, I am not a fan of tomato cages for any type of tomato because they're always too small. But regardless, your tomato plant is going to need some structure to grow up, especially if it has really heavy crops of tomatoes. You don't want the last thing you want is this big, beautiful beefsteak that's so heavy that it snaps a branch and falls on the ground. So the next step is to figure out how I'm going to trellis it. OK, so I talked about trellising. So there's a lot of different ways to do it. We have videos on our tomahawk system on our YouTube. This is what we use primarily for indeterminate slicers, viney tomatoes that need structure to grow up. Here's another option. This is just a very simple metal wire paneling. We've got cherry tomatoes growing up here. This is simple, quick and easy. You also can use cattle panels. We've got information about that on our website and on our YouTube. And then last and least, and my least favorite is tomato cages. Not a big fan of them. They don't work well. So don't forget to comment on this video because we are going to be picking one lucky winner to send out some rare tomato varieties that I have in my personal collection. So make sure you comment. And if you love the content of this video, make sure you like and subscribe.