Tomatoes in the ground, finally

I planted the tomato transplants Sunday after Memorial Day — about a week later than the safe date for zone 7a Long Island, but the soil temperature was the lagging factor. The seedlings I hardened off last week were ready, but the soil was still 58°F on Friday morning, which is below the 60°F threshold where tomato roots actively grow. Per University of Maryland Extension, tomatoes planted into 55°F soil sit for two weeks doing nothing before they start to push roots. Better to wait the extra week.

What I planted:

• - **Brandywine** (2 plants) — for slicing. Indeterminate, vining to 7-8 feet by August.
• - **Sungold** (2 plants) — cherry. The most reliable cherry I've grown. Crack-resistant, productive into October.
• - **San Marzano** (3 plants) — paste, for sauce. Indeterminate, smaller fruit than slicers but huge yields.

I buried 2/3 of each stem. The Brandywines were 14 inches tall in the pots; I dug holes 9 inches deep and stripped the lower leaves. New roots form along the buried portion — within a week the stem section will look like a root mass when you dig down. This single technique was the biggest yield improvement I ever made.

Watered in with diluted fish emulsion (1 tablespoon per gallon). Mulched with 2 inches of shredded leaf mulch I made from last fall's cleanup.

What I'm watching for over the next 3 weeks:

• - **Cutworm damage** on the stems at soil level. Last year I lost one Brandywine to this. Wrapping the lower stem with a strip of newspaper at planting prevents it. I forgot this time. I'll check tomorrow morning.
• - **Late blight** spore arrival from the Mid-Atlantic. Per [USABlight.org](https://www.usablight.org/), reports start showing up in Pennsylvania in early-mid June. I plan to start preventive copper spray applications around June 20.
• - **Hornworms** — won't see them until late July, but I plant basil between every other tomato as a known deterrent. There is debate about whether basil actually repels hornworms, but it doesn't hurt anything, and I want the basil anyway.

The cages went in at planting time. Cage-on-3-foot-tomato is a wrestling match; cage-on-12-inch-transplant is a 30-second job.

— Thomas