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Welcome to the Simple Garden Life Podcast, a program dedicated to keeping the yard

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of gardening simple, fun and always
rewarding. Now Here are your hosts,

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Jim and Mary Competti. Hello and
welcome everybody. Today's podcast is all about

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getting your tomato plants off to a
fast start. I am joined today by

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my host and wife, Mary Competti. And Mary, there's nothing like tomato

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planning season and getting your tomatoes in
the ground. It's an exciting time of

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the year. This is my favorite
time of the year. Playing tomatoes has

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to be one of the biggest topics
that we discuss every year. Yeah,

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probably the most often we get emailed
about, the most often we get questions

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about, and especially when plants go
in the ground right away, because a

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lot of times there's a law.
People get a little nervous their plants are

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kind of sitting stagnant. That's what
we're going to talk about today. But

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before we get into that, as
always, we want to take a moment

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to remind everyone that you can always
reach us via email at the farm at

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ow garden dot com. We get
lots of emails. We try to answer

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every single one, might take us
a day. Sometimes it takes us two

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depending to round three. YEA,
well, we do a pretty good job

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of that, and we love love
getting your ideas and love getting your questions

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and your tips. I mean,
we get a lot of tips too.

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But you can always sign up to
follow us at simple garden life dot com

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for the podcast, follow along on
Facebook or your favorite podcast app, and

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be sure to check out our Old
World Garden YouTube channel two. We've been

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posting a lot of videos and we'll
post a lot more as this spring and

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summer playing season come along, so
always get there and take a look.

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We love to talk about everything gardening
this time of the year and actually all

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year round. Absolutely, And you
know, when we do garden videos and

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we do podcasts, we're very real. We're very rustic, very real.

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We talk about what we do,
what has worked for us in the past,

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and it's one of those things that
you know, once you hear us,

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once you see us, it's all
about what we do. Yeah,

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And I think I think the biggest
thing, and I think the reason a

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lot of people resonate with it is
because we are just as apt to talk

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about our own failures as our successes. And you know, gardening, if

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gardening was easy, and you could
follow ten simple rules to be perfect.

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It wouldn't be that fun. But
we all know that mother nature plays apart,

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pest play apart. Season by season
plays apart, and we just kind

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of let it unfold. You know, after what gosh, almost thirteen years

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now of living on our farm life, we've gotten a lot of experience.

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But we are also smart enough to
realize that that experience needs to learn every

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year. And we always learned something
not just from us, but from our

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listeners. Every week, absolutely and
every year is absolutely different based on weather,

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conditions and plants, and you know, it's one of those things that

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gardening. We try to get the
best advice we can, but every year

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can be different. Yeah, exactly. So okay, let's let's get into

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today's subject, and we're talking about
tomato plants, especially how they sit sometimes

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when you first put them in.
We've all been there, you know.

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You plant your new transplants in your
garden, your raised rows, your bucket

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planners, whatever you plant them in, and they just seem to sit there.

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It can drive you nuts. You're
like, we get these questions.

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When I say we get these questions, I'm talking we get fifty emails a

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day saying, Hey, I planted
my tomato plants a week ago or two

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weeks good, depending where we're at
in the country, and they just don't

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look like they're growing. And what
can I do? And there are some

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reasons in the early spring that plants
sit and one of them we'll get into

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this in a second, but transplant
shock is going to take a little bit

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of time for plants to go.
But let's marry get to the question of

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the week, because we got this
this week, and I have to say

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that it's kind of funny this.
We could have multiplied this question from Tammy

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Reynolds from Greenville, South Carolina by
a one hundred and it's a great question.

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And I'll let you read it and
then we're kind of kind of answer

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it Tammy over the course of this
podcast. But you'll understand why a lot

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of people have issues these first few
weeks with their tomato plants. Right.

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The question of the week is I
planted my tomatoes ten days ago and they

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just seem to be sitting in the
soil. They do not look like they

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are growing at all, and the
leaves are starting to turn yellow. I've

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been watering them every day, but
have not put any fertilizer on them.

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What can I do to save my
plants? Tammy? An absolutely excellent question,

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and there's going to be a lot
of factors that play into that,

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and we're going to get through them
all. The good news, Tammy is

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that almost all the above can be
overcome with little help, and you should

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be able to get those plants growing
strong and fast quite quickly. But there

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can be a lot of factors,
Mary, that really play into that.

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I think number one is you know
things that you've got to be careful from

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the get go that you can overcome. But cold soil, right, cold

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soil is one of the key factors
and putting transplants in the ground. We

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all know those days that come in
the early spring and you feel warm.

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It's seventy five eighty degrees. It
may even get to that several several times

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in one week, but that doesn't
mean that the soil is seventy degrees absolutely.

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And then we talk about cold air
temperatures. Just because the temperature gets

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to seventy five or eight in a
day might be dropped into forty or fo

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five at night, so you get
the cold air temperatures. Those are two

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big factors we're going to get into
all of these. The other one is

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and Tammy, you mentioned this.
I water my plants every day a lot

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of times that watering can really affect
early growth. And we'll talk about this,

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but more times than not, it's
too much water that people are giving

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their plants other than not enough,
so we'll cover that. We talked about

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transplant shock. You know where the
plants hardened off? Did they get there?

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These are all things that you might
be saying, Wow, I probably

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didn't do that perfectly right, But
what can I do now? We're going

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to help you there too, And
that's especially when you get into fertilizing and

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how you can power these plants up. So the good news, Tampion,

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Like I said, all of it
can be overcome with a little help.

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And of course a few of these
issues. If you haven't planned your tomatos

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yet and you happen to be in
an area like we are. We're in

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Ohio, it is middle of May. We are not planning our tomatoes yet.

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We will wait till the end of
the month. And here's a great

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point. It's been what seventy five
at the plants. It's been beautiful,

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but we know what happens, and
if you look at the extended forecast this

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week, we're gonna get down close
to forty thirty seven on some nights,

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a couple nights this week, So
we wait until the end of the month.

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Depending on where you live, you
gotta let that soil warm up.

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I tell everybody that the soil should
be at least sixty to sixty five degrees

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before you ever think you're putting them
in. But if you haven't, don't

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despair. We're gonna We're gonna be
able to help. So let's start right

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off the bat. We talked about
cold soil and cold air temperatures. So

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let's say you put these plants in
and all of a sudden, your plants

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are sitting there and you're like,
wow, I realize my soil is probably

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only you know, sixty or fifty
five degrees and I've gotten some cool weather

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in the last week and some mores
in the forecast. What can you do?

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So let's start with malch. Malch
is a huge benefit to the garden.

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We talk about it all the time
on this show, about maulching your

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plants keeps weeds out, keeps the
soil temperature, regulated. But think about

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that. It keeps the soil temperature
regulated. So if your soil is cool

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and you plant your tomato plants and
you mulch heavy, what's it going to

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keep the soil like? It's going
to keep it cold. So the key

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here is do you remove that malt
right now to let the soil warm up.

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So this is what I always tell
people. If you're experiencing a cold

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spell and you've malched your plants,
yes, it may be time to move

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some of that mulch back. And
here's why. The sun and the daily

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temperatures can't warm that soil and that
mulch is on, especially if it's on

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four to six inches like it should
be during the regular season. So if

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you live in those cool areas and
you may have planted your plants a little

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bit earlier than you should have,
here's what we always suggest. And we've

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done this before too, because sometimes
mother nature plays tricks. It can be

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June. We've had June and had
frost warnings here, and the weather forecasters

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sometimes might be wrong. Yeah,
So remove that mulch, let the sun

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warm up the soil temperature, and
if it's not, here's a great way

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to get it to warm it up
quick. If you have some black plastic,

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put it around your tomato plant.
It's gonna just be a couple feet

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around each You don't have to plastic
everything. And what that's gonna do is

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it's gonna absorb black is going to
absorb the sun rays. It's gonna heat

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that soil up very quick. By
taking the mulch back, you're still going

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to cover the soil with that plastics. So don't worry about weeds, don't

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worry about anything like that. But
it's going to really absorb that sunlight.

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It's gonna heat the soil up twice
two to three times as fast as anything

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else. That's going to help your
plants right away if it's cool. The

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second thing is if you're really getting
cold soil and you really think your plants

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are lagging, and you you know, if you have ten twelve plants,

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get some Get some old milk jugs, fill them with water, and set

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them about six to twelve inches around
your plants each plant. Put a jug

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around each plant. What it does
is during the day that sun absorbs its

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heat into the water. It heats
those jugs. It's going to radiate some

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heat into the soil and into your
plants. But more importantly it's at nighttime.

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Absolutely, it takes that heat and
it starts to release it slowly back

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out, and it keeps those plants
a little warmer. If you're mean a

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massive cold streak and you think you
put your plants into early, I'm telling

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you right now, pull that mulch
back, get it there, make sure

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your soil temperature gets to sixty to
sixty five degrees, and once that happens,

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then you can start to put the
mulch back on. I think we

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need to clarify when we're talking about
black plastic, we're talking about plastic,

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not landscape frobic. Right, yeah, yeah, black plastic. At that

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point, you don't put it right
up to the plant's edge so you can

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still get some water, but put
it around the root zone. It cut

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a nice big hole or piece it
around there. This is the extreme.

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This is when your plants are sitting
in cold soil and you're like, man,

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the forecast says it's not going to
get above sixty for the next two

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days or week, and I'm in
trouble. I shouldn't have planted this early.

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It is an amazing way to heat
up solarly the soil faster than ever

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a lot of people before they plant. We've never had to do it here

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because we just wait later. They'll
lay black plastic over their soil for four

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days that that sun heat it up
and it works great. But look,

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if you're having trouble and they're sitting
there, that's something you want to do

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right, and guest calls for frost
or a freeze, you have to cover

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those plants the black plastic. The
water drugs is not going to take care

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of frost or freeze. No.
And that's the biggest thing that I think

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happens too much every year. And
I can't look, we're talking about your

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plants run the ground. But if
you can wait, wait, We've watched,

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we've tested in our test gardens when
you wait an extra week or two.

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We usually plan here right near the
first of June, even though we

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could plan a little earlier, because
the soil warms and once you put the

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plants and they acclimate very quickly and
they take off and plants we've planted two

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weeks before sometimes get overtaken in the
garden within a week of that, just

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because they're a lot warmer later on. So what I said, whatever you

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do, that's the first thing you
want to be careful with is to make

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sure that that soil is warm.
So we're going to take a break right

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now, and we're going to come
back and talk about the other things,

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which include watering and fertilizing and ways
to really get those tomatoes off to a

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fast start. So we'll be right
back after this and we are back talking

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about how to get to make the
plants off to a fast start. You

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know, Mary, watering is a
huge key, and when there's issues with

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plants early on, I have to
say that overwatering is way more of a

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problem than underwatering. Yeah, this
is the same problem I have with house

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plants. I always overwater house plants, but I'm great at watering outdoor plants.

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So overwatering is definitely more of a
problem than underwatering. So when you

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see your leaves of your to make
the plants start turning a yellow color or

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on the tips of a yellow,
it's most likely an underwater or overwatering problem

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than underwater watering. Yeah. So
what happens is when when there's too much

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water in the soil. The sounds
almost counterproductive, but what happens to the

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root systems? Are they swell?
Okay, so they just become water logged.

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And when they do that this sounds
strange, but they can't take in

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water and they can't take in nutrients
from the soil. And so when that

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happens, the plant starts to starve
and those leaves start to yellow. They

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may curl, but for most gardeners, the top of the soil surface may

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dry and they don't realize their roots
underneath are wet. So what do they

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do? The water more? Yeah, I mean we get this question a

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lot, and so what you really
have to do is test the soil down

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by the root level. Now you
can do this a couple of ways.

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You can take a stick and poke
it in and see if soil still comes

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up with it. That means there's
moisture on there. You can put your

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finger down the soil a few inches, although tomato plants you should be burying

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them deeper than that. For us, and we talk about this, we'll

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have a link on the podcast for
this. An instant read meter is perfect

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if you have a lot of tomato
plants or you just want to know you

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can stick that long probe in the
soil. It's instantly gonna tell you the

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soil moisture level, and you're gonna
know should I be watering or not.

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The biggest issue with watering, as
Mary said, is people water more than

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they should and they water way too
often. When you first plant your transplants,

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yes, you probably need to water
them a little every day for the

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first few days to get them there. They're coming in, they've been hardened

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off or not hardened off. They
need a little bit of water. But

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you do not want to be watering
your tornato plants every day for the first

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two weeks. No, And you
know the key here is to water less

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frequently, but water them deeply so
it gets to the roots. So you

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mentioned that, and we get this
question a lot. What does watering deeply

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mean? It means providing more water
at the single time you water, so

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that water goes deep. That doesn't
mean just turning your hose on full and

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putting them on the soil. You
have to put a little water on,

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let it soak in. Put a
little water and soak in and do this.

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We use about a quarter a gallon
per plant. As they get a

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little bit larger. You know,
two weeks in, But don't just do

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it all at once. Let it
soak in. And what that does is

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it lets the water go deep into
the soil. Why that is important is

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the roots. If you just water
the surface the first few inches, the

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roots are like little kids. Okay, if they're giving something every day,

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they're just gonna stay there and say, keep giving me that. But they're

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gonna go down a lot deeper.
When you force the water deep, you're

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gone. Yeah. And once they
search and find it, those roots get

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deeper, and that means they're more
or less prone to having drought issues.

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So again, when Mary says water
deeply, that's what she's talking about.

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Water and more thoroughly, you know, and put put the water down there.

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And again, if you have yellowing
of leaves, don't instantly think that

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your plants are dry. A moisture
meter is like fifteen bucks and you can

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get four and ones and we'll put
we'll put one on the podcast. Notes

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that not only tell you that,
they tell you the pH they tell you

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the light your plants are getting.
It's a great investment and you can use

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it on hanging baskets, you can
use it on your tomato plants. You

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can use it in house plants and
it will tell you when you need to

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water. And like I said,
watering is probably the single biggest mistake people

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make with their tomato plants, and
it's overwatering, right. And you know

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there's a tricky part to this too. If your spring has been extra wet,

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if you constantly get rain and rain
and rain, and you have your

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toimato plants on the ground, if
you have malch right there, it's keeping

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the moisture inside by your plants.
So you really need to kind of pull

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back that malt dry out a bit. If it's been an extra rainy season.

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That's an excellent point. Extra rainy
seasons, pull them malch back a

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little bit because it will help to
dry out again. We're talking about keeping

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the soil regulated, not overly wet, not overly hot, notally cool,

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and when plants first going in the
cool you know that's what happens. We

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talk about transplant shock, and this
is a great time to talk about that.

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No matter what you do, you
can raise the greatest transplants in the

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world. You can harden them off, which is that process of letting them

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stay outside a little bit before you
put them in the soil and they're still

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going to struggle. I think people
watch their transplants grow sometimes inside and they're

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growing a quarter inch every day.
They put them in the garden and suddenly

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they stop growing. Look, that's
a normal process. It's going to take

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a while. But if you're two
weeks down the road and your plants are

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still sitting there, there's an issue. So you want to make sure you

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know that, as Mary says,
the soil is not overly at that if

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you've had cold weather, maybe you
solarize that soil a little with some black

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plastic. You want to you know, you want to make sure they're comfortable.

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Now let's get to the real thing, which is the big thing.

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Once those plants have been in five
to seven days, they need power.

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You've got to power up your plants, and the only way to do that

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is with a little bit of fertilizer. And this is probably another area where

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people struggle, like when should I
fertilize? And if they see their plants

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suffering, they may think I gotta
give them a big boost of energy.

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Sometimes that's not the right idea.
The key here to power your plants,

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and we know this from experience.
We do it every year in our garden

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is liquid fertilizer low and slow,
about seven to ten today, seven to

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ten days after your plants have been
in the ground, they've had enough time

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to acclimate. You know, when
any vegetable plant gets too much energy at

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once, it's gonna put it all
towards growing stems and leaves. That's not

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good. And if they don't get
enough energy, they're just going to sit

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there and lag. But a little
bit of fertilizer here in the form of

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liquid power, is going to make
all the difference. Absolutely, And when

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young plants get too much fertilizer,
it can even kill the plants right away.

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So you have to give the plants
enough time to accle me to the

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soil. You give them a small
boost to fertilizer, and then that will

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get them growing. And here's the
other thing I really want to caution everybody

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about is you know, not all
fertilizers are the same. So with grass,

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people would need a lot of nitrogen. It greens it up. That's

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the same thing that happens to meto
plants. And a lot of times people

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give their plants this big boost of
nitrogen in the beginning they're like, oh,

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this is great. My plants turn
dark green and they're growing lots of

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leaves. That's not necessarily good.
You want to give them a balance of

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nutrients early and if anything, you
want to power it a little bit more

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with phosphorus than nitrogen. So there
are three numbers in every fertilizer. You

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know. You get your nitrogen,
your phosphorus, and your potassium n YEP

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N PK, and nitrogen is always
going to power growth, and don't get

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00:18:00,519 --> 00:18:03,960
me wrong, it's very important,
but it needs to be balanced early on.

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So you don't want some high nitrogen
number and lower phosphorus numbers. Potassium

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that they help. It helps with
plant health, but it's that those two

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in you know. It's the potassium, or excuse me, the phosphorus and

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the nitrogen and your key numbers.
Phosphorus powers blooms. Blooms mean fruit.

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Nitrogen powers growth, and that means
big plants and a lot of leaves.

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You want to you want to limit
the nitrogen, give them enough, but

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limit it and give more phosphorus because
that's going to bring your blooms down the

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road. Power. Let's not get
too scientific. This is where people get

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scared off and gardening and kind of
like spend too much time thinking and researching

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about it. You're absolutely right,
So here's what you do. The best

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thing that we love to use compost
TA. Okay, if you have your

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own compost, look on the blog
will show you how to make compost TA

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very easily with water and compost.
You power those every seven days with a

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dose of compost T and your plants
are going to great because it's balanced energy.

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You don't have compost, you can
use worm castings and make your own

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TA. Yeah. My very favorite
type of fertilizer. Yeah, and we

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have it. We have a post
on that and we'll put it on the

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00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:14,200
link as well. Again, these
are liquid fertilizers that you can pour on

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the plants and the soil around the
plants. They're going to power them up

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low and slow and make them grow
and jump off to a fast start.

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Now, not everybody has that,
So what do you look for if you're

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buying a commercial fertilizer. There's a
lot of organic solutions out there. Will

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00:19:29,799 --> 00:19:33,079
link some to the blog that have
a very balanced or even a formula that's

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a little bit more what we like
to call bloom booster, which gets more

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on the phosphorus side, it's just
going to help. All you want to

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avoid are high nitrogen fertilizers, So
that's it. Just look for balanced numbers.

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Whether it's five, five, five, ten, ten, ten,

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those are going to be great for
your tomato plants. If it's a little

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higher in the phosphorus number, even
better. But here's the key. When

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you use commercial fertilizers versus compost t
or worm casting t. Both of those

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00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:07,480
can be used at full strength.
They are very stable. They're not going

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00:20:07,519 --> 00:20:11,039
to overpower plants. That's why we
love to use them. But when you

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get into commercial fertilizers, they're stronger. Okay there sometimes those numbers can be

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fifteen, fifteen, fifteen and twenty. They're just built more with more strength.

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They have a very high concentrated amount
they do. So what we always

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recommend, and there's no issue with
using an organic commercial fertilizer. The thing

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is you want to cut the strength
to about half. So if it says

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to use one tablespoon for every gallant
of water, use a half or a

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00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:41,440
quarter and then apply that fertilizer to
your tomato plants every seven to ten days,

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just as you would the liquid.
You know, composh T or worm

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casting T, but it's at a
lower rate, so it's not going to

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overpower that growth. But every seven
to ten days gives it the consistency you're

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looking for, right you know,
even though the directions on the package says

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use a certain amount, we recommend
that a commercial liquid fertilizer is about half

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strength because your plants are going to
be more successful throughout throughout the season.

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Yeah, and one final note,
so let's say we're early in the season

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like we are right now, if
your plants are really struggling, you know,

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dose those every five to seven days, don't don't wait to seven to

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00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:19,079
ten. Do it for a few
weeks. You're going to see the green

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come around. You're gonna see the
growth come around, and then you can

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go back to the regular fertilizing every
ten to fourteen days. Don't be afraid.

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It's not going to hurt them,
especially with compost tea or worm casting

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tea. But I'm telling you that
power is so essential in the beginning,

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and it's sometimes people wait so long
to power their plants and then they give

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them a big dose and it's just
not worth wait seven days to ten days.

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00:21:41,680 --> 00:21:45,680
Let your plants accremate to the soil
and then start giving them those small

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00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:48,000
boosts. Right. I think it's
very important to know that if you start

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your plants off right and then kind
of back off on the fertilizer, you're

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00:21:52,279 --> 00:21:53,559
going to give them a big boot
so that the foiliage grows, that the

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blooms can grow. Then you back
off a little bit, then you have

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more fruit. If you continue to
fertilize strong throughout the season, you're gonna

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have all this foliage that grows,
all the grainyer that grows, and your

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fruit production is going to be less. I couldn't say that better myself.

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That's right. That's the biggest that's
the biggest issue people really have when it

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comes to any vegetable garden is too
much power all at once, or too

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00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:18,400
much power later. Just let let
mother nature take its faith. But you've

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got to help them along. So
okay, so let's get this concluded up

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00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:25,400
and talk about everything. So you
know, first of all, if you

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00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:29,200
haven't planned yet, please let that
soil warm. Let it warm to at

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00:22:29,279 --> 00:22:33,160
least sixty to sixty five degrees before
you put your plants in. You will

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00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:34,920
it will pay huge dividends. Down
the road. You will not have to

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watch your plants sit in the cold
soil. And then mary, secondly,

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watch the watering. You know,
as we say, too much watering is

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usually the issue. Yeah, if
you have too much watering, your plants

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00:22:45,359 --> 00:22:48,480
are gonna yellow and look like they're
dying. And your first instinct is going

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00:22:48,559 --> 00:22:52,039
to water more. But that's the
worst thing that you can do. And

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then finally, you know, power
them up. Don't be afraid to power

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00:22:56,839 --> 00:23:00,799
your plants low and slow. After
about seven days in the ground, give

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00:23:00,839 --> 00:23:06,319
them that dose compost tea worm casting
tea commercial fertilizer tea at half strength.

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Give them something to get it,
to get a drink, and to get

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powered up. I remember, transplant
shock is a thing. It's a real

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thing. Once you take your plants
and put them into your own soil and

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your ground, they're gonna sit there
and be stagnant for maybe seven to ten

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00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:25,039
days. That's normal. Yeah,
it's very much normal. So there you

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00:23:25,119 --> 00:23:26,920
go. You know, get those
tomatoes. Don't get worried, don't get

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00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:30,680
nervous. If your tomato plants are
sitting there. Stop watering so much.

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We talk about that, and don't
be afraid to give them a little energy

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00:23:34,039 --> 00:23:38,880
early on. So here's the hope, and your tomato crop gets huge this

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00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:44,000
year and you get great yields.
Don't don't despair. There's always a way

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00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:45,680
to fix things when when they're a
little bad, whether it's cold soil,

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00:23:45,759 --> 00:23:49,240
whether it's you painted a little too
early, whether it's they're not they're not

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00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:53,240
dark and green and strong. Yet
you can get through this. Just just

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00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:57,920
take your time, give them low
and slow power, and things are going

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00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:00,240
to work out. Right. So, Mary, I think we've covered the

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00:24:00,240 --> 00:24:03,359
whole subject here. I think it's
time for your famous line. There we

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00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:07,079
go, and remember whatever you do, find the fun and guarding and grow

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00:24:07,200 --> 00:24:11,960
something beautiful. All right, everyone, thanks so much for listening. We'll

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talk to you next week. This
has been Jim and Mary Competti with a

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00:24:14,599 --> 00:24:19,119
Simple Garden Life. We'll talk to
you later. We hope you've enjoyed this

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00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:23,920
episode. Subscribe to the Simple Garden
podcast on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

391
00:24:25,039 --> 00:24:27,039
or most of your favorite podcast apps. You can also head over to

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00:24:27,079 --> 00:24:30,359
Simplegarden Life dot com, where you
can listen and read all of the show

393
00:24:30,359 --> 00:24:36,039
notes to every episode and if you
have any questions any ideas for show topics,

394
00:24:36,319 --> 00:24:38,160
or if you want to share your
favorite garden tip, email us at

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00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:42,720
the Farm at owgarden dot com.
Until next time, Thanks everyone,