{"id":8569,"date":"2025-02-05T10:43:22","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T10:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.garden-tricks.top\/?p=8569"},"modified":"2025-02-05T10:43:22","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T10:43:22","slug":"dont-just-stick-your-tomato-plants-upright-in-the-ground-lay-them-on-their-side-and-bury-the-whole-stem-this-sideways-tomato-planting-trick-stimulates-huge-root-growth-and-gives-your-tomato-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.garden-tricks.top\/?p=8569","title":{"rendered":"Don’t just stick your tomato plants upright in the ground. Lay them on their side and bury the whole stem. This sideways tomato planting trick stimulates huge root growth and gives your tomato plants the foundations to produce giant yields. Before you do it, there are some things you need to get right"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Here\u2019s how to hack this tomato quirk like a gardening pro-slash-plant therapist:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sideways Planting: \"\u2705\"<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is perfect for indeterminate tomatoes (aka the vining, overachieving types). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dig a trench, lay the plant down like it\u2019s taking a nap, and bury most of it except for the top leaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stem will sprout roots all along the buried part and, voil\u00e0, a tomato powerhouse is born. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bonus: indeterminate tomatoes are flexible, so they don\u2019t throw a tantrum about being planted like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deep Planting: \"\u2705\"<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This one\u2019s for determinate tomatoes (bush types that are more like, \u201cI\u2019ll stay in my lane and fruit all at once, thanks\u201d). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dig a hole so deep you\u2019re basically applying for an archeology degree, and plop the tomato in there with just the top leaves above ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These types have shorter, sturdier stems, so planting them deeply helps avoid that awkward \u201cI toppled over because I\u2019m top-heavy\u201d phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But wait, there\u2019s more!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re thinking, \u201cThis is wild. How did tomatoes evolve to do this?\u201d the answer is parenchyma cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These little overachievers in the stem can morph into roots when buried underground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wild tomatoes use this trick to survive harsh environments, sprouting roots whenever and wherever they touch the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modern tomatoes still have this trait, but since we force them to grow upright, they don\u2019t get to use it unless we intervene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, if you\u2019re a gardening geek (and I love that for you), you can boost your tomatoes even further by introducing mycorrhizae to the soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s like giving your plants microscopic fungal BFFs that help them absorb nutrients and water more efficiently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nature, man\u2014it\u2019s got all the cheat codes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the next time someone asks why you\u2019re planting tomatoes in a trench or digging a hole so deep you\u2019re worried about hitting bedrock, you can confidently say, \u201cBecause science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And also, I\u2019m raising strong, independent tomatoes that don\u2019t need no coddling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now grab a trowel and get to work. Your tomatoes aren\u2019t going to plant themselves. Probably. Although if they did, that\u2019d be super on-brand for tomatoes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s how to hack this tomato quirk like a gardening pro-slash-plant therapist: Sideways Planting: This is perfect for indeterminate tomatoes (aka the vining, overachieving types). Dig a trench, lay the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tips-and-tricks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garden-tricks.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garden-tricks.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garden-tricks.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garden-tricks.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garden-tricks.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8569"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.garden-tricks.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8571,"href":"https:\/\/www.garden-tricks.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8569\/revisions\/8571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garden-tricks.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garden-tricks.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garden-tricks.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garden-tricks.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}