- 1 week ago
Tomato plants often lose strength right after transplanting, but a few simple early steps can help them recover fast and grow into heavier producers. The key, as the narration explains, is not summer feeding but what you do while the plants are still young: potting up deeply, pinching early flowers, planting the final transplant as deep as possible, training the canopy open, and keeping the lower stem clean.
The method leans on old gardening wisdom from Lancaster County, where buried tomato stems are treated as future roots. You also get practical advice on handling leggy seedlings, supporting young plants with stakes or cages, and deciding whether to remove suckers or let a few lower ones grow for more root strength. A simple pantry feed made from ground rice, lentils, and a small amount of wood ash is included as an economical way to feed the soil through the season.
Made for gardeners looking for tomato growing tips, transplanting advice, vegetable garden care, and beginner-friendly plant training ideas, this narration is especially useful for anyone searching for stronger tomato plants, deep planting methods, and disease prevention in home gardening. It fits searches for tomato transplant care, garden tutorial, and organic-style vegetable growing guidance.
The method leans on old gardening wisdom from Lancaster County, where buried tomato stems are treated as future roots. You also get practical advice on handling leggy seedlings, supporting young plants with stakes or cages, and deciding whether to remove suckers or let a few lower ones grow for more root strength. A simple pantry feed made from ground rice, lentils, and a small amount of wood ash is included as an economical way to feed the soil through the season.
Made for gardeners looking for tomato growing tips, transplanting advice, vegetable garden care, and beginner-friendly plant training ideas, this narration is especially useful for anyone searching for stronger tomato plants, deep planting methods, and disease prevention in home gardening. It fits searches for tomato transplant care, garden tutorial, and organic-style vegetable growing guidance.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Here is a thing about tomatoes that most folks never learn, and it costs them half their
00:05crop every year.
00:06The whole strength of a tomato plant, the great heavy harvest of it, is decided not
00:12in the summer, when the fruit comes, but early, in the little handful of things you do to
00:18the young plant before and just after you set it in the garden.
00:22Get those early things right, and you grow a deep-rooted, sturdy, powerful plant that
00:28pours out tomatoes all season.
00:30Get them wrong, or never know them, and you grow a weak, spindly thing that struggles and
00:37gives you a poor few.
00:39Today I will give you five old tricks for the young tomato plant that will make it grow twice
00:44as strong, and near every one of them costs you nothing but the knowing.
00:49I am Elias, and I have grown tomatoes on this Lancaster County ground my whole life, and
00:56I will tell you the tomato is a generous plant if you understand its one great secret, which
01:02I am about to show you, and treat it right when it is young.
01:06So let me give you the five tricks, plain and in order.
01:10Quick word before I go further.
01:12The old methods my family uses, there is more of it than fits in any one video.
01:18I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
01:23The book is the long version.
01:25If you want it, it is there.
01:27I will not mention it again.
01:29My mother grew the finest tomatoes in the district, and I remember as a boy watching her
01:34plant them out and thinking she had gone daft, for she buried them so deep it looked like
01:40she was drowning them in the soil, only a tuft of leaves showing.
01:44Why do you bury them so, mother, I asked her, and she said, Elias, the tomato is the one
01:51plant that thanks you for burying it.
01:54Every bit you bury comes back to you as root, and root is everything.
01:59Her plants were always the biggest and the heaviest bearing, and it was that one secret
02:04behind it.
02:05So let me hand you her secret and the rest along with it.
02:09But first, the starting of them, quick, for it sets up all the rest.
02:13Tomato seed is tiny, so you sow it shallow, barely covered, in loose, well-draining soil
02:21in the spring, and set it where it gets good morning sun to sprout quick and keep it moist,
02:27watering again whenever the soil dries.
02:30You can sow the seeds close together at this stage, crowded even, for we are going to move
02:35them, and that moving is the very first trick.
02:38The first trick is the first transplant, the potting up, moving your little seedlings once
02:44into their own bigger pots before ever they go to the garden.
02:48And here, right at the first move, is where you meet the one great secret of the tomato
02:54that runs through this whole video, so mark it well.
02:58Look at the stem of a little tomato seedling, and you will see fine, tiny hairs all up and
03:04down it.
03:05Here is the wonder of the tomato, that every one of those little hairs on the stem can
03:10turn into a root.
03:11Bury that stem, and it grows roots all along the buried part.
03:16No other common garden plant does this so well.
03:20So when you pot up your seedling, you do not set it at the same depth it was.
03:25You bury it deeper, right up near its little seed leaves, burying most of that hairy stem.
03:31And all that buried stem turns to root.
03:34So from the very first move you are building a bigger root system, and a plant with more
03:39root is a plant with more strength, more able to feed itself and drink and stand up to the
03:45world.
03:46So pot them up once into bigger pots, burying them deep, and grow them on in a sunny spot
03:52until they are a good hand tall, sturdy little things, before they go to the garden.
03:57That first transplant, burying deep, gives you a far stronger plant than one rushed straight
04:04to the garden.
04:05The second trick catches folk by surprise, and it is this, that if your young plant tries
04:11to flower while it is still small, you pinch those early flowers off.
04:16It near breaks a body's heart to do it, pinching off the very flowers that would make your first
04:21tomatoes.
04:22And folk cannot bring themselves to.
04:24They think more flowers now means more tomatoes sooner.
04:28But it is a mistake on a small plant.
04:31For a little plant that sets fruit too early pours all its strength into trying to swell
04:36those few tomatoes on a body too small to support them, and it stops growing, stays runty,
04:43and gives you a poor, weak plant and poor, small fruit all season.
04:48But pinch those early flowers off while the plant is still small, and all that strength
04:54goes instead into growing the plant bigger and stronger and better rooted.
04:59And a big, strong plant a few weeks on will set and carry far more fruit than the runty
05:06early one ever could.
05:08So hold your heart firm, and pinch the early flowers off a small plant, and you trade a
05:15few early tomatoes for a mighty plant and a great harvest.
05:20Patience now, for plenty later.
05:23The third trick is the greatest of all, and it is the deep planting again, now at the final
05:30move to the garden, and this is where that great secret of the tomato pays off biggest.
05:36When your sturdy young plant is ready for the garden, you do not just set it in at the depth
05:41it sat in the pot.
05:43You bury it deep, deep as you dare, stripping off the lower leaves and burying most of the
05:50stem, right up so only the top cluster of leaves stands above the ground.
05:55It looks like you are burying half the plant, and you are, and that is exactly right.
06:02For every inch of that buried, hairy stem turns into roots, so burying it deep gives you a
06:09huge, deep, powerful root system all at once, where a shallow-set plant has only its little
06:17existing roots.
06:19And here is why it matters so much, that the roots are the whole strength of the plant.
06:24They are how it drinks and how it feeds.
06:27So a plant with a great, deep root system grows faster, stands the dry spells, feeds itself
06:35richly, and pours out far more fruit than a shallow-rooted one.
06:40If you do just one thing from all of this, let it be this.
06:44Plant your tomatoes deep.
06:47And if your plant has grown long and leggy, no matter.
06:51For you can lay it down in a shallow trench sideways, burying the long stem along the
06:57trench and just turning the leafy tip up.
07:00And that whole, long, buried stem roots.
07:04And the leggy plant you thought ruined becomes the strongest of all.
07:10Deep planting is the tomato's great secret.
07:13Never waste it.
07:15Now, once it is in the garden, you must give it something to climb.
07:19So let me speak of the staking and the training.
07:22And there is real wisdom in how it is done, more than just holding the plant up.
07:28A tomato left to sprawl on the ground rots and takes disease and is hard to pick.
07:35So you stake it or cage it up off the ground.
07:38But here is the finer point, the way you train it.
07:42As the plant grows and its main branches divide, you train them apart, spreading them open, staking
07:50the branches out to the sides rather than letting them all crowd up into a dense tangle in the
07:56middle.
07:56And why open it up so?
07:59Two good reasons.
08:00The open, airy canopy lets the air move through and the sun in.
08:06And that dryness and air is the great preventer of the fungus troubles and the blights that
08:13plague crowded, damp tomato plants.
08:16And an open plant lets the bees and pollinators reach all the flowers easy, so more flowers
08:24set into fruit.
08:25So do not just tie your tomato up in a tight bundle.
08:29Train it open and airy.
08:31The branches spread out and you head off disease and get better fruit set both.
08:38And a fine old trick for a plant with long branches.
08:42You can bend and train a long branch sideways, even near horizontal.
08:48For bending it that way coaxes it to send up new fruiting branches all along its length.
08:54And so one plant trained wide and low gives far more than one shot straight up.
09:02Train them open and train them wide.
09:05Now the fourth trick is about those side shoots, the little suckers that sprout in the crooks
09:11where the leaves meet the stem.
09:13And here I will be honest with you that there are two schools on it.
09:18And I will give you both plain so you can choose.
09:21Some growers pinch all those suckers off, keeping the plant to one or two main stems.
09:27And this gives you fewer, but bigger tomatoes and a more open, airy plant less prone to disease.
09:34And it is the common way for the tall, indeterminate kinds.
09:38But there is another way, to let those lower suckers grow, at least the ones down low near the base.
09:45For each one that grows sends the plant to make more root below to feed it.
09:51So letting some grow builds you a bigger root system and a bigger, bushier plant that gives more tomatoes,
09:58though they run a bit smaller and the plant is bushier and wants more air.
10:03So there is your honest choice. Pinch the suckers for fewer, bigger fruit and an airy plant,
10:10or let the low ones grow for more roots and more, but smaller fruit.
10:15Neither is wrong, it is what you are after.
10:19I lean to letting a couple of the low, strong ones grow for the root strength,
10:24and pinching the rest to keep it from a jungle.
10:27Suit yourself, now that you know what each does.
10:31And the fifth trick is a small, plain one that saves you much grief,
10:36keeping the base of the stem clear of leaves.
10:39As the plant grows up, you strip off the lowest leaves, the ones near the ground,
10:45keeping the bottom stretch of stem bare and clean. And why?
10:50Because most every tomato disease, and many a pest, come up from the soil,
10:55splashing up onto low leaves in the rain or crawling up, and low leaves touching or near the ground are
11:03the
11:03doorway in. Strip them away, keep a good, clear, bare stretch of stem down low, and you shut that door,
11:11and the splashing soil and the climbing pests and the soil-borne blights have nothing low to catch on to.
11:19It is a two-minute job that heads off a world of disease. Keep the bottom of your tomato clean
11:26and bare.
11:27Now let me give you a fine old feed for your tomatoes besides, an underground supplement you make from
11:35plain kitchen things that rots down slow and feeds them all season.
11:40You take ground rice and ground lentils and wood ash and mix them, about five parts ground rice,
11:48three parts ground lentils, and two parts ash. The ground rice is starch that feeds and multiplies
11:56the little life in the soil, the microorganisms, and gets them working. Those wakened microorganisms then
12:04break down the ground lentils, which are rich in minerals, releasing that mineral food to your
12:10plants. And the wood ash gives potash, the very thing that feeds fruit. You grind the rice and
12:17lentils so they break down quick, and you dig a shallow trench a hand's width out from your plants,
12:24just a couple inches deep so it stays near the surface where the air and the soil life can work
12:29on it.
12:30Lay in your mixture, cover it, and water it to set the whole rotting down to work.
12:36Do one side of the row now, and the other side a couple weeks on, so the roots are drawn
12:42to feed on
12:43both sides. One honest word on the ash, use it in the modest measure I gave and no more, for
12:51wood ash
12:52sweetens the soil and too much sours the deal, so keep it to that small part. A cheap, slow, honest
13:00feeding from the pantry and the stove, and it asks nothing bought. Now let me say a small plain word,
13:08not a who-profits sermon, for the tomato is no one's scheme. But notice, near every one of these five
13:16tricks cost you nothing, not a product, not a gadget, only the knowing and a bit of care with the
13:23young
13:23plant. Burying deep, pinching the early flowers, training open, keeping the base clean, and a feed
13:31from the pantry. There is a whole trade in selling folks miracle tomato feeds and boosters and gadgets
13:39to grow bigger plants. And here the biggest, strongest plant of all comes from nothing but burying the
13:47stem deep and a few minutes care, free for the knowing. So folk come to think a great tomato plant
13:54must be bought and fed from a bottle, when it is mostly made in how you plant it. But now
14:01you know
14:02the tomato's real secret, and it will serve you every summer. So there are five old tricks to grow a
14:09tomato twice as strong. Pot it up once and bury it deep, for the buried stem all turns to
14:16root. Pinch the early flowers off a small plant so it grows big before it fruits. Plant it deep at
14:23the
14:24last, deep as you dare, for that is the great secret of a mighty root. Train it open and airy
14:31and wide to
14:32head off disease and set more fruit. And keep the base of the stem stripped clean to shut out the
14:39soil-borne
14:40troubles. Do these and feed it from the pantry, and you will grow the strongest tomato
14:46plants you ever have, and pick tomatoes by the basket full all summer long.
14:53Now I want to hear from you. Tell me down below whether you knew the deep planting secret, the
14:59burying of the stem, for it surprises folk more than near anything in the garden. And tell me your county
15:06and what kinds of tomatoes you favor, the little cherry ones or the great beef steaks. For I do love
15:13to know what
15:14you all are growing, I read every one. Next time, I want to show you the pruning and the training
15:21of the
15:22tomato on through the season as it grows tall and heavy, the tending of the suckers and the tying up
15:29and the topping, all the old ways to keep a great plant productive and healthy clear to the frost. The
15:37old
15:37people grew mighty tomato plants by understanding the plant deep, by knowing its one great secret of
15:44the rooting stem and treating it right when young, and grew abundance from a handful of seed with
15:51nothing bought. There is a quiet wisdom in that, in knowing a plant so well you give it just what
15:58it
15:58needs at the very start and let it pour out the rest itself. The people who built this country with
16:05their hands knew that, and we are only just starting to remember it.
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