Trenching

[jmsieglaff]

I wanted to share a couple photos of trench planting. My tomatillos always get leggy so I always trench plant them. Note how the tops are not fully upward, but kind of sideways. They will straighten out. Thought this might be useful.

[jmsieglaff]

And then covered and watered in.

[JamesL]

Good photos.

[Gardeneer]

I don't seed any trenching ?
looks like you just buried it deep..But the result looks fine. Who cares what it is called.

[jmsieglaff]

It might be difficult to tell in the pictures, the root ball and first part of the stem are laying horizontal and then the stem gradually bends upward but not straight up. They come out of the ground at maybe a 60 degree angle. I didn't want to just plant these deep because of their height I would have been planting the root ball too deep (cooler soil) and hence I use trenching for these. My tomatoes and peppers I simply just plant deep fully upright.

Kind of like this:

[carolyn137]

Nice picture, and when I say nice b'c they suggest making a trench, I said with a hoe, about 2 inches deep, which I also said in that other thread when discussing trenching.

I never trenched tomatoillos since they self sowed volunteers prolifically and all I had to was to dig a few up and gently euthanize the rest.

Carolyn

[seaeagle]

Originally Posted by jmsieglaff

It might be difficult to tell in the pictures, the root ball and first part of the stem are laying horizontal and then the stem gradually bends upward but not straight up. They come out of the ground at maybe a 60 degree angle. I didn't want to just plant these deep because of their height I would have been planting the root ball too deep (cooler soil) and hence I use trenching for these. My tomatoes and peppers I simply just plant deep fully upright.

Kind of like this:

I had to comment on that illustration, and I know you said you planted your tomato plants deep.Why would anyone ever plant a tomato plant that looked like that, and maybe the illustration is exaggerated.When I choose my plants I choose the ones with the thickest stems, because they are usually the best.For example, I seeded 5 Cherokee Purple seeds, all came up at the same time,but as time passed one was obviously superior to all the rest, nice thick stem looked like a tree trunk.The rest were fine too. I planted 3 and the one that was superior to the rest has 4 little Cherokees on it the other 2 have none , but will soon.Not surprised at all.I understand where its warmer at the top and it is easier to get fertilizer to it and all that, but if tomato plants are planted deep, you don't have to water as much if at all, especially if you mulch.

[jmsieglaff]

Good point, my tomato and peppers are stocky but I still plant them deep. But those tomatillos turn into trees seemingly no matter what.

[jmsieglaff]

One day of sun and plants are bending upward. I caged and staked them after snapping this picture.

[bower]

I trench planted some extra tomatoes like this outdoors in 2011. Our soil here is poor, shallow and cold - especially that year which was awful - so trench planting was probably the best thing for it. I actually got a few ripe fruit from those outdoor tomatoes, in probably the worst summer on record. And no doubt, because the roots were close to the surface and as warm as they could be in the circumstances....

Thanks for reminding me of this technique. I have a bunch of extra plants with no homes this year, so maybe I'll trench plant them in some patch of fallow land and, come what may.

[sjamesNorway]

We've had an unusually cold May, even for Norway, so I just finished trench planting my "outdoor" plants for the first time (which are under what amounts to a small high tunnel). The soil temperature is still only 11.7*C (53*F), even though I've used black plastic mulch. It's good to hear others have had success with this technique.

Steve

[seaeagle]

OK, I can see where this method may help in cooler climates, but I remain unconvinced in warmer regions,like southern United States.Seems to me, you would want to plant deep and mulch to keep the tomato plant roots cooler in the hot months so it will set flowers and produce more tomatoes.I don't agree with the sentence in the illustration that says,shallow root systems will survive drought better than deep planted root systems.I may be wrong but I think my soil dries from the top down.I guess I'm just skeptical of this method

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by seaeagle

OK, I can see where this method may help in cooler climates, but I remain unconvinced in warmer regions,like southern United States.Seems to me, you would want to plant deep and mulch to keep the tomato plant roots cooler in the hot months so it will set flowers and produce more tomatoes.I don't agree with the sentence in the illustration that says,shallow root systems will survive drought better than deep planted root systems.I may be wrong but I think my soil dries from the top down.I guess I'm just skeptical of this method

The ONLY reason I trench plants is when I couldn't set them out when they were supposed to be set out and got too tall.

It has nothing to do with warm or cool soils as regards trenching/

As the line picture showed those long stems make roots all along the stem, whch is great and now I need to convince you that those roots go very very deep, deeper than you ever thought, which is a real bonus for those in warm weather areas and it helps, of course in other areas b'c the mass of roots, the fibrous structure one, allows for greater uptake of WATER as well as soil nutrients.

To convince you I took time off from watching tennis, it's the first day of the French Open, so you know what I gave up to scroll through my several thousand faves, and here it is and please read it carefully.

http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglib...010137toc.html

Please note that the date is 1927 since it was in the 20's and 30's that the basic parameters describing tomato growth/structual functions were studied. Just scroll down until you come to the tomato section.

And I sure hope that helps.

Carolyn

[seaeagle]

Thank you very much for that, it was interesting.But it would have helped more if the research paper was dealing with horizontal planting instead of traditional planting.A few things of note from reading that paper, he said tomato roots tend to spread horizontally, more than vertically, which is what I have observed also.So a plant set horizontally would tend to spread along the surface I would think.I did a quick google and came up with this from another forum, this guy has done it both ways, here it is,name withheld to protect the innocent, but I think he posts here too, maybe he will chime in:

"When I grew trench planted plants they did well, but they were not very draught tolerant and seemed to require more regular applications of fertilizer. By planting deep, my plants seemed to form roots in different layers of soil and didn't require as much additional moisture or fertilizer through the season. My philosophy (not scientific fact) is that we typically prepare garden soil only four to six inches deep getting nutrition, minerals, and moisture well mixed. As the season progresses and rain and other forms of moisture fall on the garden, the nutrition and minerals form layers. I believe by planting deep, my plants have access to all the layers through out the season. My deep planted plants were always more draught tolerant than the trench planted plants. The deep planted plants typically took a week longer to really go into a rapid growth phase than the trench planted plants, but quickly caught up."

I will do further research as time permits, maybe I can find a scientific one, but for now, I'm sticking with my original thoughts.Besides if it really worked better everyone would be doing it, but then again everyone was planting tomatoes upside down at one time(not me)

[seaeagle]

It is hard to find university research reports, but I managed to find this much

This from Oregon State University Extension Service:

Trench method Pros, roots are in warmest soil, good for leggy plants;Cons-requires frequent watering and careful, shallow cultivation

Vertical method Pros, larger reservoir of moisture available to roots, less cracking;Cons-deeper soil is cooler,causing slower growth and fruit ripening

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/mg/...m=auto,-13,798

And this from the National Gardening Association:

An advantage to trenching in cool regions is that the roots are only a few inches from the warmest part of the soil and this encourages more growth from the heat-loving tomato plants.

http://www.garden.org/foodguide/brow...s_planting/360

So I have to conclude that soil temperature and watering concerns have everything to do with trench planting vs vertical planting