On Thu, 15 May 2003 06:55:21 -0500, (Pat Kiewicz)
wrote:

DigitalVinyl said:

I just received my tomato transplants. The grower and many sources
recommend deep planting an additional 4-6 inches of stem.

My question is do you do anything specific with the branches on the
bottom 4-6 inches?

I assume I should completely bury them?
Do I leave the leaves on the branches I bury?

I remember reading an article in National Gardening years ago which put the
'strip and deep plant' tomato technique to the test vs. 'plant only as deep as
the lowest healthy leaf.' Strip and bury came in second. The verdict: never
sacrifice healthy foliage.

What I've found, when digging up the remnents of last year's tomatoes, was
that only small, minor roots formed on the buried stems. The largest, most
robust roots all originated from the original root ball. (And those roots were
WHOPPERS.)

I agree. A few years ago there was a fad for burying young plants sort
of sideways so as to cover up several inches of the base with dirt. It
didn't seem to make a great deal of difference in the resultant plant
and fruit. I generally try to plant a bit deeper than the original
container -- that is, bringing up dirt closer to the lowest leaf
branch. Will follow Pat's experiment and look at roots when my plants
are done this year. Not for months and months of lovely fruit, I hope.