I have just one note about planting tomatoes in trenches (burying a length
of the stem) -- take care when you are weeding around the plants! I had
forgotten one year that I trenched the tomatoes, so I kept snagging them
with the tool I was using to weed. (The stems never actually broke, but I'm
sure it would have been better for the plants if they had always remained
covered up.)

Anne



wrote in message
.. .
If the roots were gnarled then it was nematodes

If the roots were normal but not small then it is a case of not planting
your seedlings deep enough in the ground

You had a case of wilt - basically the soil contains a fungus that blocks
the vascular system of the plant - so the roots appear healthy but then
the plant up and dies, basically becuase the plant is choked off.

I rotate by layering a good 4-6 inches of mulch over the soil I have and I
plant right into the mulch, I have a very wooded lot so leaves are not an
issue.

DO NOT repeat DO NOT till the mulch in - just lay it down - you are
basically covering the soil diseases down below the mulch if you till it
it just mixes it up again

Then plant the tomato plant in a trench not a hole, so that at least 6-8
inches of the green part of the plant is buried

then use wall o waters

in the hole put 10-10-10 and dolomitic lime

Avoid top watering the plants, water at the base of the plant

You do not need disease resistant variations.

by the time the roots hit the lower soil your tomatos will be over 7ft
with plenty of fruit and the roots will be over 2 feet long, plenty to
support the plant even if it does get wilt.

Tomatolord