From the MASTER GARDENER - Woodbury County Extension
Tomatoes are the hands down winner in the most popular vegetable contest. If you have a very limited space or even just a pot a tomato plant is likely to be the your vegetable of choice. It is hard to beat the taste of a fresh vine ripened one, and it is by far the most productive vegetable in terms of yield per plant or square foot of garden.
When I first moved to Sioux City 30 years ago I read an article in the Des Moines Register about deep planting your tomatoes. The author recommended digging a hole 24 inches deep then partially filling the hole with a foot of manure, a hand full of low nitrogen fertilizer, then 4 inches of fresh grass clippings, then 2 inches of dirt. A leggy tomato plant a foot tall was then stripped of all but the top cluster of leaves and planted laying it sideways so only 3 inches was out of the ground after the hole was filled. Doing this provided a season long source of nutrient and encouraged deep rooting so the plant was not subjected to wide swings in moisture availability. The decomposition of grass and manure generated heat so you could fudge your planting date back to mid-April instead of the last frost date of May 10.
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The author claimed you could expect 200 tomatoes per plant with this technique. I counted every tomato that year. I was not quite as successful. The plants only yielded 160 tomatoes per plant. The average plant produced 30 pounds. I had moved from Council Bluffs where my garden was in the same loess soil that we have here. My typical yield there was only 12-15 pounds per plant. Needless to say I became a true believer after that experience.
There are other benefits to having healthy vigorous plants. Every year fungus diseases of septoria leaf spot or early and late blight seem to appear. The bottom 18 inches of the plants turn brown and shrivel. With deep planting your plants will be 3 feet tall by then and will just keep on growing if you don't treat the fungus in time. With normal planting they will lose essentially all the green leaves and die. Deep planting also helps with blossom end rot, the black depressed spot on the bottom of your first tomatoes. This results from a calcium deficiency caused by uneven water supply. The deeply rooted plants don't eliminate the problem, but it disappears quickly.
It's not as easy to use this method today because the mountain of manure at the stock yards is gone. A good substitute is the yard waste compost available at the former city recycling site. This provides the nutrient supply and has good water holding properties. Since it has already decomposed the early season heating is not part of the process.
If you try this method it will be essential to have a sturdy cage to contain the plants and keep them up off the ground. The best material is 6-by-6 concrete reinforcing mesh available at any building material store. Cut a 6 foot piece off the roll. The spike ends produced when you cut the wire become the cage bottom and hold the cage upright when pushed into the ground. Roll the 5 foot wide piece into an 18-inch diameter circle and tie or wire the edges together. You will probably think this is going to be way too tall, but deep planted tomatoes will be well above the top by season end.
It's too late to implement these suggestions this year. Compare them with your results and see if you might make some changes for next year.
This article prepared by Gary Shaner, Master Gardener. If you have further questions contact Woodbury County Extension 712-276-2157.
