So You Bought A Tomato Plant

 So you have bought yourself a tomato plant and now you need to know what to do with it to get it ready to plant in the garden, but what do you do to it, you may ask.

First thing is to look closely at your plant and see if there are any flowers visible, as this will determine your next step prior to planting. In the first photo you can see that there is a lot of lower growth, which you'll need to get up close and personal with. The lower foliage needs to be removed up the plant at least the depth of the pot it's in, I'll explain more in a minute.

Notice the leaves on the bottom of the stem, well these need to be cut off and the cotyledons and small leaves too.

With the lower leaves removed, a tall plant like this can be planted deeper in the soil than usual (at least the depth of the pot extra) as what will then happen, is the bare stem will actually form roots once planted and this will make you plant stronger as it grows. Once this is done, look for a forming flower truss and then you can side shoot the plant up to the flower truss but don't go above it. You will see these sideshoots growing in the leaf axis of the plant as these are what will form new leaders on your plant, but you don't want them forming below a flower truss. These next two photos will show you what the side shoots look like, so you can just nip out with your fingers. Note too the flower truss in this next photo.

So, this simple task will help when you're ready to plant. Happy gardening.