Beginner Gardening: cherry tomatoes....first plant ever!, 1 by junehalladay

junehalladay wrote:
Any time you plant tomatoes, if the plant is tall and "leggy" bury at least the bottom two thirds of the plant under the soil (you can remove the leaves, if there are any.) This will help the plant grow a stronger root system, which will make for a better plant. The first time someone told me that, I almost freaked when I saw my big tall (although skinny) plant going under the ground. Apparently the stem turns into roots, which causes a stronger stem...thus more fruit, because it is strong enough to hold up the heavy fruit.

I live in Florida, and we don't even plant our tomatoes until late fall because of the heat. Our winter is perfect for tomatoes. By spring, though, they die off because of the heat.

As far as the three plants together, I'm afraid I would be more apt to cut down the two smaller plants to leave room for the strongest one. you could replant the others in another pot (I usually put the stem in water until roots form, but I don't even know if that is really necessary. Tomatoes are pretty hardy critters!) Your plants not only need light and water, but they also need air, and if they are too close together they can get sickly from not enough air. Don't be afraid to pinch them back, too. (at least until they start getting lots of flowers...once that happens, tomatoes aren't far behind!)

Good luck. I imagine you will soon have a whole vegetable garden!