Nicky and Dave Schauder are passionate about helping families grow their food, and medicine and find God in the garden. Learn how to build your own permaculture guild. Get our Guild Guide when you sign up!
How to plant your leggy tomatoes
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Hey there, garden friend.
A new fence is almost built, which means more beds, more growing, and more food. Standing in the middle of all of it last weekend, watching families discover what a real permaculture garden looks like up close, and what that might mean for their own lives, it was a good reminder of why we keep showing up. ❤️
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Most people dig a round hole and drop the tomato in upright.
But tomatoes grow roots all along their stems when buried — so the more stem you bury, the stronger the root system.
We call this trench planting. Instead of a round hole, you dig a trench lengthwise, lay the tomato on its side, and bury the entire stem — even if it's leggy, even if it already has fruit on it. Just leave the top few inches pointing up.
The plant roots along the whole length. It anchors deeper. It reaches water further down. It handles summer heat better than anything planted upright ever will.
We learned this the hard way after a few summers of watching our tomatoes struggle in July. Now it's the first thing we do if we have leggy tomatoes.
Speaking of the Solanaceae family...
Dave and I wrote a guide on
🍅 tomatoes, 🌶️ peppers, 🥔 potatoes and 🍆 eggplants,
called How to Grow Solanaceas Successfully.
- Trench planting
- Our favorite heirloom varieties after 50+ trials
- Companion planting maps
- Midsummer care
- and a full FAQ from real questions our webinar attendees asked.
| Read How to Grow Solanaceas Successfully |
(The webinar recording is at the top of the post if you prefer to watch.)
Grow abundantly,
Nicky & Dave
Dave & Nicky Schauder
Nicky and Dave Schauder are passionate about helping families grow their food, and medicine and find God in the garden. Learn how to build your own permaculture guild. Get our Guild Guide when you sign up!
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