Lack of sunlight is probably one problem. I assume they were a lot smaller when planted and the stem was buried. It appears the plants are stretching looking for sunlight. I had some of that in the greenhouse when I had the 50% shade cloth over the top. I also wonder how the ground was prepared and if the plants/soil was fed with anything? It is hard to tell by pictures but the color looks awful light green to me. Again that could just be the lack of sufficient light. And I might be used to looking at my dark green foliage. Personally I would attempt to find some plants that are stockier and plant in another area. I have moved plants even in the warmer weather but none that large. I always put shade cloth or shade with something. Sometimes I go ahead and cage them and cover them with straw for a few days and then gradually remove it. And increase the direct hot sunlight a little at time. Jay

Andrea,

I don't think I would attempt to transplant tomato plants that large in this kind of heat either. They could try it, but there's no guarantee of success. There's a good chance the plants would struggle the rest of the summer because transplant shock likely would set them back quite a bit.

Like Jay, I see issues with the color of the plants, as well as with how closely they are spaced.

If the color of the plants in person is the same as the color on my computer screen, they look like they need a good feeding.

Unless they are some sort of really small determinate plant, they need much wider spacing too, especially for disease control.

Do you know how many hours of direct sunlight they receive? From their appearance, I'd say they are not getting enough sun as they seem like they are kinda leggy, indicating they are stretching to find more light.

I get good production from tomato plants that get direct sun only from sunrise to about noon or 1 p.m., but plants that get several more hours per day of direct sunlight will outproduce the ones that get afternoon shade. However, once the killer July heat arrives, the ones in afternoon shade stay happier.

If they can afford to buy more transplants to put in a sunnier spot, that would be what I would do. If they can't, then maybe they could transplant every other plant to a more sunny location. Then they can compare the performance of the ones with less shade with the performance of the ones with more shade and see which ones perform better for them.

If I was transplanting tomato plants that size, I'd cut them back 50% before I even dig them out of the ground. Also, I'd have the new holes dug and waiting for the plants before I dig them up to transplant, and I'd quickly plant them, pack down the soil around them firmly, water them in well, cage them and then shade them for a few days.

You probably should tell them that success with transplanting is not guaranteed and the plants may die. Or, they may survive and not produce well. Or, they may survive, grow and produce, but produce late since they are being transplanted at a time of the year when they should be blooming and setting fruit.

When they prune them, they could root cuttings for back up plants, using the pruned parts to start those cuttings. That way if the transplanting process kills the plants, they have new plants from cuttings to use as replacements.

Dawn

I still see tomato plants for sale. I might just buy new, large plants and plant in another area. I would not expect much out of these plants.

Larry

I agree that they are too leggy, they are too close, and they are too light in color. I was waiting to see what others thought, but my first thought was the soil, although lack of sunlight may also be a factor. They will probably produce one round of tomatoes then stop.

One year I planted some tomato plants in WOW very early in the season. I remember one was an Early Girl but I don't remember the others. The plants looked about like those, and did produce fruit earlier than the other tomato plants, but then they were done. My soil had not been improved at the time, and the weather was a little too cool for a tomato plant, I think. My guess is that those will all produce a few tomatoes, then stop. Tomato plants seem to work hard to produce seed.

If tomato plants had to have full sun from sunrise to sun- set, then I could never grow a tomato at my house because our property has too many trees. The spacing in my garden is OK, but I have some containers that are sitting very close to each other but the plants are nice and full and green, but they are well fed from the growing medium and get sun from noon until sunset.

If they expect to have tomatoes all season then they either need new plants in better soil, or cut some of those back and move them to a better environment. If they were mine, I would feed them and let them produce what they will, and plant new ones somewhere else.....and improve the soil as much as possible before using that bed again.

Next year, after the soil has been improved, I would plant fewer plants, and spend the extra on a few good tomato cages. I would take the Edison approach to the experience and learn from it. They haven't failed, they have just found another method that doesn't work well.

We lived all over the world and tried to plant a few things in most of those places although I usually didn't have large gardens. What I have learned is this....it is all about the soil.

soonergrandmom, that is my gardening technique in a nutshell, every year I find another method that doesn't work well!

Andria, I hope your friends do not become discouraged about gardening, whether they get tomatoes this year or not. It is a lifetime learning process, and I would have given up long ago if I hadn't learned to enjoy that part of it.

You don't say exactly how many hours the plants get, but like Dawn I have some plants that get sunlight only in the afternoon and they do well. In fact I deliberately planted them on the west side of a building so they would get morning shade. They produce very well starting a bit later than my full sun plants and doing better in August than the full sun plants. If I had a place to put them where they would get more afternoon shade I would, but the best spot in the garden for afternoon shade starts about 4P.M after full sun from sunup, almost 10 hours.