First of all, congratulations on buying the house! It is always such an exciting, though stressful, event.

Well, transplanting in this heat is going to be brutal (and you already know that), but not completely impossible. So, take a deep breath and relax and let's work our way through it.

Now there's only a couple more things.

1) Remember how I suggested you prune them by 1/3 when you dug them from the ground. If you need to, you can increase that to 1/2. This pruning is VERY important as it removes some of the topgrowth to sort of equal the amount of expected rootloss. One of the main reasons plants die when transplanted is because they were not cut back to compensate for expected root loss. What I would do, though, is cut them back by 1/3. If they seem fine in the containers or have only the mildest symptoms of transplant shock, I wouldn't cut them back any further at this time. That's half of it.

For the second half, if they shock badly after being moved into the containers, go ahead and cut back a little more, so the total amount pruned equals 50%. OR, wait until you put them into the ground at the new place, and then prune off a little more when you put them into the ground. This will help make up for the additional shock for going from container to ground in July.

Either way, by the time they are in the ground at the new place, the topgrowth will be only about half of what you had at the old place. That's unavoidable and is necessary for them to survive and recover. Failing to cut them back sets them up for failure.

Am I correct in understanding that you are going to dig up all of these plants, pot them up into some sort of containers, and then transplant them into the ground after the move? If so, this is how I would proceed.

First of all, water them all really well. This will help strengthen them and enable them to better survive the move. However, at this point you should not feed them because feeding actually causes a form of stress and the last thing they will need is more stress.

Secondly, do you have containers ready and waiting? If so, that's great. If not, start getting them together. By the way, the larger the container the better. You WILL lose some roots from digging, no matter how careful you are, so the bigger the container, the bigger a root ball you can dig, and that is a plus for the plants.

Third, if I had a choice, I'd dig them up now, prune them back by at least a third, and put them into the containers that are going to be their temporary home. I'd water them well. You may want to have some excellent WELL-DRAINING potting soil to put into those pots with those plants. I wouldn't "shake" or knock all the dirt off the roots when I take them out of the ground, but it is preferrable NOT to put soil from the ground into pots, so the best you can do is have some potting soil in the pots and add the root ball from the ground with some native soil surrounding that root ball. (Native soil is notorious for being the WORST thing to put in containers as it packs down hard and interferes with water absorption and root growth, but I think your plants can survive in a combination of native soil and potting soil for a few weeks. Just keep an eye on them and make sure that water drains out of the bottom of the pots.) Be sure you do NOT plant them deeper in the pot than they were when they were in the ground, or their tiny roots closer to the surface will suffocate from being too deeply under the soil surface.

Fourth, I'd start digging the plants and putting them into their containers as soon as possible. Having done that, I would hold them in an area that either has dappled shade all day or perhaps morning sun followed by afternoon shade. You don't want them in full sun at this point because the digging and transplanting them into containers is going to be hard enough on them as it is.

Fifth, once a week, I'd feed them with either Liquid Seaweed or Compost Tea, diluted to the proper dilution per bottle instructions. Both are gentle organic foods that will nurture them without stressing them.

Sixth, watch carefully for signs of transplant shock like wilting and possibly the loss of leaves or browning of leaves. It is probable you'll see some of these symptons, but don't panic. Just make sure their soil stays evenly moist but not sopping wet and NEVER assume that wilting automatically means the plants need more water because they might not. Plants can wilt because they were just dug up and lost some roots OR because they are in poorly-draining soil that is staying too wet and their roots are waterlogged.

Seventh, when you physically move them, they need to be sheltered. They SHOULD NOT be in the back of a pick-up truck where the wind will burn them and shred their leaves as you are transporting them. If the back of a pick-up is the only option, either cover the entire plant-filled bed of the truck with a tarp tied down tightly to keep the wind off of them, or scrounge up boxes and put the containers in those boxes and tape the boxes securely shut. Your plants will thank you by surviving the move.

Finally, once at the new home, put them in a situation again where they get either dappled shade or morning sun and afternoon shade and let them sit there a few days to get over the stress of moving. In the meantime, prepare their new beds by adding the proper soil amendments to loosen the soil and add nutrients to the bed.

When you are ready to plant them, dig all your holes. Fill the holes with water and let it soak into the ground around the hole. Repeat. In the meantime, water all the pots again. Transplant plants carefully from their pots to the ground, taking care to keep as much of the container soil with them as possible. Be sure the plants are no deeper in the ground than they were in the previous location because planting too deeply can kill them or seriously stunt their growth. Pat down the soil around them firmly. Water the soil to have it settle down around the plant. Mulch the bed. By the way, it you have a choice in matter, it is always better to transplant on a cloudy day (and a rainy day is even better) OR transplant in the late afternoon through evening so that the plants have all night to recover before they have to face the sun and the heat.

Now, there are a couple of options.

Remember how I suggested that you initially prune them back by 1/3 when moving them from the ground to the container? You could go as high as 1/2 if you want to. However, since they could shock again when going from the pot to the ground in July, I thought that if you only pruned 1/3 of the topgrowth when you dug them and put them into containers, then you could prune them a little more if needed when you move them from the containers to the beds at the new house. I wouldn't cut 1/3 the second time, but only 10% to 15% of the topgrowth, so the total removed in both prunings would equal about half. The reason many transplanted plants die is that no topgrowth is cut back at the time they are transplanted and the damaged roots cannot support the entire amount of topgrowth.

Also, there is a product you can buy to spray on the leaves. It is an anti-transpirant and it helps hold moisture in the leaves which helps reduce the amount of transplant shock. I'll link the kind of product I'm talking about so you can see what to look for. It is NOT easy to find, but a full-line nursery ought to have it. Just follow the directions on the label. Wilt-Pruf is one you see most commonly in stores (or you can order online if you trust the company to ship it ASAP) but I used to buy a similar product in Texas called "Cloud Cover" that was essentially the same stuff. I wouldn't spray it (or anything else) on the tomato foliage though. Almost ANYTHING you spray on tomato foliage when temperatures are above 80 degrees or so can burn and kill the foliage, so avoid that.

Finally, accept that you may lose some plants. The best time to transplant most plants is in the October through February timeframe when they are mostly dormant. Since you have no choice, though, just do the best you can and hope for the best results. The tomato plant is the plant least likely to survive and do well following the move. If it were me, I'd not bother trying to move the tomato plant at all, or I'd take cuttings right now and root them in water and then transfer them to pots after about a week of root growth in the water. It is VERY hard for tomatoes to survive being transplanted once, much less twice, so don't be too upset if the tomato plant dies.

Good luck, and if you have questions or comments, let me know. I'll be rooting (pun intended) for you to be successful in this endeavor.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Wilt-Pruf

OK,some of the above post got scrambled and I don't know how, but some of the bottom paragraphs moved to the top, and then I thought that had disappeared so I retyped them. Yikes! I swear, I re-read it before I hit "Submit" and it did not look like that!!! Must be computer gremlins.

So, in the above post, ignore everything starting with "Now, there's only a couple more things" and ending with "Failing to cut them back...."

Start, instead, with "Am I correct in understanding...." and then it all will make sense. I hope.

Dawn (who is clearly a better gardener than a typist or proofreader)