Mid july is really pushing it, especially for 80 days. think more August, mid to late. The size doesn't mean as much as you might think. Those 2ft tall plants, unless they have thick stems, have been kept in a heated greenhouse. Yes, someone will be able to bury the plant deeper (good for dry areas), but yours will do fine.

Bear in mind to that the transplant shock will be greater to larger plants and they will take longer to recover.

I have seen it several times that a nice 8 Â 12" plant catches up or passes the one that was 2 feet or taller when transplanted. This is especially true if the 2 footer has flowers or small fruit on it and they are not removed. Many gardeners will not remove it thinking that they are getting a jump on fruit production, but in truth the plant will grow slower and overall produce much less fruit. They need to put all their energy into developing a strong root system and overall growth instead of making fruit in the critical time after transplanting.

Some years back, someone on this forum had a series of pictures (sorry, don't remember who it was) of two plants they started at the same time and planted out at the same time in the same way, but they removed the flowers (and any set fruits IIRC) from one and left them on the other. In a matter of just weeks, the plant that had the flowers removed when transplanted was twice as big and much fuller than the one that they were not removed from. If memory serves me correctly, the one that was planted with flowers/fruit set on it never did catch up to its bed buddy, and did not produce as much fruit.

That post made a believer out of me. I would much rather transplant a tomato that is smaller than one that is larger. Especially if you are buying them, the larger ones will be 4 Â 5 times (if not more!) the price of a smaller plant.

Most of my tomatoes will only be 4 Â 6 weeks old when they go out at the end of May, and some may only be 4 Â 6" tall too. (I succumbed to the temptation to "just plant a few more", because there were so many I wanted to try this year. Just like every other year!) I have about 102 varieties and about 225 plants the last time I checked and there are maybe 10 varieties that have not come up yet. They will be lucky if they get a pot up. I was only gonna plant maybe 75 varieties.

And that's just the tomatoesÂ..

Bets

hi, I'm excepeting from from early to late august from the 80-90 day varieties and fruit from mid july to early august from the 55-75 day varieties. Am I so far behind that barring cool cloudy weather or other problems that my datesare no longer realistic? I was hoping to have a tomato by july 1 from my sophies choice plant (50-55 days) but now I have dropped that idea.

I started mione 2 weeks late and they are the same size as yours. Once they estabalished after potting up they will start to grow quickly, if they are still small on the date you think you should be planting them out fertilize them (half strength) and give them another week and you will be surprised at the growth spurt. It works for me.