I would have tried to separate and transplant them much earlier given ideal conditions but they smallest ones may still recover from transplanting so that what I'd do. They can't stay so crowded so thinning to the best would be my second option if transplanting some wouldn't work.

Third option is to snip off the growth tips or any 'suckers', root them, and then plant them where they could grow.

Dave

It shouldn't be too hot for you to grow tomatoes - depending on where you are you may just have to adjust WHEN you grow them. My soil is crap too, tomatoes don't really seem to mind with even a little amending.

I would thin them or you will likely end up with a diseased tomato jungle, and they will crowd out the smaller ornamental plants you have already. I do at a minimum 3' from center stem to center stem, more is better if you can, though. It just helps to keep down disease and insect problems around here.

You could also try to carefully shovel out the rootball of the volunteers and replant if you have other places to put them and don't want to kill them. I've found volunteers are pretty resilient to being moved if you do it carefully, and replant them deeper than the original soil line.

I didn't know they would root in water. I'll give that a try on the ones we remove and once they root, we'll put them elsewhere on the property.

I much prefer rooting them in moist potting mix than water. It gives them a head start on feeder root development rather than just water roots.

Dave

Well, you're talking about mature plants. I'd just leave them be. They're too close together to individually grow to what well separated plants would grow to, but the whole cluster of plants will do OK. If they were planted with compost in otherwise poor soil, I'd be shoveling more compost onto them as they mature, and maybe add some fertilizer as well. In your climate, mulch will be essential to keep the soil moist. Once it gets hot, yes, the tomatoes won't set fruit, but if cared for, the plants will grow just fine.

We moved one yesterday, and today it's doing just fine. We might move a couple others and leave the rest. Fingers crossed we will get ripe tomatoes before the weather gets so hot they get scorched.

12-20 inches tall and you're moving them? That takes some courage, and a big shovel.

daninthedirt, our soil is decomposed granite amended with compost, so it digs easy. Ain't like clay! Like playing in a sand pile! Hubs moved a 12" plant, not one of the big ones. There are drippers on all the petunias and the volunteers are taking full advantage of that. Already heating up, so some petunias are looking sickly. He's ready to alternate a tomato with a jalapeno at this point. I think we don't need all jalapenos. We do have Avocado trees, but nice to have other peppers too.

You do know I am clueless about this tomato growing thing. I did do some research and found they don't like temps over 85 degrees. After that they go into survival mode and work on roots and growth. But you can pick them green and they will ripen on the counter. True?

Yep. And mine usually start producing again after it starts cooling down, so don't be in a hurry to pull them up unless you're sure they have a disease issue rather than a heat issue. You should have tomatoes well into the fall/early winter, and maybe mid-late winter if your plants stay fairly healthy and you're not in a frost-prone part of SoCal.

Well, I just meant that with plants that large, you're going to be chopping lots of roots off if you don't lift a big piece of soil with a big shovel. That's why I was suggesting you leave them in one place. But if they survived the move, more power to you.