Thanks. Thats reassuring. Otherwise they look OK? It feels good to see the plant stems getting thicker, and some new leaves. but not sure if they are supposed to be green all the way up? It looks like the bottom part of the stem is kinda purple-ish.

I am planning to build a 80" tall trellis this weekend using metal conduit as anchor and PVC frame with trellis netting - that should cover 4 of them in the row, the 5th one is sort-of diagonal to the 4th, so will have to stake it. I wasn't sure that these things will survive and grow so I didn't set up the trellis yet. I put in thin bamboo stakes where I plan to embed the conduit in the ground close to the plants so hopefully that should avoid root damage.

Don't water them too much.

Are you fertilizing ?

Planning to fertilize it this weekend. I threw in some epsom salt when I planted them.

I will try to avoid over-watering, but I have to level out the bed because 20 minutes into watering with the soaker hose, I start getting puddles in some sections (away from the tomatoes) and I have to shut off. I'm thinking of getting a couple of bags of cheap top soil from home depot and using that to level out the bed. Then hopefully I can leave the soaker hose on for longer and increase the intervals between watering.

With soaker hose you will definitely need longer than 20 mins to water tomato plants. Varies depending soil but 1.5-2 hours is common to get really deep watering like they need.

Dave

Might think about some kind of mulch to keep water from splashing from the ground upon the leaves when it rains. The leaves do not like the backsplash from the ground. Speeds up spread of any leaf diseases.

I am planning to mulch with cheap top soil from Home Depot. I noticed it had a lot of twigs, would that be ok?

A mulch of grass clippings, straw, hay, newspaper or bark chips would be a better idea because the cheap top soil will still splash up onto the plants (which can cause fungal disease).

Linda

Epsom salt is NOT general purpose fertilizer. I wish people would quit throwing it on like it's some magic growth powder. It is SPECIFICALLY to fix soil magnesium deficiency which most soils do NOT have. Not smart to apply epsom salt to your soil if you don't have a soil analysis in hand.

Mulch with bagged topsoil? Bagged topsoil can be *anything*. I'd mulch with real mulch or compost. As noted, real organic mulch is what you want.

They've been in the ground for less than two weeks, so they are still overcoming transplant stress. But they look fine to me from the pictures.

OK, I will put down 5-7 sheets of newspaper and mulch on top of that...

On the epsom salt, I threw in a pinch or two, not a lot really. Been trying to research and did come across the recommendation in a lot of places, so went ahead with it. There's quite a bit of conflicting information and opinions on fertilizing as well, and I'm hesitant to overdo. I have this fertilizer, it says 2-4-2 on the package and its supposed to be put down dry before watering. Planning to do this in the next couple of days, and then once more in a month or so? as of now. But not a 100% sure if that's the right method. So input on this is very welcome...

That sounds smart. Yes the "pinch or two" of epsom salt is the "magic dust" approach. If you really had a magnesium deficiency, you'd need a lot more.

2-4-2 fertilizer is fine. Now, dry-before-watering means that it will take a while for it to be dissolved and made available to the plants, though. You might also be careful about dry fertilizer and soaker hoses, though, because soaker hoses don't really wet the surface much. Maybe someone can chime in on the wisdom of that. A lot of people just use cheap and easily available fertilizers that you dissolve in water and pour on. But in the long run, you really just want to improve your soil, and putting mulch on top that you dig in at the end of the season is the way to do that. Ordinarily I'd skip the newspaper, but if you put that newspaper on top of your soaker hoses, that should be fine.

As to super-optimal tomato growth, yes, there is a lot of conflicting info about exact rules. As to just getting a good crop, no, there really isn't, and there aren't any exact rules.