Is it too deep to plant till around the 5 inches mark?

As best as I can tell from the photo, that is only about half the plant so not too deep at all.

It is half of the plant..

Thanks, I never really buy such leggy plants. For some reason all of the tomato plants at this one vender were really leggy.

One more question.

Last year I had an infestation of aphids and some other bugs. I don't know if it was something that started on the plants i bought or they were already near my garden and made my plants their home.

Usually I wash the plants under a sink and use the spray setting to wash off all sides of the plant and leaves.

Would soaking the plants in a 2 gallon bucket of water with some type of solution for a few minutes help or do more harm? I am thinking I could put a drop or two of Dr bronners soap, hydrogen peroxide, or a few drops of a bug spray inside.

The deeper you plant the cooler the soil gets. Not always a good thing to plant deep. Instead you could trench plant it. You dig a shallow trench and lay the tomato on its side in the trench with the top leaves still above the soil.

Aphids do fly at certain stages of their life. Soaking your plant in a "solution" prior to planting would be pointless. There are better ways to control aphids, which, if your plant had any would be visible.

Rodney

Re the leggy tomato... You could plant it in a deep trench. I've done this with a couple leggy tomato and it worked out fine. The plants had a tendency to sprout suckers at the soil level so you need to remove them unless you what a tomato thicket.

There is info on the internet on how to plant in a trench... I won't share what I did since I've done it just a couple of times and far from an expert.

edited to agree with Rodney...

Rodney pretty much stated my thoughts about the aphids.......you cannot pretreat for them so a soaking in anything is pointless. And may even prove to be harmful.

I will stick to rinsing off the plants only. I know I can't pretreat for bugs. I want to remove any that may be on it or any eggs.

I have read about trench planting them. Always scared me to do it. Afraid I would snap the plant.

I'm pretty clumsy but my plants survived without breaking off. You do need to be aware of the location of the stem so you don't dig where the stem is underground. I did that while planting some basil but the tomato survived.

I wouldn't even call your tomato plant leggy. I no longer worry about how my seedlings look, as long as they're somewhat healthy. When you plant them out they'll grow so much that it doesn't matter how small or "leggy" we think they are.

I plant my tomato plants by digging a hole the depth of my spade and amending the hole, with compost or manure. I've even dug in uncomposted "Oak" leafs. I can't remember ever breaking a seedling while planting them out.

In my mind the worst thing you can do is plant too early. I sneak a few plants while watching the weather forecast for the following week. The reason for pushing the planting season is to get an early crop. Since I'm growing for ourselves I don't need a lot of plants set out early.

Ariel, I always plant my tomatoes in a trench. The root ball end is around 6 inches deep and the trench tapers up to 2-3 inches. I do wrap a sticky note sheet around the stem just in case a cut worm is lurking around. Water them in well. This has always produced a big root ball and healthy plants. Good luck.