Container Tomato Plants
I had someone ask me a very strange but great question from Twitter yesterday. They live in PA and started 7 tomato plants in a container garden. I don’t know if all seven are in one container or multiple, but that doesn’t matter much. Their question was…”Can I transplant my tomato plants from my container garden to a traditional garden mid season?” Their problem is that the tomato plants are growing slower and they are harder to keep watered in that container. It could be too many plants in one container, but I don’t know how many containers there are.
So let’s answer that question. What is transplanting? Transplanting is taking a plant from its current home and moving it to a new home. What is the biggest problem with transplanting? Root destruction! When a plant is moved and the roots are badly damaged, it is rare that the plant will survive. There are so many different ways that plants are transplanted. When you buy a new plant in a pot, there is virtually no transplant shock because the roots are not disturbed when you take it out of the pot and put it in your yard. When you dig up an existing plant out of your yard to move, you must make sure and take as many roots as possible and keep as much of the dirt ball in tacked as possible while moving it. Water and root stimulator fertilizer is key when transplanting. Water the roots before moving the plant and do not let it dry out while transporting; and once in its new home, keep it wet and use a root stimulator fertilizer often to encourage new root growth.
Ok, so back to the original question. Moving your tomato plants from a container to the ground should be a fairly safe move right now. Being in PA, you will not have to worry about getting 100 degree temps anytime soon and so drying out quickly should not be an issue. I would encourage you to carry the pot to the new garden so there is little distance when transporting loose dirt to the new location. When getting them out of the pot, you need to be patient and not damage the plant itself and pull the whole root ball out of the pot in one shot. Once the soil is out, separate the plants from each other while keeping the soil around each plants root system. Having a second or third person will help this process dramatically. Gently put the tomato in the new whole, pack in the dirt fairly tight and stake up the plant really well to keep it from tipping over and pulling the roots out of the ground. Water, Water, Water. Don’t let the plant dry out and watch your garden thrive.
Happy Tomatoes
#1 by squeaky082 on August 6, 2009 - 3:35 pm
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I live in the southern part of Michigan. My experience w/ transplanting vegetable plants in mid-season is that it slowed the growth and I didn't get much of a harvest. I would keep the plants happy where they are this year and plant next years tomato plants in the ground. The growing season in Pennsylvania is short enough as it is being mid-April or May until mid-September or October. That's only one and a half to two more months of season left!
#2 by Anita on August 8, 2009 - 12:20 pm
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I live in eastern Ontario and have recently transplanted a cherry tomato (Sugar Bush) that grew out of it's large pot. When I moved it to the main garden I made sure to put plenty of compost around the base. The plant seems to be doing better in this location.
#3 by Jo Mikel on August 12, 2009 - 11:03 pm
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How about those of us in Central Florida? My 93 year old father is very proud of the 2 tomato plants he's growing in a medium sized flower pot. My husband built a larger garden box with a trellis. My dad is concerned whether or not the tomato plants will make it and I sure don't want to upset him. Many blooms are appearing on the plants and some are beginning to close up (which my husband explained is the start of the tomatoes). Is it okay to move them?
#4 by KevinPigg on August 20, 2009 - 10:44 am
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I think so as long as you take all the dirt from around the roots and don't leave it out of the ground very long. Water will be key for the next week to keep it from going into shock. Good Luck
#5 by Tonia on August 25, 2009 - 2:13 am
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I have some very small tomato plants in my garden that havn't budded yet and I want to move them inside from the garden so I can have tomatoes later. I would let them stay outside but the season is too late to do that. Is it possible to move the smaller plants into a pot inside without killing them?
#6 by KevinPigg on August 26, 2009 - 7:49 pm
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Yes you can move them. Just dig as big of clump of dirt as you can around the roots and immediately move it to a pot. Water it thoroughly for several days. Also, leave it outside for up to a week to let it acclimate to the pot, then bring it inside and place it in the hottest, brightest part that you can. With having topsoil in the pot, you will have to pay closer attention to your watering, because the topsoil will not soak up water as fast as potting soil.
#7 by Brandi Shaw on August 26, 2009 - 8:10 pm
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Hi Kevin!
I just wanted to give an update on what happened with my 7 tomato plants. It's been about 2 weeks since I transplanted them using all of your advice and they are doing wonderfully. It rained for a week straight after the transplant so that really helped with keeping them wet
New blooms everywhere! Now if we can just keep the sun around to ripen them that would be perfect 
Bonus: The Roma plant had blossom end rot when it was in the pot but it cleared up completely now that it is in the ground!
I also took all my basil out of their pots and planted them with the tomatoes and it gave them new life as well.
Thanks so much for your help,
Brandi in PA
#8 by KevinPigg on August 27, 2009 - 12:43 pm
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That is SO AWESOME. Thanks for the update. It is amazing how volatile plants can be and how easy it is to 'play' with them.