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Now your well-developed tomato plant is ready to go in the ground, but if your plant looks anything like mine, digging a 2-foot-deep hole to bury the stem more deeply is a bit out of the question.
If you want to save your back and speed up this last step in transplanting tomatoes, here’s a simple technique that many seasoned gardeners have in their bag of tricks: planting tomatoes in a trench.
Planting tomatoes in a trench (or trough) is exactly how it sounds: digging a shallow trench, placing your plant sideways in the hole, and backfilling the hole just enough to cover the bottom portion of the stem.
If your tomato starts have gotten too tall by the time you’re ready to transplant them, this type of shallow planting not only saves time, it saves you from all the digging you would’ve had to do to transplant a tomato properly.
Planting your tomatoes sideways is a simple trick that works for leggy transplants which may not have gotten enough sun the first couple months, as well as taller transplants which may not have been up-potted.
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