How quickly can a tomato plant roots regrow?

londonTiger

I put 3 tomato plants (hanging basket variety) into a 16" basket. The seed pack recommended 12" basket per plant.

I thought it must be wrong because the plants were so small. But after puttingtthem in tge basket they grew fast. So much that it was actually quite crowded and picking tomatoeswould have been ddifficult.

I moved the 3 tomato plants into their individual baskets and had to cut the soil in 3 equal "pies", cutting through roots to repot them.

Just curious as to how quickly the roots can regrow. Will it stifle the plant?

Based on calculations a 16" basket holds just under twice as much as 12" basket.

Davesnave

To quote Martin Luther King...

"How long?...... Not long!"

(Mind you, he may not have been talking tomatoes )

At this time of year tomatoes and other fruiting plants really go for it, so the ones you've divided will soon fill out the space in their new compost. A few days set back, at worst.

TonyMMM

3 plants in a 16" basket would be fine - they were growing well. They do tend to fill out and bush which makes picking more difficult than normal cordon types. I would have left alone.

Now you have moved them they will probably be OK, but will be set back a little. Keep them well watered whilst they recover from the shock.

londonTiger

TonyMMM wrote: »

3 plants in a 16" basket would be fine - they were growing well. They do tend to fill out and bush which makes picking more difficult than normal cordon types. I would have left alone.

Now you have moved them they will probably be OK, but will be set back a little. Keep them well watered whilst they recover from the shock.

I think they were stifled. I grew 8 plants of this tomato in total. the fastest 4 of them were repotted into baskets first.

3 in 16" basket, 1 in 12" basket. The ones planted on the 16" are noticeably smaller than the one that was originally planted in 12".

Also it would have been pretty difficult to pick the tomatoes with the crowding, these hanging basket variety are pretty dwarf size to begin with, so it's for the best.