Tomatoes

My friend Jen, Gardener Extraordinaire, came over to help me prepare to plant my first tomatoes. At Costco the other day I overheard another shopper say, "These starts look great!" Um, they do? Sweet. I shall buy them. I've been wanting to try planting my own tomatoes for years and never have because I have a tendency to kill plants. I've managed to keep one plant alive but as soon as a second one enters the home, the first one perishes. We'll see what happens because I'm planting four - FOUR! - tomato plants. I actually bought a pack of eight but Jen explained that very large pots would be needed for each plant so I'm going to plant four and give her the rest. What I learned so far -

1. For our climate, try to find tomato plant starts rather than planting seeds.
2. You should trim the lower branches/leaves so they don't touch the dirt and end up rotting.
3. Each plant should be placed in its own large (16-20") pot.
4. Gently separate the plants when you go to plant them by wiggling your fingers into the soil and carefully untangling the roots.
5. The little hair-like fuzzies on the stalks are potential roots.
6. Starts should be buried so that the dirt is 1" to 3" from the lowest branch.
7. Trim the little stuff that is sprouting from the creases between the main stalk and branches.
8. A second round of fertilization and cages will be needed at some point. (When was that again, Jen?)

We've been speaking kind words to our tomato plants during their stay à la maison de condo and look forward to posting pictures of our glorious fruit-bearing plants in the near future.