frosted last night

[Ridgerunner]

I encourage others to try this experiment but when you are cleaning out plants at the end of the season dig some different plants up that you might have planted deep and see what the root system looks like. It would be interesting to see if others get the same results.

I always plant tomatoes as deep as I can, usually with post hole diggers. When I dig them out they have roots all the way up but concentrated at the nodes. Peppers don't do that. Their root ball is generally where the roots were, way deep. No new roots along the stem. That kind of surprised me. Zinnias will send out roots at the ground surface but the stalk rots under that. That may explain why it may take zinnias a while to take off when I transplant them. I no longer plant peppers as deep as I used to either so the roots stay more in the fertilized zone.

 

[digitS']

I also have plant starts close to the house and close to the back steps.

This has southern exposure but there is a tree directly south. It doesn't provide a whole lot of shade until it's leafed out. I hope that won't be much longer because it will be nice to have the tomatoes out for more than watering. There are just a few out through the day now but they are wedged right down where they are most protected. There isn't room for the necessary number of them.

I remember you telling us about your observations on root development, @Ridgerunner . Another gardener once said that tomato roots grow from close to the soil surface. Deeper, they didn't rot away as your zinnias did but lower roots didn't continue to grow.

I'm sure I don't know.

Steve