Chapter 05 · The day they go out
Soil, Site, and Planting
Bury the stem, give them sun, and do not crowd. Most later trouble starts here.
Zone 6: transplant Mid- to late April. Harvest June – October.
Pick the sunniest, most open ground you have. Avoid the drip line of black walnut. Do not plant where tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, or eggplants grew in the last three years if you can help it — the wilts and blights live in that soil.
Prepare the bed
Work two to three inches of finished compost into the top eight inches. Skip fresh manure. If a soil test says pH is under 6.0, add lime in the fall, not the morning of planting. A handful of balanced organic fertilizer in the hole is plenty; high nitrogen now makes leaf at the expense of fruit.
How to set the plant
- 01
Wait for the conditions
Last frost behind you, soil 60°F, a cloudy afternoon or evening so the plant does not wilt its first hour. Water the pot an hour before so the root ball slides out intact.
- 02
Plant deep, or in a trench
Pinch off the lower leaves. Lay a lanky plant on its side in a shallow trench and bend the top up, or drop a stocky one into a hole so only the top cluster of leaves sits above grade. Fill, firm, water in.
- 03
Space them
Determinate: 18–24 inches. Indeterminate: 24–36 inches, more if you will not prune. Rows 3–4 feet apart. Air is medicine.
- 04
Stake the day you plant
A cage, a 6–8 foot stake, or a Florida-weave trellis goes in now, not when the plant is already sprawling. Tying later breaks roots.