The short answer is : yes you can plant them.
What is the size of pot they are in now, and how tall are they?
Can you post a picture or two ?
Where are you located ?

Sey

I agree the short answer is yes.

But if you are not ready and need to spend money on soil and fert means you are not prepared. Leggy fellas can do really well.

I just put in a few dozen leggy ones last weekend as i was out of town for 6 weeks and by some miracle they survived in a south window in my barn.

(a neighbor bottom watered once)

They had been potted up in solo cups. But my planting beds were ready to go, double dug, covered and waiting. I assumed they were toast so i picked up some starts on the way to my farm. I planted my leggy ones in angled trenches up to their necks. We shall see how they do next to some purchased ones. When this has happened in past years, the leggy ones always seem to catch up. I made the decision 2 months ago not to put them in early and leave them unattended. Sometimes it is just best to wait and put them in late.

If your planting area is not established and needs to be amended, (the money spending), you might have a few struggles. Pick up a 6 pack of starts and put them in with yours. Always a learning experiment to do such a thing.

I left them with my bf's and they put about 3 in pots about 12x12 or smaller. Im from nj. Waiting for him to wake up and send me pics. I don't have anything ready because I planted my own some weeks ago and ran out of soil. I also don't have a bed or anything. I plan to just put them sideways on the ground and cover with soil. I have one set of prioritized tomatoes in large pots while these ones are mostly because I don't want to kill them and for extra tomatoes.

I forgot to mention the tomatoes are probably 18 inches in height.

I transplanted 3 ft. high seedlings, and everything was ok.

Transplant in the evening - after 6 pm.

Water THOROUGHLY after transplanting.

Shade for 3-4 days.

lexiegurl09, can we see pictures of the "bad" transplanted seedlings ?

Daniel,

I can get you pics when it stops raining. I have a few still unplanted, so I will show you what they looked like pre planting, and what they look like now they are planted. I was going to trench plant them, but couldn't so I just planted them like 10 inches deep roughly.

Dawn

trench planting is good.

Here's my seedlings. I really wouldn't recommend planting them when they look like this.

The non planted ones still in a six pack:

The ones in the ground that I planted on thursday:

I know the yellow leaves need to come off, I just haven't done it yet because I figured they were stressed enough from the transplant. I will get to it when our weather lets up in a day or two. I fed them half strength TTF yesterday then they got a nice probably 2 inch rain today. They are still standing and not sunburned, so that's a good sign :)

Like I said, if they look like mine, I might not would try it because more likely than not these will not be great plants.

Dawn

Dawn, everything will be fine.

Fungicide ASAP.

How to plant tomatoes in trenches?

Trench Tomato Planting

Can daconil cause wilting problems? The reason I ask is because the plants I sprayed with it earlier in the season are doing fairly well from fungal problems, but are having the wilt issues. The ones I never sprayed have some fungal problems, but not wilting.

Granted they are in two different beds, but still has me wondering.

Dawn

I don't know about Daconil, but I used copper from day one, weekly and I had no problems whatsoever.

Yes, in the first year of growing tomatoes, I lost ALL the plants.

All wilted. That time I didn't know how important fungicide is.

Now I know:

A bit late but here you go.

Looking good.
It's time to remove the lower yellowish / brownish leaves.
Add some soil and mulch a little.

OK thanks

BTW why do I have to plant after 6?

> Transplant in the evening, on a cloudy day, in the shade, or
before a rain. Avoid transplanting in full sun or windy days which creates
optimum stress on plants. [ What's the best way to transplant my young plants? ]

6 pm is the time when – in many places - the sun goes down.

Could be 7 pm or even 8 pm, in your area.

You can transplant seedlings early in the morning, but if it will be a hot sunny day, the plants will suffer. A shade is helpful in this case.

Still, imo, planting in the evening is better.

Even so, it's good for 2-3 days to provide shade for the plants.

Its going to be pretty cloudy for the week here in good ole nj. I also have newly sprouted tomatoes about a week old. When can I start fertilizing it? (Definitely want to give it a bit of blood meal.)

So I planted the tomatoes but their roots were intertwined and the soil was heavy and wet. I couldn't separate them without cutting the roots. Think they will be ok?

They will be ok.

You really only have room for one tomato in a container that size, plus it's already stressed from the initial growing conditions. I guess if you have nothing to lose, it's worth trying to get these to grow...but a stressed plant never reaches its full potential.

Another way to plant a leggy seedling is to TOP it.
Cut off the top 1/3 to 1/2 such that 3 leaves /nodes remain at the bottom half.Plant it out.
In no time you should see new side shoots growing.

Sey

Well I see they're already in the ground - but in future, look at that long leggy lank stem as roots waiting to happen. Trench plant, as was suggested by other posters. I ALWAYS trench plant anymore. Tomato plants are the one plant that I will look for a taller plant over a short and stocky plant, all other things being equal.

They are basically trench planted, but they are above ground with soil on top.

BTW - I have NEVER had a fungicide problem with my tomatoes. Maybe somewhere you get 66 inches of rain a year that might be an issue, I don't know. But if someone is having problems with fungus, I'd wonder if the tomatoes weren't planted too close together. They need sufficient air movement.

I'm in a very arid climate now so I plant them closer together than I otherwise would - but I have only 2 plants so they still get good air movement anyway.

I've been growing tomatoes for 50 years. I have never applied a fungicide. In fact, I can't recall ever using any pesticides on tomato plants, either. Eggplants, now that's a different story, and beans ... anyway.

How close are your containers together, and what is your climate like?