Few home garden vegetables produce the kind of curiosity tomatoes can. Graceful and accommodating, tomatoes appear in all sorts of raised beds, big pots and even containers which hang upside-down. You may surprised to discover that tomatoes, when properly cared for, have extensive root systems which can compel their way deep into the soil.
Tomato Root Configuration
Tomatoes can develop roots in a variety of configurations, highly influenced by watering patterns and early growing states. Seed-grown tomato plants often develop deep taproot systems, reaching 5 feet or more below ground and a few feet wide. When grown from cuttings, tomatoes tend to come up with a broad selection of fibrous roots which lack the capability to penetrate the soil.
Adventitious Roots
Tomatoes are one of the few vegetable plants which could develop roots from any part of their stems. All these adventitious roots are useful if you hope to develop a tomato using a lot going on downstairs — several gardeners plant tomatoes deeply in the soil or in trenches to encourage a more powerful and bigger root system. Tomatoes do not enjoy cold soil, though, so maintaining your young plants within the top 8 to 10 inches of soil is suggested.
Encouranging Large Root Systems
Deep, infrequent watering encourages roots to dive deeper in the soil to seek moisture since the top layers of the soil dry out. Tomatoes can develop deep root systems if watered only once per week using enough water to penetrate at least 8 inches into the soil. Deep mulching, as far as 4 inches, helps keep the soil moisture between waterings and encourages roots to spread laterally in addition to downward.
Container Grown Tomatoes
Tomatoes perform best in containers which are considerably taller than they are broad, such as 5 gallon buckets. This enables room for your tomato to come up with a taproot, in addition to many tiny roots throughout the bucket. You’ll need to water a container-grown tomato each day in warm weather, till water runs out of their bottom drainage holes, due to the little quantity of soil available to hold water close to the tomato’s roots.