Tomato, Bent, and Buried

IMG_2204, a photo by Pike-uliar Gardenings on Flickr.

This tomato has been bent and buried as suggested by Mel Bartholomew in his book, Square Foot Gardening. I don't like everything in that book, but thought I'd try his idea for increasing tomato root mass. You dig a smal trench, then place the tomato plant in the trench on its side. Bend the top end of the plant to stick out of the ground and then fill the rest in. The part sticking out will straighten up and the buried parts will generate additional root mass thus providing the tomato with even more water and nutrition. So far, so good. I did this with only two plants so we can see if it makes any difference.