The one thing I can say about my tomato plants is they don’t do text book. This might be because they can’t read and so grow on in of ignorance of what’s required of them - in which case they could at least glance at the illustrations and try and match up.
The Gardener’s World’s/Charles Atlas methodology for turning Tiny Toms into stocky beefcakes is to gently touch the tops of the plants, moving your fingers back and forth across them. This imitation breeze will encourage the development of a strong root system and stocky, short stems.
In transplanting mine, I planted deep, up to the seed leaves but when vertical growth is back, breezy bootcamp it is.
But meanwhile I wanted to post this photo of the Yellow Balconi. In terms of how they’ve come up, in such uniform size and appearance, they are species compliance personified and the nearest I’ve come to textbook perfect.
