I watered them well and let them rest for a day or two on the workbench in our garage under a flourescent light during the day. Today I repotted them into larger pots. I gently cut and peeled off the peat pots they were in. (They say you can plant the whole pot but I don't like to; it takes time for the pot to disintegrate and the roots to spread out.) The plants had lots of healthy looking roots. I cut off the lower stems and planted the plants deep in the pots. This encourages lots of roots and makes strong plants. When I plant them in the ground in a few weeks I will again take off some lower branches and plant them deep.
These pots will stay in the garage under the light on cold days and sit outside on mild days like today. I will put them in the garage at night. A few days before I plan to plant them outside I will leave them out day and night to acclimate them to the outdoors. When I plant them outside I put large tomato cages around them and wrap the outside of the cages with muslin fabric. This serves as a protection from strong wind.
This may sound like a lot of work but it really isn't.. It surely is worth it to have those wonderful home grown tomatoes all summer. I can't wait!
