Re-transplanting my tomatoes?

[Ostrodamus]

I was gifted 12 beautiful tomato starters by a neighbor, and I failed to bury them correctly. What I mean is that I removed the starters from their small 4" pots and put them directly in the ground, but I only buried them up to their pre-existing soil level. Basically, I would like to know the opinion of digging them up, snipping off the bottom set of branches, and burying them AGAIN.

Is that too much? I know they will be fine as-is, but I can't help but think that they could be BETTER if I did it "properly". I'm just afraid it will be too much shock to them. Am I way off base here? I'm a newbie, this is my first season and I've been researching for the past 4 months religiously. All this research is making me think of that Green Day song lyric "my eyes feel like they're gonna bleed".

 

[Chuck]

How long ago did you plant them? You didn't plant them "wrong" but you did plant them at a disadvantage. Tomatoes can grow roots from the stem and planting them deeper just makes for a larger root system. You could just mound up dirt to the cotyledons or even higher without digging them up. If they have been planted only 4 or 5 days you can probably safely dig them up. Just allow for expanding root growth when you do.

 

[YumYum]

If they were leggy give them some support and just leave them in the ground.

 

[Ostrodamus]

How long ago did you plant them? You didn't plant them "wrong" but you did plant them at a disadvantage. Tomatoes can grow roots from the stem and planting them deeper just makes for a larger root system. You could just mound up dirt to the cotyledons or even higher without digging them up. If they have been planted only 4 or 5 days you can probably safely dig them up. Just allow for expanding root growth when you do.

I planted them a few weeks ago already. It was only within the past 48 hours that I learned about burying the stem to promote fuller, healthier root systems. I'll snap some photos this afternoon when I go to water the sown beds. I also have a follow-up question that I'm having a difficult time finding an answer to, but I will hold and post it all together with pics.

YumYum, I staked them on day 2 and secured them to the stakes. They've successfully weathered 25mph sustained winds for 3-5 days spread over that period.

 

[Ostrodamus]

Here are a couple of snaps of the tomato plants. I really wanted to plant them about 1-2 sets of branches further up.

(1) Can I lop off the top of the plants to encourage bushier lower development? Is that a thing?
I have quite a bit of new growth lower on the stalk. I know some of them are suckers (growing out of the "armpit" of the branches - right?), but...
(2) Is it considered a sucker if it is technically replacing a previous branch that has died off?
(3) Should I let the new growth continue on the lower branches that are dying, or have already died?
(4) I have a spare bag of topsoil which is a bit more on the woodchip end of the spectrum, should I mound that around each individual plant to try to help, or would that be a waste?

 

[YumYum]

Some varieties tend to bush out more than others. I grew one varitey and it was the tallest lankiest tomato I've ever seen. The only problem with that is sun scald but it still did pretty good for an heirloom tomato.

I always cut off the lower trusses/suckers in time providing I still have leaves for photosynthesis so I would just go with what you have. I double stem my tomatoes and it looks like you are going for a single stem. I see the top is trying to bush out so that is a good sign.

The sucker grows in between the crotch of the truss and the stem. The second picture shows two suckers. I'd pinch those off so the top grows a little faster. Sometimes suckers pop up at soil level for no apparent reason. Sometimes the tip of the tomato fruit cluster forms a growing tip and takes off growing wild.