This morning's plant sales got pushed to next weekend because of high winds and low temps, so I brought home all the shallow tomatoes that were donated so I could repot them. They'll go back to the donations tomorrow, but I took a few pictures for you all to help explain how and why to do this.
Here we have an example of what we're starting with. The plant itself is about a foot tall, but the pot is only 1.75 inches. The plant itself looks healthy but a little stressed. The square pot helps, but the whole thing is very top heavy. Planted as-is, this plant will need immediate staking and support or it will uproot itself. It will still have to expend energy creating new roots, and will be susceptible to summer heat. Let's move on to repotting.
Here's a top-down of our tomato in a 1-gallon pot. We're doing this with the original pot in place so we can determine which leaves will be removed and then safely lift the plant to do the pruning. Once we've pruned off a few leaves we'll place the roots at the very bottom of the pot and then fill the pot with substrate.
So, why do this? Every little hair on the tomatoes is an adventitious root - a specialized structure that will turn into a root in the right conditions. And we've just provided the right conditions. By giving the tomato a larger root ball, we're increasing the amount of surface area from which it can draw water and nutrients to produce tomatoes. This will not only improve the number produced, but also each one's nutritional value.
And here we have our plant repotted. It will have the whole week in a greenhouse with folks watering it to grow more roots before the plant sale. If someone asks me for advice on planting it when they get home, here's what I'll tell them:
If you're planting it in a pot, give it at least a 5 gallon pot, but 10 is better. Place the root ball at the bottom of your pot, and fill with your potting mix and fertility. If you're planting it in the ground, bury it as deep as you can, even up to the bottom of the very top most leaves. Then enjoy your tomatoes.
My wife and I (married 9y, together for 14) have poor communication days too, and sometimes it's more than one day that these periods take to resolve. There's no single fix, but I can share a few of the things that my wife and I do to move past those rough patches and get back to operating as a team.
Ask for space to process and grant it to your partner too. The moments of high emotion are the wrong time to hash things out. Few people can be eloquent about their feelings when they're in the middle of them and even fewer are able to separate themselves from it to be solutions-oriented. Instead, ask for time to feel the emotions so you can come back and have a conversation that is respectful and productive. Give your partner the same kind of space so they can process how they feel. And if they can't or won't take that space, remember that they're speaking from a place of hurt and that their feelings are valid even if they're a little hurtful in their words.
No more "you make me" statements, only "I feel" statements (exceptions apply for positive statements like "you make me feel so loved"). Don't saddle your partner with responsibility for how you feel; you're the one feeling something and they are not to blame for your interpretation of things. "I feel" statements are not accusatory or judgemental, they are an inviting way to express how you feel and examine how you interpret something your partner does. "You make me" statements remove responsibility from yourself and place it all on the other person, which can often cause them to react defensively - understandably so, because they're not the only person in the relationship. If your partner has a hard time with this adjustment of language, practice listening to them with this in mind and hear how they feel without accepting responsibility for their feelings (but take responsibility for your actions they're interpreting).
The effort is more important than the result. Results take time and lots of effort, especially when it comes to changing habits in speech and behavior. Focus less on whether a change is successful and more on whether they're trying to make that change. Celebrate the times they're successful, sure, but recognize that the effort itself is proof that you've been heard and that they care enough about you to try. Spend some time thinking about your efforts to make changes for them, own when you don't succeed, and find ways to show your effort.
Preceding statements can help with clarity. My wife and I both have spicy brains, and something that has really helped us is saying something to the effect of "I only have clumsy words in this moment but this is how I feel". This can help to defuse the emotional tension in the moment (also notice the "I feel" statement supporting this goal) while still acknowledging that something worth addressing has happened. The conversation for resolution doesn't have to happen right then, but calling out something in this way can help you feel heard and give you both some time to think about what's transpired with more emotional clarity.
Hopefully some of this helps. Go tell your partner you love them and do something they've told you makes them feel loved, even if it might use up more emotional bandwidth than you think you have