Plants do that for one reason - they are reaching for the sun. It wants more light than it has been getting.

Prune everything below the 1 inch mark and bury it there. It should be about 4 inches tall (with about 12 inches below ground) when it goes in.

Agree with barnhardt. Pretty much the only solution for leggy plants is burying the stem when transplanting. Keep in mind you can also bury it horizontally or diagonally if they end up being too long at the time of transplant. Once in ground, the stem will root along the buried part.

Thanks to all for the responses. I didn't explain the issue very well....I'm aware of the 'snip the side shoots, dig a trench and bury the stem' method. The problem is keeping these from getting more leggy before they can be sold for transplanting in about a month. I've started an experiment with a couple of very leggy plants, snipped at a Y section, placed the stem in water to root. Now to see if I killed the plant or if it will now put out some new, bushy growth where I 'pruned'.

Thanks again. Sometimes I try to be succinct and miss making the point. [grrrr]

Its better to root it in some soil-less potting mix than water, just keep the mix always moist. Make sure you remove flower trusses if you have any, and keep them away from the sun (they'll need light though). Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Djole

If you want to do that you could root each branch on the leggy plants and get even more to sell :)

Oh Boy! MORE tomatoes. I'm kinda tired of tending them at this point. I'm sure I'll feel better about it all when I finally get some results to taste.

I'll move the water rooting stems to potting soil. Thanks again for the input.