RE: Unpleasant surprise! I hadn't noticed, but the tomato seedlings were almost drying up. Luckily, I caught them in time

I don't know if you do this, but for a good tomato when you transplant it to a permanent place, you lay down a little tomato. That is, you put the part of the tomato that is not the root in the ground. It has adventitious roots and takes root quickly.
We dig a hole and put the tomato at an angle of about 45 degrees. We bury the root and part of the stem. And of course it has to be watered :) and it quickly straightens itself and becomes a much larger and stronger tree. Now if you have problems with little space, you can also cross two tomatoes