Garden Xing

Tomato Day ’11

17 Apr 2011 4 Comments

by gardenxing in Sowing, Tomatoes

Mid April has come again, and this time around the weather is cooler than last year. Hoop house temperatures peaked around 70 or so today, but the next couple of nights are pushing in the low 30s. As the tomatoes go in, they’ll need to be protected from those extreme lows at night. Mid April is about a little more than a month before our average last frost. Since the tomatoes are already flowering (they were 7 week plants), and given I want those early flowers to produce fruit, some added heat is a must. The plants themselves could tolerate the temperatures (with *some* fuss), but the flowers will not pollinate if they freeze. If you’ve read my post from last year, you’ll know what I mean.

Our 50% last frost is May 20. That’s 34 days from now. I anticipate I’ll need extra heat for 7 to 8 of those days. My rule of thumb is to light the propane heater before bedtime if the forecast low is set for below 38F. I might be able to get away with less than that, but I’m just playing safe. It’s shut off in the early morning.

I’m using the same means of support for the tomatoes; pruned to a single leader and supported by a single string and clips. It’s my favorite method for the hoop house. For outside, I happen to like cages, but with cages in this climate I prefer to prune to 3 to 4 leaders. Our summers are somewhat humid and since we get rain in the summer (something that’s unusual to me growing up in CA), the combo of humidity and rain can be a tough gig for tomatoes in cages if you don’t prune. For outdoor tomatoes, getting the leaves to dry out toute d’suite is a key to success since late blight is always a threat here. For the hoop house, the varieties I chose this year are: Matt’s Wild Cherry, Sun Gold, Aunt Ruby German Green and Paul Robeson. For outside all are sauce tomatoes: Gilbertie, San Marzano Gigante and Debarao.

For the green manure crops, all went well under 2-3 feet of snow. The rye and hairy vetch tolerate it well as you can see from their vigorous growth. The oats and field peas are now a dead mulch and will protect the cabbage when it gets transplanted.

I’ll get 2-3 mowings of the rye and vetch to feed the compost, but six of those beds are set to be ready for the summer crops by June 1. So, the rye and vetch will need to be pollinating and flowering by then so I can cut them down. The other rows of green manure I will let grow more during the year.

I’ve had a little trouble with caterpillars this year munching on the tatsoi. They are a carry over from the year before and they winter over quite well in the hoop house. My only means of control is to pick them out by hand.

Many of my summer crops haven’t been started yet from seed. Of course, watermelons are going to be making themselves known, as are corn, cucumbers, cantaloupes and beans, some of which I haven’t grown in a number of years. I’m going to get a little better about succession planting of lettuce, spinach and especially cilantro this year. Cilantro bolts very fast and a new planting every month should give me a continual supply.

A few projects are in order for the garden. A more formal entrance with a trellis and fixing portions of the fence that collapsed during the snowfalls, to name a couple. There’s always maintenance on the hoop house, and compost that needs amending and turning. I’m putting in two more soil temperature sensors and two soil moisture sensors: one for the garlic and one for the melons. How geeky can I get? Another idea I have in mind for the year is to find a way to keep the compost protected and ready during the winter so I have a continual supply when I need it in the early spring. My brain is already on it. As Hedley Lemarr once said, “My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.” Until next time.