Tomatoes

We grow two greenhouses of tomatoes to get an early start and have some good-tasting tomatoes before our tomatoes in the field are ready. We all get tired of eating those "cardboard" tomatoes that are available in the winter.

To do this we:

• Plant seeds especially bred to grow in the greenhouse
  
  
• Start seeds under 'grow lights' in our basement in February
  
  
• In late February we move the small seedlings to our greenhouse where they will be planted into 4" pots
  
  
• In mid-late March, the tomatoes are transplanted into 3 gallon bags filled with an artificial medium (soil) and a special recipe of fertilizers in our tomato greenhouse.
  
  
• The tomato plants are set up on a semi-automatic watering system that is checked daily. Strings are tied up for the plants to trellis on.
  
  
• As the plants grow they are tied and clipped to the string trellis and suckered (the side shoots are carefully removed in order to keep one main stem) twice a week.
  
  
• Yellow or damaged leaves are removed to help prevent any diseases from developing. We try not to use any pesticides or fungicides unless we have a severe problem.
  
  
• In the greenhouse, temperature and humidity are easier to control than outside. We maintain a daytime temperature of 74° and a nighttime temperature of 62°.
  
  
• If the weather cooperates we start harvesting our greenhouse tomatoes in early July.
  
  
• Our outdoor tomatoes usually start producing tomatoes in early August.
  
  
• We do 3 plantings of tomatoes to keep the quality of our tomatoes over a long period of time.
  
  
• In late August we harvest larger quantities of tomatoes so that's a good time to preserve some for the winter by canning or freezing.