Tomato Culture: A Practical Treatise on the Tomato Part 3

=Starting plants.=--From about the lat.i.tude of New York city southward, it is possible to secure large yields from plants grown from seed sown in place in the field, and one often sees volunteer plants which have sprung up as weeds carrying as much or more fruit than most carefully grown transplanted ones beside them. In many sections tomatoes are grown in large areas for canning factories, and as a farm rather than a market garden crop, individual farmers planting from 10 to 100 acres; and to start and transplant to the field the 25,000 to 30,000 plants necessary for a ten-acre field seems a great undertaking. Tomato plants, however, when young, are of rather weak and tender growth, and need more careful culture than can be readily given in the open field; and, again, the demand of the market, even at the canning factories, is for delivery of the crop earlier than it can be produced by sowing the seed in the field.

For these reasons it is almost the universal custom of successful growers to use plants started under gla.s.s or in seed-beds where conditions of heat and moisture can be somewhat under control. I believe, however, that the failure to secure a maximum yield is more often due to defective methods of starting, handling and setting the plants than to any other single cause. In sections where tomatoes are largely grown there are usually men who make a business of starting plants and offering them for sale at prices running from $1 or even as low as 40 cents, up to $8 and $10 a 1,000, according to their age and the way they are grown; but generally, it will be found more advantageous for the planter to start his plants on or near the field where they are to be grown.

=Tomato plants from cuttings= may be easily grown, but such plants, when planted in the open ground, do not yield as much fruit as seedlings nor is this apt to be of so good quality; so that, in practice, seedlings only are used for outside crops. Under gla.s.s, plants from cuttings do relatively better and some growers prefer them, as they commence to fruit earlier and do not make so rank a growth.

Seedlings can be most easily started and grown, at least up to the time of p.r.i.c.king out, in light, well-ventilated greenhouses, and many large growers have them for this specific purpose. Houses for starting tomato plants should be so situated as to be fully exposed to the sun and not shaded in any way; be provided with heating apparatus by which a night temperature of 60 and up to one of 80 F. in the day can be maintained even in the coldest weather and darkest days likely to occur for 60 to 90 days before the plants can be safely set out in the open field; and the houses should be well glazed and ventilated.

Houses well suited for this purpose are often built of hotbed sash with no frame but a simple ridge-board and sides 1 or 2 feet high, head room being gained by a central sunken path and the sash so fastened in place that they may be easily lifted to give ventilation or entirely removed to give full exposure to suns.h.i.+ne, or for storing when the house is not needed. Hotbed sash 36 feet with side-bars projecting at the ends to facilitate fastening them in place are usually kept by dealers, who offer them at from $1.50 to $3 each, according to the quality of the material used.

A hot water heating apparatus is the best, but often one can use a brick furnace or an iron heating stove, connected with a flue of sewer or drain-pipe that will answer very well and cost much less. It requires but 6 to 10 square feet of bench to start plants enough for an acre, and a house costing only from $25 to $50 will enable one to grow plants enough for 20 acres up to the stage when they can be p.r.i.c.ked out into sash or cloth-covered cold-frames in which they can be grown on to the size best suited for setting in the field. When a grower plants less than 5 acres it is often better for him to sow his seed in flats or shallow boxes and arrange to have these cared for in some neighboring greenhouse for the 10 to 20 days before they can be p.r.i.c.ked out.

CHAPTER IX

Hotbeds and Cold-frames

Plants can be advantageously started and even grown on to the size for setting in open ground in hotbeds. In building these of manure it is important to select a spot where there is no danger of standing water, even after the heaviest rains, and it is well to remove the soil to a depth of 6 inches or 1 foot from a s.p.a.ce about 2 feet larger each way than the bed and to build the manure up squarely to a hight of 2 to 3 feet. It is also very important that the bed of manure be of uniform composition as regards mixture of straw and also as to age, density and moisture, so as to secure uniformity in heating. This can be accomplished by shaking out and evenly spreading each forkful and repeatedly and evenly tramping down as the bed is built up. Unless this work is well and carefully done the bed will heat and settle unevenly, making it impossible to secure uniformity of growth in different parts.

Hotbed frames should be of a size to carry four to six 36-foot sash, and made of lumber so fastened together that they can be easily knocked apart and stored when not in use. They should be about 10 inches high in front and 16 or 18 inches at the back, care being taken that if the back is made of two boards one of them be narrow and at the bottom so that the crack between them can be covered by banking up with manure or earth. In placing them on the manure short pieces of board should be laid under the corners to prevent their settling in the manure unevenly.

I prefer to sow the seed in flats or shallow boxes filled with rich but sandy and very friable soil, and set these on a layer of sifted coal ashes covering the manure and made perfectly level, but many growers sow on soil resting directly on the manure; if this is done the soil should be light and friable and made perfectly level. A perspective view of a three-sash hotbed is given in Fig. 13, and of a cross-section in Fig.

14.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 13--THREE-SASH HOTBED]

In some sections, particularly in the South, it is not always easy to procure suitable manure for making hotbeds, so these are built to be warmed by flues under ground, but I think it much better where a fire is to be used that the sash be built into the form of a house. A hotbed of manure is preferred to a house by some because of its supplying uniform and moist bottom heat--and one can easily give abundant air; but the sash can be built into the form of a house at but little more expense, and it has the great advantage of enabling one to work among the plants in any weather, while, if properly built, any desired degree of heat and ventilation can be easily secured. Except when very early ripening fruit is the desideratum, plants started with heat but p.r.i.c.ked out and grown in cold-frames without it, but where they can be protected during cold nights and storms, will give better results than those grown to full size for the field in artificial heat.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 14--CROSS-SECTION OF HOTBED]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 15--COLD-FRAMES ON HILL-SIDE]

=Cold-frames.=--In locations where tomatoes are much grown large areas are devoted to cold-frames covered either by sash or cloth curtains.

Sash give much better protection from cold and on this account are more desirable, particularly where very early fruiting is wanted, but their first cost is much greater and the labor of attending to beds covered by them is much more than where cloth is used. Sash-covered beds should be of single width and run east and west, but if the beds are covered with cloth it is better that they be double width (12 feet) and run north and south. The front of the single and the sides of the double width beds should be 8 to 10 inches high, held firmly erect by stakes and perfectly parallel, both horizontally and vertically, with the back or with the central support. This should be 6 inches higher than the front. The cross strips, when sash are used, should be made of a 3-inch horizontal and a 1-1/2-inch vertical strip of 1-inch lumber nailed together very firmly in the form of an inverted T, the vertical pieces projecting 1 inch at each end and resting on the front and back of the bed and forming supports and guides for the sash. Some growers use vertical strips as heavy as 23 or 4 inches for stepping across the beds. When the plants are to be taken to the field, the sash and guides can be easily removed. (Fig. 15.)

Ground to be covered with cold-frames should be made very friable and rich by repeated plowing and working in of a liberal dressing of well-rotted stable manure and wood ashes. In southwestern New Jersey, where immense areas of early tomatoes are grown, the soil of the beds for a depth of about 6 inches is removed and a layer 3 to 5 inches deep of well-rotted stable manure is placed in. That made of a mixture of manure from horses, cattle and hogs is preferred. It is important that the manure be so well rotted that it will not heat, and so dry that it will not become pasty when tramped into a firm, level layer. On this they place a layer of nearly 3 inches deep of rich, friable, moderately compact soil and p.r.i.c.k out the plants into this. The roots soon bind the manure and soil together and by cutting through the manure so as to form blocks one can carry the plants to the fields with but very little disturbance of the root.

=Cloth covers for beds= should be made of heavy, unbleached sheeting or light duck, and it is better that the selvage run up and down the bed rather than lengthwise. The cloth is torn into lengths of about 13 feet and then sewn together with a narrow double-st.i.tched flat seam so as to form a sheet 13 feet wide and about 8 inches longer than the bed. The edges are tacked every foot to the strips about 2 inches wide by 7/8 inch thick with beveled outside edges and laid perfectly in line. A second line of strips is then nailed to the first so as to break joints with it and so that the two will form a continuous roller about a foot longer than the bed with the edge of the curtain firmly fastened in its center. The center of the curtain is secured to the central ridge of the bed by strips of lath. When rolled up, the rollers are held in place by loops of rope around their ends and when they are down they are held by similar loops to the notched tent-pins driven into the ground or to wooden b.u.t.tons fastened to the sides and ends of the frame as shown in Fig. 16.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 16--TRANSPLANTING TOMATOES UNDER CLOTH-COVERED FRAMES (Photo by Prof. W. G. Johnson)]

Cloth covers are sometimes dressed with oil, but this is not to be recommended, though it is an advantage to have them wet occasionally with a weak solution of copper sulphate or with sea water as a preservative and to prevent mildew. Such covers, well cared for, may last five years or be of little use after the first, depending upon the care given them. They can be made from 50 to 200 feet long and two men can roll them up or down very quickly.

When cloth covers are used the supporting cross-strips should not be over 3 inches wide nor more than 3 feet apart; sometimes the strips are made to bind the sideboard and ridge together by means of short pieces of hoop iron or of barrel hoop. These are so placed and nailed as to hold the upper edge of sideboards and of the central ridge flush with the cross-strips, thus forming a smooth surface for cloth to rest on and enabling one easily to "knock down" and remove the frames to facilitate the taking of the plants from the bed to the field and the storing of the frames for another season.

=Flats for starting seeds.=--Any shallow box may be used or the plants sown directly in the beds without them, but flats of a uniform size are to be preferred--these will pack well on the greenhouse shelves; or in the hotbed we make them with 7/8 inch thick ends and 1/2 inch thick sides and bottom, the latter if of a single board having four half-inch holes for drainage and in any case having two narrow strips about 1/4 inch thick nailed across their bottoms so as to allow drainage water to escape freely when the boxes are set on hard, cool floors. Two or three such boxes, 35-1/2 inches long, 12 inches wide and 3 inches deep, will be sufficient to start plants enough for an acre. I like to use similar boxes only 4 inches deep for growing the plants after they are p.r.i.c.ked out, particularly if this is to be done in a greenhouse, as by turning them we can equalize exposure to light and thus distribute the plants in the field where they are to be set with the least possible disturbance.

One would need nearly 60 such boxes for plants enough for an acre. On account of the lessened necessity for watering when plants are set in beds rather than in boxes, many growers prefer to grow their plants in that way.

CHAPTER X

Starting Plants

This has been the subject of a vast amount of horticultural writing, and the practice of different growers, and in different sections, varies greatly. I give the methods I have used successfully, together with reasons for following them, but it may be well for the reader to modify them to suit his own conditions and requirements.

=Largest yield.=--Some 45 to 50 days before plants can be safely set in the open field the flats in which the seed is to be sown should be filled with light, rich, friable soil, it being important that its surface be made perfectly level, and that it be compact and quite moist, but not so wet as to pack under pressure. Sow the seed in drills 3/8 inch deep and 2 to 3 inches apart at the rate of 10 to 20 to the inch; press the soil evenly over them, water and place in the shade in an even temperature of 80 to 90 F. As soon as the seeds begin to break soil, which they should do in three to four days, place in full light and temperature of 75 to 80, keeping the air rather close so as to avoid necessity of watering. After a few days reduce the temperature to about 65 and give as much air as possible. Some growers press a short piece of 2-inch joist into the soil of the benches, so as to form trenches 2 inches wide and about 3/8 inch deep, and so s.p.a.ced as to be under the center of each row of gla.s.s, their sash being mostly made of five-inch gla.s.s. In this, by using a little tin box with holes in the top, like those of a pepper-box, they scatter seeds so that they will be nearly 1/8 to 1/4 inch apart, over the bottom of the 2-inch wide trench, and then cover. This has the advantage of evenly s.p.a.cing the plants and so locating the rows that the plants will be little liable to injury from drip.

Young tomato plants are very sensitive to over-supply of water and some of the most successful growers do not water at all until the plants are quite large and then only when necessary to prevent wilting. In 10 to 15 days, or as soon as the central bud is well started, the plants should be p.r.i.c.ked out, setting them 3 to 6 inches apart, according to the size we expect them to reach before they go into the field; 5 inches is the most common distance used. I think it better to set the full distance apart at first, not to transplant a second time. It is very important that this p.r.i.c.king out should be done when the plants are young and small, though many successful growers wait until they are larger. The soil in which they are set, whether it be in boxes or beds, should be composed of about three parts garden loam, two parts well-rotted stable manure and one part of an equal mixture of sand and leaf mold, though the proportion of sand used should be increased if the garden loam is clayey. The soil in the seed-boxes or in the beds, when the seedlings are taken up, should be in such condition, and the plants be handled in such a way that nearly all the roots, carrying with them many particles of soil, are saved. The plants should be set a little, and but a little, deeper than they stood in the seed-box and the soil so pressed about the roots, particularly at their lower end, that the plants can not be easily pulled out.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 17--SPOTTING-BOARD FOR USE IN COLD-FRAMES]

Where plants are set in beds the work can be facilitated by the use of a "spotting-board" (Fig. 17). This should be about 1 foot in width, and have pegs about 3 inches long, 3/4 inch in diameter at the base and tapering to a point, fastened into the board the distance apart the plants are to be set. It should also have narrow projections carrying a single peg nailed to the top of board at each end, so that when these pegs are placed in the end holes of the last row the first row of pegs in the "spotting board" will be the right distance from the last row of holes or plants. By standing on this, while setting plants in one set of holes, holes for another set are formed. If the conditions of soil, air and plants are right and the work is well done, the plants will show little tendency to wilt, and it is better to prevent their doing so by shading, rather than by watering, though the latter should be resorted to if necessary. When plants are set in beds, some growers remove the soil to a depth of about 6 inches and put in a layer of about 2 inches of sifted coal ashes, made perfectly level, and then replace the soil.

This confines the roots to the surface and enables one to secure nearly all of them when transplanting. The plants should be well established in 24 hours and after this the more light and air that can be given, without the temperature falling below 40 F. or subjecting the plants to cold, dry wind, the better.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 18--SPOTTING-BOARD FOR USE ON FLAT (From W. G.

Johnson)]

One can hardly overstate the importance to the healthy growth of the young tomato plant of abundant suns.h.i.+ne, a uniform day temperature of from 60 to 80 F., or of the ill effects of a variable temperature, particularly if it be the result of cold, dry winds, or of a wet, soggy soil, the effect of over-watering. These points should be kept in mind in caring for the plants, and every effort made to secure, as far as possible, the first named conditions and to avoid the latter. The frames, whether they be covered with sash or cloth, but more particularly if with sash in suns.h.i.+ne and with curtains in dull days, should be opened so as to prevent their becoming too hot, and so as to admit air. And in a greenhouse full ventilation should be given whenever it is possible to do so without exposure to too low a temperature. If the plants are in boxes and on greenhouse shelves, it is important that these be turned end for end every few days to equalize exposure to light and give full exposure to the sun. The plants should be watered only when necessary to prevent wilting, and the beds should be covered during heavy rains. A "spotting-board" for use on flats is seen in Fig. 18.

The most unfavorable weather conditions are bright sun combined with a cold wind, and cold storms of drizzling rain and frosty nights. Loss from the latter cause may often be prevented by covering the beds with coa.r.s.e straw, which should always be provided for use in an emergency.

Many growers provide a second curtain--an old one answers very well--to throw over the straw-covered beds. Beds so covered will protect the plants from frost in quite severe weather. Watering should especially be avoided for nearly three days before setting in fields; but six to twelve hours before it is well to water thoroughly, though not so as to make the soil at all muddy. About five days after p.r.i.c.king out and again about five days before the plants are to go into the field and five days after they are set, they should be sprayed with Bordeaux mixture.

=Early ripening fruit.=--Here the aim is to secure, by the time they can be set in the field, plants which have come by an unchecked but comparatively slow rate of growth to the greatest size and maturity consistent with the transplanting to the field without too serious a check. The methods by which this is accomplished vary greatly and generally differ materially from those given above. The seed is planted much earlier and 60 to 90 days before it is at all safe to set plants in the open field; while a steady rate of growth is desirable, it should be slow and the plants kept small by a second and even third and fourth transplanting, and especial care taken to avoid the soft and irregular growth resulting from over-watering or over-heating. Any side shoots which may appear should be pinched out and a full pollination of the first cl.u.s.ter of the blossoms secured, either by direct application of pollen or by staking or jarring the plants on bright days; and finally, special efforts made to set the plants in the field as early and with as little check as possible. Growers are often willing to run considerable risk of frost for the sake of early setting.

When one has sandy land a very profitable crop can sometimes be secured by sowing the seed very early, and growing the plants on in beds until the first cl.u.s.ter of fruit is set, then heeling them in, much as nursery trees are, but so close that they can be quickly covered in case of frost. As soon as it is at all safe to do so, they are set in the open ground, very closely, on the south side of ridges, so that only the upper one-third of the plant is exposed, the remainder being laid nearly level and covered with earth.

So treated the plants will ripen the upper one or two cl.u.s.ters very early but will yield little more until late in the season, and it is generally more profitable to plow them up and put in some other crop as soon as the first cl.u.s.ters of fruit have ripened. Others pinch out the central bud as soon as it is well formed, usually within 10 days from the sowing of the seed. When this is done a great proportion of the plants will start branches from the axils of the cotyledons; these usually develop blossoms in the third to the fifth node and produce fruit much lower than in a normal plant. It is questionable if there is any gain in time from seed to fruit by this method, but it enables one to get older plants of a size which it is practicable to transplant to the field.

In most cases it will be found more profitable and satisfactory so to grow the plants that by the time they can be safely set out of doors they will be in vigorous condition, about 6 to 10 inches tall, stout, healthy and well hardened off. Such plants will ripen fruit nearly, and often quite as early as older ones and will produce a constant succession of fruit, instead of ripening a single cl.u.s.ter or two and then no more until they have made a new growth.

=For late summer and early fall.=--It is generally true in the South and often equally so in the North, that there is a more eager local demand for tomatoes in the late summer and fall months, after most of the spring set plants have ceased bearing, than in early summer. In Michigan I have often been able to get more for choice fruit in late October and in November than the best Floridas were sold for in May or early June, and certainly in the South the home use of fresh tomatoes should not be confined to spring set plants. For the fall crop in the South seed may be sown in late spring or up to the middle of July, in beds shaded with frames, covered with lath nailed 3 to 4 inches apart and the plants set in the field about 40 days from sowing, the same care being taken to put the ground into good condition as is recommended for the spring planted crop.

A second plan, which has sometimes given most excellent results, is to cut back spring set plants which have ripened some fruit but which are not completely exhausted, to mere stubs, and spade up the ground about them so as to cut most of the roots, water thoroughly and cover the ground with a mulch of straw. Most of the plants so treated will start a new and vigorous growth and give most satisfactory returns.

=Fruit at least expenditure of labor.=--When this is the great desideratum, many growers omit the hotbed and even the p.r.i.c.king out, sowing the seed as early as they judge the plants will be safe from frost, and broadcast, either in cold-frames or in uncovered beds, at the rate of 50 to 150 to the square foot and transplanting directly to the field. Or they may be advantageously sown in broad drills either by the use of the pepper-box arrangement suggested on page 60, or a garden drill adjusted to sow a broad row. In Maryland and the adjoining states, as well as in some places in the West, most of the plants for crops for the canners are grown in this way and at a cost of 40 cents or even less a 1,000. The seed should be sown so that it will be from 1/4 to 1/2 inch apart and the plants thinned as soon as they are up so that they will be at least 1/2 inch apart. Where seed is sown early with no provision for protection from the frost it is always well to make other sowings as soon as the last begins to break ground in order to furnish reserve plants, if the earlier sown lots be destroyed by frost. Others even sow the seed in place in the field, thinning out to a single one in a hill when the plants are about 2 inches high. Some of the largest yields I have ever known have been raised in this way, but the fruit is late in maturing and generally the method is not so satisfactory as starting the plants where they can be given some protection, and transplanting them to the field.

=Plants for the home garden.=--These may be grown in pots or boxes set in the sunniest spot available and treated as has been described. In this way plants, equal to any, may be grown without the aid of either hotbed or greenhouse. It will generally be more satisfactory, however, to secure the dozen or two plants needed from some one who has grown them in quant.i.ty than to grow so small a lot by themselves. In selecting plants, take those which are short, stiff, hard, and dark green in color with some purple color on the lower part of the stem rather than those which are softer and of a brighter green, or those in which the foliage is of a yellowish green; but in selection it must be remembered that varieties differ as to the color of foliage, so that there may be a difference in shade which is not due to conditions.

=Plants under gla.s.s.=--If to be grown in pots or boxes, "p.r.i.c.k out,"

when small, into three-inch pots and as they grow re-pot several times so that when set in the pots or beds in which they are to fruit, they are stout plants 12 to 16 inches high. Plants propagated from cuttings give much better returns relatively under gla.s.s than out of doors.

CHAPTER XI