[Market-farming] Growing Tomatoes

Petersons family petersns at whidbey.com
Fri Jan 11 11:57:59 EST 2008


Alison - where do you get the biodegradable black plastic for your 
tomato production?
Molly Petersons
Molly's Island Garden
Whidbey Island, WA

On Jan 10, 2008, at 9:06 AM, Wiediger, Alison wrote:

> Allan,
>  
> There are probably as many good tips are there are growers, but we 
> have found a few things key:
>  
> Good fertility - so they grow and produce before our southeastern 
> diseases stop production
>  
> Mulching to control weeds that compete - we use biodegradable black 
> plastic and hay/straw
>  
> Consistent moisture - drip irrigation has been critical to our 
> operation - drought is becoming all too common
>  
> Succession planting - a planting only has nice tomatoes for 4-6 weeks 
> before disease starts shutting it down. We plant to have 3 outside 
> plantings of tomatoes for the coming season.
>  
> Variety selection – we select for varieties that will give us 
> flavorful, beautiful tomatoes, and lots of them.  We have only a few 
> we use and trial a few more each year in case we’ve missed one.  
> Goliath, Old Fashioned Goliath and Park’s Whopper for red slicers, 
> Carolina Gold for yellow slicer, San Marzano hybrid for paste and a 
> handful of heirlooms that never produce enough for us to justify the 
> space they take, but look nice on our table, plus 8-10 cherry/grape 
> types.  Each farm and each market will have varieties that suit them 
> best – these are ours..... this year!
>  
> Alison Wiediger, Au Naturel Farm
>  
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