Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[yarrow@sfo.com]

Is Early Girl on your list? I grew it last year, and it produced well 
as a late tomato, but it wasn't much earlier than the heirlooms I 
grew. Here in the SF Bay Area, where we have cool nighttime 
temperatures, I picked the last one around Thanksgiving. This year, I 
planted one in a  pot for a neighbor. It still has flowers and has 
been trying to ripen one fruit for the past month. (At my garden, the 
tomatoes were all frosted a couple months ago.)

By itself, the flavor is good, on the sweet side. But compared to any 
of the heirlooms I grew, the flavor of EG was flat instead of 
multidimensional. It keeps very well because it has thicker than 
usual skin. When I had both Siberia and Early Girl in my garden, EG 
tasted far better and seemed to produce a little better in cooler 
weather, too.

On the gardenweb tomato list, discussions of early tomatoes (or 
tomatoes that set fruit in cooler weather) usually end up with this: 
none of them are really worth growing, if you can bear to wait 
another couple weeks for the really good ones. Two early varieties 
that some people think have good flavor are Sophie's Choice and 
Moskvich.

Other early tomatoes I've grown are Siberia (huge production, but 
so-so flavor); Stupice (consistent production, small, ok flavor but 
not good enough to try more than once) -- and, of course, many 
varieties of cherry tomatoes, which for me are reliable and tasty 
both early and late in the season when other varieties are weak. I've 
liked Tommy Toe, Galina, Sun Sugar (hybrid), Black Cherry, all of 
which produced huge amounts and had great flavor.

Other varieties worth trying are the long-season tomatoes. Here, some 
indeterminates peak early in the season and then produce a few small 
tomatoes. These varieties are supposed to produce better over a 
longer season: Rostova (Sunset Red Horizon), Big Zac, Mexico, Earl's 
Faux, Ste. Lucie, Persimmon, Druzba. Last year, Aunt Ruby's German 
Green produced big tomatoes even toward the end of the season for me.

At 8:29 PM -0800 1/5/08, Phil Bunch wrote:
> That's good news.
>
> I'm going to try some of the varieties that are supposed to set at temps
> considerably below 55F planted out normally. However, not having grown them
> before, I don't know if we are going to like the flavor. Hence the backup
> plan with the hoop house.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: livingontheland-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:livingontheland-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of
> TradingPostPaul
> Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2008 7:36 PM
> To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Cool Climate Tomato Growing
>
>
> If you can count on most 50 degree nights then no problem. My single layer
> greenhouse stays at least 10 degrees higher than outside at night,
> depending on the wind factor. The ground inside holds daytime heat once it
> gets warmed up in spring here. Without added heat or heat storage in
> barrels etc. Most of our summer nights are 50 or below. Most tomatoes set
> fruit above 55 and below 90. Ours are all Mediterranean heirlooms (used to
> heat) and kept setting fruit and ripening as nights outside fell to the
> 30s. Straw mulch. YMMV.
>
> paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>
> On 1/5/2008 at 6:58 PM Phil Bunch wrote:
>
> > Climate wise we get 70-72F days and +/-50F nights year around. I'd like to
> > use organic mulch and this will work for potatoes but I don't think I can
> > warm up the soil under organics enough to radiate enough heat during the
> > night. The black plastic would act more as a solar collector than anything
> > else.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: livingontheland-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
> > [mailto:livingontheland-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of
> > TradingPostPaul
> > Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2008 6:23 PM
> > To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> > Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Cool Climate Tomato Growing
> >
> >
> > The soil will warm during the day but ventilation is needed to avoid
> > overheating. I have no idea what your climate will be tho. I can't comment
> > on black plastic for mulch since I have no plans to ever use it.
> >
> > I'm facing the same challenge here with our four month frost free season.
> > But we need more than 55 degrees in the greenhouse for best production,
> and
> > we need to hold down heating costs. Maybe set up a wood stove? We use
> straw
> > mulch on 4'x12' framed beds.This greenhouse is single layer 6 mil UV and
> > lumber, 15'x50', and a double layer structure would be far more expensive
> > seeing how I did this one myself for well under $1,000. Seeding should
> > start Feb 1st to have loads of ripe tomatoes by June 1st at least, and has
> > to be started in pots in one walled off end with a small room heater.
> >
> >
> > paul tradingpost@lobo.net
> >
> > *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
> >
> > On 1/5/2008 at 6:02 PM Phil Bunch wrote:
> >
> > > I'm thinking about how to raise night temperature from 50F to 55F for
> > > tomatoes. Anyone think a double walled hoop house with black plastic
> mulch
> > > would do it? I'm thinking that if one warmed the soil during the day the
> > > radiation at night may be capable of 5 degree rise in air temperature.
> I'm
> > > pretty sure that the dimensions of the hoop house would be critical but I
> > > don't know how large it would have to be.
> > >
> > > Any ideas?
>
>
>
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