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Subject: Market Farming
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- From: "nan and stewart" <stewart AT watervalley.net>
- To: "market farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
- Subject: growing alone/great tomato varieties
- Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 13:17:04 -0000
Loved reading your market experience (as buyer, not
vendor). I also grow alone, plus manage a few dairy goats, ducks, chicks
and some rabbits that i felt sorry for at the animal shelter, plus have several
hundred children come each spring from schools, home schooling groups and just
with families...
i am in north mississippi, hour south of memphis,
zone 7b
i grow on a small intensive scale (given that there
is no topsoil on this farm, just clay subsoil) but i am pleased at how well
sheet composting works to condition new beds the year before...
i have ten 4 ft. x 30 ft. beds, plus a big double
dug garden for premium crops..i had originally planned to double dig all the
beds, but maybe not now that the sheet composting plus green manure or buckwheat
cover crops have loosened up the soil so nicely...over the last two
years...
i have goat barn litter (not composted, but usually
old from the winter) plus leaves from town that i heap on the beds, about 2-3
feet thick, and have covered with large paper feed bags or left over
plastic....both black and clear....the earthworms seem to thrive in this
environment and it is so easy to pull up the remnants of the
bermuda/quack/johnson grass left from the one initial tilling that i do with an
8 horse power tiller (no tractors on the farm since all alone and middle aged
back and no machine skills or interests)
I don't ever need to till a sheet composted bed
again--just use a garden fork to fork in the cover crop (hairy vetch is terrible
on a tiller, austrian winter field peas go in with with tiller or by hand, and i
grow non vining cow/purple hull peas in the summer, again the vines are too hard
on the tiller)
anyway, my big success (in a climate that is murder
on tomatoes) was in two varieties (from tomato growers supply company www.tomatogrowers.com or
1-888-768-3476):
1. early season indeterminate: Jetsetter
VFFNTA Hybrid
TRULY vigorous, disease resistant, early, large
fruit with NICE taste..what more could you ask..it outproduced the midseason
ones that were meant for hot, humid climates (like creole, hawaiian, sunchaser -
these were disappointing)
2. third year growing - Enchantment
VFFNTA indeterminate, mid season Hybrid....performs well every year, even
under lousy soil conditions (first two years)
This is a small egg shaped salad tomato, NOT a
paste/roma...they call it a saladette...it has a pleasing shape (size of large
hen or duck egg), seems never to get any blemishes, disease tolerant, lots
on the vine...and my customers like the taste and the shape alot. It is
quite a handsome tomato to display at market!
all tomatoes had same growing conditions so it
seemed like a fair enough (nonscientific) test for this year....
By the way, I followed the national gardening
assoc. advice and transplanted my seedlings from their original seed trays into
large pots (they say double transplanting is good for tomatoes, though time
consuming for growers)..these pots had half sterile potting mix (purchased) and
half home made compost..the transplants were absolutely gorgeous and even though
early blight is epidemic here, i only lost about 7 out of 50 plus and it didn't
spread within a row, even though i left the few diseased ones in the row longer
than i should have (was curious to see what happened since we never seemed to
have this up north in mass where i grew)
I also broke down and bought an organic
fertlizer formulated for tomatoes, but got it wholesale and felt is was a great
idea for less than ideal soil...used this fertilizer (dry) in the transplant
pots, and then again when they went out in the garden.
you guys are great...thanks again for all the
advice, plus sharing your experiences even when they are painful, frustrating,
etc...it really helps us new growers keep up our
spirits!!!!!
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- growing alone/great tomato varieties, nan and stewart, 08/14/2000
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