Market Farming

["Shoemaker, William H" <wshoemak AT illinois.edu>]

Those were pretty tall plants but had thin stems. They may have been grown in plant beds and pulled, but not topped so they grew tall and skinny. No reason why that wouldn't work if they were planted the same day they were pulled. I think you could do the same. Just plant the seed earlier than normal outside and put a tunnel coldframe over them to heat it up inside and protect from night-time temperatures. Then once you have the field ready, pull them a batch at a time and set them. You could top the plants before taking them to the field. It sounds harsh but really, tomatoes are weeds. Once they reach a certain size (4-5 leaves) they have a lot of stored energy. Topping them will reduce the need for water when they lose part of their root system, making it more likely the remaining shoot system has sufficient water after setting. Irrigate heavily and they'll push new roots quickly with stored energy. Before long they'll being growing strong.

 

The biggest risk is bacteral disease, which takes advantage of wounded plants. Use sterile tools and keep your transplanter clean.

 

Bill

William H. Shoemaker

University of Illinois, Crop Sciences

St Charles Horticulture Research Center

535 Randall Road, St Charles, IL  60174

630-584-7254, wshoemak AT illinois.edu

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From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] on behalf of Richard Stewart [rstewart AT zoomtown.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2011 2:32 PM
To: Market Farming
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Tobacco Setter for Peppers?

Bill, thanks for the info.

I've see video of the plants they drop in and I noticed the "bare root" was more of a micro plug.  The tobacco starts were in 128 cell trays it looked like.  I just did a Youtube search and found this video which gives me a much better idea:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qK11mJIJBc

Do large pots and strip then plant? I do not want to have to redesign my transplant infrastructure to make this work.  Then again, it may be better to pay the extra $ for a better transplanter.

This is what I get for never having ANYTHING contact with the tobacco farmers around us.  They would complain about harvest and we would complain about baling hay.  :)  Watching them stick tobacco I think we had a MUCH better deal.

Richard Stewart

Carriage House Farm

North Bend, Ohio

An Ohio Century Farm Est. 1855

(513) 967-1106

http://www.carriagehousefarmllc.com

rstewart AT zoomtown.com