Tomato Culture: A Practical Treatise on the Tomato Part 4

Proper Distance for Planting

The best distance apart for the plants to be set in the field varies greatly with the soil, the variety, the methods of cultivation and other conditions. Plants set as close in rich clay soil as would give the best results in a warm, sandy one, or those of a strong growing sort, like Buckeye State, set as close as would be desirable for sorts, like Atlantic Prize or Dwarf Champion, would give little but leaves and inferior fruit. In field culture I like to s.p.a.ce the plants so as to facilitate gathering the fruit, and recommend the following arrangement: Set the plants according to soil and the variety 2-1/2 to 4 feet apart in the row, omitting two or three in every 75 or 100 plants so as to form driveways across the rows. Set the first and second and the third and fourth rows, etc., 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 and the second and third and the fourth and fifth rows 5-1/2 to 6 feet apart. As the plants grow, those of the first and second and those of the third and fourth rows, etc., are thrown together and in many cases it will pay to have a pair of narrow horizontal strips or wires nearly 18 inches from the ground upon which they can be thrown.

This arrangement of the plants allows us to continue to cultivate the wider s.p.a.ces between the second and third and fourth and fifth, etc., rows, much longer, and tends to confine the necessary tramping and packing of the soil when gathering the fruit chiefly to these rows--an important point in case the soil is wet. The rows can be marked out the day before, but it is better to set the plants in the cross-rows and that these be marked out just ahead of the setters. In this arrangement the distances are equivalent to from 2-1/24 feet, requiring 4,300 plants to the acre, to 45 feet, requiring but about 2,100 plants. The latter distance is that most commonly used by New Jersey growers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 19--TOMATOES SOWN AND ALLOWED TO GROW IN HOTBEDS]

=In the home garden.=--It will usually be more satisfactory to give each plant plenty of s.p.a.ce, setting them 5 or 6 feet apart each way, except in the case of the dwarf sorts, which should be from 3-1/2 to 3 feet apart. A few plants at these distances will usually be much more satisfactory than more set nearer together, but the larger growing sorts should have at least 3 feet and the dwarf sorts 2 feet. When one has a hotbed or cold-frame it is often an advantage to set a row of tomato plants nearly 18 inches apart at the back end much earlier than they could be safely set in the open ground, and if these are allowed to grow on in place, as shown in Fig. 19, being pruned and tied to stakes, they will give some very early fruit.

=In the greenhouse.=--Experience and practice differ as to the most desirable distance apart for plants under gla.s.s. But 2 feet apart, where quality is the main consideration, and 18 inches when quant.i.ty, if fair, is of more importance than extra quality.

=Setting plants in the field.=--The economical and successful setting of plants in the field is an important element of successful tomato culture and is very dependent upon soil and weather conditions. It is a.s.sumed that the soil of the field has been put into the best possible condition of tilth, but its condition as to moisture is also very important. The worst condition is when it is wet and muddy, especially if it is at all clayey--not only is the cost of setting greatly increased, but plants set in such soil can seldom, by any amount of care, be made to do well, especially if a heavy beating rain or dry windy weather follows immediately; the condition is less unfavorable if a warm gentle rain or still moist weather follows. A dry cold wind, even if the day is cloudy and the soil in good condition, is also unfavorable, particularly if the roots of the plants are exposed.

Wet soil, cold, dry air and wind are the conditions to be avoided.

Moist, not wet, soil and still, warm air are to be desired; whether the day is sunny or not is less important. There is a certain definite time, which does not usually extend beyond a few days, when any lot of plants is in the best condition for setting in the field. It is hardly possible to describe this condition more than to say it is when the plants are as large as they can be without crowding and are in a state where they can best stand the shock of removal.

It will always be a matter of judgment as to how long it is best to hold plants, which are in condition for setting, for favorable weather conditions. They can sometimes be held a few days, by scant watering and full exposure, or in some cases by taking from the bed and heeling in, as nurserymen do trees; but it is better to set when the weather is unfavorable or to run some risk from frost rather than to hold them in this way too long. The wise selection of time for setting is an important factor in securing a good and profitable crop.

The South Jersey growers, to whom early ripening fruit is the great desideratum and who have a very warm soil, and grow plants so they are quite hardy and can be transplanted with little check, set them in the field very early, some seasons by the last of April; and if the plants can be got out so as to have two or three days of favorable weather to get established before it comes, they seem to be little hurt even by a quite severe frost. The first essential to successful transplanting is to have well-grown, healthy, hardy plants; the second is that they be in good condition for setting, which can be secured by giving them, for a few days before planting, a scant supply of water and fullest possible exposure to air and sun, and then a thorough wetting a few hours before they are to be set.

The South Jersey plan of growing and setting plants gets them into the field in the best condition of any method I know. Two to five days before they expect to plant, the growers go over the beds and, by means of a hoe that has been straightened and sharpened to form a sort of spade, they cut through the soil and manure so as to divide the plants into blocks of six. A few hours before they are to plant, they saturate the bed with water. By means of a flattened shovel they can take up the blocks of plants and place them in a cart or low wagon so the soil is scarcely disturbed at all, the roots in the manure serving to bind the whole together. In the meantime furrows are opened along the rows and the cart driven to the field; the plants in the blocks are cut apart with a butcher knife placed in the furrow and the earth drawn about them.

Plants set in this way often do not wilt at all, even in hot sunshine.

When plants are grown in boxes these can be taken to the field and plants taken from them in much the same way and so that they will be disturbed but little. In setting the plants it should always be borne in mind that while sunshine on the leaves of a plant rarely does any injury, it is very injurious to the roots, and the exposure of the roots to the sun or to cold, dry wind, should be avoided in every practicable way, such as by carrying the plants to the field laid on the sides of a box, which is then carried with its bottom toward the sun so as to have the plants in the shade, always handling the plant in the shade of one's body, etc. It is well worth while to walk to the end of the row to commence work in order to secure this. It is attention to such details that distinguishes one whose plants nearly always do well from one who loses a large proportion of those he handles.

=Fruit at the least expenditure of labor.=--The plants are prepared for setting by scant watering, and are taken up so as to secure as much root as possible with little soil adhering to them. Great care should be taken in taking the plants from the bed, and in handling them, _to avoid twisting the stems_, as to do so very seriously injures the plants, often to such an extent that they will fail to grow, no matter how carefully set out. Some growers dip the roots in a very thin clay mud, hardly thicker than thin cream, but I have not found this of advantage except, sometimes, when the roots are to be exposed for a longer period than usual and I do not recommend it for general use. In setting, holes are made either with a long dibble, in the hands of the one who distributes the plants, or by a short one, in the hands of the setter; the plants are dropped into them a little deeper than they had stood in the bed, the earth closed about the roots, by pressure from the side.

Especial care should be taken that this is well done, particularly at the bottom; the earth should be so firmly pressed to the root that the plant cannot be easily pulled from the soil. In some sections transplanting machines (Fig. 20) are used and liked, but most planters prefer to set by hand and the additional cost is not great. An expert with one or two boys to a.s.sist in handling the plants can put out as many as 5,000 plants in a day. A machine requiring more help to run it can set from 15,000 to 20,000.

=In the home garden=, when but a few plants are to be set, it will be better to put them in after 4 P. M. and use water in setting, but the wet soil should be covered with some dry earth to prevent its caking.

=In the greenhouse.=--Plants are better set in the places where they are to fruit just before their first blossoms open and should be set in accordance with the suggestions given for transplanting to the field.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 20--PLANTING TOMATOES ON A DELAWARE FARM (Photo by courtesy of _American Agriculturist_)]

CHAPTER XII

Cultivation

=For maximum crop.=--As soon as plants are set the ground should be well cultivated to the greatest depth practicable. We should remember that the tomato needs for its best development a very friable soil, while the tramping necessary in setting out the plants and gathering the fruit tends to compact and harden the soil. Often transplanting has to be done when the soil is wet, and we need to counteract the injury from tramping by immediate cultivation; but, at the same time, we must avoid the disturbing of the plants any more than is necessary, and all of our cultivation should be done with these points in mind. Just how it can be done best will vary not only with the location and the facilities available, but with the weather conditions, so that it is not well to attempt to give explicit directions any further than that one can hardly cultivate too deeply for the first seven days nor too often for the first 30 days after the plants are set, provided he avoids turning the soil when it is too wet. Even walking through the field when the soil is wet is injurious and should be avoided, in proportion as the soil is a clayey one.

=At least expenditure of labor.=--I hardly need add to or change the suggestions given above for tomatoes at least cost, for any cultivation wisely given will probably do as much to reduce cost per bushel by increasing the yield per acre as any other expenditure. _In the garden_ it is advisable that from the time the plants are set until the fruit ripens, the surface soil about them be stirred every evening when it is not actually wet.

=In the greenhouse.=--The surface of the soil should be kept open by frequent stirring or, as is the practice of some successful growers, it may be covered with a mulch of partially rotted manure. The plants should be watered only as needed to prevent wilt, and special pains taken to guard against too much moisture either in the soil or in the air, particularly on dark days. The night temperature should be uniformly about 60 F. while in the day it should be 75, and if it be bright and sunny it may go to 90 or even higher. Air should be given freely whenever feasible to do so without too greatly reducing temperature. A moderate degree of moisture should be maintained in the air, care being taken that it does not become too moist, especially during dark days. There is more danger from the air becoming too moist than from its becoming too dry, though either extreme is injurious.

=Pollinating.=--The structure and relations of the parts of the tomato flower are such that while perfect pollination is possible, and in plants grown in the open air usually takes place without artificial a.s.sistance, it is not so likely to occur when plants are grown under gla.s.s, particularly in the winter months, and it is usually necessary to secure it by artificial means. With vigorous, healthy plants and on light, sunny days, it can be accomplished by jarring the plants near midday. This generally throws enough pollen into the air so that an abundance of it reaches each receptive stigma. With less vigorous plants and on dark days it is necessary to hand pollinate the flowers. This is done by gathering the pollen by means of jarring the plants, so that it falls into a watch crystal or other receptacle secured at the end of a wand, and then pressing the projecting pistils of other flowers into it so that they may become covered with the pollen.

Some growers transfer the pollen with a camel's-hair-brush; others by pulling off the corolla and adhering anthers and rubbing them over the stigma of other flowers. Fruit rarely follows flowers that are not pollinated, and if it is incomplete the fruit will be unsymmetrical and imperfectly developed. As tomato flowers secrete but very little, if any, honey and are not attractive to insects, it is of no advantage to confine a hive of bees in the tomato house in the way which is so useful in one where cuc.u.mbers or melons are growing.

CHAPTER XIII

Staking, Training and Pruning

Under favorable conditions of soil and climate, plants of most varieties of tomatoes will, in field culture, yield as much fruit if allowed to grow naturally and unpruned as if trained and pruned. This is especially true of the sorts of the Earliana type and on warm, sandy soils, while it may not be true of the stronger growing sorts, or on rich clay lands or where the fertilizer used contains an excess of nitrogen. In any case more fruit can be grown to the acre on pruned and staked plants because more of them can be gotten on an acre; and it is an advantage to grow them in that way because it enables us, by later cultivation, to keep the ground in good tilth longer; also it facilitates the gathering of the fruit; and last, but not least, it generally enables us to produce better ripened and flavored fruit.

Staking and pruning used to be the almost universal practice in the South, but in many sections growers have abandoned it, claiming that they get as good or better results without it. In the North it is rarely used in field culture, though often used in private gardens and by some market gardeners, and both staking or tying up and pruning are essential to the profitable growing of tomatoes under gla.s.s. In the South, stout stakes from 1 to 2 inches in diameter and 4 to 5 feet long are driven into the ground so that they can be depended upon to hold the plants erect through the heaviest storms, as seen in Fig. 21. This is generally and wisely done as soon as the plant is set, though some growers delay doing so until the fruit is well set, claiming that the disturbance of staking, tying and pruning tends to hasten the ripening of the fruit.

The plant is then tied up, the tying material being wrapped once about the stake and then looped about the plant so as to prevent slipping on the stake or choking the stem of the plant as it enlarges. Raffia is largely used and is one of the best tying materials, but short pieces of any soft, cheap string can be used. The tying up will need to be repeated as the stem elongates, which it will do very rapidly.

In pruning the tomato we should allow the central shoot of the young plant to grow, and remove all of the side shoots which spring from the axils of the leaves and sometimes even from the fruit cl.u.s.ters, as seen in Fig. 22. It is very desirable that this be done when the branches are small, as there is then less danger of seriously disturbing the balance of the growing forces of the plant, and also because there is less danger of careless workmen cutting off the main shoot in place of a lateral, which would seriously check the ripening of the fruit. It is especially important that any shoots springing from the fruit cl.u.s.ter be removed as early as possible. For these reasons it is important that, if the plants are to be pruned at all, the field be gone over every few days. If the pruning is not well done it is a disadvantage rather than a help.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 21--TRAINING TOMATOES IN FLORIDA TO SINGLE STAKE (Photo by courtesy of Prof. P. H. Rolfs, Director Florida Experiment Station)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 22--TOMATO PLANT TRAINED TO SINGLE STAKE]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 23--METHOD OF TRAINING TO THREE STEMS IN FORCING-HOUSE AND OUT OF DOORS]

Some growers allow two or three (Fig. 23) instead of one shoot to grow, selecting for the second the most vigorous of the shoots starting from below the first cl.u.s.ter of fruit. In some locations they stop or pinch out the main shoot just above the first leaf above the third or fourth cl.u.s.ter; in some soils it is an advantage and in others rather a disadvantage to do this. I have seldom practiced it. When fruit at the lowest cost a bushel is the desideratum, neither pruning nor staking is desirable.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 24--METHOD OF TRAINING ON LINE IN GREENHOUSE]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 25--READY TO TRANSPLANT IN GREENHOUSE (Redrawn from photo by New York Experiment Station)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 26--TRAINING YOUNG TOMATOES IN GREENHOUSE AT NEW YORK EXPERIMENT STATION (Photo by courtesy Prof. U. P. Hedrick)]

=For home gardens.=--In the home garden trellising and pruning are often very desirable, as they enable us not only to produce more fruit in a given area but of better quality. Many forms of trellis, have been recommended. Where the plants are to be pruned as well as supported, as they should always be in gardens, there is nothing better than the single stake, as described above. For a trellis without pruning, one to three stout hoops supported by three stakes so as to surround the plant which is allowed to grow through and fall over them, or two or more parallel strips supported about a foot from the ground on each side of a row of plants answer the purpose, which is simply to keep the plant up from the ground and facilitate the free circulation of the air among leaves and fruit.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 27--TOMATOES IN GREENHOUSE AT OHIO EXPERIMENT STATION (Photo by courtesy of C. W. Waid)]

I have seen tomatoes grown very successfully by the side of an open fence. Two stakes were driven into the ground about 6 inches from the fence and the plant, but slanting outward and away from each other. The tops of the stakes were fastened to the fence by wooden braces, and then heavy strings fastened to the fence around the stakes and back to the fence, the whole with the fence forming a sort of inverted pyramidal vase about 3 feet across at the top. In this the plant was allowed to grow, but it would be essential to success that the fence be an open one.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 28--FORCING TOMATOES IN GREENHOUSE AT NEW HAMPSHIRE EXPERIMENT STATION. NOTE CHARACTER OF BED ON THE GROUND FLOOR. (Photo by courtesy of Prof. H. F. Hall)]

=In the greenhouse.=--Here pruning and training are essential. The plants may be supported by wires or strings (a coa.r.s.e wool twine will answer), twisting the string about the plant as it grows. The growth is usually confined to a single shoot, though some growers allow two (Fig.

24); the method of pruning does not differ from that given for field culture, but it is more important that the plants be gone over often and the branches removed when small. If allowed to do so, branches would spring from the axil of each leaf and the plant would become a perfect thicket of slender branches and leaves and produce but little fruit. The main stem is sometimes pinched out after three or four cl.u.s.ters of fruit are set and the branch from the axil of the first leaf above is allowed to take its place. This tends to hasten the maturing of the fruit cl.u.s.ters already set. After several cl.u.s.ters have matured, or the main stem reaches the top of the house, some growers allow a shoot from the bottom to grow and as soon as fruit sets on it the first stem is cut away and this takes its place. Others prefer to remove the old plant entirely and set in young ones. A plant ready for transplanting is shown in Fig. 25. In figures 26, 27 and 28 are shown interior views of greenhouses at the New York station at Geneva, the Ohio station at Wooster, and the New Hampshire station at Durham. Note the strong, vigorous plants in Fig. 26; the method of utilizing tile for watering in Fig. 27; and the ground-floor bedding in Fig. 28.

CHAPTER XIV