A Treatise on Tomatoes February 24, 2009 The Golden Reeves Method Golden Reeves in Salt Lake City already has his tomato seeds up and going. He planted his indoors in January. He had blossoms on these plants in February. Using a waterproof table in his basement he places a seed starting warming mat on this table. Some brands of heating mat have built in thermostats so that they never become too warm or too cold. He uses Sunshine Plug mix with or without fertilizer. This mix is available at a farm supply store called Steve Regan at 5th West and 4200 South in SLC. He places all his tomato seeds in a “wet paper towel sandwich” in a Ziploc bag on the heating mat and under lights. As they germinate he takes tweezers and lifts those which have germinated into a little pot (even if there are 50 germinated they all go into the same pot.) Mr. Reeves has made his own special pot for these tiny plants by taking a large black rubber pot and cutting it way down so it is a very wide but, very shallow pot. Then he places this shallow pot 1” away from the lights. Tomatoes are one plant which don’t mind being transplanted as many times as you wish. Keeping them only 1” away from his four fluorescent tubes is KEY. (Two 4’ shoplights with 2 tubes each) They need LOTS of light. But, they need darkness at night too. Each time you move your little tomato plants into a bigger container throw away all deformed plants and keep only the most robust. Each time you transplant, place the plants deeper into the soil than they were last time and more roots will form along the newly buried stem. As the seed-leaves emerge he uses a fertilizer called Peters 20 20 20 diluted to ¼ strength. When the tomato plants transplanted into bigger pots and are 8” high he uses one tablespoon of “Peters” per gallon of water to fertilize his plants each time he waters them.. Mr. Reeves has a clever way of marking the various varieties by taking a pair of tin snips and cutting strips from pop cans. Picking up his metal cutting shears he just makes name tags from the sides of the cans and then writes on them with a firm hand thereby engraving the exact name of the variety right into the metal. Thus “engraved” the name will not wash off with rain or fade with the sun. His favorite tomato is “Glacier” because it will set fruit with a night time temperature of 39 degrees to 44 degrees. He will be setting the plants outdoors in his garden March 20th protected by a product called “walls o’ water”. This product is clear plastic tubes which surround the young tomato plant absorbing the suns rays in the day time and then protecting the plant from harsh temperatures of the night. Mr. Reeves pollinates his own tomatoes in this way: When the blossom is open just gently squeeze the blossom and it will set fruit because the stamens and the pistil are in the same blossom. When the blossom has been successfully fertilized…. The blossom will go limp. When the plants go into the garden he mulches with black plastic and floods the ground under the black plastic about once a week. Sometimes he just uses newspaper to cover the ground, thereby preventing weeds from sprouting and to warm the soil. Golden Reeves plants way more tomato seeds than he can use so he is famous for gifting tomato plants to the poor and the needy all over the Salt Lake Valley. This is a pretty great way to serve one’s own personal mission: blessing the lives of so many others, not just with the plants and future fruits but, also with his care and concern. Tomatoes the Mr. Kulasky way Mr. Kulasky in West Salt Lake has the most amazing tomato back yard I have ever seen. He raises rows and rows of gorgeous tomato plants all on an automatic watering system which injects the fertilizer into the water before it is perfectly timed to be delivered to the plants. All of his tomatoes are raised on the very same spot of earth every year, year after year so that foils those who preach you MUST rotate. He would probably love to rotate if he had a bigger yard to avoid the buildup of possible pests but, so far he has not. His plants are all at least 5’ high. About 15 rows of about 15 plants each is a beautiful sight. He has opened his backyard to the public before and loves to talk tomatoes. When all the plants are productive he spends his mornings picking box after box of them and then delivering pounds and pounds of tomatoes to the food banks. He does this day after day and for many months. I think he deserves lots of blessings. Tomatoes According to E. Gordon Wells Jr. As you probably already know…… President Wells grows the newest varieties of vegetables every year. His favorite tomatoes at the present time are “Porterhouse Beefsteak” because it routinely grows 2 pound fruits and they never become mushy as they enlarge and “Jet Setter”. Even when you slice the Porterhouse Beefsteak tomatoes they remain firm and flavorful. He also likes “Jet Setter” because although a bit smaller and a bit less sweet, the yield is absolutely enormous. “Jet Setter” is oranger in color than the other. In his last set of classes he mentioned that if you grow “PorterHouse Beefsteak” in wonderful soil and with the right applications of fertilizer you will yield an immense number of tomatoes per bush. (I can’t find the exact number in my notes just now.) It is clear only a few plants will supply a family of all the tomatoes they could ever use. Mr. Wells amends his soil, ( as he teaches in his classes), by rototilling in the fertilizer and organic matter in the fall. (Attend his classes to learn all about the perfect fertilizers for each crop in our state.) In the spring he has the nurseries grow him starts of his favorite varieties of tomato which we can then conveniently pick up in pots already to go. But, he, of course, grows all plants from his own freshly ordered seeds each year down in his basement. He plants his starts out in his garden under hotcaps April 20th. Mr. Wells starts his tomato seeds 8 weeks before setting them out into his garden on April 20th. This means he is starting his seeds February 25th. About NOW! When it is time to ‘harden’ the baby tomato plants off he take the temperature of the area around his house (the south side is always so much warmer than the others) and when it is 50 degrees he takes them outside for an hour each day and props them in front of his south facing garage door. When he sets his tomato plants out so early this is how he does it: He makes a basin for each plant and soaks it good adding microrhyzil fungi. 1/16th of a tsp. dissolved in water. He shakes this up and squirts the rootball and stems of the plant and then plants it carefully and places a hot cap over it covering the flange with dirt. He soaks the ground and the plant good because you won’t water it again till Mother’s Day. If the weather then goes down to 20 degrees you will lose the tomato plants even under the hotcaps. Plant out new plants again. When you take the hot caps off….. the roots will be down FIVE FEET. (Or plant the tomato plants on raised beds 40” apart with three drip lines down the bed.) But, use the hotcaps here also. Then, as the plant grows, cut the top of the hotcap so the plant can grow out the top and then put down the drip line. May 10th he lays his drip system out and tests it on his tomato piece of ground (10’ by 20’). Then he spreads a large piece of black plastic (buy it at Home Depot or Wall Mart) (buy the 3.5 to 4 mill. Because if it is too flimsy the wind will whip it.), of that size over his prepared soil with the drip system under the plastic also carefully lifting the tomato plants through X cuts he has scissored in his black plastic exactly where the plants are growing. Under black plastic there isn’t any evaporation of water and you can water less often. Place bricks on the black plastic so that it will stay in place. (Did you know a good vegetable garden uses so much less water than a lawn.) The black plastic will heat the ground and prevent weeds from growing. He says tomato blossoms will drop off below 50 degrees. BUT, if you put your tomato plants on black plastic the blossoms will NEVER cool off to 50 degrees because the heat radiating back up from the warmed soil will keep things warmer there than elsewhere in your yard. President Wells hates “wall o’ water’s because they flop over unless you stake them and crush the plants. He plants the tomato starts under hotcaps only. Mr. Wells NEVER puts his tomatoes vertical in a cage or trellis. He says in Utah the drying winds make the fruits all crack. He just grows his tomatoes sprawling style all over the warm black plastic. The fruits stay clean on the plastic. He says spreading tomato plants will come up a MONTH earlier on black plastic and only one in 20 will crack. (He has tried every method as he tells in his classes.) My Own System of Starting Seeds Erlyn Madsen I do not use a seed starting heating mat as some do because I purchased an 8’ x 8’ plastic pop up greenhouse from Cooks Nursery (1600 North in Orem) and set it up in my garage. By leaving the lights on 24/7 the entire greenhouse was very warm all winter long even in our unheated garage and even during the worst snow storms so a heating mat was never needed. I use the seed starting mix with fertilizer sold at Cooks Nursery. I plant my seeds in little cell packs (also purchased at Cooks) because I have plenty of lighted shelves so my seed starting area is not at such a space premium and also because I don’t like to constantly be re-transplanting things. Then I put these little cell packs into the plastic nursery flats. They are only about $1.50 at Cooks per flat. These flats keep water from dropping into the shelves below. Sometimes I use the peat pellets and place them into the plastic flats. It is easy to then use a plastic watering can with a long spout to water between the pellets about ½ way up any time they feel dry. (In the moist greenhouse this would be 2 to 3 times a week.) Wall o’ Waters absorb the sun’s rays during the day and then keep the plant safe from freezing at night. THERE IS A CHEAPER WAY: Save your clear plastic milk containers…….. fill them with water…. Then surround your young tomato plant with four of these when you set them out into the garden. They are free. They also absorb the rays of the sun and protect your plant from cold at night. They do the same job as “wall o’ water” but with no cost. I have used tongue depresser craft sticks from Michael’s Crafts and have written on them with a permanent marker as name tags but, this year might try the pop can idea of Golden’s. Handy Tomato Growing Hints from Other Tomato Enthusiasts 1.Always play classical music for your tomatoes. The closer the plants are to the radio the bigger your plants will be. 2.Place your small tomato plants into the ground and place a clear milk container with the bottom cut out over the plant. Leave the circular lid off the top. This will act as a small greenhouse for your baby plant. 3.The really big tomatoes like “Beefsteaks” will need 62 days from the time you put them into the ground to produce fruit. So it is imperative to start your tomatoes indoors or they won’t be producing till the frost is almost here. 4.Although the Glacier Tomatoes set fruit at low night time temperatures ( 39 to 44 degrees), other tomatoes don’t set fruit till the night time temperatures are 50 to 60 degrees. Some people put their young plants in the ground early and cover them with a tomato cage right away. Then they drape painters clear plastic over this cage and secure it at the bottom to make a little greenhouse for the tomato keeping the night time temperatures a little higher than if they weren’t covered at all. 5.“Heatwave” tomatoes set fruit even in very hot temperatures. But, some other tomato varieties will drop their blossoms if the night time temperature is over 73 degrees…… if this happens you will have a lull in tomato production. Mr. Wells says the above statements about temperature are nonsense. He says in Nevada it will often be 120 degrees in the shade and they picked 267 lbs from ten plants at one picking even in the extreme heat. He said they picked 67 lbs per plant picking twice a week till mid-October……. He says tomatoes will grow through 120 degrees heat and do just fine. 6.Some people mount a clothes hanger at the top of their tomato cages because they believe that radio waves in the air come through the clothes hanger……… into the tomato cage and thrill the tomato plant into growing bigger and lusher than any other tomato plants without the clothes hanger antenna. 7.There is a website called www.vegvariety.cce.cornell.edu They will tell you what they are thinking about tomato varieties. 8.There is another website at www.gardeners.com which has lots of garden gadjets for tomato plants. 9. MRS. Gorden Wells says this about tomatoes: Paste tomatoes for Salsa (pop skins, core, dice, use Mrs. Wages Salsa mix with added onion, pepper- hot or sweet- and corn or black beans). Whole tomatoes: pop the skins, core and process in water bath with some citric acid (buy in pharmacy), lemon juice or vinegar and salt; Spagheti sauce (can be made with Mrs. Wages Spaghetti Sauce Mix,) pop skins, core, blend and cook with mix or your own flavorings before filling jars and processing in the water bath. Dry tomatoes in dehydrator in slices and turn to powder in your blender for soups and bread. 11. Best Tomato Catalogs: www.tomatogrowers.com (all in color and celebrating 25 years this year.) And www.TotallyTomatoes.com 12 Most Beautiful Book on Tomatoes ever: “The Heirloom Tomato: from Garden to Table: by Amy Goldman. This book is all in glorious color and is 81/2” by 11” and is 258 pages. She raises 100s of heirloom varieties on her farm in New York’s Hudson Valley and includes also 55 of the best tomato recipes of all time with the Specific varieties of tomato used in each dish. She also tells you point blank the goods and awfuls of each variety sparing no feelings. IF YOU HAVE READ THIS FAR………. You deserve a big reward. (Free Tomato Seeds)! This Saturday I will be team teaching “seed starting” at Thanksgiving Point with two other Master Gardeners. We will be in the greenhouse from 9 till 11. The first hour will be instruction and giving out of handouts by each of we three. The second hour will be each student planting up their choice of seeds in cell packs and soil provided by the class. (You can also bring your own seeds: 5 packs of seeds at Wall Mart for $1.00 is quite a buy just now.) If you come………… (this is the reward part)……… I have some great and some unusual tomato seeds of all kinds which I would love to give you so you wouldn’t have to order your own. Love to ALL Gardeners, Erlyn Madsen