SOLANACEOUS CROPS.
This is a big word, but it means only that these plants belong to the
nightshade family.
This division takes in tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and husk tomatoes.
These require all, or nearly all, the season to mature, and they keep
on making growth, particularly in the North, until killed by frost.
They are all seed-bed crops requiring a great deal of quick-acting
fertilizer, especially when they are young, and to secure a heavy crop
you must give them an early start.
They are really of the same family as the potato, yet they are not
grouped with that crop, because the parts eaten are the fruits which
grow on their stems and branches, rather than the thickened stem or
“tuber.” They are hot-season plants and are usually grown in hills.
TOMATOES.
In almost all parts of the United States the tomato is easily grown;
yet it requires a long, warm season, and soil in excellent tilth for
best results. The seed is sown in a seed- or hot-bed, and the plants
are allowed to grow from four to eight weeks before transplanting to
the garden, although they may be transplanted once or twice in the
seed-bed to secure free and stocky growth. For the small home garden
the plants are usually handled in pots, but for commercial purposes
they are planted in small flats not more than 12 inches square, holding
about two inches of soil. The earlier they are started the better,
because they are less likely to suffer from fruit-rot and frost if they
fruit early.
In the North, you must have vigorous, stocky plants, well in advance
of the season, and a warm quick soil, to get a good crop of tomatoes.
Too much fresh stable manure will cause rank vine growth and delay
fruiting, so that the soil should be fertilized a season in advance and
the manure thoroughly rotted. At the time of planting it is well to
apply a light dressing of nitrate of soda, as this gives better results
than twice the application when given later at intervals up to August.
At the South, tomatoes are grown in frames covered with unbleached
sheeting by night and during cold snaps, but in the day this covering
is rolled up and the plants are hardened by the air. Although tender to
frost, the tomato vine is a fairly hardy plant, and will stand earlier
field planting than is sometimes given it, if it does not get frost.
We have proved by experiment that the yield is greatly increased by
early transplanting. There is a profit in that.
Tomatoes give earlier and better results where the vines are trained,
but that is only possible in small gardens. Where the plants are grown
for canning, little attention is given them after transplanting to the
field. Losses from rot are of course much larger there, but this cannot
well be avoided.
In small gardens they are pruned to a single stem. Strong stakes
are driven into the ground and cords are stretched between them
horizontally at top and bottom. From these horizontal cords you may
run perpendicular strings, to one of which each plant is tied. Plants
pruned and tied up in this way, may be placed as close together as 18
inches, while if left to spread they require from three to four feet of
space.
By pruning is meant the pinching out of each side branch as it appears,
compelling the plant to put all its growth into one parent stem. Some
growers even go so far as to cut off the tops of the plant as soon as
three clusters of fruit are formed. I have cut off whole branches where
the vines were too thick, without apparent injury. All this decreases
the quantity of fruit that each plant will produce, but it greatly
increases the earliness of ripening, and the size and quality of the
fruit. Besides, the plants may be grown so much closer that the loss in
quantity is not so great as would at first appear.
Henry Jeroloman of New Jersey, known all over the country as the
“Strawberry King,” has a tomato-planting trick that is worth noting.
Mr. Jeroloman, by the way, raises about $5,000 worth from his eight
acres annually, and he plants tomatoes at the foot of his grape-trellis
posts and trains them to climb up the posts and along the trellis. And
right here is where the real trick comes in: by training the tomatoes
to climb up instead of sprawling all over the ground, he is able to
plant his low-growing crops, like beets or turnips, close up to the
vines and lose no space. That is one of the reasons why his eight acres
bring in more than the average farm of 100 acres. Your profit will
depend upon similar devices for “working” the soil.
The best rack for supporting unpruned vines, is a cheap, rough and
simple affair, constructed by the grower himself as follows:—Run a row
of stakes on either side of your tomato bed and nail a light board to
each row about a foot from the ground, so that the distance between
the two rows will be about three feet. Across this lay narrow slats,
loosely. The plants lop on the slats, the fruits ripen uniformly, and
usually with a smaller percentage of rot than where they lie on the
ground.
If your garden is situated where frosts are apt to come as early as
August, you should plant your tomatoes against the south side of the
house or out-building and cover them at night,—a point worth noting for
all tender plants.
In “Vegetable Gardening,” Green suggests an ingenious yet simple method
of raising enough tomatoes for family use where the season is too
short to raise them in the field or garden. Get three or four barrels
about the size of a coal-oil barrel, bore several holes in the bottom
of each, then sink about one-third their depth in the ground in the
warmest corners of your land.
When this has been done, fill each barrel about half full of fresh
horse manure well tramped down, and pour over it a bucketful of hot
water to start fermentation. On top of this put eight inches of good
soil, then a mixture of well-rotted manure and good black loam in equal
quantities up to about twelve inches from the top of the barrel. Heap
manure up around the outside of your barrel. Plant, say three stocky
plants in each barrel, trimming them to two shoots each. Tie one shoot
from each plant to stakes or some nearby support, and let the other
grow naturally over the side of the barrel. Give a gallon of water a
day to each barrel and you will raise enough tomatoes in the season for
a family of four or five persons.
The Iowa Experiment Station showed that untrained tomato vines gave
the smallest yield and the largest percentage of decayed fruit; that
staked vines gave a much larger percentage of sound fruit and the least
percentage of decayed fruit of the whole experiment; that hilling up
did not give any striking results in any direction; and that, while
mulching enormously increased the yield, it also greatly increased the
tendency to rot.
Because tomatoes suffer so from frost, it is wise to hasten fruiting by
every means, but if frost strikes before the fruits are ripe, the large
green ones may be picked and placed in drawers or other dry, close
places to ripen. Generally they color well and develop a good quality.
If the fruits have not reached full size, the whole plant may be pulled
with the fruits on, and hung upside down in a barn or dry building, and
they will continue to draw nourishment from the plant and sometimes
ripen.
From one ounce of seed you may expect from 2000 to 2500 plants; if
planted in hills three by four feet apart, an acre will require 3630
plants. A large yield of tomatoes is from 12 to 16 tons per acre; the
average is much below this. The favorite tomato in the American market
is large, round and smooth, the Angular and other irregular-shaped
varieties bringing a much lower price. Varieties run out so quickly
that it is not advisable to give the names.
The friend that you make in the seed store will be able to keep you
posted about such things—you can look in his eyes and tell if he
is lying, which you can’t do with a catalogue. Or you can ask the
Agricultural Editor.
EGGPLANT.
You treat eggplants just as you do tomatoes, except that they need even
greater care that the young plants are not checked in their growth, and
a longer season. Eggplant is really a hot-climate crop, and so requires
especial attention for early ripening in the Northern States. It grows
best in the South, but does well as far north as New Jersey and Long
Island. Further north it is seldom grown for more than home use.
Eggplant needs a long season, sunny exposure, a warm, loose, and rather
dry but rich soil. It is started in the hot-bed and not transplanted
until from six to ten inches high. It is such a finicky crop that if
the plants are crowded or stunted even in the hot-bed, the yield is
seriously reduced. For this reason, growers often start it in two-inch
or three-inch flower pots, or in old, small berry baskets, as it
is less likely to suffer a check when transplanted to the garden.
Eggplants do not need so much moisture as peas or cool-season crops,
and whatever fertilizer is applied must be quickly available. Perfect
tillage is necessary from first to last.
Eggplants are set in rows far enough apart to admit of horse-tillage,
from 3½ to 4 feet apart, and two to four feet apart in the rows,
according to the variety of plant grown. The fruits are fit to eat when
they have reached one-third their full size, and are desirable until
they are fully ripe, when they lose their value as food.
Although the fruit may be left on the plant until fully grown, a larger
crop is secured by picking before their full size is reached. For
market, however, they must be well colored. The large varieties such as
New York Improved and the Black Pekin bring the highest prices in the
market, but it is difficult to grow them to perfection in the Northern
States because of the short season. Some of the dwarfs, notably the
Early Dwarf Purple, are more desirable. White eggplants are not
popular, because they are usually an ugly yellow, while the striped and
coiling fruits are regarded more as curiosities than as staple market
products.
The eggplant is subject to several obscure fungous diseases,
particularly in the South, and the only known remedy is rotation and
destruction of the diseased vines. For the potato bug, which sometimes
attacks eggplants, it is best to use Paris green, about one-quarter
pound to 20 to 25 gallons of water, and plenty of lime. For leaf spot,
use Bordeaux mixture. Get New Jersey Report 1890, p. 355.
PEPPERS.
Peppers are started in frames and when transplanted are set from eight
to twelve inches apart in the row. They are cultivated just as tomatoes
are, and, as they do not suffer from pests or diseases, the crop is
more sure.
Peppers will thrive in a cooler season than tomatoes, and will
even endure slight frost, but in all other respects they require
the same treatment as tomatoes. They have only recently acquired
any importance as a crop, and even now, their use in cooking being
only semi-occasional, they are not very staple. Italians use them
extensively, and as Italian communities grow, the demand for peppers
will increase. We use them mainly for making pickles, for which
purpose the small Cayenne, Chili and Cranberry varieties are grown.
For stuffing, the favorite sorts are the large sweet peppers, Sweet
Mountain and Ruby King. These peppers are not at all similar to the
pepper-berries of commerce, which belong to other families.
HUSK TOMATO.
The husk tomato is an herb which produces a kind of papery skin
containing a yellowish, glutinous berry. It is often spoken of as the
strawberry tomato. It is very easy of cultivation on the tomato plan,
although some varieties, notably the Cape Gooseberry, do not ripen well
in the far North; the Dwarf Cape Gooseberry, however, does well as far
north as Ontario. The soft, sweetish fruits may be eaten raw or cooked
and are often used for preserves and pickles. There are several native
species, some of which are called Ground Cherry.