Starting Plants
This has been the subject of a vast amount of horticultural writing, and
the practice of different growers, and in different sections, varies
greatly. I give the methods I have used successfully, together with
reasons for following them, but it may be well for the reader to modify
them to suit his own conditions and requirements.
=Largest yield.=--Some 45 to 50 days before plants can be safely set in
the open field the flats in which the seed is to be sown should be
filled with light, rich, friable soil, it being important that its
surface be made perfectly level, and that it be compact and quite moist,
but not so wet as to pack under pressure. Sow the seed in drills 3/8
inch deep and 2 to 3 inches apart at the rate of 10 to 20 to the inch;
press the soil evenly over them, water and place in the shade in an even
temperature of 80 to 90° F. As soon as the seeds begin to break soil,
which they should do in three to four days, place in full light and
temperature of 75 to 80°, keeping the air rather close so as to avoid
necessity of watering. After a few days reduce the temperature to about
65° and give as much air as possible. Some growers press a short piece
of 2-inch joist into the soil of the benches, so as to form trenches 2
inches wide and about 3/8 inch deep, and so spaced as to be under the
center of each row of glass, their sash being mostly made of five-inch
glass. In this, by using a little tin box with holes in the top, like
those of a pepper-box, they scatter seeds so that they will be nearly
1/8 to 1/4 inch apart, over the bottom of the 2-inch wide trench, and
then cover. This has the advantage of evenly spacing the plants and so
locating the rows that the plants will be little liable to injury from
drip.
Young tomato plants are very sensitive to over-supply of water and some
of the most successful growers do not water at all until the plants are
quite large and then only when necessary to prevent wilting. In 10 to 15
days, or as soon as the central bud is well started, the plants should
be pricked out, setting them 3 to 6 inches apart, according to the size
we expect them to reach before they go into the field; 5 inches is the
most common distance used. I think it better to set the full distance
apart at first, not to transplant a second time. It is very important
that this pricking out should be done when the plants are young and
small, though many successful growers wait until they are larger. The
soil in which they are set, whether it be in boxes or beds, should be
composed of about three parts garden loam, two parts well-rotted stable
manure and one part of an equal mixture of sand and leaf mold, though
the proportion of sand used should be increased if the garden loam is
clayey. The soil in the seed-boxes or in the beds, when the seedlings
are taken up, should be in such condition, and the plants be handled in
such a way that nearly all the roots, carrying with them many particles
of soil, are saved. The plants should be set a little, and but a little,
deeper than they stood in the seed-box and the soil so pressed about
the roots, particularly at their lower end, that the plants can not be
easily pulled out.
[Illustration: FIG. 17--SPOTTING-BOARD FOR USE IN COLD-FRAMES]
Where plants are set in beds the work can be facilitated by the use of a
"spotting-board" (Fig. 17). This should be about 1 foot in width, and
have pegs about 3 inches long, 3/4 inch in diameter at the base and
tapering to a point, fastened into the board the distance apart the
plants are to be set. It should also have narrow projections carrying a
single peg nailed to the top of board at each end, so that when these
pegs are placed in the end holes of the last row the first row of pegs
in the "spotting board" will be the right distance from the last row of
holes or plants. By standing on this, while setting plants in one set of
holes, holes for another set are formed. If the conditions of soil, air
and plants are right and the work is well done, the plants will show
little tendency to wilt, and it is better to prevent their doing so by
shading, rather than by watering, though the latter should be resorted
to if necessary. When plants are set in beds, some growers remove the
soil to a depth of about 6 inches and put in a layer of about 2 inches
of sifted coal ashes, made perfectly level, and then replace the soil.
This confines the roots to the surface and enables one to secure nearly
all of them when transplanting. The plants should be well established
in 24 hours and after this the more light and air that can be given,
without the temperature falling below 40° F. or subjecting the plants to
cold, dry wind, the better.
[Illustration: FIG. 18--SPOTTING-BOARD FOR USE ON FLAT (From W. G.
Johnson)]
One can hardly overstate the importance to the healthy growth of the
young tomato plant of abundant sunshine, a uniform day temperature of
from 60 to 80° F., or of the ill effects of a variable temperature,
particularly if it be the result of cold, dry winds, or of a wet, soggy
soil, the effect of over-watering. These points should be kept in mind
in caring for the plants, and every effort made to secure, as far as
possible, the first named conditions and to avoid the latter. The
frames, whether they be covered with sash or cloth, but more
particularly if with sash in sunshine and with curtains in dull days,
should be opened so as to prevent their becoming too hot, and so as to
admit air. And in a greenhouse full ventilation should be given
whenever it is possible to do so without exposure to too low a
temperature. If the plants are in boxes and on greenhouse shelves, it is
important that these be turned end for end every few days to equalize
exposure to light and give full exposure to the sun. The plants should
be watered only when necessary to prevent wilting, and the beds should
be covered during heavy rains. A "spotting-board" for use on flats is
seen in Fig. 18.
The most unfavorable weather conditions are bright sun combined with a
cold wind, and cold storms of drizzling rain and frosty nights. Loss
from the latter cause may often be prevented by covering the beds with
coarse straw, which should always be provided for use in an emergency.
Many growers provide a second curtain--an old one answers very well--to
throw over the straw-covered beds. Beds so covered will protect the
plants from frost in quite severe weather. Watering should especially be
avoided for nearly three days before setting in fields; but six to
twelve hours before it is well to water thoroughly, though not so as to
make the soil at all muddy. About five days after pricking out and again
about five days before the plants are to go into the field and five days
after they are set, they should be sprayed with Bordeaux mixture.
=Early ripening fruit.=--Here the aim is to secure, by the time they can
be set in the field, plants which have come by an unchecked but
comparatively slow rate of growth to the greatest size and maturity
consistent with the transplanting to the field without too serious a
check. The methods by which this is accomplished vary greatly and
generally differ materially from those given above. The seed is planted
much earlier and 60 to 90 days before it is at all safe to set plants in
the open field; while a steady rate of growth is desirable, it should be
slow and the plants kept small by a second and even third and fourth
transplanting, and especial care taken to avoid the soft and irregular
growth resulting from over-watering or over-heating. Any side shoots
which may appear should be pinched out and a full pollination of the
first cluster of the blossoms secured, either by direct application of
pollen or by staking or jarring the plants on bright days; and finally,
special efforts made to set the plants in the field as early and with as
little check as possible. Growers are often willing to run considerable
risk of frost for the sake of early setting.
When one has sandy land a very profitable crop can sometimes be secured
by sowing the seed very early, and growing the plants on in beds until
the first cluster of fruit is set, then heeling them in, much as nursery
trees are, but so close that they can be quickly covered in case of
frost. As soon as it is at all safe to do so, they are set in the open
ground, very closely, on the south side of ridges, so that only the
upper one-third of the plant is exposed, the remainder being laid nearly
level and covered with earth.
So treated the plants will ripen the upper one or two clusters very
early but will yield little more until late in the season, and it is
generally more profitable to plow them up and put in some other crop as
soon as the first clusters of fruit have ripened. Others pinch out the
central bud as soon as it is well formed, usually within 10 days from
the sowing of the seed. When this is done a great proportion of the
plants will start branches from the axils of the cotyledons; these
usually develop blossoms in the third to the fifth node and produce
fruit much lower than in a normal plant. It is questionable if there is
any gain in time from seed to fruit by this method, but it enables one
to get older plants of a size which it is practicable to transplant to
the field.
In most cases it will be found more profitable and satisfactory so to
grow the plants that by the time they can be safely set out of doors
they will be in vigorous condition, about 6 to 10 inches tall, stout,
healthy and well hardened off. Such plants will ripen fruit nearly, and
often quite as early as older ones and will produce a constant
succession of fruit, instead of ripening a single cluster or two and
then no more until they have made a new growth.
=For late summer and early fall.=--It is generally true in the South and
often equally so in the North, that there is a more eager local demand
for tomatoes in the late summer and fall months, after most of the
spring set plants have ceased bearing, than in early summer. In Michigan
I have often been able to get more for choice fruit in late October and
in November than the best Floridas were sold for in May or early June,
and certainly in the South the home use of fresh tomatoes should not be
confined to spring set plants. For the fall crop in the South seed may
be sown in late spring or up to the middle of July, in beds shaded with
frames, covered with lath nailed 3 to 4 inches apart and the plants set
in the field about 40 days from sowing, the same care being taken to
put the ground into good condition as is recommended for the spring
planted crop.
A second plan, which has sometimes given most excellent results, is to
cut back spring set plants which have ripened some fruit but which are
not completely exhausted, to mere stubs, and spade up the ground about
them so as to cut most of the roots, water thoroughly and cover the
ground with a mulch of straw. Most of the plants so treated will start a
new and vigorous growth and give most satisfactory returns.
=Fruit at least expenditure of labor.=--When this is the great
desideratum, many growers omit the hotbed and even the pricking out,
sowing the seed as early as they judge the plants will be safe from
frost, and broadcast, either in cold-frames or in uncovered beds, at the
rate of 50 to 150 to the square foot and transplanting directly to the
field. Or they may be advantageously sown in broad drills either by the
use of the pepper-box arrangement suggested on page 60, or a garden
drill adjusted to sow a broad row. In Maryland and the adjoining states,
as well as in some places in the West, most of the plants for crops for
the canners are grown in this way and at a cost of 40 cents or even less
a 1,000. The seed should be sown so that it will be from 1/4 to 1/2 inch
apart and the plants thinned as soon as they are up so that they will be
at least 1/2 inch apart. Where seed is sown early with no provision for
protection from the frost it is always well to make other sowings as
soon as the last begins to break ground in order to furnish reserve
plants, if the earlier sown lots be destroyed by frost. Others even sow
the seed in place in the field, thinning out to a single one in a hill
when the plants are about 2 inches high. Some of the largest yields I
have ever known have been raised in this way, but the fruit is late in
maturing and generally the method is not so satisfactory as starting the
plants where they can be given some protection, and transplanting them
to the field.
=Plants for the home garden.=--These may be grown in pots or boxes set
in the sunniest spot available and treated as has been described. In
this way plants, equal to any, may be grown without the aid of either
hotbed or greenhouse. It will generally be more satisfactory, however,
to secure the dozen or two plants needed from some one who has grown
them in quantity than to grow so small a lot by themselves. In selecting
plants, take those which are short, stiff, hard, and dark green in
color with some purple color on the lower part of the stem rather than
those which are softer and of a brighter green, or those in which the
foliage is of a yellowish green; but in selection it must be remembered
that varieties differ as to the color of foliage, so that there may be a
difference in shade which is not due to conditions.
=Plants under glass.=--If to be grown in pots or boxes, "prick out,"
when small, into three-inch pots and as they grow re-pot several times
so that when set in the pots or beds in which they are to fruit, they
are stout plants 12 to 16 inches high. Plants propagated from cuttings
give much better returns relatively under glass than out of doors.