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
assistance, it is not so likely to occur when plants are grown under
glass, 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 cucumbers or melons are growing.