Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1909-03-27
GROWING TOMATOES
FOR THE MARKET
to Head of Garden vegetables
in Conn Importance

and later to three-inch and four-inch
If occasion demand. AS rule, how
ever in this climate it will be unneces-
sary to handle the plants more than
twice. In the absence of pots the
plants may be handled in boxes, or
even in the bed; but pot-grown plants
are always preferable, as they are
checked less by removal TO the held.
In the field the plants are set about
four by five feet. Many would plant
closer, but on reasonably rich ground
the plants will cover the whole sur
face If set at this distance.
The plants should be set in the
field as soon as danger from frost Is
past 1t has commonly been taught
that any chill is nearly fatal to young
tomato plants; but, as shown by the
writer's work at Cornell university
and at the Maine experiment station,
"a chill is not as fatal to success as Ii
commonly supposed" At the Maine
station it was found that ''in every in
stance, save one, the first ripe fruits
were obtained from plants set latest"
This fact, however, is not necessarily
an indication of earliness, as the late
set plants were older than is usually
desirable for setting, and the first
fruits were in some cases from bios
SONS formed while in the house.
After these had ripened, there was
long interval before others followed.
Without exception the average num-
Der of fruits, and the average weight
of the product per plant, was in direct
ratio with the earliness of setting"
AS stated in bulletin 116 of the West
Virginia station
The notion that tomatoes do better
upon relatively poor soil is erroneous.
While it is doubtful If an excessively
heavy application Of stable manure
would be profitable, liberal applica-
ton, such as would be given for
good crop of corn, may nearly always
be used with advantage. At the Cor
nell experiment. station it was found
that 1.-The results obtained with liberal
manuring, under commercial condi-
lions, certainly show that
good stable manure in abundance
could be used profitably."
Some of the best tomato soils are
the newly cleared areas designed for
orchard planting. But on these same
new soils, an application of about 500
pounds of good high grade complete
fertilizer will usually be found advan-
tageous.
Trimming the vines in midsummer
as means of fastening maturity and
increasing the yield of fruit is fire.
quently recommended, but very seldom
practiced, even by amateurs in the
writer's experience the results OBJ
tanned justify greater emphasis of this
point. AS result of two successive
seasons work at the Maine experiment
station it was found that the total in
crease in the number of fruits ma
tured, due to trimming, ranged from
5.5 per cent. to so per cent. The per-
centage gain by weight was very
marked, and in one instance reached
a total of 5S per cent. In these trials
the plants were grown under ordinary
field culture. They were started in the
greenhouse April l, planted in the field
June l, and headed back July "a, Au-
gust s, and September 5. At each
trimming the leading branches were
shortened about six inches, and most
of the side shoots below the first clus-
ters of fruit were removed, the others
being shortened. The sunlight was
thus freely admitted to the fruit and
picking was rendered much easier.