The Busy Woman's Garden Book

by Ida D. Bennett

TOMATOES

Are one of the most important vegetables of the home garden not alone as a summer vegetable, but also as an important part of the winter cuisine, more tomatoes being canned for winter use than all other vegetables.

Tomatoes require no expert care to grow; they are one of the easiest managed of vegetables, but they do require heat for starting if they are to be got to bearing in season to give a bountiful crop before frost. It takes about four months from the time the seed is sown to produce a crop of the main crop tomato. Some of the very early sorts will come into bearing early in July; unfortunately, however, these very early varieties lack the full, delicious flavor of the later fruit. The tomatoes should not be set in the open ground until all danger of frost is over; they should be given rich soil and a spadeful of manure added to the hill in which they are planted. If the plants are allowed to lie on the ground make the hills four feet apart each way, but if they are to be staked or trained on a trellis three feet will give sufficient room; both methods of culture have advantages; the latter keeps the fruit up off the ground, makes pickling easy and perhaps produces more perfect fruit; less room is required for growing the same number of plants than would be required for the former method. The first method has this advantage,—the plants suffer least in a dry season as the vines shade the ground, and prevent the excessive evaporation of moisture and require, accordingly, less cultivation; then the branches will root wherever they touch the soil and so draw moisture and nourishment from it; a much larger amount of fruit is produced from plants allowed to rest on the ground, and if straw is laid under the plants it will keep them from getting soiled and rotting if the season is wet.

Where the plants are to be staked a six foot stake should be set at each hill at the time the plant is set and the plant tied to it at intervals as it grows. Pinch off the top as soon as it reaches the top of the stake and remove all but a few of the side branches, pinching in those that remain to make a shapely plant. I think the rack system of training is preferable to the stake.

A long trellis or rack, about eighteen inches or two feet high and two feet wide, is constructed of narrow strips of wood and placed over the tomato rows, the plants growing up through the center of the frame and spreading out on top of it. This gives more bearing surface and the vines do not need to be tied to the wood; such a trellis can be used for several years in succession if stored away in a dry place when not in use. The wire tomato supports on the market are good but costly and quite as satisfactory ones can be made at home from the wire or wooden hoops from barrels, stapled to stout stakes sharpened at one end. About three hoops should be used and three stakes. These, too, can be stored away for future use so that the first outlay is the last for a number of years.

In setting out the plants from the hotbed select those with the stoutest stalks; it is not material whether they have grown tall or keeled over in the hotbed or not if the plant appears vigorous with a robust stem. If one has a good supply of plants to draw from one can discard all but the best.

The reward of your hours of pleasant labor

Prepare the hills in advance by forking in a forkful of old manure; if the plants are long, make a trench two-thirds the length of the stem with a deeper hole at one end; place the root in the hole and bend the top carefully into the trench, turning the tip up straight so that it stands four or five inches above the ground, draw in a part of the earth and fill the trench with water, fill in the remainder of the soil, pressing snugly, make a fine dry mulch about the plant and the work is done. The long stem buried in the trench will send out roots all its length and will have a much greater root system than a plant set with just a few inches of stem in the ground; such a plant set in such a way, invariably lives and makes a strong plant, but to plant it with only the root part under the ground would only invite the loss of the plant.

The plot should be looked over the following morning to see if cut worms have cut off any of the plants during the night and to restore, if necessary, the dust-mulch.