Since it's been so incredibly hot these days I figured I'd keep this short and sweet and full of pictures. It's been a tiring farming week but you know what makes it worth it at the end of the day? A delicious, juicy tomato!
Tomato madness is upon us and who doesn't love a sun-warmed, freshly-picked tomato?! We're picking these beauties 3 times a week, both out in the field and in the high tunnels. The office is stacked with crates of tomatoes, creating a maze of sorts, and we're eating them at every meal. (Or is that just me?)
While the field tomato plants are relatively easy to maintain, the ones in the tunnels require a bit more attention. Due to the ideal growing conditions in there, these plants get truly massive, like 8 or 9 feet tall massive! Since picking tomatoes at those heights is rather unreasonable, we implement a system called "lower and lean".
Rather than just going up and up, once the plants ascend to an unreachable height, we lower them on their trellising rods and lean the plants to one side. The bottom of the stems are now resting gently on the ground and the tops of the plants are back in reach.
We also cut a lot of the foliage off the bottom of the plants to increase air flow. This helps to reduce disease and keep the fruits as beautiful and happy as possible. It also helps reduce the weight of the plants on the whole trellising system!
And just because I thought it was so cool, here's a 1.6 lb tomato!
Thanks for following along and we hope you're enjoying some tomatoes these days!
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