Part 2

Murneek[8] has shown that the fruitfulness of a plant may greatly affect its internal condition, its vegetative performance and its later setting of fruit. A heavy load of developing fruit, with limited soil resources, tends to limit growth and setting. Removal of fruit induces renewal of vegetative growth and of fruit setting. Failure to set fruit favors vigorous vine growth. This failure may be traceable to various causes. (1) To damage to floral parts as the blasting of the pistil by heat and drouth. Flowers of some varieties show tendency toward elongation of pistils with subsequent failure to develop normal fruit. Smith and Howlett have shown that environmental conditions as well as heredity influence this elongation. (2) To injury by insects as thrips. (3) To the character of the variety used, the Bonny group being very slightly susceptible to failure from over feeding with nitrogen while some late sorts readily "run to vine." (4) Shortage of nutrient elements as nitrogen or phosphorus or others. (5) Lack of adequate light or short day. In such cases, there may be excess of nitrogen for current need with resultant over-development of leafage. Thus, excess vegetative growth may be a result as well as a cause of poor setting.

Phosphorus

Fertilizer experiments fairly generally point to the frequency with which phosphorus is the limiting factor among nutrients in tomato production. MacGillivray[9] has studied the phosphorus content of the various parts of the plant, concluding that this element is important throughout and not alone in seed making or in rapidly growing parts as has been believed. Hepler and Kraybill[10] found some years ago and others more recently have confirmed the influence of liberal phosphorus treatments upon earliness.

Potash

The potash requirement of the tomato has not been as thoroughly studied as the requirement for the other two major elements. It is thought that potash has a part in building up sugars into more complex carbohydrates.

The consensus of fertilizer experiments suggests that potash is less important on most soils than phosphorus and nitrogen but that if these elements are in good supply, increased yields from potash are likely.

Lanham in Texas was unable to find a relation between potash fertilization and resistance to shipping hazards.

Stable Manure

Stable manure has long been recognized as useful for tomatoes. It is generally considered better to apply it to the preceding crop or at least the preceding fall than to use it just before setting of plants. If spring application is necessary, it is better to use well rotted manure. Stable manure is low in phosphorus. An approximate statement would be that 10 tons of manure is roughly equivalent to one ton of a 6-3-6 fertilizer. Thus, 1,000 pounds of 18% superphosphate would bring the analysis to 6-12-6 which would be generally regarded as a good balance.

A recent publication[11] from Pennsylvania emphasizes the value of manures and of phosphorus.

Placement and Side Dressing

Recent experiments have shown the desirability of placing fertilizer close to but not in contact with the roots of the young plants. When newly set and before new roots have developed is the time when nutrient material close at hand is needed to give the plant a vigorous send-off. Transplanters have been devised with attachments to place the fertilizer in bands at each side of the row of tomatoes and about two inches deep.

Recent experiments, notably by Sayre[12] of New York, have shown the advantage of dissolving fertilizer materials in the water used for transplanting tomatoes. One combination of materials consists of ammo-phos, 14-48, 2 parts and potassium nitrate, 1 part. Five to eight pounds of this mixture are dissolved in 50 gallons of water and about 1/4 pint or 1/2 cup is applied to each plant, usually by the transplanting machine. There are other suitable mixtures of nutrients for this purpose. A very small investment in starter solutions has shown material increase in total yield. The practice places immediately available nutrients in the soil at the time and place to be of maximum usefulness to plants that have been severely root-pruned and have not yet had opportunity to rebuild the root system.

Another critical stage in tomato growth comes when much fruit has been set in the clusters and demands upon plant and soil are especially heavy. At this stage, side dressing with nitrogen is helpful in maintaining plant growth and providing resources for growth and maturing of fruit. On sandy or nutrient-deficient soils, more than one side dressing may be advisable. Sodium nitrate is commonly used but other materials are suitable after the soil has warmed up. Side dressing with fertilizer in solution has been recommended recently by Tiedjens of New Jersey.

III

THE BEST IN SEED IS NONE TOO GOOD

A tomato crop may be much poorer than the seed from which it grows but it can be no better.

The tomato seed is short-oval and flattened in shape, covered thickly with short silky hairs. The embryo or baby plant is coiled in a spiral and imbedded in the endosperm (reserve food supply). Three or four years is generally given as the life of the seed but it often remains viable much longer--up to 10 or 12 years in extreme cases. Good seed should germinate 85% to 90%.

Tomato seed sprouts readily, requiring fairly warm temperature, say, 70° to 75° F. for best results. It germinates very slowly at 40° to 50° F.

Breeding

Being a major vegetable crop, the tomato has received much attention from plant breeders. Objectives sought include good cannery type, resistance to the fusarium wilt and other diseases, better greenhouse forms, improved general market and home garden sorts, and varieties adapted for arduous conditions such as hot and dry summers or very short growing seasons.

The tomato is largely but not wholly self pollinated and pollen is not carried far. Thus, it is not difficult to breed to practically a pure-line condition.

Tomatoes for seed are usually ground up and the seed and fine pulp are separated from the skins and coarse material by screening. The juice, fine pulp and seeds are allowed to ferment from 24 to 48 hours, or until the jelly-like pulp is readily washed away. After washing, the seed is dried in thin layers and stored. A bushel of tomatoes may be expected to yield 2-1/2 to 4 ounces of seed and an acre of tomatoes, from 100 to 225 pounds. These vary greatly according to varieties and conditions.

Wellington[13] and others have shown that first generation seed from crosses of suitable varieties show a marked increase of vigor (heterosis or hybrid vigor) over either parent or over the later generations. This fact would seem to offer possibilities in practical use, but it has not thus far proved of value.

Selection Methods

Many growers find it profitable to save their own tomato seed. The plant is an annual, the important characters are quite readily observed and natural crossing is not serious. For these reasons, the enterprise is not as difficult as with most vegetables, although, if done well, it makes heavy demands in labor and care at a time when the grower has much else to do.

The first step in selection is to establish clearly the ideal to be sought, recording it in detail on paper for future reference. Selections should be made on the basis of the plant, not of the individual fruit. It is the plant that is reproduced and the seed from "crown clusters" is no earlier than seed from later settings. The field should be searched soon after blooming time and plants that appear promising should be marked. These plants should be examined three or four times as the season advances, and markers pulled from plants that do not measure up to the desired standard. Suppose ten plants remain; all fruits from each of these may be saved, keeping the seed of each plant separate. All or part of the seed may be planted in separate rows the next year for further selection and to note which parents best transmit their excellent points. If only a small amount of seed is required, direct selections may be made for use in planting for the general crop. If a larger amount of seed is required, seed from one or two of the best plants should be planted in multiplication plats. Off-type plants should be removed from such plantings, but otherwise all the seed may be saved for use. Repeated selection results in constant improvement until the stock becomes a "pure line" or practically so.

Lindstrom of Iowa has led in research on the genetics of tomatoes, chromosome relations and mode of inheritance. Many scientific papers deal with inheritance methods and results. The Yearbook of Agriculture (U.S.D.A.) for 1937 contains a valuable chapter on tomato breeding. It may also be had as Yearbook Separate 1581.

Certification

As with certain other kinds of seeds, certification service for tomatoes has now been set up in several states. Certification is a most useful incentive toward care in breeding and handling and affords valuable assurance to the buyer. It is necessary to know just what is guaranteed by the certificate. It is at the same time wise to be informed as to the inclusiveness and methods of the certification.

The Ideal Variety

In breeding for better varieties of tomatoes, the following are some of the characters to be sought:

(1) A vigorous vine which is necessary to produce abundant fruit and to protect from sunscald.

(2) Resistance to disease especially to fusarium.

(3) High productiveness with moderate number of fruits per cluster--say, 5 to 8.

(4) Evenness of maturity. This is somewhat out of line with the nature of the tomato but much could be accomplished toward the goal of varieties that make their crop and are gone, eliminating long picking periods and the drag of inferior fruit toward the end of the season. The so-called determinate habit of some varieties such as Pritchard is a step in this direction.

(5) Size suitable for expected use and for market demand. Greenhouse tomatoes are generally smaller than those for cannery. Uniformity of size is increasingly important with wide-spread use of the lug-box pack and of small consumer cartons.

(6) Globular to oblong shape is desirable for market but is less important for cannery. Form should be symmetrical, even and smooth.

(7) Color should be deep and rich, fully and evenly developed, inside and out. Red is generally preferred to pink. The difference between red and pink tomatoes does not reside in the flesh but in the presence of yellow pigment in the skin of the former while the skin of the latter is without pigment. Yellow tomatoes are also extant.

(8) Skin should be thick and tough. This safeguards against damage on the way to market and favors ease of peeling. Those saladists who serve sliced tomatoes with skins unremoved, may call for a thin, tender skin but this practice finds no encouragement from discriminating partakers.

(9) Flesh should be abundant in thick walls with a minimum of watery pulp surrounding seeds. In general, a structure of many small cells is desirable.

Varieties

_Earliana._--The earliness of this old and popular variety outweighs its demerits where this character is required. The past ten years have seen material improvement.

Earliana is early, of small vine, with small leaves and leaflets. Clusters are compoundly branched, with many fruits. The fruits are of medium size, deep oblate, cross section often elliptical rather than circular. There are many rough irregular fruits, varying in this respect with breeding and conditions of growth. Color is red, not too deep and tending to be poorly developed at the stem end. Interior consists of many small cells with thin walls.

_Bison._--represents a group of varieties bred for rigorous climates of our most northerly states. A. F. Yeager formerly of North Dakota, later of Michigan, now of New Hampshire has led in this development.

_Victor._--is a new variety bred originally by Yeager but introduced by K. C. Barrons of Michigan. It affords smoother, deeper and better colored fruits about as early as Earliana. It is determinate in habit and shy in foliage, increasing danger of sunscald. Rich soil and ample moisture are needed for its best development. _Bounty_ and _Home Garden_ are similar.

_Penn State._--Penn State, developed by C. E. Myers of Pennsylvania, is not as early as Earliana. It is similar in fruit characters though distinctly better in color and shape. It is marked by short branches (determinate habit) and is designed to give an early crop to be followed by prompt abandonment of the planting. It is not to be confused with Penn State Earliana.

_Bonny Group._--This group embraces our leading second early varieties widely used for home garden, greenhouse, market and cannery in the north. It includes _Bonny Best_, _John Baer_ and _Chalk Jewel_ with many additional names and with much confusion of characters among them.

Bonny Best is second early and of medium plant growth. Fruits are deep oblate to flattened globe, even and smooth, of good red color, with few large, thick-walled cells.

Varieties and strains of this group vary in growth and yield, in size, shape and earliness of fruit and in suitability for greenhouse, market, cannery and juice. _Stokesdale_ and _Scarlet Dawn_ are meritorious newer names in the group.

_Marglobe._--This variety was developed by the late Dr. F. J. Pritchard from a cross between Marvel, a French variety lending resistance to fusarium and Globe, an old variety of fine size and shape. It is widely used, north and south, for market--green or ripe, for cannery and to some extent, for forcing.

Marglobe is a midseason variety, with large vine and foliage, resistant to fusarium and nailhead spot. Fruits are nearly globular, shapely and smooth, medium to large, scarlet red, with medium number of thick walled cells. Marglobe is rather subject to deep radial cracks.

_Pritchard_ is of the general type of Marglobe but is earlier, with short branching habit and resistance to nailhead rust and to fusarium, and, perhaps, is less subject to cracking.

_Greater Baltimore_ is used chiefly for canning in long-season districts. It is late, with large vine, large flat fruits of excellent scarlet red, outside and in, with many thick walled cells. _Indiana Baltimore_ is a variant widely grown in the mid-west for cannery.

_Rutgers_ was developed by L. G. Schermerhorn at the New Jersey Experiment Station for fine juice and canning characters--color, flavor and substance. Growth is vigorous and yields are heavy; fruits are large, flattened and well colored.

_Gulf State Market_ is a second early shipping tomato, generally harvested green. It is flattened in shape, of well developed pink color and good interior.

_Comet Group._--These trace mostly to English or other European origin and are increasingly used for greenhouse and for staking out-of-doors. Comet is small, flattened, slightly corrugated about the stem, of fine even red color, very firm and solid, with few very thick walled cells. Other names are _Sunrise_, and _Lord Roberts_. Several American forcing strains have been developed with at least one parent of this group--_Ideal_, _Grand Rapids Forcing_, _Field Station Comet_, _Trellis_, _Michigan State Forcing_, _Lloyd Forcing_, _Blair Forcing_ and others.

_King Humbert_ and _San Marzano_ represent the small Italian oblong tomatoes that are prized for their thick walls, fine color and suitability for puree, paste and soup.

_Ponderosa_ is popular for home garden, a "beef-steak" tomato of very large size, irregular shape, flat, pink, with many small cells and of very mild sub-acid flavor. It is best grown to single stem. _Oxheart_ is large, heart shaped, pink and very meaty. Others of this general type may be had in red, yellow and orange flesh. In general, the whole group lacks in prolificacy.

_Oddities._--Tomato fanciers often plant seed of Red and Yellow Pear, Cherry, Currant, Peach with its fuzzy skin, Plum and others. They are prized for preserves and for decoration. Ground Cherry or Husk Tomato is not a true tomato but belongs to a different genus (Physalis). It makes excellent preserves. Well do I remember sneaking off from the other kids for solitary plunder of the little row that was usually in Grandma's garden.

Comprehensive descriptions of leading varieties of tomatoes have been published by the United States Department of Agriculture in Miscellaneous Publication 160, the result of statistical and verbal notations over several years at five widely scattered stations of the country.

IV

STRONG PLANTS FOR EARLY MATURITY AND HEAVY CROP

One of the ways to make money from tomatoes is to mature them early, selling while the price is still high. There is a big difference between $.10 a pound and $.10 a basket. Shipped and ripened green wrap tomatoes cannot be very cheap on northern markets even though Southern growers may realize little for them.

Another way to profit is to grow good plants to sell. Judging by the spindling, crowded, soft or over-hardened plants so common in stores, there should be great opportunity here and, as a matter of fact, many market gardeners do well in this business realizing welcome returns when other income is negligible.

To market ten-cent-a-pound tomatoes from out-doors requires good plants--plants that have passed through their youth nearly or fully up to blossoming time with benefit of heat and shelter and that are ready to keep up vigorous growth in face of the demands of fruiting. A few scattering fruits matured early do not suffice.

Even for cannery, good plants are required. In most regions, plants are not as good as they should be. All too often, outdoor seed bed plants are set where cold frame or at least cloth cover should be employed. Further north, cold frame plants or second run or other inferior plants are used instead of the best. That is why many canning companies have greenhouses and grow plants for their farmers.

And in the home garden, the quality of vine ripened fruit along with the satisfaction of early maturity are goals worth striving for.

Plant growing is a game of skill. It calls for keen observation, constant and faithful attention to small details, and a high order of workmanship in the various operations. Furthermore, when a considerable number of plants are to be grown, it calls for good organization and rapid work if costs are not to be unduly increased. A transplanter who makes three motions where two will suffice is likely to turn profit into loss, for the loss of a second when repeated thousands of times makes many hours.

The grower who is producing tomatoes for first-early maturity wants a plant that will withstand the rigors of transplanting and of inclement weather which may follow, that will start immediately into growth, and that will mature fruit in good quantity at the earliest possible date. This usually means a plant about ten inches tall, with heavy, firm, dark-colored stem (though not over-hardened), a heavy body of dark, healthy foliage, and a cluster of blossoms, with possibly a fruit or two already set. If the buds in the axils of the leaves have begun growth, no harm will be done.

Many growers are doubtful whether it is well to have fruit set on plants when they are transplanted in the field, as they claim that the little tomatoes are often lost and in any case the progress of the plant is retarded. Such plants must be handled with great skill. If they are severely checked when taken to the field, other and less advanced plants may do as well. There is danger in having plants too far advanced, and an unexpected delay in field setting may result in spindling and over-hardening that may prove disastrous. A vigorous and properly hardened plant that is younger will do better under such circumstances. Some growers protect themselves by having plants of more than one sort.

Open-bed Plant Growing

With favorable conditions and careful methods, good plants can be grown in open beds but they must be grown and used where the season is long or be grown in the south and shipped north.

Soil should be free of disease and nematodes, of good physical character, full of humus and nutrients.

Seed may be sowed a week or two after "average date of last killing frost" which may be learned from county agent or weather bureau. Further south planting times are gauged by the time tomatoes are to be set and by experience as to safe or reasonably safe sowing dates. Rows are usually a foot apart, more or less. Good plants call for sowing thinly, 6 to 12 seeds per foot, but several seeds per inch are not unusual. One may expect a million plants per acre with close planting or 40,000 plants per pound of seed.

Southern Plants

Many millions of tomato plants are grown in open fields in the south to be sent to home gardeners in small parcels on seedsmen's orders, to be sold to commercial growers or to be delivered on contract to canners.

A suitable climate and soil, good seed, freedom from disease and insects and good handling and packing are all required for satisfactory results. In far too many cases, these requirements have been sadly neglected and a good deal of distrust has been engendered. Here, as in buying seed, one must discriminate among good and poor growers. Canners who order in millions can send men south to investigate and supervise with good results.

Georgia now has a certification service for plants that helps greatly to build up and maintain high standards.

Growing Early Plants in the North

Varied programs of plant growing are in vogue in the temperate and cooler regions. A simple cold frame with or without transplanting may be employed. Seedlings may be started in hotbed or greenhouse and then transplanted to cold frames to finish the job. Some sow seed early, transplant once in the greenhouse at 1-1/2 or 2 inches each way and then again to cold frame with wide spacing say, 4 × 4 inches or using pots or dirt bands.

For this method, as much as twelve weeks may be allowed but if space permits, excellent results may be achieved in seven or eight weeks transplanting but once to pots or to 4 × 4 inches in flat or bed.

The Place to Grow Plants