When I think about August, it is the season where a plethora of things collide. It is the season where I feel like the days are getting shorter and I have less time to plant, harvest and button up the last of those summer projects. And of course, try and get away before the school season kicks into high gear.
Although this year, with school online and sports on hold, I think there may be a little more flexibility this fall. Last week, there were a few days where it felt cold, like turn the heaters on cold, but by midday everything was plenty warm. I don’t know about you, but I would surely welcome an extended summer.
This year has been a touch cool and many crops took a while to get going, especially TOMATOES and CUKES. And we just didn’t even bother with Zucchini this year. Thankfully, we planted one of the greenhouses to cucumbers and it has gone gang busters, the outside cukes, let’s just say they go off to a slow start.
We didn’t plant any tomatoes in the greenhouse this year and this was the year we should have, but last year was plenty warm and the greenhouse tomatoes weren’t as happy. With that said we decided to plant outside this year and… Well they are going now. We only grow Early Girls and only 100 plants. This year we also decided to not sucker the plants, which means the plants are big, full and loaded with lots of smaller tomatoes.
The reason we did this was were trying to avoid that leathery yellow spot that happens on the crown of the tomatoes. I think it is caused by too much sun exposure. (We see this a lot in Yakima tomatoes). As opposed to the black spot on the bottom of the fruit which is a calcium deficiency. By not suckering the tomato plants we eliminated the sun burn issue and with a good fertilizer mix the fruit is healthy.
The challenge for tomatoes this year is that it has been cool and wet, also known as a banner year for plant growth, fruit set and lots of green tomatoes that are taking their sweet time to ripen! Years ago, I was talking with a plant scientist, before I was a farmer, maybe 1995 and I was bemoaning how my tomato plants were still producing lots of green tomatoes in September. He asked me, “Are you still watering them?” My answer, “Of course”. That question has impacted my farming in untold ways. In a summer like this most plants have gotten ample water.
Tomato plants will keep putting their energy into making more and more tomatoes and less into making ripe tomatoes. So, what’s the solution. STRESS! As a farmer, I need to encourage the plant to switch from growth to preservation. All plants are trying to reproduce and with tomatoes, if I cut back on watering, start pruning, or the weather gets colder the tomato plant will switch from growing more tomatoes to ripening the next generation.
Bottom line as painful as it might be, it might be time to introduce a little stress into your tomato’s world, by removing blossoms/fruit that won’t have time to ripen or cutting the tops, or watering less. Watering less may not be as easy this summer, but if you want more ripe tomatoes help your plants switch to preservation mode.
-Tristan Klesick