Let's Talk Tomatoes

Tomato growing can be a tricky business. Several years ago, late blight wiped out many home garden tomatoes while commercial growers had to be extra vigilant in their crop protection programs in order to reach harvest. Every year is different and Mother Nature threw its weight around last summer that greatly affected the commercial growers this time, more than home gardeners.




It was difficult to find
trailers in Pennsylvania
loaded with processing
 tomatoes this past growing
 season as flooding and
saturated soils prevented
harvest.  Click on
picture to enlarge

 Excessive rainfall in central and eastern Pennsylvania hit right around the time that processing tomatoes were to be harvested. Ken Martin, director of agricultural operations for Furmano Foods, said that “it was the worst harvest in probably 90 years”. The gravity of Martin’s statement is pretty heavy when you realize that Furmano’s, a family operation, has only been in existence for about 90 years. “Hurricane remnants showed up right around harvest time and flooding took out about 60% of the crop”, said Martin. “Many fields that were not flooded by overflowing creeks and rivers were so saturated with rain that harvesting equipment just couldn’t get in”.

But as bad as the tomato season turned out for many growers, excitement and crowd attendance for the tomato session at the 2012 Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Conference was very high. Tomatoes are the one of the most important vegetable crop in Pennsylvania with an annual farm value of about 41 million dollars. With so much money at stake, it is no wonder that farmers want to learn.

Martin, who has a very high stake in the success of the Pennsylvania tomato industry, has been program chair for the tomato session for about 15 years. Under his guidance, he has constructed a yearly program that draws huge interest from growers up and down the east coast. “I always try to include a topic that is forward looking,” said Martin “and mix it with the basics such as fertility and disease issues.”

Flooding is not a yearly event but tomato diseases are, so the session started off with Penn State’s Dr. Majid Foolad ‘s effort to develop resistance to the two most destructive tomato diseases in PA; early blight (EB) and late blight (LB). He has identified EB and LB resistance in some wild species of tomatoes and is in the process of transferring those genes into some of his breeding lines. The hope is that his research will result in a reduced reliance of fungicides to control these two diseases.

I teach several on-line courses and workshops so I was interested in Philip Bogan’s presentation on “Focus on Tomato”. This is an effort of the Plant Management Network International to disseminate tomato information through monthly webcasts and on-line reference material. One of the attributes of this effort is that world renowned researchers and growers can present their information to a very wide audience. In addition, the information can be viewed at anytime, say 2:00 AM. More information can be viewed at http://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org.

Tomato fertility was covered when Steve Bogash covered his work with different types of plastic and their effect on potassium uptake. His main take home message was to conduct tissue testing on a very regular basis in order to monitor plant nutrient levels.

The session ended with an overview of what to expect with disease pressure this growing season with Dr. Beth Gugino and herbicide issues in tomato rotations with Dr. David Mortensen, both of Penn State.

Overview of the 2012 Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Conference Pumpkin Session

I spent a week in Hershey, PA at the Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Conference (MAFVC) where over 2,000 growers participated in the annual ritual of learning new information to keep their livelihood profitable. Over 180 presentations during the four days covered weed management in asparagus to high density pear systems and everything in-between.


Typically there are three sessions that draw huge, overflowing crowds over the 4-day event; the tomato, sweet corn, and pumpkin sessions. One might understand the popularity of the first two as they are edible crops but most pumpkins are not grown for their eating characteristics but their ornamental value. According to the USDA Agriculture Statistics Service, over 6,700 acres of pumpkins were harvested in Pennsylvania in 2010 that was valued at more than $16 million. This was enough to place them in the top five pumpkin producing states in the nation.

Wishing…by Tina Clinefelter

If it’s not going to be winter, can we go directly to spring? I’m ready – I bought seed-starting mix yesterday, my grow-light will be hung tomorrow, I just finished perusing my seed catalogs and have put together an order and I have a really bad case of cabin-fever! So what’s the hold-up? Oh, yes, it’s January – bummer!
Well, in that case, I’ll have to be content with dreaming while I sip on a newly brewed cup of tea in the late afternoon while the sun still shines over the valley…

I have already decided that the majority of my gardens this year will be devoted to annuals, especially the ones that self-sow (I just love volunteers), and the only perennial I MUST get established is asparagus. Some of the annuals I have selected can be direct-seeded in the garden after all danger of frost has passed, but some I will start indoors to give them a head-start for the new season.

One beloved annual I never try to grow myself is the smaller version of the pansy – the viola. It takes about 9 weeks to grow them to transplant size, and by then I have become weary of the task of caring for them – much better to stimulate the local economy and buy the fruits of someone else’s labor. So many varieties are on the market now that I like to see them in bloom before I buy, but then the decision is still fraught with indecision. Violas require full sun to part sun, will need to be cut back when they become leggy, will languish in the hottest part of the summer, but will bounce back again when the temperatures moderate in the fall. Leaving the last flowers of the season to set seed will ensure an encore presentation next year! Did I mention that violas are edible?

Cleomes or spider flowers, are best direct-sown in the garden where they are to grow – namely at the back of the border due to their 4-6 foot height. These are wonderfully structural plants with long season blooming, interesting seed pods and carefree culture. All they need is full sun and room to ‘explode’ just like the fireworks they resemble.

Nicotiana or flowering tobacco, is another annual to sow in place as it is quite difficult to transplant. These plants are also a bit rangy, so I usually plant them close together to be self-supporting. If you have never enjoyed the evening perfume of nicotiana you have missed a heady experience and as the colors coordinate nicely with cleomes they make excellent bed-fellows – white, pink, lavender and rose.

No annual garden of mine would be complete without zinnias – preferably singles to accommodate the pollinator insects – and I prefer the short, mounding types such as Profusion or Highlight. With minimal effort these zinnias will bloom all season long in full sun, and they don’t mind a fairly dry soil. I will be starting my zinnias indoors along with some tomatoes (when I have decided which ones to grow), and a few herbs – basil, parsley and mint. That should about do it for this year I think…

Incidentally, I just Googled the zip-code 17751 to determine the current growing zone and it came up 6. Global warming? I recommend a grain of salt…

Taking it to Cryphonectria parasitica- The Next Step for the American Chestnut

Nice article from Penn State where decades of breeding are winding down and a full 'landscape' trial will be taking place in the Appalachian region.  It will take 10-15 years to determine if years and years of work were fruitful.  The story can be read here.