2019 NOVIC Tomato Field Trial

The transition to a variable climatic condition for the tomatoes has not been a failure, which in this case constitutes a success! In other words, they have all survived the first cold and rainy week outside of the heated green house. My goal is to have them in the ground by the first week of June, giving ample time to assure that the plants have the best chance to withstand this region’s moist and cool climate.

I spent time looking into fertilizers and, having talked to the farm managers, decided that the field’s nitrogen and boron deficiencies will be amended using feather meal -for nitrogen, and Solubor – for boron. Care will be taken when determining the amounts of these organic fertilizers that will be applied to the field. If applied too soon, the desired effect may be washed away through leeching, and if too much of either amendment is applied, the plants could be negatively affected.

I have taken the time to update the image gallery and link it up to an instagram account for the 2019 NOVIC  trial. In time, there will be multiple posts every week, making it worth checking throughout the week. For now, however, we are still playing the waiting game.

Last week was geared towards trying to track down all parties/peoples involved to confirm the location and dimensions of the planting bed for the tomatoes. I am glad to report that the tomatoes now have a definitive field destination that I was able to start construction on, today. Located adjacent to a few rows of June bearing strawberries, the tomatoes now have a clearly defined plot, and even a mulched pathway to separate the two crops. This designation of space also follows the dimensions that I was using to estimate plant numbers for field planting; we can expect to fit 7-8 plants of the 12 varieties in 2 rows with-in the planting bed.

The concern with this, as I mentioned in my post last week, will be ensuring that the space we are given will be sufficient to fit two rows of both determinate and indeterminate tomato varieties. As it stands now, the bed in the photo below will have to be enough space to fit two rows of tomatoes as well as a path separating them down the middle. (From the grass to the wood mulch is a distance of 5’2″) These are not the ideal conditions for tomato plant spacing, but it will have to do, and if we can weasel our way into a bit more space, we will take it.

Now that the seedlings have fully established themselves in their flats, and the temperatures are getting warmer and warmer, I have relocated them to a green house that isn’t climate controlled. This will allow the plants to strengthen themselves to the cold nights and hot days before being truly put at the mercy of the outdoor environmental pressures.

What’s next? I’m going continue perfecting the bed preparation and trellis construction. My goal is to have the whole set up completed so that the tomatoes can go into the ground by the beginning f June. I also want to talk to the farm managers about looking into the addition of a few key soil amendments; nitrogen, boron, and perhaps sulfur, as these are all at low levels of concentration. (I completed a soil nutrient test for the field that the tomatoes are located in, a copy of that can be seen in the image gallery)

We have been graced by another beautiful weekend and the tomatoes, now completely transplanted into 72s, are doing quite well.

I met with Connor and Steve today (the farm manager and one of the faculty involved with the project) and spoke with them, in detail, about the possibilities for the experimental design. We went into detail on topics such as bed size vs. plant spacing, maximum utilization of space, and the number of replicated plots that we can fit into our bed.

Our given bed length is 88ft, and 20ft of that is going to be occupied with cut flowers, leaving us with 68ft of bed length at 32 inches wide. (Not including the paths on either side) We are going to put two rows of tomatoes in the bed, which means that there will be 136 total feet for planting (68’x2). The standard for in-field tomato plant spacing is 1.5ft; if we put 1 tomato plant every 1.5 ft, we are left with enough space for 90 total plants. Now, assuming that we choose 12 of the 13 tomato varieties to plant in the field, we can expect to have space for 7-8  plants of each variety. **All of these numbers are subject to change**

We are limited in bed space, and because of that, there is a concern about the number of replications that be can have within our given space, leaving us with an issue of producing accurately transferable data. In an ideal setting, we could replicate the trial in multiple spots across the farm. Not only would this give us a larger data set, it would also help us to account for environmental variations between plots. With the space that we are currently given, there is little to no chance of us being able to differentiate between inter-varietal differences of the tomatoes and environmental variations such as direct sunlight and soil temperatures. As always, we can only work with what we are given, I raise these concerns only to catalog my thoughts on the matter.

From here, I will continue to collaborate with the farm staff on the necessary steps to preparing our planting bed, as well as continue building the experimental design. I expect the seedlings to remain in the heated green house for another week, where they will then be moved to a more open green house to harden them up to the elements.

Stay sunny.

In the past week, the weather has made a welcomed change for the warmer. As the temperature rises, the growing season really feels as though it is taking off. In no time at all we will have field-planted tomato plants, begging to be studied.

The time came this week for transferring the seedlings into individually celled growing flats, moving from the 1020 flat to a 72 individually celled growing flat. This will allow the seedlings to continue growing in isolation, keeping the roots from becoming tangled with one another.  The goal was to transplant 12 seedlings from each variety, leaving some left over to have as a back up, if the need for them should arise. This goal was met for each variety, except for the EZ-2 variety, with only 11 seedlings to germinate and of those, only a few look as healthy as the other varieties. The only other variety that had low germination rates were the Red Racers, with only 15 seedlings successfully germinating, yet the seedlings of the Red Racers look much more vigorous and healthy than the EZ-2 strain. With only 8 viable seedlings needed for field planting, we still have the numbers necessary to meet the expectations of  the project.

There is not much more to report on from the past week. The field plot for the tomatoes is still occupied by tulips so bed prep is at a stand still until those are harvested.

Now that the seedlings have been handled, and their habitat slightly altered, I will be paying even closer attention to them.

Below are some photos I took of the finished seedling transfer:

The tomato starts have been in their flat for over a week now and they are looking happy and healthy! All 13 varieties have sprouted, with good numbers; this momentarily eliminates any concern that there may be a shortage of seedlings within a single variety. Within the week, I will prick all of the seedlings out into a 72 celled seedling flat, where they will most likely remain until they are to be planted in the field.

I have continued collaborating with the farm staff, gathering information on common farm practices used for bed prep, mulching, trellis construction, soil amendments. etc. I have begun work on the farm plot that will be the location of the trial. When deciding trellis designs, based off of common farm practices, I have chosen to use the Florida Weave. This offers ample support to the plants without excessive shading of the other plants. To assist with weed suppression and maintaining warmer soil temperatures, the farm managers recommend that I use a type of plastic tarp mulch, commonly known as ‘Solar Mulch.” This will be laid in the field once the current crop is harvested and subsequent bed prep has taken place.

For now, the seedlings have remained in the heated green house, resting on a warm and cozy heating mat that helps keep the roots at a more preferred temperature. I will check back in next Monday to give another update.