2019 NOVIC Tomato Field Trial

I have been anticipating this day from the moment that I put nearly 200 seedlings into individual cells to start their own growth into full blown tomato plants; for today I conducted the first of five harvests, picking nearly 20lbs of marketable and delicious-looking tomatoes from various plants. I picked one tomato from JTO 1021 that, on its own, weighed 1.2 lbs! I expect the yield numbers to only get larger over the next few weeks seeing as only half of the strings of plants contained ripe, pickable fruit. **The NOVIC protocol states that I should only harvest from 6 of the 8 plants every week.

On the other hand, I did pick nearly 9 lbs of unmarketable tomatoes that were too deformed or misshapen to be sold at a market. The majority of the rejected tomatoes were due to cat-faces and zippers that are a result of incomplete pollination or early damage. Some of this is expected to happen and rather common in many tomato varieties. The only exception to this were the fruit from Pilu KS plot 1 and Crimson Sprinter plot 2.  The Crimson Sprinter tomatoes are all suffering from blossom end rot and the Pilu KS tomatoes looked blotchy, pale and all around unpleasant. I definitely attribute this to the disease that the plants are struggling through.

Along with the harvest, I took notes on all varieties’ picking ease, fruit characteristics, and anything else that seemed worth mentioning. Once the fruit was packaged and clearly labeled, I took weights for all marketable and unmarketable tomatoes and gave explanations  for the unmarketable rejects. In the coming weeks I will have to take a one time measurement of tomato height and width, along with a Brix measurement that records the sugar content of fruit/vegetables. 

The next step for me, at this time, is to be prepping for the tasting trials that are scheduled to take place around the beginning of October with various classes that are taught by faculty in the Food and Ag Committee. I look forward to working with and getting feedback from students in the tasting trials, feeding some students seems to be a very fitting way to use these tomatoes. This means that I will need to have some fruit to last until the time of the trials! In the mean time, I plan to store the tomatoes in the best way that I can to keep them for the longest amount of time.

The weather has finally made a turn for the warmer over the last few days. It is expected to only get nicer over the next week and I have a feeling that we will have a few more weeks of nice weather until the true fall time gloom settles in.

With the heat has come even more ripe fruit hanging from the plants. I am still planning on having the first harvest take place on the 2nd of September, but if there isn’t a large enough quantity of ripe fruit, I may push the harvest back another week to be sure that all varieties get accounted for over a 5 week period. Right now the only variety with ripe fruit on it is the Red Racer, and while I can see some blush starting on the shoulders of a few tomatoes, the majority are still deep green. I will make the definitive decision this week, as Sept. 2nd gets closer and closer.

Minimal field work was necessary for the last week, aside from some strategic pruning and trellising. As the plants continue to bulk out I have been trying to keep them contained to there own string of plants, even if it is a futile action.

While I was working with the plants, over the last two days, I was surprised at how much they were transpiring and oozing that all-too-familiar smell that is special to tomatoes. My face and arms are covered in the plant’s ‘exudates’ as I write this, from handling them and wiping sweat off of my fore head. By far, it was the stickiest day of the season, but I suppose it could be due to the heavy rains followed by a few hot and sunny days. Those sunny days also lead us to hope that the plants are pumping loads of good water and sugars to those tomatoes!

While taking disease observations on the Crimson Sprinter string of plot 2, I notice that one of the branches had bent under the weight of a single fruit, and that the pith of the plant seemed nonexistent. I usually cut those branches off of the plant to try and slow the spread of disease. When I did cut off the branch I saw that there indeed was no pith, and when I cut the plant lengthwise down the stem, I found a nice little colony of insects. At least I think they are insects. I sampled a few of them and will put in under a microscope this week to try and ID it. I was surprised to find small critters crawling around the inside of my tomato plant and I am quite excited to find out exactly what they are.

I also gave a small talk to some members of the Food and Ag committee of Evergreen today. They came to the tomato plots and I shared my experience up to this point with them all. I appreciated it, and I hope they enjoyed the walk on the farm.

I will spend the coming week preparing for the harvest and enjoying some sunshine!

I hope you do the same.

The very first ripe fruit!! Officially, Red Racer has produced the earliest fruit of the 12 varieties.

Not only is it exciting to see some truly ripe fruit (I say ‘truly ripe fruit’ because we did have some stress ripening that was followed by blossom end rot, inedible..) but this also means that the countdown has begun until I will begin my harvest of all 12 varieties. In three weeks time I will start harvesting all ripe fruit for 5 consecutive weeks and begin the record keeping that will go along with this next stage of the trial; I tentatively expect that day to be Sept 2nd. Data will collected on the fruit’s  weight, width and height as well as a count on the number of marketable and unmarketable tomatoes will be collected. A Brix reading will be taken for each plot do determine mineral:sugar ratios, while others topics such as fruit cover (by the leaves) and picking ease will also be recorded.

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The Summer has yet to feel as though it has fully set in. For the most part, the days have begun cloudy and relatively humid  only to reach mid 70s at the peak of the day. Plenty of light and heat for growth but seldom is the long, hot and beautiful day that myself and the tomatoes both truly love. That being said, there are some happy and healthy plants in both of the plots. I have realized that I spend a fair amount of time focused and concerned with reporting on the struggling tomato plants that I have neglected to share much about the all stars. Varieties such as JTO 1007, Red Racer, Silet Z, and more are thriving during this summer, or so it seems. The 4 plants of JTO 1007 of plot 1 are nearly 6ft tall, just about as tall as I am. The tomatoes of JTO 1021 are large and plump in the classic kidney shape, and deeply green on the shoulders. The Silet Z variety is a low growing, determinate that is quite thick with leaves and needs frequent pruning to allow air flow through the base of the plant. The Mountain Merit of this trial is an averaged sized plant with a nicely rounded shape that will make for a good slicing tomato. Without going into detail on each variety, I will say that it has been a pleasure to see some healthy growth patterns through a majority of the plants.

This week consisted of the usual tasks, trellising, pruning, etc. as well as the repair of a bamboo post that snapped under the weight of the plants that were trellised upon it. I have continued following the progression of the various diseases in the field, most of which seem to have stalled during the warmer weeks. However, in the LB 21-7-4 variety, early blight has been crippling a majority of the leaves, leaving the plant with one less leaf to provide energy to the cells. The Crimson Sprinter group of plot 2 are losing more tomatoes to blossom end rot due to the disease that is afflicting it, which I assume to be Verticillium. (Still waiting for the results of this plant sample)

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I have to admit that I have been dragging my feet on the varietal progression storage alternative but it is nearing the end of the quarter and I have a full plate, or maybe two. I have continued taking the weekly photos for my archive and will address the issue in it’s time.

As the time for harvest gets nearer and nearer, I will be watching for the changes in the plant and fruit, as they reach maturity. I look forward to being surrounded by tomatoes.

Happy growing.

I am continuously surprised by the ‘summer’ weather that has been so uncharacteristic in our area.  The fall-like weather has been so prevalent  that I am concerned that a few plants (not the tomatoes) are going to start prepping for fall/winter in the middle of August. All this is to say that if this rainy and humid weather persists, it could mean a shortened growing season for tomatoes.

Intermixed with all this humid weather, though, is some beautiful, dry summer heat. Week 17th’s growth was nearly matched by some varieties this week, making trellising a common practice for me. I’m happy to say that a majority of the plants are looking happy and healthy, filling out quite nicely. Large, unripe fruit cover most plants  and over-crowding continues to get worse and worse, so bad that I find myself pruning plants multiple times each week.

This weeks observations: 

Another LB 21-7-4 plant was pulled from plot 1 today, the sickly plant barely clinging to the soil. Once it was pulled I observed that there was nearly no viable root system to the plant, and that what few roots were attached to the plant were rotted and useless. The four plants in plot two, whoever, look as though they added nearly 8 inches of spindly growth over the weekend and don’t look nearly as wilted and deathly. The new leaves are green and healthy for the time being. (The two remaining plants in plot one are on numbered days.)

In looking for signs of verticillium in plants that had shown signs earlier in the season, I was happily let down. The warm and dry conditions seem to have bulked up the plants and for the time being they look to be relatively healthy. With new growth and a nice fruit set, some plants may even produce some nice fruit, only time will tell. I would be surprised if the plants that had struggled with disease earlier in the season yielded equal or higher amounts of fruit that plants of the same variety/growth habit that weren’t sick.

Upon inspection of the plants that I believe to be affected by Pseudomonas spp. I again saw that the progression of the disease has been greatly reduced, if not halted altogether. Growth has continued and unripe fruit are slowly ripening.

I want it to be clearly stated that I don’t believe that the diseases have been eradicated from these plants but that they are just being out competed by the defenses of the plants during the favorable growing conditions. I do expect the plants to show signs of continued stress as the cooler weather becomes more and more frequent.

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A fascinating observation was found in the Crimson Sprinter plants of plot two. Aside from the LB 21-7-4 variety, these three plants have been looking sad and have remained wilted, losing some leaves to wilt every now and then. Today I observed that the plants have begun sprouting large quantities of adventitious roots all along the various stems of each plant. While this trait can be normal in some tomato varieties, the amount at which this is happening is uncharacteristic of a healthy plant. This could be a stress reaction to poor vascular flow and is also common in plants suffering from Pith Necrosis. Since I have first noticed these plants to be sick, I thought that they were suffering from Verticillium wilt as they were showing similar symptoms to the others, now I am not positive that this is the case. Along with the persistent stress I also saw that a few fruit had begun to turn red (earlier than expected) and are rotting from calcium deficiency, aka Blossom End Rot. One thing is for certain, and that is the fact that the pith of each of these plants is rotting out of some stems, and potential obstruction to vascular flow is expected. I will do some more research and talk to some others that know more than myself what their opinion may be for what is going on in these plants.

Aside from all this, things seems to be on schedule. I will continue my observations until harvest time reaches these plants and then it will be time for some completely new fun.

Be sure to stay tuned to what is going on at the Organic Seed Alliance through their website, here.

Best wishes

Here we are again, I hope that this post finds the reader well.

A quick note: The WordPress platform for uploading photos has reached it’s capacity and will not allow me to upload any more pictures. I should be able to find some back up, WordPress storage space, and once I figure that out, I will have the varietal progression photos updated. In the mean time I am continuing my documentation and saving the photos.

It has been a hell of a week for the tomatoes. The weather has been absolutely beautiful, with highs in the upper 80s and sunny/dry for the majority of the week. In that time a few of the healthier varieties have put on well over a foot of new growth, the tallest plant is nearly at my chin (5’2″ ish). And even some of the sicker plants have seemed to fare well in the dry weather, putting on some new growth and a tomato-fruit or two, albeit still stunted. It’s been nice to see some fresh new shoots and bulging tomatoes throughout the plot.

All of this new growth has really put a premium on space, especially due to the cramped spacing that was necessary, due to the extenuating circumstances regarding available farm space. That is to say, the tomatoes are jammed into a small amount of space and now that they are pumping up new growth, over-crowding has become a true factor in this trial. To mitigate this I have been pruning the unnecessary leaves, especially near the bottom of the plants, to allow air flow and sunlight to penetrate deeper into the mass. Although it is fairly dry right now, the summer sun is limited and moisture issues will become a problem before too long, hopefully we will get at least two months before that will need to be addressed.

Aside from the usual varietal photos and plant observation notes, I spent the day pruning and trellising some of the varieties that had a growth spurt over the weekend. I am happy to say that the spread of disease seems to have halted for the time being and after pruning the plants pretty heavily, I feel confident that we will have a very important growth period over the next two weeks (weather permitting).

I did receive both of the pathology results of the plants that I sent into the WSU Extension Lab. I would love to post a photo of the results but that will have to wait until I can upload more photos. The first set of plants that I sent in concerning the mysterious wilting disease came back as positive for Verticillium Wilt… not so mysterious. The fact that there are multiple species of the Verticillium fungi leaves me less surprised that I couldn’t identify the common disease but at least we now know what is to blame. There are multiple plants that I am confident suffer from the Verticillium Wilt, each to a varying degree of severity. 17 plants in total are showing similar symptoms to the plants that were sent into the lab, all of which (except for perhaps 1) are currently putting on new growth.

As for the second pathology report concerning the potential Pith Necrosis, we got a positive ID on a Bacteria, but only to the Genus level, the species wasn’t made clear to me and I expect that the pathologists don’t know for certain. We can be sure, however, that a Pseudomonas bacterium has infected 5 individual plants. At the moment, the spread of this disease has halted within each of the plants; I am somewhat surprised that the plant has potentially stopped the spread of the bacteria for the time being, but that seems to be the case. Nearly all of the infected plant areas have been removed from the field and as far as I can tell, the disease has been kept at bay. *I don’t expect this to be the case for long*. It just shows you how important ideal conditions can be to making a healthy plant.

I want to touch base on the current condition of one variety in particular at this time. Both reps of the LB 21-7-4 variety have suffered through the entire trial. Through wet, warm and humid conditions, the plants all got hit rather hard with Early Blight. The giant burdock leaf shape (‘potato leaf’) of this variety is a great, large surface to catch spores that are floating through the air. With the Early Blight and subsequent removal of the leaves, the plant never quite recovered and is looking deathly ill. This is the case with both reps, all eight of the plants. While the southern plot is looking a shade more alive than the northern, it is only a matter of a short time until they succumb to the elements. I am going to save this variety for a while longer and continue to observe how the plants progress, but I expect to have to remove the plants sooner than later to ensure that they don’t assist in disease transfer. At this time I don’t expect them to yield any fruit so I feel comfortable ending that variety from the trial.

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Both field plots are full of unripe fruit at this time, and I have enjoyed walking the rows, watching the fruit getting bigger and bigger each day. We are very close to the time of harvest! I will be gone for a majority of the week to the east side of Washington for a class field trip to some farming operations over there. I look forward to seeing the plants once I return.

Feel free to email me with any questions.