The weather for the last week was indecisive and quick to transition from 80 and sunny to 60 and rainy, giving the spring crops a little of the best from both worlds, I suppose. That being said, we have been receiving nothing but great spring conditions and I am eager to get the tomatoes into the ground.

The first item on my agenda for the week was to address the nutrient deficiency that the tomatoes were showing with-in their individual trays. To address this issue I added a water-soluble, organic fish meal fertilizer that I watered into the plants. This application will be more that sufficient to carry the plants over to field transplanting.

I was able to make some tangible progress on the planting bed this week as well. I added the feather meal field amendment (12-0-0) to both beds at 7 lbs. a bed and incorporated that into the top 4-6 inches of the soil. After the amendments were added, I constructed and positioned the header for the drip irrigation and laid the drip tape for both planting beds; 2 drip lines for either planting bed will ensure even and consistent watering to all the tomato plants.

The last portion of bed prep that I need to get done before the tomatoes can be transplanted is the laying of solar mulch over both beds, which I plan to have this finished by the end of this week. In the mean time I will continue working on the experiment design and more specifically the mapping of which tomato varieties will be planted where.