Hello, my name is Caleb Poppe and I am 2019’s SURF/NOVIC Tomato Trial Student representative. I am a sophomore at The Evergreen State College where I am studying small/mid scale organic farming, and I am interested in learning more of the soil sciences. I look forward to carrying out this project and progressing through the life cycle of many tomato plants.

Our goal for this project is to study the different tomato-plant pests and diseases of our region and how they affect organic tomato growth, tomato yields as well as their flavor. We received thirteen varieties of tomato seeds to be used as the study subjects, and these were sown into a 1020 seedling flat last Friday, April 12th, thus starting their journey to producing shoots and fruiting bodies that will provide us with the study material we seek!

The tomato varieties are as follows: (In order of rows sown)

-Red Racer         -Mountain Merit          -Frederick          -Damsel F10G         -Pilu KS         -Mountain Gem

-Silet Z      -Galahad        -JT0 1021         -EZ2            -LB 21-7-4      -Crimson Sprinter      -JT0 1007

Over the weekend, multiple varieties had already begun to sprout; the Red Racer (2 sprouts), the Damsel (2 sprouts), the Galahad (2 sprouts), and the LB 21-7-4 (5 sprouts) were the early risers.

The tomato starts will stay in the green house for at least four weeks so that we can get an accurate number of viable seedlings, before they are sent out to the field. In the mean time, bed preparations and trellis construction are underway!