TOMATOES, INDOORS AND OUT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23673, 3 December 1938, Page 10

TOMATOES, INDOORS AND OUT

SOME DETAILS OF CULTURE ENCOURAGEMENT OF GROWTH Even in unheated houses, tomatoes are well advanced and fruiting freely; but it must not be imagined that growers’ troubles are now at an end. On the contrary, it would be much closer to the truth to say that they are only just beginning. It is with warmer conditions and a house filled with growth that disease begins to make its appearance, while the question of feeding must now enter largely into consideration. There is no crop which pays more for judicious feeding than do tomatoes. At the same time, there are few plants to which excess is more harmful, and the use of home made, ill-balanced concoctions. Perhaps the commonest mistage amongst amateurs is that of overdosing the plants with rich nitrogenous manures. These, it is true, do encourage really luxuriant growth, but they will not promote fruitfulness. Where plants are growing in good compost, only one topdressing is required, to a depth of about two inches and it should be comprised of equal parts of old and thoroughly rotted manure, such as that from a spent mushroom or hotbed, and loam. In actual fact, this dressing is given not so much to enrich the rooting medium as to enlarge the root system of the plants. Tomatoes are very readily induced to form fresh roots up the stem, and these will do much to promote vigour at a time when it is mos i required. USE AND ABUSE OF FERTILISERS Soakings of weak liquid manure, in place of clear water, are quite permissible from the time the fruit forms, but bear in mind that these must be well diluted to about the colour of pale ale, and they should be given in just the same quantity or as water was previously applied With regard to fertilisers, there can be no doubt that the best procedure is to use a properly-balanced mixture, such as can be purchased from all seedsmen and specialists. Time and again it is urged that the mixing of balanced fertilisers is a job for a chemist, and not for the unskilled amateur, and that is a statement which can hardly be too often repeated. Nor should quick-acting fertilisers be used indiscriminately. A light dose, once a fortnight or three weeks, will do much to promote sturdy growth, especially when the plants are in full crop and labouring under greatest strain. REMOVAL OF SIDE SHOOTS Continual attention must, of couse, be paid to side shooting, for it is sheer waste of the plant’s energies to allow these unwanted growths to attain any size before they are removed. At least once a week the whole of the plants should be gone over carefully and thoroughly side shooted and tied in, paying attention at the same time to stake any large trusses which look as though they may require some support. With warmer weather, increasing attention, too. must be paid to ventilation. No degree of heat we are likely to experience in this country will' harm the tomatoes, providing they are given an abundant supply of fresh air. Close, stuffy conditions they will never tolerate, and such are simply an invitation to the

dreaded leaf mould disease. It is only in stuffy and overcrowded conditions that it is likely to prove troublesome. Nor will a good set be obtained, even through hand fertilising is practised, for the pollen grains will quite probably be so damp as to cling together and refuse to disperse. TWO COMMON TROUBLES Two other very common troubles with indoor tomatoes which may well be mentioned are green back and blossom end fruit rot; The former, with its patches of dark green around the stalk end of the fruit, must be familiar to most growers. This is the result of one thing lack of potash in the soil, and at the very first signs of its appearance. the plants should be watered with a solution of sulphate of potash. One half-ounce to the gallon of water is Quite strong enough, and one pint per plant per week will be sufficient to arrest the trouble. Blossom end fruit is not a disease; it is due to the plants having received a chec 1 some weeks before, invariably dryness at . the roots. Hence it will be seen that it is of the utmost importance that watering should be regularly and carefully carried out. and that the plants are never allowed to suffer in the slightest degree from drought. There is only one thing to do with affected fruits, and that is to remove and burn them. Outdoor plants are at the moment of writing making little headway, for it needs warmer weather to induce them to grow with real freedom. Once they do start, however, thev progress with surprising rapidity. Here, again, the same operations, such £.„ side shooting and tying must be regularly attended to, though, luckily, there is little or nothing to trouble over in the way of disease. Most tomato troubles are confined to plants growing under glass. A close look-out must, however, be kept for aphides and other pests. At the very first signs of their presence, recourse must at once be made to spraying with a good insecticide. Bear in mind, too, that one spraying is not sufficient to account for greenfly, for, though all the adults on the plants may be killed, they are still capable of producing living young. Do it three or four times allowing an interval of two or three days to elapse between each application. How many trusses should be allowed to develop on each plant depends chiefly on the site in which they are growing. In very favoured gardens, where growth is forward, they will develop four or five—in the open it is seldom that they can be depended upon to ripen more than three. It -is always wise policy to stop as soon as the required number have set, thus concentrating the plants’ energies. Careful Feeding Required As a rule tomatoes grown outdoors do not require the same amount of feeding as indoor specimens. For one thing, they invariably have a much greater root-run. Top-dressings are not essential, but, unless in very rich soil, it will be all to the good to drench occasionally with liquid manure, and also to give just one or two dressings of a good fertiliser. These, however, should only be started after the fruits have commenced to swell. Given beforehand, they will, in all probability, encourage super-abun-dant foliage growth, much of it at the expense of the fruits. Outdoor plants are fairly free from pests and diseases, but if the autumn is cold and wet, late blight potato disease is very likely to attack the fruits while still green and undeveloped. Drier conditions are the preventive, secured by placing frame lights in front of the plants.