TOMATO-CULTURE.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume VI, Issue 1, 15 January 1913, Page 72

TOMATO-CULTURE.

W. A. Boucher.

Complaints have been received from many tomato-growers of want of success in keeping their plants free from disease, unsatisfactory crops being the natural result. It is a common mistake to overlook the fact that the tomato is naturally a gross feeder. To apply to such a plant the conditions frequently found in a tomato-house—a- free welldrained soil heavily manured, frequent and heavy watering, together with excessive —only tends to produce rank, sappy growth and large, tender foliage. Susceptibility to disease is often promoted by the' early forcing of the plants, which are overcrowded • in the propagation-boxes, with the result that they become drawn up and weak, instead of being stocky and strong. These plants are then set out in soil that has been overmanured. Many growers seem to be under the impression that the soil should be well manured' before the plants are set out, and, in ' applying the' manurial treatment to the small area contained in a tomato-house, they are altogether too liberal. Where the quantities of manures applied ’to some houses have been worked out at the rate per square yard, it has been found that the amounts have been so large as to be actually injurious to the plants rather than beneficial.. Instead of the manure being carefully proportioned per square yard of the area under cultivation, the manure, possibly on account of the very smallness of the area, is not unfrequently measured out by the bucket, and accordingly applied entirely by guesswork. This too - liberal treatment of the soil is frequently followed by heavy watering combined with excessive heat, producing unnatural conditions which tend to lower instead of increase the vitality of the plants. The general result, then, is much increased susceptibility to various diseases.

Better results would often be derived by raising and planting out only sturdy, stocky . plants in soil that is not too rich, and applying the manure after the plants have • commenced to blossom and at intervals during the season; by reducing the quantity of water and increase the cultivation of the soil; by keeping down the heat with plenty of top ventilation; and . by, as far as possible, avoiding the use of stable manure as a mulch. With regard to this last condition, cultivation of the soil is . much to be preferred to any mulch of decaying vegetable matter that may be used as a menas of retaining the moisture in ' the soil. , Decaying vegetable matter in a tomato-house may be regarded as distinctly contributing to the difficulty of keeping fungus diseases well under control.