I have been getting used to using our new greenhouses. (In actuality, they are giant cold frames.) I have noticed that the crops closest to the door are smaller and, well, not quite as happy as the other ones in the back. I keep the door open all the time, so I am pretty sure the initial breeze is making the difference. I will try and keep the door partially open and see if the tomatoes like it better. The plants are setting fruit and I just finished suckering (pruning) them.
Suckers are the branches that sprout in the crotch of the main stem and a branch, if you don’t take those suckers off they will cause the plant to produce a lot of little tomatoes. Remember that a plant’s sole purpose is to reproduce or make seed, it is not concerned with the size of the fruit, but just making seed. So as a farmer, I try to manage the plants’ desire to produce seed by controlling how much fruit it produces, which forces the plant to put more energy into fewer fruits. Suckering makes the tomatoes larger since they are getting more attention from the plant. And just when the plant thinks they have produced enough seed, I pick the fruit and put in your box of good☺. By pruning to limit tomato production and timely harvesting, I am able to work with the tomatoes’ desire to make more seed and keep producing more fruit over a longer harvest.
In the other greenhouse, I am growing sugar snap peas, but don’t ask me why I am doing that though. On a whim, I planted some extra seed from my field plantings. Now I need to get busy trellising them before Jack, in Jack and the Bean Stalk, switches to climbing pea vines.
We still have a long ways to go before any tomatoes or peas will be ready, but when they are, they will be coming your way!
Growing good food,
