Tomato Culture: A Practical Treatise on the TomatoTracy, W. W. (William Warner)
Science
Tomato Culture: A Practical Treatise on the Tomato
Tracy, W. W. (William Warner)
Tomatoes
=Cold-frames.=--In locations where tomatoes are much grown large areas
are devoted to cold-frames covered either by sash or cloth curtains.
Sash give much better protection from cold and on this account are more
desirable, particularly where very early fruiting is wanted, but their
first cost is much greater and the labor of attending to beds covered by
them is much more than where cloth is used. Sash-covered beds should be
of single width and run east and west, but if the beds are covered with
cloth it is better that they be double width (12 feet) and run north and
south. The front of the single and the sides of the double width beds
should be 8 to 10 inches high, held firmly erect by stakes and perfectly
parallel, both horizontally and vertically, with the back or with the
central support. This should be 6 inches higher than the front. The
cross strips, when sash are used, should be made of a 3-inch horizontal
and a 1-1/2-inch vertical strip of 1-inch lumber nailed together very
firmly in the form of an inverted T, the vertical pieces projecting 1
inch at each end and resting on the front and back of the bed and
forming supports and guides for the sash. Some growers use vertical
strips as heavy as 2x3 or 4 inches for stepping across the beds. When
the plants are to be taken to the field, the sash and guides can be
easily removed. (Fig. 15.)
Ground to be covered with cold-frames should be made very friable and
rich by repeated plowing and working in of a liberal dressing of
well-rotted stable manure and wood ashes. In southwestern New Jersey,
where immense areas of early tomatoes are grown, the soil of the beds
for a depth of about 6 inches is removed and a layer 3 to 5 inches deep
of well-rotted stable manure is placed in. That made of a mixture of
manure from horses, cattle and hogs is preferred. It is important that
the manure be so well rotted that it will not heat, and so dry that it
will not become pasty when tramped into a firm, level layer. On this
they place a layer of nearly 3 inches deep of rich, friable, moderately
compact soil and prick out the plants into this. The roots soon bind the
manure and soil together and by cutting through the manure so as to form
blocks one can carry the plants to the fields with but very little
disturbance of the root.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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