Best Soil for Home Gardening

Of the 10 largest yields of which I have personal knowledge and which ran from 1,000 to 1,200 bushels of fruit (acceptable for canning and at least two-thirds of it of prime market quality) an acre, four were grown on soils classed as clay loam, two on heavy clay—one of which was so heavy that clay for making brick was subsequently taken from the very spot which yielded the most and best fruit—one on what had been a black ash swamp, one on a sandy muck, two on a sandy loam and one on a light sand made very rich by heavy, annual manuring for several years. They were all perfectly watered and drained, in good heart, liberally fertilized with manures of proved right proportions for each field, and above all, the fields were put into and kept in perfect tilth by methods suited to each case; while the plants used were of good stock and so grown, set and cultivated that their growth was never stopped or hardly checked for even a day. These conditions as to soil and culture, together with seasons of exceptionally favorable weather, resulted in uniformly large crops on these widely different soils.

Here [at home] we seldom have a choice, but no one need despair and abandon effort, no matter what the soil may be, for it is quite possible to raise an abundant home supply on any soil and that, too, without inordinate cost and labor. Some of the most prolific plants and the finest fruits I have ever seen were grown in a village lot which five years before had been filled in to a depth of 3 to 10 feet with clay, coal ashes and refuse from a brick and coal yard. In another instance magnificent fruit was grown in a garden where the soil was originally made up chiefly of sawdust mixed with sand, drawn on a foundation of sawmill edgings so as to raise it above the water of a swamp.

Where one has to contend with such conditions he should make an effort to create a friable soil with a supply of humus by adding the material needed. A very few loads, sometimes even a single load, of clay or sand will greatly change the character of the soil of a sufficient area to grow the one or two dozen plants necessary for a family supply. In the two cases mentioned, the owner of the first named garden used both sand and sawdust to lighten his soil, while the second drew a great many loads of clay on his.

The Lifetime of a Tomato

The tomato could be described as a short-lived perennial, but its span of life is somewhat variable. Under favorable conditions it will develop from starting seed to first ripe fruit in from 85 to 120 days of full sunshine with a constant day temperature of from 75 to 90° F., and with one from 15 to 20° F. lower at night. The plants will ordinarily continue in full fruit for about 50 to 60 days, after which they generally become so exhausted by excessive production of fruit and the effects of diseases to which they are usually subject that their root action and sap circulation become weaker and weaker until they die from starvation. From Philadelphia southward gardeners expect that spring set plants will thus exhaust themselves and die by late summer, and they sow seed in late spring or early summer for plants on which they depend for late summer and fall crops.

Under some conditions, particularly in the Gulf states and in California, tomato plants will not only grow to a much greater size than normal, but will continue to thrive and bear fruit for a longer time. Such a plant grown in Pasadena, Cal., was said to have been in constant bearing for over 10 months. Again, sometimes plants that have produced a full crop of fruits will start new sets of roots and leaves and produce a second and even a third crop, each, however, being produced on new branches and as a result of a fresh set of roots, those which produced the preceding crop having died and disappeared. The period of development, 85 to 120 days of full sunshine at a temperature above 75° F., has been given. The full sunshine and high temperature are essential to such rapid development, and in so far as there is a lack of sunshine from clouds or shade, or the day temperature falls below 75° F. the period will be lengthened, so that in the greater part of the United States the elapsed time between starting seed to ripened fruit is usually as much as from 120 to 150 days and often even longer.

Damping Off

Young plants in seed-beds often perish suddenly from a rot of the stem at the surface of the ground. This occurs as a rule in dull, cloudy weather among plants kept at too high a temperature, crowded too closely in the beds or not sufficiently ventilated. Several kinds of fungi are capable of causing damping off, under such conditions.

Preventive measures are of the first importance. Since old soil is often full of fungous spores left by previous crops, it is the wisest plan to use sterilized soil for the seed-bed. When the young plants are growing, constant watchfulness is required to avoid conditions that will weaken the seedlings and favor the damping off fungi.

Watering and ventilation are the two points that require especial skill. Watering should be done at midday, to allow the beds to drain before night, and only enough water for the thorough moistening of the soil should be applied. Ventilation should be given every warm day as the temperature and sunshine will permit, but the plants must be protected from rain and cold winds. Work the surface of the soil to permit aeration and do not crowd the plants too closely in the beds. If damping off develops something can be done to check it by scattering a layer of dry, warm sand over the surface, and by spraying the bed thoroughly with weak Bordeaux or by applying dry sulphur and air-slaked lime.

Fruit at the Least Expenditure of Labor

When this is the desire, many growers omit the hotbed and even the pricking out, sowing the seed as early as they judge the plants will be safe from frost, and broadcast, either in cold-frames or in uncovered beds, at the rate of 50 to 150 to the square foot and transplanting directly to the field. Or they may be advantageously sown in broad drills either by the use of the pepper-box arrangement suggested on page 60, or a garden drill adjusted to sow a broad row. In Maryland and the adjoining states, as well as in some places in the West, most of the plants for crops for the canners are grown in this way and at a cost of 40 cents or even less a 1,000.

The seed should be sown so that it will be from ¼ to ½ inch apart and the plants thinned as soon as they are up so that they will be at least ½ inch apart. Where seed is sown early with no provision for protection from the frost it is always well to make other sowings as soon as the last begins to break ground in order to furnish reserve plants, if the earlier sown lots be destroyed by frost. Others even sow the seed in place in the field, thinning out to a single one in a hill when the plants are about 2 inches high. Some of the largest yields I have ever known have been raised in this way, but the fruit is late in maturing and generally the method is not so satisfactory as starting the plants where they can be given some protection, and transplanting them to the field.

Point Rot

This trouble, called also "blossom-end rot," and "black-rot," occurs on the green fruit at various stages of development, as shown above. It begins at the blossom end as a sunken brown spot,which gradually enlarges until the fruit is rendered worthless. The decayed spot is often covered in its later stages by a dense black fungous growth (Alternaria fasciculata (C. & E.) J. & G. syn. Macrosporium tomato Cke.), formerly thought to be the cause of the rot, but now known to be merely a saprophyte. Point-rot sometimes occurs in greenhouses, but is more common in field culture. It is one of the most destructive diseases of the tomato, but its nature is not fully worked out, and a uniformly successful treatment is unknown. It has been thought to be due to bacterial invasion, but complete demonstrations of that fact have not yet been published. The physiological conditions of the plant appear to be important. The disease is worst in dry weather and light soils, where the moisture supply is insufficient, and irrigation is beneficial in such cases. Spraying does not control point-rot so far as present evidence goes.

Tomato Plants from Cuttings

Tomato plants from cuttings may be easily grown, but such plants, when planted in the open ground, do not yield as much fruit as seedlings nor is this apt to be of so good quality; so that, in practice, seedlings only are used for outside crops. Under glass, plants from cuttings do relatively better and some growers prefer them, as they commence to fruit earlier and do not make so rank a growth.

Seedlings can be most easily started and grown, at least up to the time of pricking out, in light, well-ventilated greenhouses, and many large growers have them for this specific purpose. Houses for starting tomato plants should be so situated as to be fully exposed to the sun and not shaded in any way; be provided with heating apparatus by which a night temperature of 60 and up to one of 80° F. in the day can be maintained even in the coldest weather and darkest days likely to occur for 60 to 90 days before the plants can be safely set out in the open field; and the houses should be well glazed and ventilated.

Houses well suited for this purpose are often built of hotbed sash with no frame but a simple ridge-board and sides 1 or 2 feet high, head room being gained by a central sunken path and the sash so fastened in place that they may be easily lifted to give ventilation or entirely removed to give full exposure to sunshine, or for storing when the house is not needed. Hotbed sash 3x6 feet with side-bars projecting at the ends to facilitate fastening them in place are usually kept by dealers, who offer them at from $1.50 to $3 each, according to the quality of the material used.

A hot water heating apparatus is the best, but often[Pg 50] one can use a brick furnace or an iron heating stove, connected with a flue of sewer or drain-pipe that will answer very well and cost much less. It requires but 6 to 10 square feet of bench to start plants enough for an acre, and a house costing only from $25 to $50 will enable one to grow plants enough for 20 acres up to the stage when they can be pricked out into sash or cloth-covered cold-frames in which they can be grown on to the size best suited for setting in the field. When a grower plants less than 5 acres it is often better for him to sow his seed in flats or shallow boxes and arrange to have these cared for in some neighboring greenhouse for the 10 to 20 days before they can be pricked out.

Downy mildew

Downy mildew (Phytopthora infestans DeBy.), the cause of the late blight of potatoes, will attack tomatoes during cool and very moist weather, which greatly favors its development. Such outbreaks sometimes occur to a limited extent in New England and serious losses are reported on the winter crop in southern California, but the disease has never been troublesome in other sections of the country, as it cannot develop in dry or hot weather. It affects the tomato as it does the potato, forming on the leaves dark, discolored spots, which spread rapidly under favorable conditions, killing the foliage in a few days. The fruit is also attacked and becomes covered with the mildew-like spore-bearing threads of the fungus. Bordeaux mixture properly applied is an efficient preventive.