Alaska- greenhouse tomatoes 2014

[Tania]

Mark,

This is so amazing, I am speechless.

Beautiful pictures, and so good looking tomatoes so early!!!

This is so motivational.

All the best,
Tatiana

[AKmark]

A little more than 5 hours for the sauce. lol

Thanks James, the good weather we had in the spring helped the tomatoes a lot.
Tania, those Cowlick seeds came from you, thanks On one of them I have picked at least 10lbs and a few days ago counted 46 tomatoes still on it, the plant is huge now. About two months ago I took about 25 cuttings from it , and they are fruit producing machines too, but in another greenhouse.

[AKmark]

Here's a few pics I took this morning, and for the most part everything is ok.
I have had some issues to deal with although, grey mold, and aphids in greenhouse 2. I just crank up the fans, and prune plants for mold control, and set the parasitic wasps loose on the aphids. We looked at several leaves last night under the microscope, that were covered with aphids, a few living ones, dying ones, and many dead bodies. It is actually really interesting to look at, anyway... the wasps appear to be winning, I hope.
Look how horrible the leaves look on Caspian Pink, happens every time, but they yield great.

[AKmark]

My new tomato of interest, Delicious, I have never seen anything like it, I estimate about 8lb on a couple of trusses trusses, and another plant is looking like some kind of a beefsteak multiflora freak, I have to pick off many tomatoes on it. They tasted great too.
Here's a pic of Green Giant too.

[AKmark]

Here is a couple of pics of a single Cowlick's in a 20 gallon container, I have picked a lot from it already, and it is ugly but loaded. The plant has been pruned to 4 branches, and most of the tomatoes are around a pound, give or take a couple of ounces.
The pics just don't do this one justice, but all branches are loaded, and the fruits are really looking nice, hardly any cracks now.

[bower]

Mark, I would love to know, what is your day/night temperature regime. You have really hit it spot on for the tomato paradise conditions, fabulous production of these varieties that are not well adapted to cooler climates.

My own greenhouse is unheated, so I am subject to the whims of the sun and the season, but sometimes I have a choice between ventilating more to reduce humidity, or less to increase the temperature... I'm still trying to figure out what is best, and how to tweak what I can for the best results.

[AKmark]

Bower, try night time about 58-6o. Start your seeds early, use warm water until mid May, set containers on something besides the cold ground. During the day I run my vents all of the time when its not raining, once a day even during rain, this helps with grey mold, and plants love the fresh air. Don't be afraid to feed the plants, I have never burned up a tomato plant. The plants I started one month after the plants you have been seeing pictures of, are just starting to bear fruit, early, early.
Another thing I do is lots of cuttings. I have access to one greenhouse until June, so I chop up my favorites of the season and move the cuts in well rooted, they seem to produce much faster than seedlings and I know what to expect from them.
I am also trying to keep plants in small containers longer, this seems to be reducing plant size, but fruit set is awesome to say the least, pics of this coming. I transplant plants from 1 gallon bags, into 10 gallon and bigger, with baby tomatoes already set.
Good luck Bower


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[efisakov]

Great pictures, Mark. Are you fertilizing with fish?

[AKmark]

efisakov, I don't use fish, but maybe I should, they are in every stream around here, good excuse to go fishing too.

[efisakov]

I do, some fish guts and heads in tomato bed. Makes them grow like monsters.

[bower]

Thanks for the night temperature tip, Mark. I don't actually have much if any control over it - but I know the night temp has been colder than that up until recently, and the day temperature between 60 and 70 F. Some varieties will produce at those temperatures but others, little or none.

Several of the plants that were holdouts have started to grow some fruit since the nights went around 58-62 as you said. There have been a few days above 70 as well, and that seems to be the key also for some of them. The warmer nights are getting to be consistent, but the days above 70 are when they really popped. If we have any sun it warms up quickly and then I can tweak the temperature by giving more or less ventilation - I've been ventilating more than heating up because it's been so damp and I thought better to reduce the relative humidity. The breeze is a real cooler this year due to so many bergs.. Warmest greenhouse high this year was 78 F, so far, with full sunshine and the windows opened... It's shaping up like the really bad summer three years ago - all about these huge pieces of Greenland glacier ice shelf that plopped into the ocean and two years later, they've drifted down here and are chillin my tomatoes all season long. Huge plants and little fruit is what we got then, and the horrors of mold...

It's pouring rain and NE winds again today - 50 F out and just holding steady at 60 in the greenhouse, but the forecast is calling for normal summer temperatures and westerlies next week with some sunshine, for as long as it lasts.... I'm going to aim for some higher day temps and close up early if necessary for a warmer night. If the stragglers don't set me some fruit after a few days of that, I'll have to cut em down and try them again some other year.

[AKmark]

Gregori's Altai is looking good very impressed, the trusses are loading up. Green Zebra is looking good too.

[AKmark]

I started Paul Robeson and Blk Prince a bit later, so I am just starting to see ripe ones, but they are loading up.

[AKmark]

This is my greenhouse that is just a cold frame, I kept plants in smaller containers for longer, not by choice, this reduced plant size, but the fruit is setting as normal. These were transplanted around June 1st. There are Early Girls, Bloody Butcher, Jet Star, Gregori's, Green Zebra, Trust, Charger, and Blk Cherry cuttings in this one,

[Goldie321]

Wow, gorgeous! Going to be starting seedlings for Florida's second growing season - the fall - pretty soon. Will try an different variety. Amish Paste didn't produce very well. Nice tomatoes but not a lot of them.