Tried to perfect environment

[AKmark]

In Alaska the cost effectiveness of starting tomatoes early is usually not worth it, so most like myself, migrated to early varieties that produce decent tomatoes during a lackluster AK summer. We always looked for varieties that will work reliably and fit an AK environment. Yah right! For the good stuff, trying beefsteaks, etc. usually resulted in 3-10 ugly tomatoes that did not taste that great anyway.
This year I changed my thinking, finally, and figured out a way to tailor my environment, INSTEAD, to better suit the famous strains I usually only got to read about, and my results have been excellent.
First; I have many acres of wood and to save on gas heat, put in a wood furnace that utilizes duct for its transfer of heat. I ran a stem down the middle and both sides, along the floor under benches, and a stem under a water tank to heat my 42 degree well water to something more comfortable to a strain from West Virginia, let say. At 85,000 btu's, the stove helped to eliminate the cold dead air pockets in my greenhouse, and saved a fortune on heat. I put the plants in smart pots on benches above the duct, which also kept their roots toasty. I also found I could raise the temperature of 300 gallons of water about 25-30 degrees over night, and I think that was a major factor in my results. The stove also has two chambers so the exterior is not that hot, I have plants growing all around it.
The downfall; hard work, get up in 20 below zero at 4.00 am to stock a stove with wood, cut and haul wood, hard too.
Good part; I can get decent yields off of Brandywines, and great yields off of others never attempted, nothing disappointed yield wise, had several upside suprises though.
Here is something else I have pondered, I honestly think cold Alaskan nights affect the taste of some southern type tomatoes, on a vine, just like a fridge does a picked one. What do others in colder climates like mine think of this? I made sure my gas heat clicked on at 63 degrees, and I am happy with the taste of all but 3 out of 44 tested so far this year, and some are just like the ad said, deeeelicious.