1.0 Mil Red Plastic for Tomatoes

[catjac1975]

I'm not sure if anything works as good as a fish head! My son has some frozen for me, hoping that works as good as the fresh ones. I just have to get them deep enough so the coons don't smell 'em.

The one thing I noticed about some of the trials with red plastic, some report that the tomatoes get bigger, but there are less of them. Or they have more marketable tomatoes earlier. Some don't use other mulching methods in the trial, only different colored plastic, or different brands of red. Then, the trials are in different climates... anyway, hard to see consistency with results when I am SO picky...

It the tomatoes are bigger but, less of them, you could argue that reducing blossoms or small fruit would give the same results. I prefer bigger to more when it comes to tomatoes.

 

[thistlebloom]

Lavender, last year I went to china town to get the fish heads and froze them. Actually, this time they weren't really heads. They were a mixture of guts and head parts? I didn't want to defrost that stuff so I used an ice pick to break up pieces to place in the hole. The planting hole is about a foot deep and I also add crushed egg shells, organic fertilizer, an aspirin, and bone or blood meal. Can't remember which one.

Mary

Mary, is the aspirin for the fishes head?
I think if somebody buried my head in a hole 1 foot deep I'd need one too!

 

[Lavender2]

It the tomatoes are bigger but, less of them, you could argue that reducing blossoms or small fruit would give the same results. I prefer bigger to more when it comes to tomatoes.

I think the conclusion of that trial was that the plastic mulch increased the soil temp earlier, causing earlier blooms and less foliage. Sort of kicking the plant into production mode earlier. They didn't really have a conclusion as to why there was less production in number. Yet another trial concluded that red mulched tomatoes produced more early large marketable fruit, but overall production gain was minimal.

Of course, tomatoes are only going to get as big as the variety you choose, but I have found that removing suckers and some of the foliage helps a lot with production. Sometimes the first to ripen are a bit smaller, but overall I get good sized tomatoes. My goal really is a big harvest late Aug/early Sept. for canning.

 

[catjac1975]

I have tried many things for earlier tomatoes, the red plastic, wall of water, growing in a tunnel greenhouse. For all the extra effort it does not seem to give you more than one week earlier. At least for tomatoes. I have great luck forcing summer squash in a cloche for much earlier fruit.

 

[ninnymary]

Thistle, you are too funny. The aspirin supposedly triggers the plants natural defenses against harmful bacteria, fungi and viruses. This is according to Cynthia from Love Apple Farm, who grows over 100 different heirloom tomatoe varieties for sale. She also recommends making a tea with worm castings and adding one and a half aspirin to the spray solution. It's supposed to improve plants growth.

Mary

 

[bobm]

That aspirin is to cure the plant's headache when in bed.

 

[Lavender2]

I have tried many things for earlier tomatoes, the red plastic, wall of water, growing in a tunnel greenhouse. For all the extra effort it does not seem to give you more than one week earlier. At least for tomatoes. I have great luck forcing summer squash in a cloche for much earlier fruit.

The only early tomatoes around here are in the greenhouse down the road. Toms and peppers are so dependent on warm weather. I read somewhere that cold temps for peppers may stunt them for the entire season.
One of my friends that I give tomato and pepper plants to always plants them earlier than I do, by a week or two, sometimes even more. I wait until low temps are around 50* in the 10 day forecast. He has never beat me in the first ripe tomato race. I could seed a few earlier and grow them in pots, lugging them out on warm days ... as I have threatened many times. Maybe this will be the year.. or maybe I'll just enjoy the anticipation.

 

[catjac1975]

Once I grew a couple of big plants early in my green house. I put the large plants out in May with the rest. They already had set some tomatoes while in the greenhouse. I did get some early tomatoes but as I recall they were unimpressive. They certainly impressed the neighbors.

 

[so lucky]

Hey! Thanks for the great idea, Mary. My DH has some old fish in the freezer--some trout that he caught about 5 years ago, and some little sunfish that I think he was going to use for bait, and some gross white fillets that air got to, and frosted them up. I am so excited to have a place to use these now! And he'll never miss them, lol!

 

[Jared77]

I figured the aspirin was to deal with all the nagging the plant gets.

"Why are you not blooming yet?"

"What's with all the suckers?"

"Last year you already set fruit by now"