From the Fields

It's kind of funny... but.... when I started farming, I had literally never grown anything before. Life in Corporate America ~ and (at the time) raising a daughter alone ~ left me no time to play in the dirt. I have long since made up for that. Oddly enough though, I don't know how to do anything "small." What do I mean by that? Well ~ the first time I planted tomatoes on our farm, I put in a field of about 2 acres. All heirloom tomatoes and several varieties. As a result of my mass plantings - I have a hard time scaling back! Talk to me about field irrigation and I feel comfortable enough - but ask me about container planting or a small backyard garden & I'm mystified. Crazy, I know.

Anyway... there are a few things I've learned regarding growing tomatoes en masse! One very important ingredient is consistent moisture. Now I don't mean to the point of waterlogging your plants. Just consistent soil moisture. If you take a soil probe and extract some soil down to about 2 feet, you should be able to form ribbons with the soil. What you don't want it a big ball of dirt that sticks together! Too much water! One handy device I've implemented out in the field is a Tensiometer:

The tensiometer helps me better understand moisture content and water scheduling. I do, however, still double check with a soil probe to make sure I'm on track!

Another important part of organic farming is the incoporation of beneficial insects into our planning process. One of the steps we take at our farm is the inter-planting of Sweet Allyssum into our tomato rows:

We're always happy to see the lady bugs scattered here & there keeping the aphid population to a minimum! Which of course helps us with other field crops as well... like our beautiful basil & zucchini which are finally making a push since the weather is starting to warm up!