#Tomatoes/MotherEarthNews
2 messages in this thread
The current issue of Mother Earth News has an article featuring late winter
gardening with plastic sheet tunnels. I have the following questions: 1.
What is the earliest I could set out tomatoes with this kind of setup? 2.
There is a slitted type of plastic covering that I recall seeing in a
Gardener's Supply catalog. Would that be better than solid plastic
sheeting or would the cold present too much of a problem (I forgot to
mention that I am in the Catskills in Upstate N.Y.)? Thanks for any light
you can shed on the subject.
Cynthia (she who counts her tomatoes before they're
plucked)
Cynthia, the plastic tunnels alone are not much protection for tomatoes.
They work well for cold crops such as broc, caul, cabbage, spinach,
lettuce, etc. You have some options though. Here is the range. Lay black
plastic over the bed, before setting up the plastic tunnel. That gives
your roots a 5 or 6 degree jump. Then you place plastic gallon jugs of
water between the plants to add a degree or two of protection. The
ultimate is Walls O Water, over black plastic, under a plastic tunnel.
Then you can put tomatoes out before your last frost. They will grow
slowly, but they will grow. Otherwise, the plastic tunnels alone only allow
tomatoes to go in a week or two earlier than normal.