Tomato Growing - Organically |
| How to grow organic, pesticide free, rich ruby red tomatoes (with a little help from Annie of Rozelle, and the Department of Agriculture "The Vegetable Home Gardener".) Here are Annie's tomatoes: They are grown by Annie using only organic fertilizers and no pesticides. The tomato bushes tend to develop wilt well into the fruiting season, but by that time the crop is partially harvested and loss minimal. Annie will pay more attention to crop rotation or change the soil to minimize this problem in future. But she has no problem with caterpillars or the dreaded fruit fly. How does she do it ? - Here is the secret !!! Just after the tomatoes are formed, Annie encloses the clump of tiny tomatoes in a light brown paper bag - something like a readily available sandwich bag. She ties the open end of the bag closed around the stem of the bunch with a piece of twist tie, and finally tears off a small piece (about 1cm) of one corner of the bag. This seems to let the tomatoes breathe and excess moisture escape, but the caterpillar moths, and fruit fly are not smart enough to find the tiny hole. Annie says she waters her tomatoes as usual - the bags get wet but dry out. When the tomatoes are just about ripe she remove the bag and harvests them. The specimens Annie showed to us were certainly pest and disease free, and look delicious. The tedious task of enclosing the tomatoes in paper bags, and checking their progress would not be attractive to a commercial grower - but could be well worthwhile and rewarding for the home gardener. Annie also said she pays special attention to pruning her tomatoes - and below is the
diagram from the Department of Agriculture booklet (no longer in print) illustrating how
to prune the laterals : This page produced for the interest of Greengold Garden Concepts home vegetable growers, with the co-operation of Annie from Rozelle, and the Department of Agriculture. |
