We usually have field tomatoes by 7/4th in IN, 150 miles SE of Chicago. I've heard that red plastic help tomatoes ripened. I don't have hoophouse either, but then again, I don't live as far as north as you do.

My toms are usually 70-80 day tomatoes. Maybe a short season tomato like Siletz?

Marla

thanks marla, siletz is new to me did you have pretty good luck?,we tried 4th of july hybrid a cople years ago and had some tomatos around july 20. boy, would we like to bring some to the market 3 weeks erlier, we would get top money for them as long as they taste good. we hire marks boy to plant everthing because we cant bend over as we are both verry obese.maybe we could get him to lay some kind of row plastec?do you think that would help some. frankly im ready to can this garden thing. we not make a profit yet in 5 years. Nick

To be perfectly honest, if you haven't made a profit in 5 years, it is time. If you were filling out taxes as a business, the IRS only allows a business to take a loss 3 out of 5 yrs. Anything more than that, they declare it a hobby, and you can only take the loss up to the amount you make.

Plastic mulch, with irrigation piping under, will help, both with warming the ground plus less weeds. Just make sure that the ground is totally weed free before laying the plastic, otherwise the plastic will also warm the weed seed and make it grow faster also.

I tried Siletz 1 year, not great production, and also a smaller tomato fruit. Most of the early tomatoes are smaller fruit. We have to decide either early or large fruit, very seldom both.

Let me look at some of my research books, and I might be able to give you a better answer and reasonable priced source. Give me alittle bit of time.

Marla

Perhaps one of these
Early Girl, 52 days, 4-6 oz fruits
Early Wonder, 55 days, 6 oz dark pink
Jetsetter, 64 days, 8 oz
Matina, 58 days, 2-4 oz heirloom from Germany
Oregon Spring, 58 days, med-lg that is nearly seedless
Red Rocket, 60 days, 8-10 oz
Siletz, 52 days, 10-12 oz

These are all from tomatogrowers.com. Good company that has quality seeds, downside they're not the cheapest.

Hubby and I are both looking for other sites for you.

Marla

Here's another thought, (I'm overweight also and getting older). If you had a place that was raised, like a bench or raised bed, and you had a source of large black containers to plant in. The raised idea would make things easier to bend over (my back kills me after a short time), and the black would warm the roots to help the plants to grow. Also a frost blanket when needed, would help.

Good luck

Marla

Marla ,we make a small profit on the produce operation but we repair electronic devices and do sales of custom wood products. our MICH/FED taxes are quite complex but we get it done on time and correctly
you sound pretty familiar with the business revenue/loss tax codes. your an attorney or You must have had some hard years .
i think we will go with siletz along with are early girl and take are chances,thanks,mark

marla, i am over 50 and my health isnt that great either.
tomatos are are worst luck lately . to much heat ,or to cold or lack of rain or way to much rain. our first couple of years tomatos were great. we do rotate our crops yearly but mother nature has to co-operate also.
i luv your idea about the oregon spring also and i think i have some 3 year old seed i could try

mark

I experimented last year with early toms on black plastic. Planted about ten early types and was mostly pleased with the results. Like Marla said most of the fruit is smaller - some not much bigger than large cherry types. I transplanted mid April (I'm about 30 miles north of Effingham in Illinois for a geographic reference) and started having fruit mid-June but was into July before had enough to do much marketing. Of all the types I planted Oregon Spring and Siletz were the best - respectable size and yield and pretty good flavor (not as good as the traditional mid-season types but a whale of a lot better than the plastic toms at the store). Interestingly, once the weather got hot they pretty much shut down but started back blooming into the fall and set a second crop in late October/early November. This year the plan is to set into low tunnels a little earler attempting to be producing a couple weeks earler.

Tom

i grow oregon spring tomatoes in IRT plastic under low tunnels and if i can get them in the ground by 4/20 i'll get ripe ones by 7/1. the weather needs to be slightly warmer than normal. we have frost here as late as the end of may. i remove the covers 6/1. low tunnels are just some 9 gauge wire cut into about 6' lengths that span a 4' bed while making a hoop shape and then are covered with agribon floating row cover material. the edges are covered with dirt. the only time this hasn't held up was to a hail storm.

randy, what state are you in. give me your description and opinion of the oregon spring. i am curious . we planted a few a few years back but they got mixed in with some others and we had smorgasboard toms.

I my opinion, the only way you will successfully and consistently get early tomatoes is with a High Tunnels.

I have been doing this for 8 years now, 4 years with tunnels and 4 years without tunnel. The 4 years I grew without tunnels, the the earliest I had enough tomatoes to sell was July 17th, that year I planted them out on April 20th. The following year, I planted out on the same date and froze some 10-12 days later.

Now in the tunnels I start planting around March 25th and start harvesting tomatoes to sell around the June 22nd. This year I am going to experiment with an inner cover of plastic, row cover, heat sinks (2 liter bottles of black water) and plant plants in temporary cold frames. I am hoping for June 10th (a birthday present for my Dad). If all goes as planned, I am going to be planting them out around March 12-15th. I am starting seeds this week!

For the last three years, my largest harvests, out of my tunnels, as been around the 15-22nd of July. So, using the tunnels, I am picking the most tomatoes when everyone else is just starting. Since I have more tunnel space this year, I am going to plant a smaller planting of tomatoes to have later in the year. If I time it correct, all the home gardeners and other outdoor marketers will be running out.

If you use low tunnels, it would help, but it probably will get you 7-14 days earlier.

Tunnels don't have to cost a fortune to build, for the ones I build and use, they cost between $500-$700 to build. I usually pay for them after 1 good week of selling.

The link below is of a high tunnel grower in Northwest Michigan who has tomato sales starting in the Middle of June.

Good Luck!

Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: Michigan Tomatoes

jay, i would love a high tunnel. i think about it every season. especially when i see people bringing in those $$$early toms. i just cant afford it now especially now. i would build a 20 by 100 and could put in a minimum of 200 plants . i came up with a simple design that is very similar to your pictures using wood framing and some pvc along with anchor-points. i came up with this- - 6 mil plastic 40 ft. by 100 ft cost around 390.00 plus delivery i figure wood and pvc and misc hardware around 1200 dollar for a total around 1750.00 . does this seem correct. your input is highly appreciated.mark

Mark,

How resourceful are you? Do you check out Craigslist in your area? What about auctions, garage sales, freecycle, call in shows on the radio? The reason I ask is the more resourceful you are, the cheaper it will be. The only thing you would have to by new is the plastic and screws.

With a building 20 by 100, you should be able to easily plant 250 plus plants at an 18 inch spacing. I would go with four rows.

As far as a building, a 28 by 100 piece of 6 mil plastic would cost $201 and a 32 by 100 would be $230 from www.morgancountyseeds.com It would depend on how high your sidewalls are.

If you use treated posts, or old telephone poles or even wood fence posts. I am using hedge posts for some of mine when I move one of my buildings this spring.

I would say, if you were resourceful, you could probably get this building built for about $800-900. I know that my first ones were about $500 and they are 18.5 by 45. If you build this, you will find that the endwalls eat up alot of money, so the longer a building is, it doesn't cost that much more to build.

Some tricks to being resourceful, ask lumber yards if they have any wood cheap? Places around here will put small lots together of odd lengths or not the prettiest stuff and sell it cheap. Do you have a sawmill in the area? I got 45 sticks of PVC 1 inch pipe for $50 on craigslist. To get you by for one year or so, ask a nursery what they do with the plastic they take off their buildings? Some just throw it away. I missed the scrap off of a 96 footer by one day! It was damaged, but I was going to use it to make low tunnels.

Be resourceful, don't think of it as money, think about it as an investment. An investment that will pay you back in 2-3 weeks. With 250 plants, I would say 5,000 lbs would be a reasonable production goal. Let say 2,000 of those pounds are earlier, sell them for $3.00 a lb, that is $6,000 in sales. It makes that money in the building seem a lot easier to take. Then you sell the remaining 3,000 for $2.00 a pound, another $6,000. $12,000 earned. That is what I call a Return on Investment. I wish my retirement would do that!

Jay

i will be picking my first crop of tomatoes about 10th of april...

jay i would have to get my boy to build with construction ,i cant climb ,or climb a ladder. i think he would do theabove ground labor for free since we provide him a place to stay when he needs it. i dont have a sawmill but have a wood shop so i could re-saw scrap wood.
4 rows at 18inch spacing. do you florida weave them or run vertical stakes for each plant?
i was planning on 6 foot sides so i could possibility co-use use it for my chickens,hogs or park equipment in it if i wanted. i would put it in the northwest corner so it would minimally shade out my garden plants but still would get plenty of sun 9am - 7:30 pm avg. mark

Mark, I have a degree in Accounting specializing in taxes, plus hubby was in self-employed in the construction industry for 30 years. I did his books and taxes during this time. He had to quit and start drawing disability last year, and it's been interesting figuring out to make enough money and not too much. His SSDI is 1/2 of what he was making working. But if we make too much, we can't get help with his medicines, which total about $900/month at this time.

We've been doing the farmers market since 2000, but veggie farming all of our lives, just not for money.

I put 55 gal barrels of water into my greenhouses, painted black would be better, then I put boards across the tops for shelves. That's my heat sink. I'll be replacing some of the barrels with boxes of dirt this year. Last year the barrels froze when the outside temps got below zero.

Marla

cowpie-i am in the blue ridge mountains of VA. i find oregon spring tomatoes variable in size (average 4-5") and having a nice tomato flavor. my customers like them enough to complain if i don't have them.

there is a man here in north carolin who beats every one every year.

1. he is in a micro climate and markets his tomatoes 20 miles to the north of him and out of the micro climate

2. he covers 300 feet of fence with a roll of poly and plants under the poly, he keeps a close eye on them to avoid over heating.

3. when the vines have enough good sized green tomatoes he uses a spade to cut the roots back short. the plant thinks the end is near and speeds ripening and stops producing new fruit.

he gets 3.50 dollars per pound for about 2 weeks along side the road out of the back of his truck

Not exactly on topic, but is tangent. There is a lot to be said for Growing Degree Days - whether you are raising tomatoes or corn.

IME, it takes about 1300 GDD for mid-season, mid-size toms to produce a complete bloom, about another 700 or so for ripe fruit. This is why DTM is not a great predictor. A tomato planted May 15 and the same type/size planted June 7 may have fruit only seven days apart, based on the weather. This is why hoop and green houses work - more GDD.

What I have not been able to read is whether the GDD accumulated before transplanting equals the same as GDD before. I know it does to some degree - just from growing toms in hydro and seeing full blooms in about eight weeks, blooms that become ripe fruit a month later.

I would love to find growers willing to record data related to this. I hope to chart a lot of it this season but since I don't have a weather station with a data logger (it's one of the investments I hope to use some proceeds from selling seedlings/produce this year to buy - they aren't really that expensive) so I will have to rely on general data.

Suppose to be 3 tomorrow morning, 9 the next. Not adding any GDD until next Wednesday and then maybe one!

Mike

Mike, I was just at the Southern Illinois Conference and they mentioned GDD. They gave some info and I'll have to look at it more and get back to you. From what I remember the GDD is from the time of transplanting into the field. I would think some would be added for the larger potted transplants, but they didn't mention it and I haven't read the handout yet, just listened.

I do remember the formula on how to figure it, until today, I had not heard of it. If someone wants me to, I'll post the formula.

Marla

Marla,

I think the days spent as seedlings have to count, as per my attempts to grow stuff hydroponically and transplanting seedlings a couple of weeks after they sprouted.

Explaining GDD - a bit more complicated but an attempt. (A) Take the low temp of the day or 50, whichever is higher (if one uses 50 as the base temp - some use 55, corn grow use 45!). (B)Add to that the high temp of the day, then divide by two to get the average temp. (C)From that, subtract the base temp. That gives the growing degrees for that day. Add each day's accumulation to come up with the total of GDD.

My belief is that in a couple of years, GDD will replace, or at least be additional info on seed packets.

Mike

mike,
are you having problems with your hydroponics? if so shoot me an email listing your problems and i will see if i can help you fix them.

Mike, your explanation was very good, except there is also a maximum temp (86). Anything over 86, doesn't add any extra on the GDD.

One year, I planted several varieties at the same time, early, mid and late varieties and most ripened at the same time. The only difference was size of fruits. The early and mid ripened the same time and the late ripened soon after.

In the class, the GDD for late varieties was 2,000-2,200 GDD and the early-mid varieties was (I think)1,500. I'll have to check into the paperwork to be sure. I do remember the late varities amount.

This information will help me decide which varieties to recommend to my customers.

Marla

i wondered what a gdd length or how you figure. our summer heat starts around june 25 up here and you can get many days in the mid 80,s or low 90,s in july and august. i always hope for good consistant rains but sometimes it gets to dry in late july and august. good for the early melons but late tomatos suffer

Mark,

What's your zip code? Most Extension Offices track the GDD for each area.

There are different methods used, such placing an upper cap on the temps, commonly 86-90 as higher temps do not really contribute to growing most veggies. Another way tries to calculate the "average" daily temp considering that it may be 55 degrees for only an hour or two and 80 for eight hours or more. This page explains it much better.

Mike

thanks,mike for the info. whew--over my head. i just stick to mother nature its much,much simpler to luck out and have great growing weather. mark

Jay, going backwards slightly, you mentioned black water. How are you making your water black? I have been spray painting milk jugs and I hate that stuff. BTW, a local ag college used gallon ziplock bags filled with water and laid on the ground next to each plant. They said it helped. I use gallon black milk jugs in between plants and support the remay on the jugs.

I have used black food coloring. There is also black dye for ponds. Just google black dye and water.

Good idea on the ziplock bags.

Jay