TOMATOES

This is a blog which will be updated with each of the changes in the lives of the tomatoes.
BLOG EDITS:
March 24, March 25, March 26, March 28, March 31,  April 1

The color of the date of the edits will be changed.

 Information added on that date will be typed in that color. Scroll down for updates.
 

Finally it is the day to start my tomatoes.  I have been nervous that maybe I shouldn't have waited till now to start them.  I started the eggplants and peppers over a month ago.  The eggplants are ready to go into their second potting and the peppers are poking along. The following links are their blogs:

http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/2013/03/eggplant-transplanting.html

http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/2013/02/sweet-peppers.html
 

I have put the seeds in the dirt and they are ready to go into the propagation chamber.  The moon is coming up to the full phase I hope it pulls these seeds right out of their "shells".  I use exactly the same dirt and methods I use for the peppers and Eggplants.  (refer to either blog)

 

This is the 16 varieties ready to go into the chamber.

I normally use the  Activia containers  cut in half to start a few seeds (they are slipped in a plastic zipper bag), but I was rummaging in a drawer today and found these larger size sauce containers (used for take out).  They have plastic lids which will keep in the moisture.  They are large enough, when half filled, there is room when the seeds sprout to grow for 24 hours. (There are holes poked in the bottom for drainage.  We keep the chamber about 72-76 degrees for sprouting the tomatoes.

 

THE VARIETIES WE PLANTED

 

DATE

MARCH 20                MAR 24     MAR 25     MAR 26     MAR 28      MAR 31

 

AUNT RUBY'S                                 2/6             3/6              4/6                5/6

GERMAN GREEN

Pinetree 2010  6 sds

 

BIG MAMA  HYB                                               4/12          5/12                5/12

Burpees 2008 12 sds

 

CHADWICK

CHERRY

??   ??              9 SDS      5/9              9/9               9/9             9/9               9/9

 

CHEROKEE                                       3/6               3/6             4/6              4/6

PURPLE                                                    

SowTrue 2012 6 sds

 

COMPOST GOLD

Mine OP  2009 6 sds

 

DELICIOUS  12 sds      3/12                7/12        7/12            7/12              8/12

Henry Fields 2010

 

FLAMINGO HYB         1/8                   1/8           1/8            1/8                2/8

Gurneys ??  8 SDS

 

GERMAN OLD                                                     2/12          4/12              5/12

TIMERS  12 SDS

MineOP 2013 12 sds                                

 

GOLDEN RAVE                                   1/8            1/8            1/8                2/8

HYB Gurneys  8 sds

2010

 

JELLY BEANS HYB       1/ 8                1/8          3/8              3/8                3/8

Gurneys 2010  10 sds

 

JUBILEE                                                                                                         1/10

Ferry Morse

2009  10 SEEDS

 

JULIET  HYB                 8/10                 9/10        9/10            9/10              9/10

Jung 2012  10 sds

 

ORANGE HYB                                                     1/8                 1/8              2/8

WHOPPER  8 sds

Gurneys 2013

 

SUN SUGAR HYB        5/9                    8/9          8/9                9/9              9/9

Pinetree 2012 9 sds

 

I have two other packages of Jelly Bean tomatoes and I want to start a few of each just in case the others don't sprout.  I also want to start some more of the "Compost Gold".  We will be saving seeds from two of our tomatoes.  They each have a story:

 

COMPOST GOLD:  This tomato was found growing in the compost pile.  It is a jawbreaker size yellow cherry tomato (we have never grown yellow cherry tomatoes). The skin was thin.  It continued to flower and produce after the first frosts. The flavor was outstanding even for a yellow tomato.  The color was a brilliant gold.   Hence the name Compost Gold.

GERMAN OLD TIMERS has a wonderful story behind it, albeit long one.  I was on a trip to buy hay for my goats, cows and sheep.  I drive past a state park named "Babler Park". On the way there is someone who always has a small kitchen garden.  I noticed he had a veggie stand and could see squash on the table.  I stopped to buy some (my squash plants had been inundated with the borers.)  Also on the table I saw these green tomatoes.  They were on the medium size and I commented it was nice of him to pick his tomatoes green so people could make fried green tomatoes.

"Lady, Dem's ripe." He volunteered.

"They are still green, where did you find tomatoes still green when ripe?"  I replied incredulously in 1998.

"Da Ole guy, don the street, brung dem from Germany, gived me the seed."

"Do you know the name of the variety?" I asked.

"Nope, I din forgot, was long time ago.  Can't ask him, he dead."

I bought a pound of them, thinking it was a mistake.  When I got home I examined them and they felt ripe.  I cut into the softest one and cautiously took a bite.  Taste sensation moment.  If I closed my eyes it was the reddest tomato I had ever tasted with lemony overtones. 

The closest I can guess, is it is probably kin to the zebra tomato.  I have been saving my own seed from it since that day.  We named them German Old Timers because the original seed came from an old man from Germany.

MARCH 24:  I picked red because it is a red letter day.  I couldn't wait to get on the computer to write this update.  Last night seconds before I went to bed I remembered I hadn't checked the seeds for the evening.  I really did not expect anything being it was only 3 1/2 days since I put them in the chamber.  Much to my surprise there was sprouting just starting in two varieties.  Four plants, just unbending, in the Juliet's and 1 plant in the Sun Sugar. If I had left them, in the chamber in the dark, till this morning they would have become gangly.  This morning they were already an inch high and they had developed their first leaves.  The picture on the left is our first tomato sprouts.  I didn't realize until I took this picture I had put the wrong date on the labels.  They were started on the 20th, not the 21st.

 It is snowing very hard right now.  It didn't start till about 6 this morning after raining all night.  We are due for lots of snow today, who would have thunk!Normally I am picking lettuce outside, but the only thing growing in my garden is last years lemon thyme.  I have covered and uncovered, (with two large plastic buckets inside of each other for insulation)  to keep it from freezing.  It worked too.  It has been growing, albeit slowly and I have been harvesting all winter. 

Another herb that definitely says get growing tomatoes is basil. When I set the seed for the peppers I also planted Siam queen basil and sweet basil.  This week when they move to larger homes,  I will be able to pinch the top set of leaves off to have with chicken sandwiches..or even on pasta . These basils left their nursery tray on March 7th.  They weren't even a 1/2 inch tall at that time.  This picture was taken March 22.

MARCH 25:   It is still snowing and we have at least 11 inches on the ground.  The snow is real fine (like a mist that is frozen).  There is a wind today..Not a gusty one, it is steady about 10 mph.  Inside though me and the seedlings are doing just fine. 

In the last 24 hours we have had a population explosion.  I find myself getting anxious for the ones which have shown no sign of life.  I proofed the "Compost Gold" seeds and on the one set I had 80% germination.  They haven't shown they are "in the dirt"yet.  I just checked the dates and it took them 6 days to germinate.  Today is only 5 days.  I guess I need to be patient.  The other tomato "German Old Timers" I didn't proof because it was seed I collected last fall  and it wasn't old and it was processed properly when I collected it.  Of the older seeds I know to be patient, they do need a longer germination time.

This is the blog I wrote when I proofed some of my seeds.
http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/2013/02/proofing-seeds.html

Something I need to mention for those reading who are beginners;  When your tomatoes sprout don't be alarmed if they look extremely skinny and fragile.  I don't know why, but the tomato seedlings are terribly thin compared to their pepper and Eggplant cousins.  They also seem to take an interminable length of time before they set their second leaves.  Place those seedlings as close to the light source as possible.  Mine are no more than an inch some are almost touching.  (Do not let the leaves touch the bulbs).

MARCH 26:  A couple of more varieties sprouted during the night.  I am getting a little anxious about my newest seed from Gurneys.  The orange whopper has just sprouted one and I only planted 8 seeds because it was fresh seed.  

I have had a large percentage of "trapped" seeds.  Where the shell doesn't pop off.  some of them have not grown enough for me to pinch it off like I did for the peppers and eggplants.   There are pictures in the pepper blog how I "un trap" a seedling.
 http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/2013/02/sweet-peppers.html

The snow has stopped and what melting which did occur froze over making heavy ice.  Walking to the barn will be treacherous this morning.  Something a little off topic but note worthy, we had a Towhee show up at the bird feeder yesterday.  They are normally a very shy bird but he stayed around for half the day.  I hope we weren't his truck stop on the way to somewhere else.  Last year we didn't have towhees..but previous years we have always had a resident pair.

Today I will be potting more tomato seeds just in case and I will probably start some more basils and some lettuce.

MARCH 28:  Getting more anxious about the germination of some of the seeds.  I know it is only 8 days.


MARCH 31:  It is Easter Sunday, the end of Passover is tomorrow.  It is the season of renewal.  Today it is just that in our household.  The tomatoes are finally ready to do it in the "dirt".  They are ready to make the transitions to real pots.  For us it is the activia containers, using the mix they have come from mixed with My special potting mix.  It is also time to begin another blog on this stage of their lives.  I will post the link here when I post the blog.

I am very disappointed I have two varieties which didn't sprout. I know it  only 11 days and am still hoping more will sprout.  I will plant more of these and hope the seed isn't bad.  The biggest disappointment is the "Gurneys Orange Whopper".  This was new seed and to have only two sprout.  I will be calling the company.  If the viability is this poor in the fresh seed, It certainly won't grow next year. (I still have the other 2/3 of the packet to use). 

The "Compost Gold", I am wondering if I got the labels mixed up and this was the wrong seed that I proofed.  I had two sources I saved seed from.  One was the fruit which was fresh which I refered to as "wet"  and a fruit that was dried on the vine "dry".  This is the blog about proofing seeds:
http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/2013/02/proofing-seeds.html

APRIL 1:   I haven't finished the blog for yesterday "Moving Day".  I did want to put a note about the pots I used for starting the seed.  The larger "take  home sauce" pots were the absolute perfect container.  I will buy a product if it is in a container I can recycle for the garden.  The reason they were perfect is they had enough room when 1/2 filled to plant the seed and if it sprouted before you got there, there was room between the soil less mix and the lid.  The lid held the moisture in till sprouting (no need for plastic bags, sliding containers in and out).  They were small enough you didn't have a lot of mix used.  You could plant 4 seeds and extract the seedlings without damage.  (I did put nine seeds in a couple and they did fine.  I just had to soak the plants to loosen the medium from around the roots).  Then there was the coup d' gras.....they have outwardly sloping sides.  This made it easy to wet the root ball and slide it right out of the container. 

The containers I am referring to are the ones in the opening picture of this article.  As you can see we also use cut down activia containers.  These work well but they have to be put in a plastic bag to keep moist in the propagation chamber. 

The following blogs are blogs I've written about previous gardening of tomatoes:

http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/2012/03/from-seed-tomato-grows.html
http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/2010/07/perfect-tomato.html
http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/2010/08/more-on-quest.html

For more blogs by me, visit at:

http://gloriouscreations.blogspot.com

A blog mostly about quilting,

but cooking, poetry, prose and a little gardening,

New blog, tutorial on how to make 5 panel Boxer Shorts.

New Blog about dolls.

http://glosgarden.blogspot.com/

Not a garden blog.

There are articles which have nothing to do

with creating or gardening.

There are blogs on the new born baby kittens

we found and mothered.

It is a blog where I voice my opinions which will always be environmentally friendly.

As always, any pictures or writings are my own.

 Credit has been given to contributions not my own.

 Please do not use without permission.



 

 



FROM SEED A TOMATO GROWS

March 8, 2012 will be the full moon.  The next few days are perfect for planting above ground crops (if you believe the moon influences the living things in the world).  I am one of those who believe.  We have seen the results of not planting at the correct times.  For us, we saw a shortened germination time, when we planted with the moon.  We found root crops planted at the full of the moon do not develop shape or size the way they should.  All their growth seems to go to the tops.

BTW, if you are in an area where Daylight Savings Time is in effect,

Sunday March 11, 2012; you will need to spring forward. 

Today we have mixed our planting medium and filled the Styrofoam trays and are ready to plant our "Nightshade" family of plants (Tomatoes, Peppers and Eggplants). 

These are our favorite varieties:
 

The tomato on the left is "Red Jelly Bean hybrid".  Prolific isn't the word,  this plant produces long after the first frost.  We covered the plants at night and it continued to set blooms for a month.  The fruit keeps on the counter split free for 3 weeks.  It's skin is not tough. It has the flavor of a beefsteak.   The only con we experienced was, if you know its going to rain pick all the orbs with color,  they will split.  

Be prepared with large sturdy cages.  The above picture was taken July 19, 2009.   The picture on the left was taken a month later, August 22, 2009.  The first year we planted this variety we planted 7 plants.  Each plant was just as full.  This variety even blooms on the lower branches the whole growing season.   These cages are 2 feet in diameter and 5 feet tall.

"Big Mama" hybrid, we have fallen in love with her.  It is a Roma.  We are not lovers of Roma tomatoes.  To us their texture is mushy and flavor is inferior.  The Big Mama's have full flavor of a large tomato and a firm texture.  This tomato is a Burpee's exclusive.  This is another tomato which requires large sturdy cages.

The picture on the left was taken July 1, 2007.  The picture on the right is a different view on the same plant July 14, 2007. 

Below are these same plants 6 weeks later still putting on Growth and plenty of young fruit.   They have out grown their 5 ft. cages.    This variety needs plenty of calcium to prevent blossom end rot.  It seems to be more susceptible than the other varieties.  This could be because of the extremely pointed blossom end.     As you can see it is very prolific.     

Other favorites:

Juliet hybrid.  Everything said above expresses the 1 1/2 inch by 1 inch orbs.  They are a Roma in nature but that is as far as it goes.  They are very much like a miniature of the Big Mamas.  They need a large cage too.  Our first year we only planted one plant and put it in a 3 ft cage.  It was up and over the top and growing back down to the ground and out 15 feet all directions from the plant.  It was loaded with fruit everywhere. 

Jubilee.  This is an old yellow tomato.  It has perfectly round fruits that are about 8 ounces or more in weight.  The color is a golden yellow with an orange tint.  The flavor is excellent for a yellow tomato.  We have tried other yellow tomatoes and they taste bland and are mushy in  texture.  The seed cavities seem smaller than most yellow tomatoes.  This tomato produces well and is very open in growth.  There is not a preponderance of leaves to the size of the plant.  Seems less susceptible to most fungus diseases.  Occasionally we have sun scald on an exposed tomato.  This tomato is  considered an heirloom plant.  You can save seed.

Delicious,  just like its name says.  This has been the only tomato we have had in the garden for over 40 years.  Everything you will read about it is true.  We have had 2 pounders with regularity.  It is my preferred canning tomato because of its meatiness and flavor.  It has tiny seed cavities.  It has high calcium needs. This plant which needs extreme cages.  If you are a "staker" I don't recommend it with this plant.  The weight of the tomatoes will keep you re-tying and re-staking everyday.  This tomato is considered an heirloom plant.  You can save seed.

Golden Rave Hybrid hasn't been on the market very long.  It is a yellow twin to Juliet, also bred from a Roma.  It's a larger version 1 1/2 inch wide and 2 inch long, yellow with a greenish tinge.  It's taste is tomatoey but with a lemon edge.  It's very flavorful.  I have used it in fresh pasta sauces and it was delicious.  It very quickly won our hearts with it's taste but when it kept producing after frost we knew it would be a regular in our garden.  It takes an average cage but the cage needs to be sturdy.  The foliage and fruit are very heavy for the plant size.

We have 2 more, new to us tomatoes, we will be trying this year:  Sunray, Sun Sugar.

We will also be trying again; Evergreen and Aunt Ruby's German Green.  They didn't do well in 2010 with the humidity, excessive rain and extreme heat. 

I have an old, small 4 ounce green tomato from Germany which I am hoping some of the seed survived, I didn't get to plant it and revive the seed the last couple of years. 

I have seed from 2010, I picked the fruit off a compost pile plant.  It is a large yellow cherry type.  It was very meaty with thin skin and a whopper of a tomato taste.  I named it Compost Gold.  The plants hold the fruit well and there was copious amounts of fruit.  Before this we had not planted any yellow cherry types on the farm (It must have been a plant that was an ancestor from one of the hybrids we planted).

Today I put 10 varieties to sprout.  I will get the rest started tomorrow along with my peppers and eggplants.

This the link to the two blogs I have about our planting methods we used for tomatoes. 

http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/search/label/GARDENING%3A%20TOMATOES
They worked well for us.

For more blogs by me visit at:

http://gloriouscreations.blogspot.com

A blog mostly about quilting, but cooking, poetry, prose and a little gardening,

New blog, tutorial on how to make 5 panel Boxer Shorts.

New Blog about dolls.

http://glosgarden.blogspot.com/

Not a garden blog.  There are articles which have nothing to do with creating or gardening. 

There are blogs on the new born baby kittens we found and mothered.  It is a blog where I sometimes voice my opinions which will always be environmentally friendly.

As always, any pictures or writings are my own, if not credit will be given to the contributor.

Please do not use without permission.

MORE ON THE QUEST

This has been an eventful summer in St. Louis.  The weather has been extremely hot and humid.  Living in a valley has added to the humidity.  Needless to say we have been inundated by every fungus and bacterial infection.  Some varieties of tomatoes  succumbed immediately and we nurtured them hoping to get something for the the work already done. 

The green tomatoes; those that are green when ripe went first.  The few tomatoes we got made us really want to try again next year for more green tomatoes.  We had two varieties, Evergreen and Aunt Ruby's".    In  taste and shape the Evergreen had it all over Aunt Ruby. 

BTW...anticipating the onslaught of the diseases we trimmed all the lower leaves up twelve inches on the plant and mulched heavily to prevent the splash of the fungus bearing water.  The only thing we have not tried this year was cornmeal.  This will be on the shopping list for next year and will be applied to the top of the soil when we plant next year.

We have had great luck with disease resistance in the "Big Mama's".  I used a huge handful of epsom salts in each planting hole this year and we have so far gotten through the summer with no blossom end rot.  (This variety seems to be more susceptible than most.)  Another way to dose your tomatoes is to spray with epsom salts.  I can't remember the amount but it seems it was 1/4 teaspoon for 2 cups of water.  I suggest you google "using epsom salts as a foliar spray" to find the correct amounts.
"Juliet" tomatoes planted late so far have not gotten the different diseases, but the planting 4 weeks earlier did.  I can't compare the two though because the first planting was a double row.  The closeness of the plants could have caused the diseases. 

We had similar results with the "jelly bean" tomatoes.  Except, the first planting was a single row and the second planting was too.  There was a month between the plantings.  The plants in both cases were started on the same day.  BTW, Jelly Beans flavor is exceptional and they are extremely productive on enormous vines.

The planting method we used, which I blogged about in a previous blog,  has worked fabulously.  The earth stayed moist without being soggy.  It drained well when we had gully washers of a rain.  The nicest benefit came when we dismantled the two beds.  After we removed the straw and exposed the dirt, the straw at the base had already decomposed and was ready to till into the dirt, adding the much needed organic matter.

Our favorite long standing beefsteak has failed our conditions for the second year in a row.  We will not be planting "Delicious" again for a while.  This tomato has been our stand by plant for almost 40 years.  Producing 2 lb tomatoes with ease.  This has not been the case for the last 2 years.

A new tomato on the market the last couple of years has been "Rave".  It is the yellow equivalent to the Juliet tomato.  This year it has performed admirably producing 1 ounce tomatoes that do not readily split on the vine.  It is a little susceptible to the diseases but not to the point it debilitates the production.  I recommend picking them before they are ripe.  Ripened in the house they stay firmer.  Vine ripened they are are a softer tomato.  No mater when you pick them they are full of flavor.  Much more flavor than any yellow slicing  tomatoes.  This is our second year growing them.

So far the only large tomatoes that do not have the diseases in profusion (just a little bit) are "Goliath" and "Big Beef".  But they are also not as large of producers as we were used to getting from the "Delicious" tomato.  They do take up the same amount of real estate as the "Delicious" does.

Remember we mixed all new dirt for every tomato bed.  We did not plant anywhere near the area we had tomatoes last year.   We are struggling with the same problems we had last year.  This fall will be a quest for a new location for the tomatoes.   We have an area below our green house but I am not too hep on using it.  It is a great place to encounter mosquitoes so I think maybe the humidity is even higher there. 

I haven't discussed enlarging the garden area with my husband, but ploughing an area out side the fence on higher ground is an option (I think if he reads this, discussion is mute)....Then of course we have to build another deer proof fence...lol.  The fence we have made has worked this year, but it isn't ground hog proof!

Hope you are having better tomato times than we are.

QUEST FOR THE PERFECT TOMATO

This is a blog about how we changed our tomato planting methods this year.  The pictures will show you what we are doing.  Hopefully this will be the start of something new for us.  It is said necessity is the mother of invention.  Not having enough uncontaminated soil to fill our raised beds led us to this possible solution. 

We are organic and rotate crops.  We have gone to raised beds because we are tired of fighting the heavy clay content of our soil.  It seems the clay ate the dirt we had "cultivated" during the winter.  We decided to contain it.  Yes, we still have disappearing dirt dilemma, but it is not of the proportion of the previous years. 

For years we have searched for the best method to raising the perfect tomatoes.  We have found barring the deer who aren't supposed to eat nightshade plants (they do),  groundhogs who devour them the minute they show color, opossums that take a bite to test it and decide they don't like it, birds pecking at the cocktail tomatoes sipping their juices,  there really isn't one way that is perfect.  Every tomato variety seems to have its own preferences.

We have tried mulching and letting the vines run rampant.  We have also staked and tied each plant.  Everyone who has gardened has bought and tried  those cone shape cages.  We went through them twice.  The second time they were larger and heavier gauge wire and we were told not subject to the weld joints breaking.  NOT...they succumb to the same faults their little sisters have.  We have been very lucky, on two occasions we have been gifted wire cages made from woven welded fence wire.  The first ones I wish I had more of.  They are 30 inches in diameter and 5 feet high.  They have been G-d sends when we plant "Delicious" and "Jelly Bean" tomatoes ("Big Momma" tomatoes can use them too).  These varieties seem to grow as if they were on steroids.  The "Jelly Beans" topped 8 feet last year.   We had to use a step ladder to pick them.  BTW...they also continue to produce on the lower branches.

HOW WE ARE PLANTING TOMATOES IN 2010

Amend your soil before planting.  This year it became a necessity for us.  We had minimum soil to fill our raised beds.  I am very fortunate to have a supply of broken down wood chips (they have been breaking down for three years).  I till the few inches of soil in the bed then add the following.  The amounts are for beds 30 inches wide and in increments of 8 feet (the measurement are for 8 feet).  Two 40 lb kitty litter pails (KLP) of chips, two KLP of dried manure (we used to raise sheep), one KLP of boiled rice hulls, two KLP of peat moss (our soil mix tends to be too well drained so we need extra organic mater).  We are the proud owners of our third "Mantis" tiller.  It is fabulous piece of machinery for working our raised beds.  After tilling thoroughly, rake the bed smooth, water deeply and let the bed sit overnight.  The next morning water again deeply.  This will get the peat and other dry materials saturated.  Wait till evening to plant your bed.  Dig all your holes, then proceed to plant.  The picture to the left is an Evergreen tomato plant removed from the pot.

After removing the plant (Which you watered well earlier in the day...I soak the plant in a bucket of water to remove any air pockets the morning before I plant)  I prepare the plant for its stay in the ground.   All branches that will be below ground will be snipped off.  The root ball, if it is root bound, will be broken up at the base so the roots will grow out from the plant, not continue on their trip around the pot...becoming more and more root bound.

When we plant the trimmed tomato plant we add a handful of Epsom salts and bone meal.  Both boost the plants ability to withstand the onslaught of blossom end rot. Make sure you mix the salts and the meal with dirt before adding to the hole.  You don't want them coming in direct contact with your root mass, it might burn them.

This is several plants ready to be vitamized and hilled.  We have our garden Kitty " Dawn" and puppy dog "honey" supervising. 

This is the bed completely planted with the plants, each hilled to keep them steady for working on the rest of the planting.  Notice, each of the plants have had even more of their lower branches removed, hilling up to the top two or three leaves.  The object is to bury the base of the plant with dirt to the level of the raised bed's side-boards.

We use a hoe (or sometimes just our hands) to pull the amended dirt from the sides of the bed.  We go down to the hard pan earth.  We bring the dirt up to fill the area between and around the plants.  We end up making a "mountain" down the center of the bed.  The idea came from pot culturing tomatoes.  They don't need a huge amount of soil to produce, so it stands to reason neither do garden grown ones.

This is the bed totally hilled.  The shovel is a full size shovel.  It is set there to show you the depth of the sides.  It is now ready to be mulched.

We are packing the troughs on each side, tight with old straw.  Yes, I know people say straw adds weeds to the garden.  It does, but they are so easy to pull.  The idea came from thinking about building with straw bales and their insulating factor.  These beds are 8 inches deep.  We figured not only would it insulate, but it would allow the area to drain as well as keeping the moisture in the bed.

The bed with side mulching completed.

Now that your sides are securely supported you can water the tomatoes in.  I soak the bed thoroughly.  I neglected to say:  in between each plant I make a little trough in the top ridge of the dirt.  It helps to direct the water into the middle of the "mountain", otherwise the water has a tendency to run down the sides of the dirt "mountain".

After you finish watering in the tomatoes continue mulching the entire surface.

Now is the time you want to cage and stake your tomatoes.  Do not wait untill they start growing (which is always instantaneous, especially if it rains that evening).  They will get too big to put on the cages.  We put a "T" post at each end of the bed and another in the middle.  We then feed long boards or conduit through the cages.  We join the boards with a binding of baling twine.  After which we go back to each cage and tie where the board goes through the cage.  The purpose of this is two fold:  we don't have to stake each cage; when we get big winds and the cages are filled with the leaves and tomatoes they don't go over in the direction the prevailing winds are pushing them.

This is a closeup of the tied cages.  You'll have to excuse the untidy weedy beds in the background.  We hadn't gotten to them yet when this picture was taken.  The bed on the left where the soaker hose is stacked is now in peppers and the bed with the white plastic on it has "Big Momma" tomatoes in it.

This is where my pictures run out.  We will take a picture of tomatoes filling the cages and post later this week.  So far this is working very well.  We are having one of the hottest summers in St. Louis in a long time.  The dirt is staying moist under the mulch.  The plants are growing and producing (we are waiting for our first ripe tomatoes on some plants).  We have had tomatoes to eat from our Juliets, Golden Raves, and Jelly beans.  We haven't had any slicers yet, but we are very patient. 

Oh, BTW we have picked our first tomato horn worm off this past week. 

The chickens relished him.