When growing tomatoes, a good start is half the battle. Tomato transplants are produced in greenhouses, where the source of a lot of trouble later on in the season can begin.
Tomatoes often have problems with bacterial diseases in the field. These bacterial diseases can overwinter on weeds and crop debris in the field, but they can also be harbored by the weeds in greenhouses. Good weed control on the floor of a greenhouse can make a big difference. Bacterial diseases are mostly spread by splashing water and direct contact, and can easily be transmitted from weeds in your greenhouse to tomato plants that are growing nearby. These infected tomato plants will not show any symptoms for quite some time, probably not until they have been in the field for a while.
Growers may be planting into a clean field, and be surprised to find that their tomatoes still got hammered by bacterial diseases. In this case, growers should look at where they produced the transplants and see if the weed control and sanitation of their greenhouse is adequate.
The use of copper fungicides can be helpful if a problem with bacterial diseases is suspected, but timing is critical. Infected plants may not show symptoms for quite some time, so spraying should really begin before symptoms are obvious.
Many farmers in New York grow fresh market tomatoes on plastic or on bare ground. Most growers in other tomato growing areas grow tomatoes on plastic and stakes. The entire tomato acreage in New Jersey is being planted on plastic and is staked. Up until 10 years ago, most of the Jersey tomatoes were being grown on the ground just like is done in New York, but once New Jersey growers saw the difference that staking makes, everybody made the change!
Staking keeps the tomato foliage drier - this is the biggest benefit. All the important tomato diseases thrive under wet conditions. The leaves need to be wet for spores of fungal diseases, such as early blight and late blight, to be able to cause infection. If the leaves are dry, no infection!
When tomatoes are growing on the ground, there is a big pile of foliage lying close to the ground. After a rain or dewy night, the top leaves dry up fairly quickly when the sun comes out and he wind begins to blow. The bottom leaves are shaded and sheltered from the wind. This means a much longer leaf wetness period creating a much greater potential for infection. Staking tomatoes picks the vines up off the ground, so the bottom leaves can dry as quickly as the top ones.
A few growers in New York have tried staking tomatoes on a limited acreage. Labor costs for staking and stringing seem to be a major concern, but most growers were surprised by how quickly a crew can stake field, and especially by how quickly a crew can string and prune a field. The yield losses to various decay and disease problems in ground-grown tomatoes can be as high as 50%, but growers say that that the losses on staked tomatoes are virtually nil, and that all the fruit is of good to excellent quality. Staked tomatoes are also a lot easier to pick.
In a study conducted on Long Island, the cost of growing tomatoes with plastic mulch, drip irrigation and staking has been estimated at $800-$1,000 per acre. The value of the yield gain with mulch and staking was $3,715 based on a price of $7 for a 25-pound box, assuming all fruit of all sizes are marketed.
High tunnels have made production of tomatoes without the use of any fungicides possible. It is difficult, of course, to provide a large market with tomatoes grown in high tunnels, but for a small grower, high tunnels provide an opportunity for some financial gain.
With high tunnels growers make use of passive solar heat to warm the ground in the tunnel. This enables growers to transplant the tomatoes three–four weeks before you would transplant into the field. This also means that growers will be picking tomatoes three–four before the first field-grown tomatoes come on the market, when the price is till high. I believe tomatoes out of high tunnels are absolutely beautiful, and have excellent customer appeal.
Some growers have had good luck with high tunnels for fall production. Growers would still be picking tomatoes after the first frost and prices would be high again.
