Passionate Homemaking

I referred these ques­tions that were asked in regards to my Tomato Tricks & Tips post to the farmer who grew my toma­toes from seed (Michael @ MiIle­nium Farms in Ridge­field, WA), and he pro­vided this help­ful information:

Autumn asked:

I told a friend about your great ideas for the tomato plants and she advised me against the plas­tic water bottle because of trying to go organic, the plas­tic would release toxins into the soil. Is this a problem?

Coming from a long line of Men­non­ite farm­ers, I am quite con­cerned with the soil and will do noth­ing to harm it or the ben­e­fi­cial life which dwells in it. As such, I am not aware of imme­di­ate break­down of the plas­tic used in 2 liter soda or water bot­tles. In fact, they are high-​value tar­gets for recy­cling because of their long half-​lives, so any idea of imme­di­ate break­down in the soil is really stretch­ing, in my humble opin­ion. One could always use glass ves­sels, unless one fears their break­down as well.

Amy asked: How often did the guy say to water them? The lady at Shorty’s said to water once a week…??

Toma­toes in the ground should be watered twice a week, to the equiv­a­lent of 1 inch per water­ing, until the end of July. Then, I would sug­gest elim­i­nat­ing water­ing to allow the plant to rely upon deeper sources of water to help min­i­mize fruit crack­ing, as well as to accel­er­ate fruit ripen­ing and fruit flavor enhanc­ment. I would remove the plas­tic wrap when the plant fills the cage, which will then allow the bees to pol­li­nate and fur­ther stim­u­late the plant. If in con­tain­ers, you will have to con­tinue water­ing as rec­om­mended above, twice a week.

I thought this infor­ma­tion to be very helpful!