The greenhouse and a couple of conferences have kept me quite busy this past month! We now have tomato plants that measure 3' high (and some stragglers coming in around a foot). Additionally, and possibly better than that, there are actual tomato fruits in the greenhouse! Whaaa-whoooo!!!
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| Yellow-Pear Tomatoes |
All of those tomato plants are quite a bit of work though: I've put in five hours this week just clipping them to their posts or string trellis and pruning their bottom most branches. We've had one snow day plus a 2-hour delay this week so my time with students has been limited. I did have a couple students for an hour on Monday - they made a decent dent on the pruning. However, I am not sure that I am the best communicator when it comes to plant maintenance. Or maybe I'm not explaining the "why" well enough. (Or maybe students are afraid they'll damage the plants.)
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| All of the bottom-most branches clipped - here's hoping it will help! |
Here's what I told them: I wanted branches pruned to prevent leaves from resting or falling into the dirt below. I hope (and have been told) that this will discourage diseases and pests. I told my two helpers this - to no avail. They "finished" but left quite a few low-lying branches. Then, as usual, the bell spoiled any followup on my part. Maybe today, I will have a chance to show them. Otherwise, there's always next week, right?
And this may be my favorite part of horticulture : the never-ending "tend to" list.
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