2004-03-24 - 8:22 a.m.
It sure has been dry lately. We haven't had a good rain in several weeks. I got all the ground broke we'll be planting this spring and the tomato plants are growing well in the greenhouse. In just a couple of weeks it will be time to put the tomatoes in the ground. Today we'll lay down the plastic mulch and water lines for the tomato rows. We try to get it down several weeks before we plant to let the ground warm. We use a 4ft wide sheet of black plastic held down with dirt on both sides of the row. It comes on a 4000ft roll and we put down the drip irrigation line under it. The ground gets good and warm under the plastic and when the tomatoes get planted they really enjoy the warm soil and take off growing.
The bad thing is that the cutworms also like the warm soil and if you don't control them they'll get the tomato plants. Cutworms are a devestating pest. Worms that just chew on the leaves give you time to see the damage and react but the first sign of cutworms are tomato plant stems cut off about 1/2inch from the ground, the result being a dead plant. So we just assume the cutworms are there and take measures to control them.
The tomato transplants have really enjoyed all the sunshine though. Some years the weather is cloudy and cool this time of year and the little tomatoes get too tall and spindily and have trouble standing up when we plant them. This year they are nice and short and stout. The nights are too cold to leave them in the greenhouse so every evening we bring in the trays of plants and then take them back out after it warms up the next day. Some folks ask why we just don't buy plants but I've always had better luck with the ones we start ourselves.
