alright everyone welcome back to digging deeper this week i want to talk about tomato greenhouse
and what we do to them to make sure that they really thrive
all right first things first i want to thank everybody that subscribed to the channel
it's been really encouraging in the last few episodes we've had a lot of interest
in what we're doing and this is this is important for me this is part of what i want to do is share
some of the insights that i think people need to have in order to be successful market gardeners
so first of all these are indeterminate tomato plants and that means that they'll grow endlessly
you know when we're finished at the end of the season we have plants that are 20 foot long and
every week they'll grow to about 10 12 inch when they're in the right conditions and they are
because they're in a greenhouse they have optimal climate they have the amount of water that they
need and we also give them all the training and the support that they have to which is the plant
is growing on a string the string is connected to a wire that's above in the greenhouse and when the
plant starts to grow at one point it hits the wire and then will lower and lean them and start anew
and every week our work in the greenhouse is to come and take the suckers out we'll twist the
plant around the main string so that it's going up and straight and at one point we'll also remove
some of the lower leaves we'll go not with these because these are our cherry tomatoes
but for the beef we'll also count the number of fruit per clusters making sure that the plant is
not overloading so when you put all these things together the plant density is really important
we have optimal plant density in this greenhouse and the limiting factor for growth becomes light
light availability because these plants are so tight together that's how we get to maximize
revenue per square foot and really make a killing with these tomatoes so light becomes the limiting
factor and that's why we have these white plastics on the ground because they reflect more light
and it makes a difference and so you'll see a lot of seasoned growers that are planting tomatoes in
soil that have white flooring and it's because of that but here we also see that it's white on black
and that also plays an important role because the black plastic keeps the soil like a mulch
would do so it's a plastic mulch and it keeps the moisture here and you'll see there's a lot of
there's a lot of life because the soil is covered it creates just a perfect perfect environment for
earthworms to thrive to come up and down chew the organic matter that we're laying in the ground
every second week with the compost that we're putting with the alfalfa meal that we're putting
and it keeps the drip moist it keeps the drip protected but it creates this little micro
environment that's really good for all the the earthworms and the microbial life that's in the
ground you know in a forest if you take all the leaves you'll see there's a lot of life
covered soil is healthy soil and that's why these plastic they play this double roll we're putting
more sun so that we can have optimal density and as you see in this greenhouse there's just a lot
of production and we have the black plastic on the other side which keeps all of our ecology really
thriving and really happy which is important because we're pumping a lot of these tomatoes
so that's it for this week's episode there's so much more to say and learn from growing greenhouse
tomatoes it's definitely the number one cash crop at the mark at the farm if you want to learn more
check out the courses that we give in the market gardeners master class there's a lot on tomatoes
and greenhouse tomatoes and don't forget subscribe to the channel i appreciate all the comments that
you guys share every week i don't respond to everyone but i read everyone's comment
and i hope all is well i hope you guys are growing strong i am j i'm out see you next week you