The 5th Annual Guilford County Tomato Festival! Sat Jul 26, 2014

This year's Guilford County Tomato Festival will be held on July 26, 2014. The tomatoes were planted on May 14, 2014 for this event. Check back often to look for updates and to compare the tomatoes at N.C. A&T's farm to ours in the Demonstration Garden.

Saturday, July 26

8:30 am-2 pm

The University Farm at NC A&T

3136 McConnell Road, Greensboro, NC

The tomatoes went in the ground on May 14, 2014.

(The rows are extra wide for mowing and not for production purposes.)

We put in about 15 plants per variety this year, and each wooden stake separates the different varieties. (5-14-14)

We are using a trellising system known as the "Florida Weave System" (read about on pg. 16 of this PDF). (5-28-14)

This year the farm managers showed us a new method to speed up our Florida Weave. The PVC pipe acts as wand and allows one person to complete a row of over 65 tomatoes in less than 10 minutes.  The string is in a box and attaches to the belt. (5-28-14)

(Watch this video to see the Florida Weave in action using a section of PVC. Unlike in the video, we are not weaving between plants. Also, our stakes stick out about six feet.)

The plot as of 6-4-14.

The plot as of 6-11-14. The major tasks at the farm are adding new layers of the Florida Weave, weeding, and suckering. 

What is suckering? 

Do you see the "emerging sucker" in the following picture? Suckering is essentially removing the the "emerging sucker." See the following publications and video on suckering.

Source: http://brunswick.ces.ncsu.edu/2013/06/consider-pruning-your-tomato-plants-to-get-more-fruit-production/

Stay tuned for more updates.