TRELLIS TOMATOES 



17 



Figure 6. The Proper Stage to Start Pruning. 



Cultural Practices 



Cultivation 



Early in the season trellis tomatoes need to be cultivated to keep down the 

 weeds. Cultivation should be shallow because deep stirring of the soil cuts many 

 of the roots. Unless there are weeds to be killed, do not cultivate. 



Irrigation ' 



Facilities for irrigating are desirable on the best market-garden land and 

 almost a necessity on the lighter soils. In these experiments all the plots were 

 irrigated when necessary. It was not practical to include plots which received 

 only rainfall. 



Mulching 



The addition of a mulch helps to maintain a uniform supply of moisture in the 

 soil. It was tried in these experiments for one year and the early yields were- 

 about the same with and without mulch, but the total yield was slightly better 

 on the mulched plot. 



Not many growers have mulching material and, of course, the cost of appli- 

 cation is high, but if there is no water available for irrigation a mulch should be 

 considered. Banana stalk fiber was used in these experiments but straw, hay, 

 sawdust, peat, or similar material makes a satisfactory mulch. The use of 

 some of these, however, requires extra nitrogen to prevent the decaying materia! 

 from robbing the plants of the available nitrogen. 



