CHAPTER XXVI 

 WARM SEASON CROPS THAT REQUIRE TRANSPLANTING 



The plants in this group include two of the most important 

 vegetable crops (tomatoes and sweet potatoes) and two others 

 of considerable importance (peppers and eggplants). All demand 

 high temperature for their best development and have too long 

 a period of growth to produce a full crop before frost unless the 

 plants are started under glass before the weather is warm enough 

 for their outdoor planting in central and northern latitudes. 



TOMATOES * 



Tomatoes are extensively grown throughout the United 

 States. No home garden or market garden is complete without 

 them. They constitute one of the most important truck crops 

 of the South for shipment to northern markets, and are extensively 

 grown for canning factories. While primarily a long season crop 

 adapted to southern climates and normally continuing growth 

 until killed by frost, it is possible, by the selection of early varieties 

 and by starting the plants early under glass, to grow tomatoes 

 even in the extreme northern states, though the crops may be cut 

 short by early frosts. 



Growing the Plants. — Whether grown for home use, local 

 market, or shipment to distant markets, it is desirable that toma- 

 toes commence ripening their fruit early in the season and that 

 the crop be large. The first essential in the production of an early 

 crop and large yield is the securing of large, well-grown plants 

 at the proper time for transplanting. To this end, the seeds are 

 sown in flats in a greenhouse or in a hotbed, eight to twelve weeks 

 before the plants are needed. As soon as the seedlings have made 

 their first pair of rough leaves and before they become spindling, 

 they should be transplanted to other flats or hotbeds, being placed 

 about three inches apart each way; or they may be placed in two- 

 and-one-half-inch pots. After growing here for two or three weeks, 

 they should be shifted to a coldframe, in which they are placed 

 six inches apart; or if previously placed in small pots they may be 



* Adapted from a paper presented by the author at the Fiftieth Annual 

 Meeting of the Ilhnois State Horticultural Society, December 14, 1905. 

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