Alaska- greenhouse tomatoes 2014

[AKmark]

I had leaf mold hit the plants pretty hard this year, and did some serious leaf plucking to stay ahead of it, but I also stopped pruning suckers, which were the new growth. This worked out very well, when the temperatures dropped the leaf mold stopped, and the plants had quite a bit of new leaf growth from the suckers. I think this helped late season growth and production, the results were nice size fruit even at the end of season, something has to be there to catch rays from the sun for fruit production.
Anyway, I had pretty good results by switching gears, and still have tomatoes over a pound on the vines with less than 11 hours of daylight now.
At any rate, I thought this observation might be worth posting, right or wrong.

[Dutch]

Thanks for the info.
It is appreciated.
Dutch

[efisakov]

Mark, thank you for the observation. 11 hours of light is pretty good.
How is the fishing season? Our friend gave us some salmon. Last year it had smell that lake fish often do. We could not prepare it our usual way. Nothing I tried to get read of that taste worked until we made salad similar to tuna fish salad. It worked great. My son compared it to a taste of a calamity salad.
How do you prepare your fish?

[bower]

Mark, I found the same thing, that the leaf mold stopped when the temperatures dropped. I pulled most of my plants anyway, but those remaining had a better time for a while... we will drop below 10 hours of daylight on Halloween here. The last tomatoes are really appreciated... good for you, keeping those suckers going.

[AKmark]

My friend tomato friend Dave dropped these off this fall, and said he just does not have the space to grow a bunch of varieties anymore. I did not look at them closely until this week, but look what's in the batch.
This is exciting to me because a couple of these I grow, and these seeds are from the first years the strains started getting passed around.
Dave always called his yellow strain (Hillbilly), and they do look like them, but it is labeled differently, I saw some last year at his house but did not taste any.
Anyway, only other tomato people can appreciate something so simple as some tomato seeds. lol

[AKmark]

I shut the greenhouses down two days ago, part of me was wanting to cling on, the other is ready for a new beginning.
Look at the beautiful Yellow Brandywines, they came on late, but they sure did impress. I also just ate my last FLLPT yesterday, dang it was delicious, but I have a few pink tomatoes left to eat, mostly brandywines, bummer huh!

[Barb_FL]

Whoa - Is that pic from 2 days ago when you shut the green house down? That is a lot of tomatoes. What is FLLPT?

Congrats on the seed bounty!

[AKmark]

That is part of the final harvest, many are blushing, and some green still. I piled hundreds of pounds of vines and green tomatoes into the compost shack, there is a lot of stored energy in them, and it will go on the outside garden next spring. We grow about a thousand pounds of spuds for the winter, and a lot of carrots, zucchini, broccoli, cabbage, and lettuce.
I was referring to Fred Limbaugh Legacy Potato Top.

[JamesL]

Mark,
Good pics and Congrats on a great season! That was a nice seed score as well.
What's the deal with your compost shack? Is it an actual building?

[AKmark]

Hey James, the shack is my kids old clubhouse, it is about 7x10, 8ft tall.
Dave kept telling me he had some seeds for me, I was certainly happy when I looked at them.
It was a great year, we tasted so many great tasting tomatoes, some of the tomatoes I ate this week were outstanding. We really cut back on water, the lack of sunlight really reduced evaporation, and the taste was simply exceptional on some. I got my little tomato tongue slapped silly a few times this year.
I could not resist and have made a list of about 40 new varieties for next year, it is an illness of sorts I think.
Thanks for the kind input and words.
Mark

[efisakov]

40 new varieties? How many did you grow this year? I bet you will have some returners.
Dave seeds came as classic car collection. Exciting.
Mark, how yearly do you start your outside garden? Do you have any technique to plant potatoes, carrots and so on yearly. Do you cover ground with wood chips, black poly, manure, ...? Any fall preparations?
Thanks for sharing all your knowledge.

[AKmark]

Ella, I grew at least, 83 varieties, and yes, I do have my favorites that I will grow several plants of.

We can put spinach and peas out about the middle of May, I plant broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and potatoes the last week of May. Zucchini and beans go out after June 1st, they cannot tolerate the cold ground or a frost, and that is the safety cutoff time in my area. Carrots grown in AK are second to none for sweetness, I hate it when carrots are gone and we have to eat those imported things that look like a carrot, but sure don't taste the same.

I have found that IRT is one of the best plastic mulches for ground warming, my friend lays 9 miles of it every year at his farm, where he commercially grows zucchini, onions and strawberries. IRT will add about 8-10 degrees to the soil temperature, they also will put clear plastic hoop rows over that for a few weeks to get even more warmth, which gives them a few more weeks growing time. This is only used on warm weather crops though, seems like most stuff does just fine getting plopped right in the ground.

Don't feel sorry for us though, cabbages can reach over 100lbs,( my personal best is 70lbs) zucchini will get as big as your leg, broccoli and cauliflower as big as a dinner plate, and potatoes grow like weeds. We get the 20+ hours of summer daylight, and the soil here is black silty loam, that is blown in from the glaciers and river valleys every winter.
I will take a picture of a picture of a couple of cabbages I grew several years ago and post them. I may have some pics of Dave's garden too, now that guy is a master of northern gardening like I have never seen.
I don't do anything for fall preparation, maybe I should though.
Take care,
Mark

[Worth1]

Mark do you just store the plant material in the shack for composting in the summer or does it compost in the shack?

It would seem it would be too cold to compose anything there in the winter but I'm no expert about your area.

On a side not they have started using biodegradable plates and clam shells for us at work.
These items then get buried in a land fill outside of Deadhorse on the lease.
I simply cannot see the reasoning behind this as it would seem the stuff would stay frozen for as long as it is there.
What it does do is fall apart in our hands when we eat.

On a side note I have stopped using as much stuff like this as I can so it doesn't end up in the landfill.
Just so I do my part to keep your state beautiful.
The tomatoes you have presented this year are astounding to say the least.
Of all of the gardeners I know in Alaska yours is just wonderful.

You have pretty much killed all of the (you cant do that here) statements I have heard from many of them.

Worth

[AKmark]

Hi Worth, thanks for the kind words.
I throw stuff in there all year, but I am new at mulching on this level. I have always just threw grass clippings etc., in a pile then threw it on the garden when it breaks down.
I am following Dave's lead, and if I am correct I think he said his mulch bin reaches 150-160 degrees, in the middle, from pressure and stored energy releasing I assume. I do know that he said it steams in the winter, but he has quite the set up too. He has ran pipes with air holes in them through his mulch bin, and claims it excels the process. I will go up to his house this week and talk to him about this, and will post what he says.

They could at least make your plates edible since they are taking that route. lol
Mark

[efisakov]

Thanks for the info, Mark. I compost during the warmer parts of the year, never did it during the winter. Something to reconsider.