We jab a hole in the plastic, pour water into the hole....
...and push the plant into the mud
The plants usually take about a week to recover
As you can see, there is still a lot of bare ground for weeds to grow in
We cover in between the rows with landscape fabric
We are in the process of putting down the fabric here
We use fabric pins and sometimes bricks to hold down the edges
View from above at a finished tunnel
Its a lot of work to do initially, but its much easier than pulling weeds later
The tunnels only offer a few degrees of protection at night...
...so we cover them with frost blankets
This gives them a few more degrees of protection
At this point in the season, they can withstand about a 25 degree night...
...although it would make for a sleepless night!
These are just drapped over a piece of baler twine to make a tent
They also hold in more heat in the daytime
Its a lot of extra work, but with no heat its better safe than sorry
Inside view of warm happy plants in early April
Eventually after sub freezing nights are a thing of the past....
...we put away the frost blankets
We begin work driving stakes every three plants
Tee posts on the ends for anchors....
Then twine is strung from post to post
We put the first string on at about 12 inches, then another each 8 inches of growth
You can see how the string holds them up
Sometimes they grow so fast it is hard to keep up
The nice thing is we can be doing the stringing job when its too wet to do anything else
These type of tomatoes are "determinate", meaning they grow more bushy than tall
Its fun to see all the blossoms so early
These plants never get rained on or beaten by wind or hail
They remain very healthy and grow rapidly in May
Eventually they will grow to the top of these stakes
You can see the sides are open now
Eventually the sides and ends will be open and stay that way all summer
It won't be long until we start finding red ones
Its fun to start finding little tomatoes
The plants really like warmer nights
It eventually gets to be a jungle around mid June
Loads of tomatoes on these plants
Tomatoes grown this way are labor intensive but it is worth it
Its hard to tell that there is a cattle pasture under here
