Visit to Leamington, Ontario, Canada – Greenhouse Capital of North America

By Andrew Mefferd, Johnny’s Selected Seeds

During the week of June 15 I traveled to the town of Leamington, Ontario, Canada to see the latest greenhouse varieties. I went to this particular location because it lies at the center of the largest concentration of greenhouses in North America. Leamington is farther south than any other town in Canada, since it is on a point in Lake Erie. Even before greenhouses were popular, there was a lot of field tomato production in the area, so it is Canada’s “Tomatoville.”

Here is a selfie of me with the tourist info booth in Leamington, which is a giant tomato. Unfortunately, it wasn’t open when I was there — or there would be a helpful person inside the giant tomato.

This proximity to such a large body of water gives the area a “lake effect” climate, which helps smooth out the spikes and dips in temperature, making it a good area for growing all kinds of crops. Because of the high number of growers in the area, this is where newly developed greenhouse varieties are trialed and demonstrated. For tomato nerds like myself, this is an exciting place to be because the demonstration greenhouses act as a “living catalog” where I can see new varieties growing and taste them and determine if they are something that Johnny’s customers would be interested in.

Unfortunately, because these demonstration greenhouses receive so many visitors, I was not allowed to take pictures in most of them. Biosecurity is taken very seriously, as pests or pathogens could be brought in on almost any object that has also been inside other greenhouses. Even the people have to cover up — see my photo below. Even if not taken to this extent, having some kind of plan to keep diseases out of the greenhouse is a good idea for every grower. This is especially important for growers who have field and greenhouse operations on the same farm. It is very easy for workers to bring pathogens into the greenhouse if they go straight from working on one crop in the field to working on the same crop in a greenhouse.

Luckily, I was able to take photos in some places, even if I had to put my phone in a bag.

It is always interesting to go to field days and see the new developments. Breeders are constantly working to help overcome the production problems of growers by developing new varieties that are more resistant to pests and diseases, and have better flavor. These kinds of visits also provide a great opportunity to learn and share ideas with other growers, find out what their difficulties are and how they are able to overcome them.

In this greenhouse, I was allowed to get some photos of the new varieties on display. Also, I was able to get someone else to take a picture of the type of precautions that are taken to ensure that no diseases make it into the greenhouse. There were some very nice new varieties this year, including new cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes. Many of the new cucumbers for greenhouse production have resistance to cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV), a disease which is becoming more and more common in greenhouses in North America.

There were also some nice new tomato varieties on display. I am particularly excited about a very sweet and flavorful grape tomato for greenhouse production which may be available soon.

After three days in “Tomatoville,” I left town with many new growing ideas and potential new varieties in mind. It’s always great to visit and enjoy the warm hospitality of my Canadian hosts. For updates on these varieties, stay tuned to your next Johnny’s catalog to see if any of them make the cut in our trials this year and make it into the catalog.

Not all Open Pollinated Heirloom Seeds are Created Equal

The great thing about heirloom seeds is their proven performance. They’re also generally widely adapted and have great market acceptance and recognition. Growers all over the world have been saving seed from these open pollinated varieties.  The question is where should you source your seed? 



Russell's Extra Choice Mix

It really depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.  It’s nice to imagine saving seed year after year and having pride and legacy develop on your farm or homestead, but how do you know if you’re getting the same high quality tomato that was first planted one, five, or even 25 years ago? Do you remember when your favorite tomato variety seemed to have more pronounced shoulders, a rounder shape, or a more upright plant habit?  

The truth is, not all seed savers, or seed production companies are created equal. Seed quality and performance can vary greatly from stock to stock. Let me help explain this, by presenting two examples below:

Find out more about our Breeding
Program at Johnnyseeds.com

Company A contracts a farmer to grow heirloom tomatoes. Since they’re desperate to ensure a seed source and their inventory is getting low, they provide the farmer with the remainder of their seed stock, which is leftover seed from a previous years’ production. The seed is in poor shape and the farmer struggles with low germination and poor plant vigor. Half of the transplants don’t make it to the field. To meet his contract, the farmer delivers seed from every tomato produced, regardless of the quality. This includes the fat ones, the skinny ones, the seed from the fruits that have some purple blotches, as well as seeds from the purple fruit with some red blotches. The farmer saves seeds from the plants that barely set fruit, the diseased plants, and the ones that might have cross pollinated with his own tomatoes.  Compound this seed saving process over a few productions and the tomato’s original great characteristics start to fade away.
 

Learn more about Johnny's
at Johnnyseeds.com

On the other hand, Company B contracts with several well-established and seasoned seed growers. The seed company provides disease-free, high germinating, true-to-type seeds to farmers geographically located in an area where common tomato disease and pest pressure for that crop are low. The farmer isolates the production crop from his crops of the same plant family on the farm.  The seed company frequently visits the growers and walks the production. Together, they select fruits that are healthy and disease free. They grade the plants and fruit on their health and for being the best possible match to the characteristics of the variety’s lineage.  They identify any off types, or lower quality plants and quickly remove them from the production. Upon harvest, the seed is lab tested to ensure high germination, and vigor. Grow-outs are performed to test seed quality prior to being released to consumers. The process is repeated next year using these “true-to-type” seeds.

Brandywine tomato

These scenarios happen every year in the seed production industry.  Don’t believe it? Try growing the same exact heirloom varieties from three different seed suppliers. Grade each one based on uniformity, plant health, and being true-to-type. 

Johnny’s knows that as a grower, you’re proud of your product. We know you may not always be the only one to market with a Brandywine tomato, but we can help you have the best looking one there, by ensuring our seed production is held to a high standard that we are proud of.  We also rely on our seed growers to return to us the type of seed they would be proud to buy. One of the reasons we are able to offer our customers such great quality seed is due to the specialized seed growers we work with.  They are the ones that walk countless times during the season to make sure Johnny’s gets a product they are willing to put their name behind. 



Please do not hesitate to ask me any questions about seed saving, our seed production or anything else you might be curious about.

 

Randy Cummings
Territory Sales Representative
South Central U.S
rcummings@johnnyseeds.com 

New for 2014 Products - See Them Now

Johnny's will be Participating in Bejo Seed's August Open House and Demonstration Trials

This August, Johnny's will again be a part of the Bejo Seed's Open House. Stop by our booth and say hello!

Members of our Research Department
at the 2012 Bejo Seeds Open House

At our booth, you'll have a chance to:

• See our demonstration plots of Sunflowers, Squash, Tomatoes, Swiss Chard, Eggplants, and Peppers.
• Learn how to use the latest tools at the equipment demonstrations, including a demonstration of our Quick Cut Greens Harvester.
• Meet Johnny's Commercial Territory Sales Reps as well as Product Technicians from our Research Farm in Albion, Maine.

 

We will be on hand at the Johnny's booth throughout the Open House to answer your questions and discuss all your tools and supplies needs.

Bejo will also be providing refreshments as well as a light lunch for attendees on Tuesday, August 27.

Event Details

When: Tuesday-Wednesday, August 27-28, 2013 10 a.m.- 6 p.m.
Where: 4188 Pre Emption Rd., Geneva, NY 14456
Please RSVP at: (315) 789-4155
Website: www.bejoseeds.com


JSS Advantage Newsletter -- December 2011: Tomato Production

Diversify Your Tomato Production

Tomatoes are a top crop for most fresh market farmers, so we at Johnny's are happy to introduce new products that will help you grow more tomatoes, over a longer season, for greater profits. This month, we offer some new varieties, supplies, and suggestions that will help you diversify your offerings at market next summer.
Being early, late, or off-season is one good way to diversify your tomato production. Another way is to offer tomatoes in volume to chefs, artisanal processors, and home canners. By the time most local field tomatoes hit their peak, prices have dropped considerably from early in the season. But that's when it's easiest to produce a lot of tomatoes if you planted disease-resistant, high-yielding varieties.

New Greenhouse Tomato Rebelski (aka DRW 7749) Offers Disease Resistance Package, Same Great Taste as Field-Grown Fruit

For an earlier start to the tomato season, try Rebelski (a.k.a. DRW 7749), the best greenhouse tomato we have found for the fresh market. These beautiful, slightly ribbed red slicers have the great flavor and texture of field-grown tomatoes, yet they can be produced in a hoophouse or greenhouse.
They also have an excellent disease package to keep them productive over a long period. They are resistant to Tobacco Mosaic Virus, Leaf Molds A-E, Fusarium Wilt (Races 1 & 2), Fusarium Crown and Root Rot, Powdery Mildew, and Verticillium Wilt.
Firm enough to withstand handling, yet as attractive as a delicate heirloom, they offer growers an exciting new opportunity to be the first to market with flavorful tomatoes that command a good price.

Kick Your Sauce Up a Notch with These Great Plum Tomatoes

This year, Johnny's exclusively offers two great plum tomatoes. Granadero is an Organic hybrid plum tomato that produces very high yields of uniform, delicious 4-5 oz. tomatoes for sauces, salsas, and salads.
Granadero, an indeterminate variety, has resistance to nematodes and intermediate resistance to TSWV, as well as low susceptibility to blossom end rot so the plants remain productive even under heavy disease pressure.
Paisano, a new hybrid paste tomato, has the shape of the ever-popular San Marzano. The fruits have thick walls, high solids, and good flavor for canning and sauce.
Paisano is a determinate, so its fruit set is concentrated around mid-season, producing a large volume of tomatoes to offer to home canners.

Tomato Grafting and Trellising Supplies

To keep your plants healthy over the longest possible season, you might also consider growing grafted tomatoes.
Growing grafted tomatoes is not as difficult as it might first appear. Utilizing disease-resistant rootstock helps to start your plants off right and keep them healthy all season long. This year we have added Colosus, an extremely vigorous and disease-resistant rootstock, to our lineup. We also have all the supplies, information, and even how-to videos to make your tomato grafting a success.
Johnny's also has the supplies you need for trellising tomatoes. At our research farm, we use a system of posts with #9 wire strung between them to hold the sisal twine that supports each plant. You can see photos of our trellising system here.
We also have tomato trellis clips, tape tools, and disease control products.

Complement Your Tomatoes with Eggplants, Herbs

Another way to diversify your production is to offer products that are compatible with tomatoes, even though they may not be as high volume. Then you can cross-market the two, and increase the value of each sale. A prime example is eggplant, which is often paired with tomatoes in recipes. Eggplant is so strikingly beautiful that it pulls customers in to your stand to admire its sleek good looks. Johnny's has eggplants in every shape and color, including a few that your customers may not even recognize as eggplants. In addition to the familiar shiny, dark purple cylindrical fruits, you can grow eggplants that are light green, egg-shaped, lavender, and striped. You probably won't sell eggplant in the same quantities as tomatoes, but if you have them available, customers are likely to buy them from you while buying tomatoes.
Many herbs are also natural companions for tomatoes and eggplants, and it's particularly helpful to have fresh herbs at the end of the season to sell along with canning tomatoes. Here are essential herbs for tomato and eggplant dishes:
Genovese Basil, Oregano, Giant of Italy Parsley, Rosemary, Summer Thyme, and Sweet Marjoram.
Most of these are transplant crops that need to be started fairly early (especially the hoophouse tomatoes), so now is the time to start planning for next summer's success.

Video: Morning Crop Walk at Johnny's Research Farm

Today, we look at our tomato trials and how we trellis the plants with twine.



Also featured in this episode, the collinear hoe and pest and disease scouting.

What's New at the Farm? Tomato Trellises, Tractor Cultivation

The weather seems to have cleared and will give us enough of a break to finish up our spring planting. Last Thursday night we received just over an inch of rain and over the weekend another third of an inch fell. Add that to cool and cloudy days and you have a slowdown of field activities. All is not lost as this weather pattern provides ideal conditions for transplanting. As long as we have the field prep done a few days ahead of the transplanting crew we'll be OK.

We're finishing up the major transplanting jobs this week. We'll be able to wrap up tomatoes and squash this week, and finish  the smaller jobs next week. Of course, there's some transplanting that occurs all season long, but not as much as what happens in the spring.

Among the favorite activities of the early summer is putting out three acres of tomato trellises. A steel post is driven in every 10 feet and a wire is run along the top. A string is then tied to this wire and to the base of the tomato plant.

Here's a photo of some trellised tomatoes in our high tunnel. Our field trellises will look similar. 

Tomatoes in the high tunnel

We have three people that work continuously in the trellis tomato project during the summer. We start pruning and twining the plants next week and continue through the middle to the end of August. This time frame works well for high school students. They work from mid June through August before going back to school.

Lots of thinning and weeding this time of year keeps us busy in addition to planting. The spring carrots have been thinned; always a big job, but one that can be done in the rain like transplanting.

Now that the sun has come out and the fields are starting to dry up a little we can concentrate on some cultivation. We currently have four cultivating tractors: a Farmall 200 and a AV, an Allis Chalmers "G", and a Ford 1710. I also purchased a John Deere 850 this past winter to use between the beds of tomatoes.

The "G" is set up for cultivating small seeded crops like lettuce, carrots and onions. The AV is a high clearance offset Farmall that is used primarily for plastic. The Farmall 200 is used for all kinds of cultivation projects, from two rows, to three rows, to one row, to plastic. Finally, the Ford is used primarily for killing the weeds along the rows of plastic.

The Ford is the newest and most modern of the cultivating tractors. It has power steering, three-point hitch and a canopy which is great on a broiling hot day. It's also a versatile tractor as it's out laying plastic mulch right now. The John Deere 850 is going to be used to cultivate the wide rows between the tomatoes; we plant our trellised tomatoes on eight-foot beds instead of our usual six-foot beds so we have more room to work around them. We use a three-point hitch cultivator we designed and built here on the farm. What we found at local dealers were what I considered over priced and not built rugged enough to withstand our rocky field conditions.

I'll get some photos of these tractors in action in the coming weeks, and I'll post them once we start the daily cultivation regime.

Until next week, Brian.

Video: Tomato Varieties

Growing Wisdom's Dave Epstein, who produces many of Johnny's videos, sent us a link to a movie from last year's Common Ground Fair. The two-minute clip features many of Johnny's tomato varieties, including Brandywine, Juliet, San Marzano, Green Zebra, Striped German, Sun Gold, Red Pearl, and Pink Beauty. It was shot inside the 40-foot caterpillar tunnel we built at the Unity Fairgrounds.

As a bonus, Dave sent us a photo of his garden in Massachusetts.

His greens are doing very well, thanks to the cool weather and rain we've experienced here in the northeast.

Tomato grafting a worthwhile pursuit

As the growing season begins to heat up, it's time to think tomatoes, specifically grafted tomato plants.

We've recently published a couple of interesting documents on tomato grafting to our website.

The first article, "Grafting Tomatoes for Increased Vigor and Disease Resistance", outlines the many benefits of grafting -- improved disease resistance, higher yields, cost effectiveness, to name a few. This 6-page article, written by our tomato products technician, includes detailed instructions and color photos to help you learn how to graft your own custom tomato plants. It's worth mentioning that we also have an excellent video from the University of Vermont Extension on tomato grafting, which pairs quite nicely with the article.

The second article shows the results of our grafted greenhouse tomato trial -- "Grafted Tomato Yield Data". We trialed 6 varieties of tomatoes in a hoophouse at our research farm  in Albion, Maine. We compared the yields of plants grafted to the rootstock Maxifort vs. non-grafted plants. Overall, yields were 40% higher on the grafted plants. One of the trial plants  -- Geronimo grafted to Maxifort rootstock -- did particularly well with a 60% higher yield than standalone Geronimo.

So well in fact that Johnny's is now carrying Geronimo/Maxifort plants. These exclusive plants are one of four tomato plant varieties available to purchase on our website. We've selected the following states for participation in this new tomato plant pilot program: CT, IL, IN, ME, MA, MI, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VT, WI. Visit the new Johnny's tomato plants web page to shop for tomato plants.