It's mid-May, the weather is warming up, and the tomato starts have been hardened... into the ground they go!Following the advice of my boss, Bruce (always listen to Iowa farm boys); I snipped the two lowest branches off of the tomato plant and lowered it as far down into the bed as I could, while making sure the next lowest set of branches and leaves did not touch the ground. He told me that roots will shoot out of the stumps where branches once were, and having the additional stalk in the ground improves the vertical strength of the tomato as it grows upwards.
The irrigation system I set up has one drip irrigation port for each tomato plant. I've read that over-watering and over-feeding tomatoes is a common newbie mistake to make, so I'll be keeping that in mind. Engineer the automated irrigation system is proving to be a skill set in it's own right - it's a work in progress.
RainCity is definitely a cool climate for growing tomatoes, so picking the right variety is essential. I've been told that Romas are usually a solid bet; My father-in-law was mindful of this when growing the starts - so we have some variety, but all of them are short season varietals.
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