Uwharrie Farm

Heating the greenhouse can be one of the greatest expenses.  Fortunately we have been able to cut the cost by heating the greenhouse with scrap wood collected from local businesses.  Keeping in mind that healthy soil promotes healthy plants we periodically add leaves and compost to our tomato beds to increase soil fertility and soil life.  This year our tomato plants were planted the last week of Feb.and the first week of Mar. with harvest expected to begin in May.

Organic Fertilizer Mix    Pour into a 1 quart container:  1/8 cup liquid fish fertilizer (nitrogen), 1/8 cup Biolink 0-5-5 (phosphorous and potassium), 1/8 cup Epsom Salts (magnesium; if you applied dolomitic lime to the planting bed you do not need the epsom salts as dolomitic lime contains magnesium), 1 teaspoon Borax (boron).  Finish filling the jug with water.  This is a concentrate and should be enough for 40 - 50 plants. I place this in a hose end sprayer, attach to the end of my garden hose and water the plants.  The number of times that I fertilize is dependent on existing soil fertility and the availability of soil nutrients.

Some hand pollination is beneficial as the greenhouse environment does not get the benefit of wind and insect pollination that occur outside. 

After planting, yellow sticky cards were placed in the greenhouse to trap pest insects.  Once potato aphids were discovered on the plants I removed the yellow sticky cards and released a parasitic wasp, called Aphidius, to parasitize the aphids.  The yellow cards had to be removed because Aphidius are also drawn to them.  Aphidius Ervi effectively control potato aphids while Aphidius Colemani control Green Peach Aphids.  You can also purchase a mix of Aphidius to control a number of different aphids.  We have used these parasitic wasps to control aphids in the greenhouse for many years.

            Uwharrie Farm Tomatoes - 2010 harvest began about mid May