Tall Tomatoes
Submitted Photo Sarah Peterson of Ava shows just how tall tomato plants can get.
Tomato plant or tomato trees? That is the question.
Tommy and Sarah Peterson are no strangers to planting a few plants each year at their home outside the city limits in Ava above Sutton’s Pond. However, this year has proved to be a record setting year for growing plants for them.
Sarah is the agriculture teacher at Mansfield, and her students raised these plants from seeds in their school greenhouse this past school year.
Since these plants were a new variety, Sarah purchased one of each during their spring plant sale and planted them the first weekend in May.
The soil is the same farm manure that has been in the barrels for the last three years and no fertilizer has been added.
The Petersons are averaging seven to ten cherry tomatoes daily from the Chadwick Cherry plant and two to three tomatoes from the yellow Pork Chop plant daily.
The plants are measuring a little over 9’ tall as of July 28th. They are having to use a 6’ ladder to pick tomatoes and tie up limbs on a daily basis.
