TOMATO CULTURE

Hokitika Guardian, 7 August 1925, Page 1

TOMATO CULTURE

AN EXPERT’S VIEWS. In an address on “Tomato Culture,’ given by Air W. C. Hyde, Government Horticulturist, before the St. Alartins Residents’ Association, special emphasis was laid on the necessity lor the careful selection of seeds. Air Hyde said llmL the. tomato produced seed so abundantly that it was easily obtained at little cost, hut without exercising careful selection Lite seed was of little use. and often it was the cause of heavy loss, every care being given to plants that, too late, were found to lie faulty and barren. The foundation of success lul tomato culture was satisfactory strain of seed. The tomato grower had first to decide "Inti was the best type at which to aim. and then how it was to be obtain-

Usually growers were inclined to select rather large, shapely fruit of good quality from which to obtain their seed, disregarding the quality of the, plants from which they came as to their natural vigour and cropping capacity, or date of maturity - a most important point. The results trom this kind of selection led to very uneven crops, the plants being of many types, with a large percentage so unsatisfactory as to lie worthless. TilK RIGHT WAY. for the purposes ol commercial tomato culture the selector must first note the plants that are healthy and of sufficiently vigorous type under local conditions: then, ol those those that crop well, and mature the fruit as early as possible. Of these again, those carrying shapely fruit, solid and well-llrshcd. fiew plants in a crop would come up to this standard, hut from them the mature, well developed fruit should lie taken and kept separate, the seed extracted, and sealed up. The following year a batch o! plants should be grown from each packet of seed, at a distance from one another, if possible. From the best hatch of plants resulting seeds might ho gathered for future cropping, blit they should select lirst on the first principles laid down, the best individual plants from that batch ol plants preferred. In this way every commercial crop was from the seeds of one selected parent and so usually had a marked uniformity.