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Old-Fashioned Heirlooms with a Hydro Twist
Todd McWethy admits part of his motivation for trying to grow heirloom tomatoes in a hydroponic environment was the skepticism - and even the challenge - that surrounded the idea. "Initially, I was kind of discouraged talking to other people, even other growers. They were kind of saying that it wouldn't really work in a hydroponic situation and so forth. Which was all the more reason I wanted to try it," he says with a bit of a laugh, "just to see if we could actually grow them successfully." And grow them successfully, they have. McWethy Farms started cautiously, putting in only one row of about 80 plants that first year, but, Todd notes, "They were very popular right of the bat," first at a farmers market and then at restaurants. "A lot of people I brought them to initially didn't think they were real. . . because they were so blemish-free and so forth." Locally-grown heirloom tomatoes that looked and tasted good - and available off-season: how could you say no? That was almost five years ago, and people are still saying "Yes" to McWethy Farms' heirloom tomatoes, so much so, that Todd has plans- more varieties, more production, and more trial and error - as two new greenhouses come online later this winter and next spring. But while they were an instant hit, they have not been an instant success. "I will say there were a lot of frustrations," Todd laughs. Some hybrids and greenhouse varieties have been bred for maximum production in particular environments - such as in the nutrient solutions in a hydroponic environment - while a hydroponic medium is not the natural habitat for an heirloom plant. "The heirlooms are kind of wild, I guess is a good way to put it," Todd says. And even grown in soil, heirlooms don't tend to produce as abundantly as other varieties Even with a controlled, indoor environment, Todd also ran into plenty of physiological disorders with the heirloom plants, including blossom end rot and fruit cracking (the most serious problems because they affected salability and shelf life), plus some cat-facing, blotchy ripening, roughness, green shoulders, and sun scald. And from their first year, it was clear that some varieties were not a good match for his greenhouse. One memorable disaster was Aunt Ruby's German Green: "It's a delicious tomato, but I got like three or four fruit off the plant all season," Todd says. Another great tomato they finally had to abandon after a couple of years because it just didn't produce well, was the Jaune Flammee. Yellow pears suffered a lot of blossom end rot, which negatively affected salability. One intractable issue Todd faced was having to grow all the tomatoes - as well as cucumbers, peppers, and herbs - in the same environment with the same solution. This required finding tomatoes that grew well under those conditions, that "played well together," is how he put it.Todd noticed that the heirlooms - again perhaps because of genetics developed for flourishing in soil– - tend to need less nutrients in general than many of the greenhouse varieties. It is particularly easy to overdose on nitrogen, which he has been able to back off some, which has helped his heirlooms without negatively affecting the rest of his crops. And if figuring out which plants were likely to grow wasn't enough, his customers also wanted variety, in both flavor and color. While most of the varieties McWethy Farms grows now have been growing since their first year, Todd has considered color, size, shape, and what will produce well and be profitable - trying some new varieties each year and narrowing them down to five or six in each color that do well "and are pretty tolerant of the greenhouse situation." McWethy Farms grows 25 to 30 varieties successfully now. Asked to name examples off the top of his head, Todd elects to categorize them by color. In purple, they have had good luck with Black Crim/Krim and Black from Tula; their pinks include Pink Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Omar's Lebanese; in yellow and orange they grow Kellog's Breakfast, Pineapple, Rainbow or Big Rainbow, which are an attractive tomato that chefs really like; in reds, Bonny Best and Giant Beefsteak, plus a small tomato Todd says is a "lot of fun," called the Tigerella; the Green Zebra is their big green tomato. So, think you're ready to give it a try in your greenhouse at home? Todd says "absolutely." "I don't think that you'd need anything much different than you would with other types of tomatoes. Really just some experimentation." You'll want to consider lower nitrogen levels and pay attention to how plants respond to the solution. And pay attention to adjustments you can make in the environment. Todd has found that monitoring humidity has helped, in particular with end rot, which they have run into more at high humidity levels (at McWethy farms, they keep humidity no lower than 65 percent and start dehumidifying if it gets over 85 percent). Humidity and overwatering seems to contribute to fruit cracking as well. You'll need lights, of course, if you plan on growing through the winter or if you are in a cloudy area. Todd muses that it would be interesting to try experiments with different media - something he hasn't done. He wonders aloud, though admits he doesn't know whether that would make a big difference and whether they heirlooms might do a bit better in a media that's a little heavier or more like soil. He primarily grows in Prolite with 15 to 20 percent coir, with good results. As for varieties, Todd doesn't rule out types that haven't worked for him. They might just need a tweak in solution or environment, something he was unable to do. The most challenging thing Todd faced when starting out was simply that "I didn't find anything out there to help me with it." Why the wide-ranging skepticism? Todd imagines it had to do with growing something "that hadn't been bred for that kind of production could be kind of hard to weal," which some of the varieties were. And, of course, heirlooms were something of a low production product, while the idea of a hydroponic greenhouse is to maximize production. But again, the fact that not many people were doing it made the challenge all the more intriguing to Todd. If it worked, he figured it was something they "could run with," if not, "we just lost a row of production and we wouldn't do it next year." As for next year at McWethy Farms, Todd is looking forward to his two new greenhouses, which means he'll be able to dedicate separate space to heirlooms, where he can tinker more with environment, solutions, and varieties. "I'm the kind of person who is just going to continually try new things. I'm like a kid in a candy store when I'm ordering from a seed catalog; I want to try a little of everything." Want the whole story? Subscribe today, and start with this issue! Featured links from "Old-Fashioned Heirlooms with a Hydro Twist": |
