 So hello everybody. My name is Andre da Silva. I'm like David said I'm the new extension vegetable specialist and I'm happy to welcome you guys in our vegetable school 2022. Like Dave said we wish we could be like meeting with you guys in person but what just happened with the current COVID situation may have made it this in a zoom. However we are planning some series of variety trials for vegetable crops around the States. Following those variety trials we're going to have our few days that we're preparing. We're going to be schedule with each of A&R from AACs. So you guys going to be able to come and see our crops in the field. This way you can make questions as you have it on time. If you see a problem that you have in your farm you can ask us at that time and if we don't know the answer we're going to for sure looking for an answer for you and send it in a near future. But today we're going to start talking about tomato crop management and variety selection. Later on Dr. A will be talking about an IPM for tomatoes and I want to start about let you guys know what is currently available in the market for you guys as far as variety. So and what is the importance of choosing a proper variety. When you go looking for a variety if you are a home garden or if you have a small acreage your goal usually in a John seeds or seed way or those online stores that we have available. If you're a big grower you usually come to the cities and you purchase those seeds. But why is important for us to conduct this variety and what do you guys can get from those varieties is because when we as a university as an extension system conduct those varieties trials we are comparing all those seeds available. Usually those companies do variety trials with collaboration with growers or in their research facilities. However they want to sell their products. We know we want to give you guys the right information that can increase your potential yield. When we select the proper variety this is the first step of an IPM program. Then we're going to also provide you information with specific markets that you guys are targeted. By the end we want to increase your revenue. So that's the main reason why we conduct all those variety trials around the state because we want to provide our growers the most updated information on what can increase their revenue. So keep that in mind when we are talking about variety selection. So this year what we're going to be talking about variety are from four different companies that we have collaborated with. Those and the varieties that they have been available in the market. Basically what I did is I select the best variety we have seen in the market and we ask it for those companies to share seeds with us. So this way we could compare among them. So we have five varieties from Bijou, Emelou, Rizulut, Fonsemini, the 7631, 0466, Merchu, the 2210, and the 4676. Readybound is a very well-known variety and then the Swain, Sunfresh, and Skyway. So that's the varieties that we compared in the past and that's the result that we're going to show. I will not be talking about anything on research but what those varieties can provide you a better yield. So like I said in the beginning the first step of a cultivar selection is it can provide you one. It's the first step of an IPM, an integrated pest management. So when you are selecting your varieties see the disease package. You can enter in their website and find what is the disease pack that they have. For tomato in this case what we have the most problems here is the tomato spotted wilt virus and the tomato those are more common all around the state while the tomato yellow leaf curlo virus is more located in the south portion of the state. So look for those ones. You also might have some fusarium wilt and some other problems but once you are selecting your variety look what is the package the disease packet that that variety has. This way it's going to help you guys during your IPM program. Following that we can start talking about their yields. So in this graph we have the total yield for each of those varieties that I just mentioned that we are we were evaluated and this year is in box or pounds per acres. As you can see we have the total yield for them as we go over this talk we're going to be talking about the size distribution first harvest and I'm going to write a little bit on for you to select your market that you want but the total yield among those varieties were first achieved by Mertu, Reddybound, Emelo, Loretta, 7631, 466, Skyway and and those are the top varieties for total yield that we found that we found. Well one particular thing over the this trial that we noticed is that the variety Mertu had a high tolerance to bacterial response. So if you are in an area where you have a bacterial spot as a problem Mertu can be one very good. Another one that we found an interesting curiosity is that Emelo and Mountain Gin they have constant yields across different locations. I have talked with some guys in Florida and some guys in Florida who also conducted variety trials and they found the same consistent yields and vigorous plants across locations. So those can also be an option for you. So if you're a grower that is looking for total yield you don't care about much about quality so or you don't care much about like certain size of your low Loretta 7631, 0466 and Skyway are the varieties that you are looking for for this coming season. However if you are a grower that is looking for a particular target market that is your first harvest we have different response. In this case our variety Mertu those in red in this graph you represent the yield of first harvest so Mertu 7631, 0466, 45, 76 and the last three 3275, 2310, Resolute and Sunfresh are the varieties that you are looking for. So let's say that you are a grower planting in early spring you're going to be competing against some guys in South Florida that they are also supporting the market if you are a large grower then you want to first harvest to be a high the top of your harvest. Those varieties in red here those grab hard in red or here in red represent the variety that you should pick. It was followed by the first harvest by the ones in gray and then the last one was Skyway our variety who yield the most in the end of the season. So this is the kind of strategy that you must have when you are planting selecting your cultivar disease and when are you harvesting that? Are you competing against like your neighbor? Are you competing against other states market? So pay attention on what you want. I like also to see how was the fruit size what is the size distribution you're getting like a very big breakfast tomato or you want to like smaller tomatoes so you can like back in more or you can have sell it in a fresh market. So I also made a distribution of the size of our tomato. So here we are again with our total yield but now in proportions of X large, large and medium tomatoes. So this way you know what you are looking for and as you can see the variety myrtle which was our top variety was very similar to our sun fresh which was our variety that had the lowest total yield but was similar for X large so they both can be selected for our X large. So let's say if you sell your produce your tomatoes in a fresh market what do you gonna do? See when you want to harvest it select a variety that's gonna harvest early or late and then see what is the size you are looking. If you're looking more for selling it on for a restaurant that they usually goes so you're gonna check on our reports which is the variety that performed the better and the same thing for medium tomato. Medium tomatoes are usually preferred for processing for the processing industry so you can usually select a variety who produce a better medium tomato. So keep that in mind when you are selecting. So like I said myrtle was very good yield total yield but that yield was not different for X large tomato as sun fresh which was our lowest. On the other hand sun fresh was better than M low but total yield was larger. So those are the kind of information I would like for you guys to keep in mind when selecting a tomato variety and use this information all that we I mentioned here will be in a report in the ACES website on the commercial hard food routine so you guys gonna have this available for you. One particular thing that I would like to talk with you guys is still on the tomato food of our selection is that I got some information with people from Florida from it so it's a different variety trial than the one that I mentioned this was conducted in Florida is about about two responses very that is a main disease that we're gonna have in the state and they did a trial there where they evaluate what is the impact of bacteria spot on the vigor of the plant. So they gave you score from zero to a hundred for the bacteria spot and from zero to ten for the vigor of the plant. As you can see here the variety myrtle resolute mountain gem and M low that were in our variety trial they have different performance on the bacteria spot myrtle showed a good resistance to bacteria spot while M low had a higher score for the for the bacteria spot. However M low even with a higher score on bacterial spot rating it have a higher vigor 8.7 when compared to 7.7 of myrtle so it shows that it also has some tolerance to the bacteria spot so plants is too health and you can produce. So this is another thing that I'm going to make it available for you guys and you need to keep in mind so mountain gem mountain gem and myrtle are some of the varieties that we are recommending as an extension specialist I would recommend for our growers because they have seen constant yield, constant resistance to bacterial spot over the years that we have been investigating variety trials. Even if they have got some bacterial spot it doesn't say that they are resistant they are tolerant but they have been with a good vigor and they can probably help you guys to achieve your potential yield. So switching a little bit gears from Kultivar now that you guys have all these informations you guys going to be able to select what is the Kultivar you guys you can select you want to select for your for this year's season I just want to talk a little bit about planting dates. Planting dates is another factor that's going to be important for you guys when when determined when doing a tomato production. You want to select planting dates where temperatures are fine and high so during the spring you can grow in north alabama between april 15 you should be planting between april 15 and june 15 on the other hand in south alabama you need to anticipate your planting date march 1st to april 30 is the ideal planting dates. During the fall you can also plant tomato most of people that we have been talking they just grow it during the summer when it's hot so remember you don't want to have very high temperatures that's going to just stress your plant you want to maintain it between 55 and 85 fighting height so why not optimize your year have two growing seasons so you can grow it during the spring and now during the fall so in the fall if you want to plant tomato north alabama i would recommend from july 1st to august 1 on south alabama july 15 to august 15 you don't want to delay much your planting date because you're going to get colder conditions and that's going to abort your uh your your fruits so those are optimus but also i will remember avoid planting uh your planting date when you're flowering and you're fruiting will be during the summer because you're going to have problems with semi scouting if you plant it too late during the spring or too early during the fall and you get high temperatures you're going to have problems with semi scouting which is a disorder causing that is a consequence of a low biomass accumulation so you don't you will not have a good foliage your fruits will be exposure and then you're going to have semi scouting i'm going to talk about it a little bit later once you determine your planting date in spring or fall if you're in the north portion or in the south portion of the state we can start talking about fertilizer fertilizer is the second is the third step so go to our selection determine your planting date now how are you going to feed your plants and that's our fertilizer so the first step of a proper fertilization is you should conduct a soil sample do a soil sample in your area it's not costly and it will give you an overview of what's going on in your area once you conduct your soil sample it will tell you how much fertilizer to apply and usually it varies in three main nutrients nitrogen, phosphorus and potash and pk nitrogen for tomato usually varies from 130 to 210 pounds of nitrogen per acre usually nitrogen is the most mobile nutrient in the soil that easily leach so most of the times you're going to be applying about 200 pounds of nitrogen per acre phosphorus is less mobile than it but still you need some phosphorus being applied so it's going to range about 100 200 pounds of p205 per acre and potash is a good nutrient that is required most in the beginning and in the end of the season about 240 pounds of k20 per acre but how to do that application that application should not be in a single application early in the season it should be spread along of the growing season so first you're going to apply about 20 to 30 percent of your fertilizer at pre planting when you are preparing your bed so you are just giving a good nutrient for the plants early in the season to induce root development most of your phosphorus will be applied early in the season phosphorus is the nutrient that induce root growth so your plants will be health early in the season nitrogen is still needed potash is still needed but not as high as phosphorus so most of your phosphorus is applied early in the season while nitrogen and potash are applied more later in the season the other 8 to 20 percent of your fertilizer should be applied during weekly application if you have the ability to do liquid fertilizer usually drip tape or when you have a drip tape system for irrigation or you can do two or three more applications of a granular fertilizer some examples of most common fertilizers are 10 10 10 5 10 15 and the 3400 for a granular fertilizer so you're going to apply most of your phosphorus like I said early in the season so you can do 10 10 10 for 20 percent or 30 or 3400 later in the season if you have a liquid fertilizer I strong the ability to apply liquid fertilizer I strongly recommend you to do weekly applications of about 10 to 15 pounds of not of nitrogen per acre you're going to always be basing your fertilizer on your nitrogen and you can apply like 707 408 or 909 with 11 percent of counsel those are the most common fertilizer for tomato productions and actually they have been shown the best success for achieve higher use on tomato production and I'm going to give you guys some example why you should apply those fertilizer and properly apply fertilizer in particular liquid fertilizer because we can do the study on blossom and rod which is caused by an insufficient calcium in the tissue it's induced by growth a faster growth rate high humidity irrigation stress excess of ammonium which is a nitrogen sore nitrogen fertilizer excess of potassium as well and lack of calcium so if you do a proper fertilization you can minimize this problem because also by the ratio of calcium and nitrogen if you have too much nitrogen and low calcium in your soil your plants will be focused on the nitrogen will lack calcium and will cause the blossom and rot which is this rotting part in the blossom end of your fruit commonly seen in tomatoes and bell peppers which are solanaceous crops so we did a trial where we investigate two fertilizer strategies 707 and 408 rotated with CN9 those are liquid fertilizers they were applied in different rates 107 200 and even 225 pounds of nitrogen per acre remember the the recommendation is up to 210 but it doesn't mean that you cannot apply more if you have rainfall leaving leaching so we evaluate two different total nitrogen applied and we applied weekly 15 17.5 on this case almost 18 and 20 pounds of nitrogen per acre per week so those are the rates that of liquid fertilizer that we use in 707 408 with and rotate 408 with CN9 weekly so one weekly 408 another weekly CN9 one week 408 another week CN9 and then 707 every week our results this was conducted in 2016 and 2017 and this is the percentage of blossom and rot that we got from our nitrogen rates our level of nitrogen 175 225 pounds the black bar here represents our strategy of rotating 408 NPK with CN9 which is the calcium nitrate 900 the red one rip the red one represent our 707 in a dry year and in a regular year as you can see in a dry year when we don't have rainfall events we're going to have problems with blossom and rot more than in 2017 when we have a wet year more regular rainfall events it was even distribution it's even distributed why because rainfall induced nitrogen leaching when it's induced nitrogen leaching you evenly the nitrogen content in the soil with the calcium but when you don't have that that rainfall leaching nitrogen you apply too much nitrogen as higher is your nitrogen rate the higher will be the incidence of blossom and rot so keep that in mind you don't want to increase too much or nitrogen because you might going to have those problems with blossom and rot we have seen growers saying oh i apply 250 200 pounds of nitrogen so this way if i have a problem i have enough nutrients for the plant and what's happening is they're spending money with excess of nutrients fertilizer and they're inducing lower quality yield because you're going to have problems with blossom and rot so keep that in mind so here as you can see uh in the dry year as we increase the nitrogen rates we increase the incidence of blossom and rot but the same was not seen with the 707 why because they were always having blossom and rot per weight rotating weekly with c9 with the calcium nitrate nine percent nitrogen zero phosphorus zero potash and 11 percent of calcium was better or reduced the blossom and rot when compared to 707 actually in a dry year our calcium content in the plant tissue was 1.2 while in our calcium content in the plant tissue in a regular wet year was 2.1 so you can see that the calcium increase the lower calcium in the plant tissue increased the blossom and rot while it was not in 2017 when we had a higher calcium content in the plant tissue another fact that we saw is that the 707 in 2016 had no impact in the blossom and rot but this 408 rotated with calcium nitrate reduced block rent while this was not seen in the in the wet year and finally lower nitrogen rates which i just said they also reduce the incidence of blossom and rot when the strategy of rotating was used for fertilizer management so keep that in mind that those strategies oops i'm sorry sir can help you guys to reduce those problems caused by incorrect fertilization and is an option for you guys for you guys 408 707 and calcium nitrate are the most common fertilizer and they are currently available for you guys switching gears from fertilizer to irrigation i should say that they are linked in a way that won't affect the other remember i'm saying that nitrogen is the most mobile nutrient in the soil so if you irrigate too much you're going to move nitrogen to deeper levels of the soil and you're going to have a problem with nitrogen so keep in mind that an irrigation management management is very important for your tomato yard or for your tomato field actually if you i put this sentence here because i know that some of our growers does not irrigate it but i was like just doing quick a quick research on what's happened if you don't irrigate because usually we just have irrigated tomato if you don't irrigate it your yields can be reduced by 60 percent irrigation is essential to produce consistent yields of high quality tomatoes you can increase your yields by 60 percent so if you have put a tomato in the field and don't irrigate don't expect you have high yields you can do you can have two systems drip irrigation or sprinkler irrigation i strongly recommend if you have to install one do a drip irrigation drip irrigation is much more accurate you're going to be applying water for your root system and you're just going to induce more disease as you wet your leaves you create vulnerable conditions for those leaves to accept disease to get into the plant system so you're going to have problems so i strongly recommend drip however you have the option for sprinkler and what you need to do is properly manage your water application what i mean is your irrigation is scheduled i put the systematic irrigation scheduling type here which is the application of the same volume of water every day but i'm not a big fan of that because you are not accounting sometimes for your rainfall events or you are just applying water as you think it's the best one however this is what most of growers do and what i would recommend is in the early stages of the crop development like after transplanting you should apply about 0.5 inch or a half an inch of water per day however when you have fruiting or you are at maturation you should be already applying about 1.5 inch per day and this is how much water the plants should be receiving and not how much is the efficiency of your system okay another better strategy that i should mention here is that you can irrigate based on your crop water demand and your soil moisture sensors i will not get in depth on this particular topic because we have a whole training on how to properly uh schedule irrigation events but those are you guys so if you have any questions in the future just let me know and we can go in depth on how to use the crop water demand and soil moisture sensors for tomato production what i would like to show you here is that under irrigation your your volume of water would vary from a half an inch to an inch and a half per day finally what i would like to show is if you don't if you start to see some symptoms like those ones that are most common on tomatoes our tomato disorder this is usually related by planting date fertilization or water demand so blossom and rot we have already talked that is the calcium deficient in your plant tissue and it's a rotting in the blossom end of your fruit another problem that is very common is sunnys count we also talk about that when you select the proper planting date and you do a good fertility management you're going to have a good coverage of your plant and and your uh your good canopy closure and then your fruit will not be exposure for the sun however if the fruit is exposure to the sun you're going to see this whiteing part in the stem end of your fruit so that's a very common problem and here one thing that it's also shown in this photo is these straight lines on our tomato here it's because this is caused by except a exposure lower biomass accumulation and an exposure of the fruit to the sun fruit cracking is something that most of our growers see and it's a very common this is usually caused by a wrapped growth of our fruits at rainfall events what's happened is we have rainfall events our roots are upticking water but there is no nutrient available for them so they will just uptake water without nutrients in this way they're going to expand their tissue and it's going to crack because there is no nutrient to fill the cells of your fruit when it's needed so fruit cracking cracking when you see those cracking here it's because of rainfall events there is nothing we can do it's something related to the weather and unfortunately it's some problem that we we can as extension specialists we cannot like or as a farmer as a consultant we cannot like treat it it's going to happen if you have a very frequent rainfall events another problem I didn't put a photo here is the blossom drop when you see your tomato flower is dropping down it's probably because of high temperature so like I said selecting a proper planting date it's ideal so you can avoid avoid the abortion of your your flowers and later but not not if you grow tomato for a while you probably have seen those white tissue inside your fruits I think that this picture is not represented pretty well but those who had that problem have seen you usually have a hollow tomato with a white tissue there and that's caused by potassium deficiency so potassium is higher it's more recommended than nitrogen but nitrogen will impact your fruit yield while potassium will impact the quality of your food that's why we recommend from 200 to 400 pounds of nitrogen for tomato but it's still do a soil sample analysis and those are the most common problems that we probably will be seeing in this coming in this coming season you you have seen that weather variability is a problem we have been having like warmer years cold years and the exposure to the rainfall events will be impact your production so selecting your cultivar conducting a proper planting date selecting a good strategy for fertilization and properly irrigate your crop will definitely minimize those common disorders that we have for tomatoes will increase your yield will save in fertilizer and will finally increase your profits so with that I would like to conclude my talk and if you have as part of the commercial horticultural team our vegetable crop program is here to help you guys