Planting the first tomatoes of 2025!

There are some days that we look forward to every year on the farm more than others and yesterday was one of them.

Yesterday we planted our first tomatoes of 2025 in the field. We have been observing every step since we seeded them on January 1st and are excited to see them grow so much more being planted in the ground.

In this first planting we have Sungold Cherry Tomatoes, Early Girls and Cherokee Purple. We already have two more plantings growing in the greenhouse that have a much wider variety of tomatoes.

This is the second year we have planted tomatoes this early and this time we got to use all the information and observations from last year.

Two of the rows are in raised beds which will get more sun hitting the sides of the soil and hopefully warming the soil up to help the plants grow faster.

After planting the tomatoes and watering them in we put row cover over the plants which is held up by metal hoops.

The row cover will help reduce some of the wind that the tomatoes otherwise would get in the spot they are planted and it will keep trap some warm air under the cover to keep the tomatoes slightly warmer than the outside temperature.

Almost all of our spring veggies are planted in the field already so the greenhouse is filled with summer crops we will be planting soon.

The spring veggies are growing very well with the weather we have had but that also means the weeds are loving it also. We have been able to get out and weed when the soil is dry but there is still loads of weeding to be done.

In the next week the temperatures will be in the mid-70s with lots of sun which is great for the plants and us to work in the field after the 1.5 inches of rain we got in the last week.

There is lots of cover crop that needs to be mowed as it is beginning to flower along with overwintered veggies that are done being harvested.

In the next couple of weeks we have to spread a lot of compost on those mowed areas and prepare them to be planted with basil, peppers, eggplant, melons, green beans, summer squash and other summer crops.

While many of the spring veggies are a few weeks away from being ready to harvest, the tarragon is looking amazing and we will harvest some for this Saturday’s Davis Farmers Market.