Real Tomatoes... and strawberries: 
The Carl Pool edge

Vicke's assistant reaches for a strawberry from a tower of styrofoam boxes, which contains banks of plants that are fed water and nutrients automatically throughout the day.

Real Tomatoes, owned and operated by Vicke Gorney, features two large greenhouses that serve residents of the Dublin, Texas area with vine ripened tomatoes and strawberries. The fruits retail directly from their farm to the country store on the same property.

The Gorneys began growing tomatoes in their 42 X 96 feet greenhouse in January of 1997. Inside the greenhouse, the tomatoes grow in buckets on the ground and are tied up with twine. They extend to the ceiling, simulating vine growth. They do not use a hydroponic water system, which recirculates water. Instead, plants are given purified well water with a special nutrient mixture, metered by a computer five times per day. The computer also controls a shade screen which regulates sunlight in the greenhouse. Approximately 1,200 tomato plants grow in the greenhouse, yielding 40 to 60 pounds each during their three month life cycle. The temperature is kept at a constant 70ºF.

Fertilized five times a day, each plant yields about 50 pounds of tomatoes.

With dimensions of 70 X 102 feet, the Gorneys own the second largest strawberry greenhouse in the nation. Housing 30,000 strawberries of five varieties, the strawberry greenhouse has been in production since December of 1997. The strawberry plants are set up in ten-foot-tall towers of caddy-cornered Styrofoam boxes, which allows easy handling of plants. There are four plants in each box, equaling forty per tower. Like the tomatoes, they are watered by computer five times a day for eight minutes with the special water and nutrient mixture. The temperature in the strawberry greenhouse stays at 70ºF during the day before dropping to 58ºF at night, allowing them to "sleep".  This process pushes the sugars through the plants and into the berries, giving them an added sweetness.

In the spirit of keeping things as natural as possible, bees are used to pollinate the plants in each greenhouse. Hybrid bees, which are slightly more tame than most, are shipped from Michigan to handle the workload. There is one hive in the tomato greenhouse and two in the strawberry greenhouse, each hive containing 800 to 1200 bees.

The Vital Earth News / Horticulture Edition / Summer 1998