Madison County Democrat

Enrollment For Top Ten Club In Tomatoes Ended

COLUMBUS—Ohio tomato processors have just completed enrolling their growers in the Ohio Top Ten Tomato club. These growers produce approximately 80 percent of the tomatoes raised for processing in Ohio, says E. C. Wittmeyer, Ohio State University extension horticulturist

The Ohio Top Ten Tomato club is a project sponsored by Ohio State University's Agricultural Extension Service in cooperation with the Ohio Canners association and the Baltimore and Ohio railroad.

It recognizes tomato growers who have done a good job of producing tomatoes for processing. It honors growers whose yields are in the top 10 percent of all growers contracting with participating processors.

Since the project was started in 1947 more than 1,600 certificates have been presented to top growers, according to Wittmeyer. One of the original objectives of the club, Wittmeyer notes, was to stimulate interest in the adoption of better cultural practices which would result in higher yields and better quality tomatoes for processing.

In the 10 years the improvement program has been in effect, the average yield of tomatoes for processing has increased more than 60 percent. Average yield for the period 1954 through 1956 was 11.6 tons per acre, compared to 7.2 tons for the period 1944 through 1946.

Wittmeyer credits yield increases to the adoption of better cultural practices. In 1947, he recalls, growers who were members of the club, used about 600 pounds of 3-12-12 fertilizer to the acre. By 1956 the rate had increased to more than 900 pounds.

When the club started. Wittmeyer says, only about half its growers followed any kind of spraying or dusting program to control foliage diseases. Last year 95 percent of the growers followed some kind of program to control foliage diseases and fruit rots.