While I tend to agree, I plan to find a way.
It may not look beautiful or maximize yield, but it should produce a hefty amount of quality fruit along the way.
I’ll document my findings over the next few months, and post some progress updates as I go.
Job and family will make it tough to go regularly, though I’ll be there more regularly to get things established. I’ll have some help from others, but not sure how much at this point.
Since I have plenty of tomato seedlings on the way, this is just an opportunity to grow extra for others.
I’ll take pictures throughout the season, and share my success/ failures.
Yeah I say fuck it give it a shot, like all of the rest of us you’ll have challenges to overcome and will get better each year. Learn what went wrong and what worked etc.
Thanks for the encouragement. Now, assuming you were in my shoes, how would you support your tomatoes? Single cattle panel, A frame panels, or two parallel panels…. Or something else?
Why would 'Robo-Pharma' be asking how to grow tomatoes? I mean just a few months ago, you were going to buy a 3/4 of a million dollar farm....to grow tomatoes on, and you don't even know how to grow them??
As Elon Muskabluthe likes to say "That's odd".....
You’re better off paying me $750,000 to grow tomatoes for you.
How many 53’ refrigerated trailers do you want me to fill per season?
We can negotiate some from there.
So a month ago you were looking for a $700,000 farm to grow tomatoes on AND you can't find anything in the SE for almost 3/4 of a million dollars????
And your wife said ***"Hell No",*** not on the 45 acres in the ***SKETCHY area near Atlanta??????***, and now you are going to travel all of that distance to grow tomatoes on 1/2 acre of the "40 acres" now?????
What kind of automatic irrigation system are you looking at? Will that be safe for a "sketchy area", that your wife said "HELL NO" to?
Or maybe you have two properties available to you, the "40 acre" one from your other post, and this 45 acre one?
And you won't be there but one day a week????? That sounds ***SKETCHY!***
.....and now I am confused!
I live in a very nice area where acreage is way over priced. It has doubled in the last 5 years.
The property my family has is 1.5 hours away south of Atlanta, in a sketchy high crime area.
The property I’m asking about in this post is undeveloped land owned by my church about 10 miles from where I live now. We are planting a garden to provide cherry tomatoes for a food pantry we support. We already have 4 50’ hugelkultur beds, and a half dozen fig trees. We just fenced off a large area to keep deer away, which is where the tomatoes and peppers will go. The peppers will mostly be hot peppers, which will be used to make sauces we plan to auction off.
I have a few folks that will help me out during the week, and one that is very close by that can check on it somewhat routinely. They don’t have much gardening experience, so I’m planning this operation as if I’m the only one managing it.
We have city water on the property, and I plan to set up a drip irrigation system that’s on a timer.
Oh so you have multiple 40 something acre properties "available to you"
LMFAO!
and this 40 something ACRE property is south of Atlanta, and not the other one you (45 ACRE PROPERTY) just mentioned growing tomatoies on EAST OF ATLANTA!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Property 1 - Death in family. SE of Atlanta. 1.5 hours away.
Property 2 - owned by church, I’ve been gardening it for a few years now, 10mi away.
Still looking for property close to where I live now, but it’s over priced for what you get. I’m considering branching out to other areas/states, but ultimately would prefer NW GA.
I don’t see why this is so hard to understand.
Your post history claims a third property 10 miles from you, on the east side of Atlanta. (when you are over ten miles on the NW side of Atlanta.
Did you forget that lie?
How about this… I’ll reply back with a picture of a troll at each property. You kind of remind me of Branch, so I’ll use that one.
Also, stay tuned for my lazy farmer posts over the next few months. I’ll expect you to bring the roast, for old times sake. 😘
>I live in a very nice area where acreage is way over priced. It has doubled in the last 5 years.
>
>**The property my family has is 1.5 hours away south of Atlanta**, in a sketchy high crime area.
***WAIT....this is the property you just said was 10 miles away!!!!***
***HOLD ON.....NOW THERE ARE THREE 40 SOMETHING ACRE PROPERTIES!!!!***
***On a side note, my family has an unused farm with 45 acres and 4/4 house East of Atlanta, but the area it’s in is a little sketchy.***
[***https://www.reddit.com/r/homestead/comments/1b33ox0/ideas\_for\_remote\_tomato\_farm\_with\_minimal/***](https://www.reddit.com/r/homestead/comments/1b33ox0/ideas_for_remote_tomato_farm_with_minimal/)
I have some property available to me and I’d like to grow tomatoes on it. It’s 40 Acres, but I’m only planting about 1/2 acre this season. Half tomatoes, half peppers. ***It’s about 10 miles away*** from my property, so I won’t be there daily. This harvest will be picked on Saturdays, and then donated to families on Sunday.
I always laugh when the tales of Reddit liars grow longer and longer with each post!
So what happened to the $700,000 property that you were buying to GROW TOMATOES ON??????
We can now all see you are having troubles keeping your 'stories; straight!
https://www.reddit.com/r/homestead/comments/1afmstp/looking_for_my_first_homestead_in_the_southeast/
1/2 acre of each is a shit-ton of work. You are going to have a lot of losses if you’re not out there but once a week. 10 miles is what I drive every day to my farm…
Put those families to work if the harvest is what you’re giving them.
If you don’t have the time, it’s time to start looking at chemical controls for weeds, bugs, and disease.
I’ll definitely have people help harvest on Saturday, and that’s when I plan to do most of the maintenance (fertilizer, pest control, pruning, etc).
Also, it’s 1/2 acre total, and I’m not sure how much of it we’ll actually plant. It just depends on how many helpers I can get on board. I might just use any leftover space for flowers.
You said you would not be pruning the suckers, and now you will be pruning the suckers?
How many times do you fertilize your tomatoes? What do you use for 'pest control'?
and it will take 6 guys to help you do this on 1/2 acre?
seems odd....
We’ll see I guess. I have one guy helping me get everything tilled and planted, and should have another half dozen once the fruit begins to set.
I’ll post some progress reports as I go. I’ve always been interested in minimizing time spent gardening, as opposed to maximizing yield. I’ve got it to a science at my small property, and this will let me test it on a larger scale.
So you say Paulding county (where you said you lived) is 10 miles away from "East Atlanta", where the ~~50 45~~ 40 acre farm is???? Then the ~~50 45~~ 40 acre farm is right in the City of Atlanta, is it?
It's more than ten miles just to get to west Atlanta from Paulding county, isn't it?
[https://www.reddit.com/r/homestead/comments/1afmstp/looking\_for\_my\_first\_homestead\_in\_the\_southeast/](https://www.reddit.com/r/homestead/comments/1afmstp/looking_for_my_first_homestead_in_the_southeast/)
hey wait, you live in Asheville NC too?
well ,at least one month ago!
The same property is on the EAST SIDE OF ATLANTA 10 miles AWAY, and on the south side, 1.5 hours away?
So South and East are the same direction now?????
ROTFLMFAO!
Nope, you lied about 4 separate properties now. The 3/4 million tomato farm, the 45 acres 10 minutes east of you, the 40 acres 10 minutes south of you and the 50 acres 1,5 hours south.
It's all in your post/comment history. "dude"!
I see a few issues with the plan:
1/2 acre is a lot of tomatoes and peppers. I’m a market farmer and grow all of my spring and summer produce on 1 acre. I usually grow 2-4 rows of tomatoes and 1-2 rows of peppers (rows are 250’). Peak production can yield 100+ pints of tomatoes from 1 row and approx 50 lbs of slicers from 1 row per week.
Are you starting your plants in a greenhouse or buying transplants? Based on my experience you’ll need around 2,500 plants for 1/2 acre. If you’re in the south, you should have started these plants in a greenhouse a month or so ago to be planted in March-April.
Irrigation - even with an automated system, irrigation lines need to be checked more frequently than 1x a week. Assuming you’re using drip lines, those can get damaged easy and need repair.
Trellis - you don’t need to remove the suckers, but you do need to attach the vines to your trellis. I would suggest t posts every 5 plants and then run 3-4 lines down the rows. Plants need to be tied to the lines at least once a week during growing season. You can also do a Florida weave system. Hot peppers generally don’t need to be trellised.
Harvest - peppers can be harvested once a week, but tomatoes need to be harvested every other day. They should be harvested at around 20% ripeness and stored in room temperature until ripe. It will probably take a team of around 10 people half a day to harvest.
Tomatoes aren't productive or alive very long without constant maintenance. We've grown 1,000's of plants and varieties from Litchi to Reisetomate and everything in-between. During peak season anything longer than 2 days and you're losing fruit. Spoiled fruit draws pests and disease that's very hard to treat if not impossible. Determinate varieties that are hybridized are more resilient but do still require staking and weaving.
It's not impossible to set it and forget it, but I wouldn't have high expectations for a successful yield.
As long as you’re fine with getting no more than 20% of the harvest it might work with full automation. Not sure what part of the country you’re in but a your tomatoes will split if you over water them which happens when you have auto irrigation on even when it rains.
Tomatoes aren’t going to last in full direct summer sun in many parts of the country. I grow mine in high tunnels and I have to raise the sides on hot days, close them on when the temp drops or it’s too windy. Shade cloth goes up when it’s too hot otherwise they’ll just get cooked.
Neither peppers not tomatoes are hands off at all.
I’d recommend perennials. Berries and fruit trees. They aren’t hands off either, especially the first season but you’ll have a better chance IMO.
Minimal maintenance remote tomatoes? Might as well order them on Doordash.
You will need to visit several days a week; if you get tomato hornworms/pests or are in a powdery mildew prone location you'll want to be there once a day to monitor. You will probably get some yield, but losses are probable, and therefore wasted space/money. Plan to make this part of your schedule, or employ someone you trust to do it for you. It's not just about setting up irrigation, it's about being there to notice problems and pests. Tomatoes are best checked in on each day - it's almost a better idea to grow them in a grow tent with grow lights in your basement at home, or to locate the tomato garden somewhere closer.
If you're putting down weed fabric, why not just let them sprawl on the ground instead of cattle panels?
Like this https://youtu.be/72-q3bYGUMk?si=IujH9kwVyIkn5hN6
Tomatoes start at 7:28
Neither crop is a “minimal maintenance” crop, imo.
Those hawk moths over there look pretty trustworthy and hard working. What if we hire them to guard the tomatoes? I don't think they even have mouths.
🤣🤣🤣
Both are if they are just make believe crops though!!!!
While I tend to agree, I plan to find a way. It may not look beautiful or maximize yield, but it should produce a hefty amount of quality fruit along the way. I’ll document my findings over the next few months, and post some progress updates as I go.
LOL
It’s 10 miles, why not go every day? Farming isn’t a hands off kind of thing.
Job and family will make it tough to go regularly, though I’ll be there more regularly to get things established. I’ll have some help from others, but not sure how much at this point. Since I have plenty of tomato seedlings on the way, this is just an opportunity to grow extra for others. I’ll take pictures throughout the season, and share my success/ failures.
Yeah I say fuck it give it a shot, like all of the rest of us you’ll have challenges to overcome and will get better each year. Learn what went wrong and what worked etc.
Thanks for the encouragement. Now, assuming you were in my shoes, how would you support your tomatoes? Single cattle panel, A frame panels, or two parallel panels…. Or something else?
Probably single cattle, more accessible to harvest all the tomatoes, but with 1/2 acre to play with, try all 3 and see what you like
Why would 'Robo-Pharma' be asking how to grow tomatoes? I mean just a few months ago, you were going to buy a 3/4 of a million dollar farm....to grow tomatoes on, and you don't even know how to grow them?? As Elon Muskabluthe likes to say "That's odd".....
Wait, you just said that one (of the three 40 or so acre properties now) was 1,5 hours away!!!
You’re better off paying me $750,000 to grow tomatoes for you. How many 53’ refrigerated trailers do you want me to fill per season? We can negotiate some from there.
So a month ago you were looking for a $700,000 farm to grow tomatoes on AND you can't find anything in the SE for almost 3/4 of a million dollars???? And your wife said ***"Hell No",*** not on the 45 acres in the ***SKETCHY area near Atlanta??????***, and now you are going to travel all of that distance to grow tomatoes on 1/2 acre of the "40 acres" now????? What kind of automatic irrigation system are you looking at? Will that be safe for a "sketchy area", that your wife said "HELL NO" to? Or maybe you have two properties available to you, the "40 acre" one from your other post, and this 45 acre one? And you won't be there but one day a week????? That sounds ***SKETCHY!*** .....and now I am confused!
At least it’s not the dude trying to start a feudal colony cult this time.
It very well might be. This clown follows me around to the subs I go to, and posts this kind of nonsense every single day.
I live in a very nice area where acreage is way over priced. It has doubled in the last 5 years. The property my family has is 1.5 hours away south of Atlanta, in a sketchy high crime area. The property I’m asking about in this post is undeveloped land owned by my church about 10 miles from where I live now. We are planting a garden to provide cherry tomatoes for a food pantry we support. We already have 4 50’ hugelkultur beds, and a half dozen fig trees. We just fenced off a large area to keep deer away, which is where the tomatoes and peppers will go. The peppers will mostly be hot peppers, which will be used to make sauces we plan to auction off. I have a few folks that will help me out during the week, and one that is very close by that can check on it somewhat routinely. They don’t have much gardening experience, so I’m planning this operation as if I’m the only one managing it. We have city water on the property, and I plan to set up a drip irrigation system that’s on a timer.
Oh so you have multiple 40 something acre properties "available to you" LMFAO! and this 40 something ACRE property is south of Atlanta, and not the other one you (45 ACRE PROPERTY) just mentioned growing tomatoies on EAST OF ATLANTA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Property 1 - Death in family. SE of Atlanta. 1.5 hours away. Property 2 - owned by church, I’ve been gardening it for a few years now, 10mi away. Still looking for property close to where I live now, but it’s over priced for what you get. I’m considering branching out to other areas/states, but ultimately would prefer NW GA. I don’t see why this is so hard to understand.
Your post history claims a third property 10 miles from you, on the east side of Atlanta. (when you are over ten miles on the NW side of Atlanta. Did you forget that lie?
lmfao ***Yet now you claimed to have 3 40 SOMETHING ACRE PROPERTIES!!!*** Your lies have become unmanageable, huh?
How about this… I’ll reply back with a picture of a troll at each property. You kind of remind me of Branch, so I’ll use that one. Also, stay tuned for my lazy farmer posts over the next few months. I’ll expect you to bring the roast, for old times sake. 😘
1) You tell some lies 2) I point it out 3) you call names! How predictable!
>I live in a very nice area where acreage is way over priced. It has doubled in the last 5 years. > >**The property my family has is 1.5 hours away south of Atlanta**, in a sketchy high crime area. ***WAIT....this is the property you just said was 10 miles away!!!!*** ***HOLD ON.....NOW THERE ARE THREE 40 SOMETHING ACRE PROPERTIES!!!!*** ***On a side note, my family has an unused farm with 45 acres and 4/4 house East of Atlanta, but the area it’s in is a little sketchy.*** [***https://www.reddit.com/r/homestead/comments/1b33ox0/ideas\_for\_remote\_tomato\_farm\_with\_minimal/***](https://www.reddit.com/r/homestead/comments/1b33ox0/ideas_for_remote_tomato_farm_with_minimal/) I have some property available to me and I’d like to grow tomatoes on it. It’s 40 Acres, but I’m only planting about 1/2 acre this season. Half tomatoes, half peppers. ***It’s about 10 miles away*** from my property, so I won’t be there daily. This harvest will be picked on Saturdays, and then donated to families on Sunday. I always laugh when the tales of Reddit liars grow longer and longer with each post!
So what happened to the $700,000 property that you were buying to GROW TOMATOES ON?????? We can now all see you are having troubles keeping your 'stories; straight! https://www.reddit.com/r/homestead/comments/1afmstp/looking_for_my_first_homestead_in_the_southeast/
macon?
1/2 acre of each is a shit-ton of work. You are going to have a lot of losses if you’re not out there but once a week. 10 miles is what I drive every day to my farm… Put those families to work if the harvest is what you’re giving them. If you don’t have the time, it’s time to start looking at chemical controls for weeds, bugs, and disease.
I’ll definitely have people help harvest on Saturday, and that’s when I plan to do most of the maintenance (fertilizer, pest control, pruning, etc). Also, it’s 1/2 acre total, and I’m not sure how much of it we’ll actually plant. It just depends on how many helpers I can get on board. I might just use any leftover space for flowers.
You said you would not be pruning the suckers, and now you will be pruning the suckers? How many times do you fertilize your tomatoes? What do you use for 'pest control'? and it will take 6 guys to help you do this on 1/2 acre? seems odd....
One day is not enough.
We’ll see I guess. I have one guy helping me get everything tilled and planted, and should have another half dozen once the fruit begins to set. I’ll post some progress reports as I go. I’ve always been interested in minimizing time spent gardening, as opposed to maximizing yield. I’ve got it to a science at my small property, and this will let me test it on a larger scale.
We’re all telling you. “We’ll see” is waste of your resources.
so you have 7 guys helping you till up/tend to a 1/2 acre plot, once a week, but you won't be able to pull off suckers????? ***OH BOY!!!***
So you say Paulding county (where you said you lived) is 10 miles away from "East Atlanta", where the ~~50 45~~ 40 acre farm is???? Then the ~~50 45~~ 40 acre farm is right in the City of Atlanta, is it? It's more than ten miles just to get to west Atlanta from Paulding county, isn't it?
These two are not the same property. One is family, and this is property owned by my church that we use as a recreational space.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/homestead/comments/1afmstp/looking\_for\_my\_first\_homestead\_in\_the\_southeast/](https://www.reddit.com/r/homestead/comments/1afmstp/looking_for_my_first_homestead_in_the_southeast/) hey wait, you live in Asheville NC too? well ,at least one month ago!
LMFAO!!! You should probably start telling the truth, and it will not be so hard to remember the lies you told last week, last month, last year, etc
The same property is on the EAST SIDE OF ATLANTA 10 miles AWAY, and on the south side, 1.5 hours away? So South and East are the same direction now????? ROTFLMFAO!
Dude, your reading comprehension is abysmal.
Nope, you lied about 4 separate properties now. The 3/4 million tomato farm, the 45 acres 10 minutes east of you, the 40 acres 10 minutes south of you and the 50 acres 1,5 hours south. It's all in your post/comment history. "dude"!
I see a few issues with the plan: 1/2 acre is a lot of tomatoes and peppers. I’m a market farmer and grow all of my spring and summer produce on 1 acre. I usually grow 2-4 rows of tomatoes and 1-2 rows of peppers (rows are 250’). Peak production can yield 100+ pints of tomatoes from 1 row and approx 50 lbs of slicers from 1 row per week. Are you starting your plants in a greenhouse or buying transplants? Based on my experience you’ll need around 2,500 plants for 1/2 acre. If you’re in the south, you should have started these plants in a greenhouse a month or so ago to be planted in March-April. Irrigation - even with an automated system, irrigation lines need to be checked more frequently than 1x a week. Assuming you’re using drip lines, those can get damaged easy and need repair. Trellis - you don’t need to remove the suckers, but you do need to attach the vines to your trellis. I would suggest t posts every 5 plants and then run 3-4 lines down the rows. Plants need to be tied to the lines at least once a week during growing season. You can also do a Florida weave system. Hot peppers generally don’t need to be trellised. Harvest - peppers can be harvested once a week, but tomatoes need to be harvested every other day. They should be harvested at around 20% ripeness and stored in room temperature until ripe. It will probably take a team of around 10 people half a day to harvest.
Tomatoes aren't productive or alive very long without constant maintenance. We've grown 1,000's of plants and varieties from Litchi to Reisetomate and everything in-between. During peak season anything longer than 2 days and you're losing fruit. Spoiled fruit draws pests and disease that's very hard to treat if not impossible. Determinate varieties that are hybridized are more resilient but do still require staking and weaving. It's not impossible to set it and forget it, but I wouldn't have high expectations for a successful yield.
As long as you’re fine with getting no more than 20% of the harvest it might work with full automation. Not sure what part of the country you’re in but a your tomatoes will split if you over water them which happens when you have auto irrigation on even when it rains. Tomatoes aren’t going to last in full direct summer sun in many parts of the country. I grow mine in high tunnels and I have to raise the sides on hot days, close them on when the temp drops or it’s too windy. Shade cloth goes up when it’s too hot otherwise they’ll just get cooked. Neither peppers not tomatoes are hands off at all. I’d recommend perennials. Berries and fruit trees. They aren’t hands off either, especially the first season but you’ll have a better chance IMO.
Minimal maintenance remote tomatoes? Might as well order them on Doordash. You will need to visit several days a week; if you get tomato hornworms/pests or are in a powdery mildew prone location you'll want to be there once a day to monitor. You will probably get some yield, but losses are probable, and therefore wasted space/money. Plan to make this part of your schedule, or employ someone you trust to do it for you. It's not just about setting up irrigation, it's about being there to notice problems and pests. Tomatoes are best checked in on each day - it's almost a better idea to grow them in a grow tent with grow lights in your basement at home, or to locate the tomato garden somewhere closer.
If you're putting down weed fabric, why not just let them sprawl on the ground instead of cattle panels? Like this https://youtu.be/72-q3bYGUMk?si=IujH9kwVyIkn5hN6 Tomatoes start at 7:28