The Latest Dirt - May 2024

2024 GTPS Succeeds Across the County

By Janet Miller, Mary Jo Corby and Wendy Kraft

The 2024 Great Tomato Plant Sale was the first year since COVID-19 that we have had a sale in all three county areas! Welcome back to Rivertown Garden, where there was a steady flow of customers all day – and the garden looked fabulous! At the Richmond Public Library, West County folks were lined up around the block for that sale.

What a difference a year makes. While 2023 was the most challenging year ever for GTPS plant propagation, 2024 was a pleasure! We were not without challenges - but freezing temperatures, lack of sunshine, etc., were not among them. In 2023, our seedlings were tiny and struggling from lack of sun, but this year, they reached sale size on time, and many surpassed it. Because we grow in unheated hoop houses, we are always at the mercy of the weather and have to make an educated guess about timing – when to sow each type of veggie, when to take seedlings off the heat mats, and when to move them up into their little pots, etc. We did well this year, but we learned a few things that we’ll apply to next year. For example, we’ll start our hottest peppers even earlier, probably as early as December, and we need to sow double the number of tomatillo seeds to get the plants we want. We learned that rats particularly love Leutschauer Paprika pepper plants, although we can’t blame them for that - it is a spectacular pepper!

Challenges aside, it was altogether a successful effort. We had wonderful participation in all of our propagation events, despite having to reschedule them several times due to weather. It was delightful to have so many newly graduated UC Master Gardeners sign up and help with everything from potting up plants to sowing seeds to moving flats from one end of the garden to the other, often multiple times. It is always a game of Tetris to find spaces for flats in the greenhouses or hoop houses, and we usually joke that we should put an odometer on each flat to see how far they have traveled. On those days, everyone in the garden gets their 10,000 steps!

As the plants flourished, so did the infrastructure that makes our sales possible, much of which operates behind the scenes. Our sale events wouldn’t be possible, or nearly as successful, without the extraordinary efforts of the teams handling marketing, plant tags, plant signs, equipment management, cashiers, salespeople, watering, and more. This year, we introduced credit card payments, a significant milestone. Special recognition goes to the cashier team for their tireless efforts in making that happen - a task that was far from simple. It takes thousands of volunteer hours to pull off the GTPS, and as always, the MG’s delivered, for which we are immensely grateful.

Of course, the most gratifying part was the sale and seeing so many people enjoying what we created. Our customers appreciate having Master Gardeners on hand to suggest varieties, give growing advice, answer questions, and provide pointers for further information when needed. The event is more than a sale - it is also a service to the community. Each year, the Great Tomato Plant Sale demonstrates the strength and commitment of our organization, and we should all be very proud of what we accomplish together!!