SUMMER TOMATOES- If you haven’t had much luck with growing tomatoes in your home garden, you may still have a chance to get some picture-perfect tomatoes from the Louisiana AgCenter’s Red River Research Station in South Bossier City. Since 1996, the facility has been growing greenhouse tomatoes as a research project to help commercial growers and home-gardeners learn about best-practices for growing super-huge tomatoes in a controlled environment.
I do research on different varieties…I have 1800 plants in three greenhouses” That’s Carrie Lott, she’s been a research supervisor at the station 25 years…
she explains the misconception that they grow hydroponics tomatoes. “This is not considered hydroponic because I grow in a three-inch growing pot with soil-mix in ‘Perlite’ ( a water-retaining material ), which would be hydroponic if I didn’t use the soil.”
The three greenhouses currently in operation put out a lot of tomatoes.
“From seed to bearing fruit for the spring crop it’s usually four months and each plant yields 25 pounds per plant, less in the fall.
The LSU-AgCenter's Red River Research Station sells tomatoes on Tuesday and Friday mornings beginning at 7am until they’re sold out for the day. The station is on Hwy 71 South just inside the Bossier City Limits.
For more information: LSUAgCenter.com (318) 741-7430
Tomatoes sold Tuesdays & Fridays Only.