400 FREE Tomato Plants being Distributed!
To encourage more people to grow their own vegetables the UMaine Extension Piscataquis County Executive Committee adopted the One TomatoTM project.
In 2017, we added 432 folks to the list of people who received a tomato seedling, for a total of 1,274 folks that participated in the One TomatoTM in the four years we have been doing it. We offered three different varieties: Jasper (red), Sungold (orange) and Esterina (yellow.)
Folks were given factsheets on container gardening and could sign up for a newsletter or view Facebook postings.
In the first three years, a total of 120 plants were given to a prison garden that provides food for the food cupboards. A total of 1,394 plants have been distributed in the area in the last four years.
Of the 748 people who completed the survey in the last 4 years, 144 (19%) had never gardened and this was their first garden, 153 (20%) have only gardened 1 to 3 years. 324 (37%) signed up for the electronic newsletter. In 2018, we will be asking how many years in the last ten-years folks have gardened. For 25% of the people, this was the first contact they had with UMaine Extension. As the years have gone by we find more and more people have participated in the One TomatoTM project.
The total estimated value of the cherry tomatoes grown from these seedlings is over $9,600 for the four-year old One TomatoTM program. In 2017 almost 70 percent of gardeners growing Esterina reported they harvested over a gallon of cherry tomatoes! Of course, they are a larger sized cherry tomato.
As a result of the One TomatoTM project, in 2017 Checkerberry Farm donated vegetable seedlings that were distributed to the Dover-Foxcroft Food cupboard. They included tomato, pepper, cucumber, lettuce and red cabbage. Trisha Smith, UMaine Extension Horticulture Aide in Piscataquis County also used the red cabbage seedlings in a SEDOMOCHA elementary school program.
In 2018, we will be distributing another 400 tomato plants of the following varieties: Sunrise Sauce, Jasper, Sungold, and Esterina. Which variety will produce the most this year?
Get yours while supplies last!:
Starting June 1st 8:00-4:30 Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays at the Cooperative Extension Office, Dover-Foxcroft
June 2nd Black Fly Festival, Milo
June 6th 9:00-3:00 Town Hall, Milo
June 12th Noon- 8:00 Town Office, Greenville
June 13th 9:00-3:00 United Methodist Church, Dover-Foxcroft
For more information, please contact the Extension office at 207.564.3301.
More information about UMaine Extension is available online.
University of Maine Cooperative Extension:
As a trusted resource for over 100 years, University of Maine Cooperative Extension has supported UMaine’s land and sea grant public education role by conducting community-driven, research-based programs in every Maine county. UMaine Extension helps support, sustain and grow the food-based economy. It is the only entity in our state that touches every aspect of the Maine Food System, where policy, research, production, processing, commerce, nutrition, and food security and safety are integral and interrelated. UMaine Extension also conducts the most successful out-of-school youth educational program in Maine through 4-H.
About the University of Maine:
The University of Maine, founded in Orono in 1865, is the state’s land grant and sea grant university. As Maine’s flagship public university, UMaine has a statewide mission of teaching, research and economic development, and community service. UMaine is among the most comprehensive higher education institutions in the Northeast and attracts students from Maine and 49 other states, and 67 countries. It currently enrolls 11,240 total undergraduate and graduate students who can directly participate in groundbreaking research working with world-class scholars. The University of Maine offers 35 doctoral programs and master’s degrees in 85 fields; more than 90 undergraduate majors and academic programs; and one of the oldest and most prestigious honors programs in the U.S. The university promotes environmental stewardship, with substantial efforts campuswide aimed at conserving energy, recycling and adhering to green building standards in new construction. For more information about UMaine, visit umaine.edu.