Farmer Spotlight: Growing Cherry Tomatoes With Bayberry Fresh

Bayberry Fresh is a local farm near Fort Collins, Colorado. Haydn Christensen, owner and operator of Bayberry Fresh, grows and sells cherry tomatoes to his local community. Click to subscribe: tinyurl.com/j4k96f2
GROWING
Haydn uses two hoophouses to grow almost 800 cherry tomato plants (Sweet 100 variety). The plants were started from seed in January and germinated in rockwool cubes. Over the next few months, they graduated to larger and larger coco coir bags, run on a drain to waste fertigation system.
Now the tomato plants are mature and trellised on a lean & lower system using Tomahooks. As the plants grow, the lower branches are leaf pruned and lowered down to rest around the base of the plants.
IRRIGATION
Every 2-3 hours (depending on heat), 2 GPH drippers turn on over every pot, keeping the plants moist, but not to wet.
SPACING
Haydn plants 2 plants per pot, leaving 2 feet between each pot and 4 feet between rows.
HARVESTING
The tomatoes are picked just before they ripen to avoid splitting but keep the flavor. Haydn and his team pick every other day and deliver every 4-5 days. For retail accounts, Haydn uses clamshell packaging. For larger accounts, the tomatoes are sold in 10-20 lb crates.
SELLING
During the busiest time of the week, Haydn does a demo in Whole Foods. He gives samples and explains his growing technique with interested customers. "Most people that shop in a major grocery store never talk to the farmer. They get really excited.... it's a valuable marketing tool."
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[@thegrumpyhorticulturist]

Got to tour this place YEARS ago in college. So innovative looooove the solid media hydro concept.

[@jmannUSMC]

This video got me into gardening. Didn't even realize it was hydroponic at the time.

[@marilynbarker8255]

Wow!! You sell to Whole Foods Mkt..... excellent!! I will look for your brand!

[@sirspaceface]

The force is strong with this one

[@9171paladin]

i grew my 1st cherry tomatoes plant. i didn't really know how to maintain it. so now I have a massive tomatoe monster. Next spring I'll do better. thank for the video.

[@ZipGrowInc]

That's great! Always learning!

[@gauravbhai7798]

What is the production per plant?

[@tumba3182]

awesome

[@ZipGrowInc]

Glad you ejoyed it!

[@carolinestaheli5792]

Hi there, You say something about that you water the plants with your nutrient solution all 2 to 3 hours and that you use 2 gallons / hour drippers. But for how long do you water the plants before you stop the drippers again?

[@carolinestaheli5792]

Do you run the drippers for about 3minutes or for about 30mins? (what kind of timeframe?)

[@seancummings1860]

Do you know anything about growing cherry cascade tomatoes? Do they need pruning?

[@ZipGrowInc]

Hi Sean, we're not familiar with that variety, but I bet you could probably find some great videos on KZbin somewhere! Best of luck.

[@ColtonMalone]

A few questions. First, how long is he running his drippers? Also, I'm assuming he is not recycling the water? It seems like it would use a lot of water & nutrients watering every 2-3 hours and not recycling the water. I'm sure it's profitable but just wondering what I'm missing

[@ZipGrowInc]

So Haydn is on a drain to waste system, with variable watering schedules depending on season and age of crop. If you dose correctly and time things correctly, you can actually balance uptake to irrigation and end up with almost zero waste. Haydn's been practicing for a long time and is really skilled at the technique, but it is possible to do drain to waste in this system very efficiently. I'll follow up with him, but he's paying a few dollars a day for fertilizer and a few more dollars for water on a very low-cost setup.

[@chadmikaels]

What fertilizers would be used in combination with the water drip and coco coir?

[@1kaaa]

the famous hayden christensen.

[@abisvillage9523]

😚😚I like very much

[@ZipGrowInc]

Great!

[@angelasheppard7197]

do you know how to tell between adult cherry tomatoes and beef master. I messed up and lost tags

[@ZipGrowInc]

Unfortunately not! I'm sure you'll be able to tell pretty soon though!

[@angelasheppard7197]

Thanks

[@ShadowFiend198400]

do you guys sell the seeds?

[@ZipGrowInc]

Typically no (other than the new ZipGarden that currently has a promo that includes a year of seeds). We recommended that you purchase your seeds from a local supplier/garden Centre. You do not need special seeds for hydroponics however we do recommend organic seeds.

[@imbradandyouarenot]

If I was in Colorado I wouldn't be growing tomatoes.

[@kellyburnham2795]

how do you handle Pollination indoors?

[@ZipGrowInc]

Hi Kelly, some growers hand-pollinate with a paintbrush, toothbrush, etc. If you're growing something like strawberries on a larger scale hand pollination starts eating up a lot of labor (For example, 10 sec per plant at 500 plants is 83 minutes per day) so you'd want to switch to bees. In a greenhouse this is less of a problem because pollinators might naturally find their way in.

[@kellyburnham2795]

Hand pollination sounds like something I'd like to avoid - tedious and mind numbing! I noticed that they had roll-up sides on the greenhouse, so that works in Spring & Summer. Is it only a 2 season business? What about Fall & Winter - hand pollinate?

[@ZipGrowInc]

Yeah, using bees and natural pollinators are much more efficient

[@kellyburnham2795]

We have Bees but they don't work in Winter - slackers.

[@asheeshmishra7805]

which variety is this of cherry tomato

[@nicolehong9454]

ASHEESH MISHRA he said they're sweet 100's

[@mattwp10]

help me plant cherry tomatoes plz plz plz plz

[@hewoapreeez]

hydro?

[@ZipGrowInc]

It's a flow to waste cococoir bag system being fed by mixed nutrients from a separate tank.

[@queen_star7894]

are you married? 😍😍😍 i love gardeners, farmers