More Tomato Travels

Photos from our team in Tucson, Arizona. Sannyasin Yoginathaswami and Natyam Dayanatha are there to learn more about hydroponic crop production.

Every morning we go for a walk in the crisp, cold weather.

A bright, clear sunrise

Swami was using his shawl for the first few days to wrap himself up and stay warm.

Thanks to Jim and Natalie Levin, he\

s now bundled up for the cold'

On the second day of classes we learned about bee pollination. Bumble bees are what is being used in the industry, as they are not as aggressive as honey bees. Bumble bees do not die after they sting you, they can keep going, but they do not call for help to attack you like the honey bee does.

Here the lecturer is showing us how a tomato flower looks when the bumble bee has pollinated it.

If you look very close you can see subtle, brownish spots on the flower. That means it has been pollinated.

Here swami is cleaning up the low hanging branches of the plants so that they have more air flow, and so more light reaches the plant.

This is a somewhat deformed tomato. It has smaller tomatoes coming out of it.

A view on our third day of morning walks. We have a beautiful mountain view

We came in early for class and so we walked around the campus before the day started. Here we get better views of the Greenhouses.

The third day was all about making the nutrients and solutions, and identifying and compensating for plant deficiency.

Lots of calculations are involve to make the nutrients for the plants.

Here, Swami is talking with someone who came for the class because he has the same hydroponics system that we have.

He is going to be starting up his own operation soon

After today\

s class we had dinner with Jim and Natalie Levin.'
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