Cal Poly annual tomato plant sale to take place online

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. - Cal Poly’s annual Tomato Spectacular plant sale will go on — with plants available for purchase online and scheduled pick-up times on campus.

The university is planning to offer more than 70 different types of tomato plants during the Tomato Spectacular sale.

They will begin accepting orders on their Poly Plant Shop website on Friday and will continue until all of the plants are sold out. Each plant will cost $6.

When ordering, customers will be asked to provide a phone number and a call will notify them what day and time they can come to pick up their orders.

Orders will be available for pickup in parking lot H-12, south of the horse and horticulture units on Via Carta Road off of Highland Drive. Additional pick-up locations will be provided in Los Osos and Morro Bay for customers in those areas.

Initially, this tomato sale was planned for the first week of April in the Cal Poly greenhouses, but it has been shifted for COVID-19 health precautions.

Brandywine, Early Girl, Kellogg’s Breakfast, Homestead, and a selection of cherry tomato plants, including Nature’s Bites, are some of the unique cultivars that Cal Poly says will be available during the student-run sale. The sale is considered one of several hands-on courses offered by the university’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences.

“We have more than 3,000 tomato plants available for purchase that students worked hard to cultivate,” said Wendy Robinson, campus greenhouse manager. “While we are not able to offer the traditional sale because of important social distancing requirements related to COVID-19, staff and students alike worked hard to find a virtual platform to make sure the community is still able to support these students’ hard work.”

For more information, you can follow Cal Poly Tomato Spectacular on Facebook and Instagram or visit the Poly Plant Shop website.