Nothing tastes like home-grown tomatoes
Local garden centres offer delicious options for growing your own
I’m the first to admit that I’m not your typical tomato gardener. I believe tomatoes must be beautiful: Tomatoes are eaten first with our eyes.
When shopping for tomato seedlings, I’m looking for plants with unusual shapes and colours (think photogenic), have fun names, tell an interesting story (heirlooms), and of course, be delicious. This may sound like a pretty tall order, but our local garden centres were up to the task.
Let me introduce you to a sampling of the plants I’ll be growing this year:
Oxheart tomato, features large, heart shaped, red fruit that are very tasty. This heritage plant, dating back to the 1920s , very meaty , juicy, with a rich, complex flavour. I grew these last year, the fruit was delicious and very pretty, but ripened quite late in the season. This year, I’m going to try them in a large container on the patio (more sun, less root competition).
San Marzano: Are best known as the tomato of choice for sauce. Mullen Garden Market in the Falls was buzzing with people searching out their favourite vegetable varieties over the weekend. In behind the floral shop, well-seasoned gardeners were dispensing sage advice over racks of tomato, zucchini and eggplant seedlings. That’s where I was pointed to a tray of Super Marzano tomatoes, a new and improved version of the old classic boasting high sugar content, large 12-cm long fruit, excellent flavour and disease resistance. The oblong fruit has a small seed cavity, which translates into less cooking time when making paste. I brought home five plants, I see beautiful jars of canned tomatoes in my future. San Marzano (determinate) Super Marzano (indeterminate).
Ananas noire (black pineapple) proved irresistible for its intriguing name and promise of superb flavour. A little research revealed that Belgian horticulturalists are responsible for this exciting new hybrid tomato, that features multi-coloured orange, purple, green and yellow smooth skin. The fruit boasts green flesh streaked with deep red. It’s a heavy producer. I can hardly wait to see if this plant lives up to its reputation. Indeterminate.
Cherokee Purple tomatoes are more than just a pretty face, tracing their origins toTennessee, pre-1890 and members of the Cherokee tribe. I’ve included this tomato in our little patch for the past few years, it consistently ranks high in taste tests. The brownish rose fruit has a flattened globe shape and a rich red interior. This is a large plant with heavy fruit, use a strong stake. Indeterminate.
Big Rainbow tomato caught my attention with the promise of large (up to 900-gm) yellow fruit marked with neon red swirls, I can’t wait to see this on a platter. Preserved by members of Seed Savers Exchange, this heirloom variety features rich, intense flavour. “An exciting eating experience” according to Park Seeds. Indeterminate.
Brandywine tomato, can trace its roots back to 1885, and is probably one of the best known of the heirloom varieties—it’s the tomato that got me pulling out perennials and planting tomatoes in a sunny patch of the back border, I’ve been hooked ever since. This is a hefty plant, with fuzzy, potato leaf foliage and very heavy fruit. My first crop needed three stakes to hold the each plant upright: not pretty, but it worked. Get yourself some heavy duty metal stakes and you’ll do just fine.
I’ve had mixed results with the Brandywine tomatoes. One year, the fruit was plagued with disease and barely produced, other years were OK, but the never matched that first crop in terms of flavour and size. I refuse to give up, I’ll give them another try this year, fingers crossed for a bumper crop. Indeterminate.
All of this talk about big tomatoes, you might think that I’m ignoring those delectable clusters of grape tomatoes. I’ve chosen a handful of hybrid grape tomatoes to plant this year: Sweet Million, Sugar Rush, Midnight Snack (another great name), and Sweet Gold. All indeterminate, I will train the vines up the wrought iron trellis along a south facing brick wall. Last year, I grew a bumper crop of grape tomatoes on this wall, in fact, I had to top the vines when they stretched beyond the support and tried to clamber up the siding to the roof. There’s a good mix of red, yellow, and deep purple tomatoes, all with the promise of exceptional flavour, heavy yields and early harvests. These tomatoes are perfect for eating right from the vine—the grandkids will enjoy snacking on these healthy fruits in the garden.
All together, I’ve got 16 tomato plants and no dedicated vegetable garden to plant them in. I will tuck a few plants in a sunny patch behind the perennials in the long border. The rest will be housed in large black plastic containers that once held nursery stock. My reference, Epic Tomatoes by Craig LeHoullier (storey.com) recommends using fresh potting soil each season to prevent spreading soil borne disease. Last year, I mixed bagged cow manure (roughly 1 part to 4 parts soil) the tomatoes loved it. Place the containers in the sunniest spot you can offer. If the containers are positioned along the edge of a patio or driveway, drive the stakes into the lawn beside the pavement (they will be more secure) and plant the seedlings toward stake, rather than in the centre of the container.
Following the advice of a experienced Italian gardener, I will plant Genovese basil at the base of each tomato plant. He assured me that basil makes the tomatoes taste better, who am I to argue with success?
Theresa Forte is a local garden writer, photographer and speaker. You can reach her by calling 905351-7540 or by email theresa_forte@sympatico.ca