Growing your own tomatoes
One bite of a vine-ripened tomato is enough to make you a convert when it comes to homegrown vegetables. As you head to local nurseries to pick a few plants for your garden, do a bit of advance planning to find tomatoes that best suit your needs.
How do you want to use your tomatoes? Do you envision slicing a slab to top your gourmet burger? Or does your mouth water at the thought of harvesting a basket of sweet and sugary cherry tomatoes for salads? Do you pride yourself on making tomato sauce that brings summer freshness to your table on a snowy February day?
Tomatoes require at least six hours of sun per day, even if it’s only a spot big enough for a container. Next, be sure the soil is rich in organic matter; combine some compost with potting mix if you’re growing in a pot. Breeders and growers have made plants suitable for containers a top priority. There’s even a Dwarf Tomato Project, with plants selected for great yields in small spaces. If you have enough space for four to six tomato plants, you have even more choices. The key is knowing how the plants behave in the garden and the attributes of the fruits.
Are the plants determinate or indeterminate? Determinate plants are also known as bush tomatoes. They are typically 3-5 feet tall and do well in containers. Harvest occurs within a couple of weeks, and these tomatoes are often used in preserving.
Indeterminate plants are also called vining tomatoes. They continue to grow and bear fruit the entire season, so they need lots of room and require staking. In a long hot summer, tomato vines can grow up to 10 feet long.
“Days to maturity” measures the time that a transplant will take to produce fruit. Early bearing tomatoes can produce fruit in a little more than 50 days, while late-season varieties can take 85 days or more to mature. If you are growing determinate tomatoes, you will want to have early, mid- and late-season crops.
Heirlooms or hybrids? Heirlooms are popular for their range in color, sugar content, size and shape. They are favorites with chefs, foodies and those who appreciate history and the essence of tomato flavor. Heirloom
tomatoes can be more prone to disease as they are not bred for resistance as modern hybrids are.
With heirlooms, follow good cultural practices: Give each plant plenty of room for air circulation and keep the foliage dry when watering. Some things are out of our control; a cold wet spring can bring fungal issues, and drought can cause other problems. During dry spells, water tomatoes deeply once a week at the soil surface and keep plants well mulched. Tomatoes appreciate fertilization upon planting and once they set fruit. Use a fertilizer formulated for them and follow label instructions. These practices are good for all tomatoes.
To produce hybrids, breeders cross different varieties for dependability, early maturity, higher yield, improved flavor, plant size and disease resistance. Modern hybrids list the degree of disease resistance right on the tag: V is for verticillium wilt, F for fusarium wilt, FF for fusarium races 1 and 2 and FFF for races 1-3, N for nematodes, A for alternaria, T for tobacco mosaic virus, St for stemphylium (gray leaf spot) and TSWV for tomato spotted wilt virus.
Tomatoes range in size from giant beefsteaks to tiny currant-sized fruits. Beefsteaks, or slicers, are perfect for topping a sandwich. Chopped into chunks and dressed with olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano, they make a delicious salad. The solid flesh of plum tomatoes makes them perfect for saucing or roasting. Salad or cocktail tomatoes are a bit larger than cherry or grape tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes, or even smaller currant tomatoes, are perfect for salads or snacking.
Colors start with the palest yellow and continue through golds, oranges, greens, reds and purples. Bicolored and striped tomatoes are a mix of these shades.
Of course, flavor is the main reason gardeners plant tomatoes. All are acidic, but the balance of sugar and acid is what makes some taste sweet and others tart. With such a broad selection, it is impossible to recommend specific tomatoes, but check out the labels at your local nursery and grow some terrific tomatoes in your garden this season.