SPRING IS COMING: GET READY TO PLANT TOMATOES.
Looking for a better-tasting garden tomato? So are researchers in Harry J. Klee’s lab in the horticultural sciences department of the University of Florida in Gainesville.
Klee’s lab has grown hundreds of heirloom tomato varieties, judging their flavor and analyzing the chemistry of great tomato taste. They have then crossed some of the best-flavored heirlooms with modern hybrids, with the goal of combining the wonderful flavor of the heirlooms with greater productivity and the longer shelf-life of the newer cultivars. The breeding is done the oldfashioned way, not by bioengineering.
They are now offering home gardeners seeds of two new varieties that are not yet commercially available. For a donation of $10 or more to support their research, the lab will send you 15 seeds of each. Because Klee is still testing the varieties, he asks that you report at the end of the season how the plants fared and how you liked the fruit.
One of the new varieties is ‘Garden Gem.’ Its 2- to 2.5-ounce oval red fruit makes delicious sauce or would be nice in a salad. Because it ripens fruit only 60-65 days after transplanting, it’s a good bet for cooler near-coastal climates, although all tomatoes appreciate a warmer summer.
The other new variety is ‘Garden Treasure.’ It bears 8- to 9-ounce round, red fruit on an indeterminate plant, meaning that it bears over a long period. Ripening first fruit 70 to 75 days from transplanting, it’s still a reasonably early variety.
You can read more about the research at the lab’s website, hos.ufl.edu/kleeweb/. From there, click through to read about the “New Garden Cultivars” and learn how to order seeds. Delivery can take up to two weeks, and transplants require 6-8 weeks to grow, so if you want to try these varieties this spring, order right away!