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August
8, 2001
Once
upon a time, the popular name for our most popular and delicious garden
fruit was Love Apple. It took quite a while to get that far however.
Tomatoes are actually berries and native to South America where they
may grow as perennials reaching good heights. One can hardly prepare
a meal without some sort of tomato being present. From juice, sauces,
garnishes, catsup, soup, whole or sliced and whether cooked or raw,
the tomato has wrangled its way onto our dinning room tables.
Tomatoes were introduced into gardens of Europe as early as the sixteenth
century as an ornamental plant. Its value as a food source was under
appreciated due to its heritage, the deadly nightshade family. It
was the mid-1800's before tomatoes gained popularity in American gardens
as a food source.
Never ask a tomato growing "junkie" about their favorite
fruit unless you have a lot of time on your hands. Besides having
an enormous quantity of varieties, one speciality catalog lists 376
different ones, the various ways to cultivate them has filled volumes.
I usually grow between 30 and 35 different varieties in our own garden
being unwilling to cut down. We have our favorites of course, the
standbys, to compare with new additions. Experimenting with tomatoes
in the garden is exciting as well as fun and we can always eat our
mistakes. Producing the season's very first tomato in the neighbourhood
is paramount to receiving knighthood into the tomato round table.
Tomatoes are among the easiest plants to grow producing right up to
killing frost. If you have a good indoor sunny location, there is
no reason why a short bushy plant wouldn't produce for you through
the winter. Tomatoes respond well to container growing if the containers
are large, have good humus in the soil mix, receive a good amount
of water, light fertilization and lots of sunshine.
Tomatoes come in two general categories, determinate and indeterminate.
Determinate tomatoes make little or no additional tall growth once
fruit is set. The harvest window is shorter meaning most fruit will
develop at the same time. This characteristic is great for commercial
harvesting. The plants tend to be bushy and compact. Indeterminate
plants keep producing new shoots, blossoms and fruit right up to killing
frost. The large majority of tomatoes are indeterminate.
The three general versions of tomatoes are slicing, paste, and cherry
with a variety of colors ranging from red, orange, yellow, and a smaller
collection of other colors as well. The cherries tend to be the sweetest.
Paste tomatoes have thick flesh with fewer seeds for processing into
sauces. Slicing tomatoes are the big ones and every one seems to have
his or her favorite. It is a pretty safe bet that soil chemistry plays
an important part in the sugar and acid flavor balance in tomatoes.
Gardeners with high or low pH soils might want to make some adjustments
to bring the garden into the desirable 6.5pH range for most garden
crops. Master Gardeners can help make the best decisions for any needed
adjustment as well as making the soil pH test for you.
Tomatoes are sun loving plants and enjoy warm weather with ample watering.
They are susceptible to light frost. Hot caps or other covers may
protect them from all but the coldest temperatures in late spring.
Tomatoes are usually raised from seed. One source mentions that they
are easily rooted from side-shoot cuttings grown in moist sand in
a cold frame. Anyone who has grown tomatoes has observed new "volunteers"
emerging from self-sowed seeds left on the ground from last year's
crop. If these were from heirloom plants or non-hybrids, they may
come true to the original parent. However, many tomatoes are hybrids
and hybrid "volunteers" should be removed.
Local garden centers have many varieties to choose from for those
who wish to skip starting seed. For those who like to "roll their
own" the seed sources are limitless. Once I was privileged to
receive some seed for a large heirloom paste tomato hand carried from
Italy. Natural selection of heirloom, non-hybrid, seed preserved from
previous year's fruit is another direction hobbyist can take. Simply
thin slice the selected fruit and let dry in the sun. Gather the dry
seed and store for the next season's crop. Many catalogs list heirloom
tomatoes along with their hybrids. Be advised, however, that many
heirloom plants were not bred for disease resistance. When selecting
seeds from catalogs, look for those tomatoes with the most disease
resistance unless past experience reveals non-disease resistant varieties
will grow well.
Tomato seed should be started indoors 8 to 10 weeks before planting
into the garden. I usually start my seed between March 6 and 20. Use
a good draining sterile seed starting mix. The need for sterile soil
mix can not be over emphasised. Wet the mix, sow the seed 1/4 inch
deep, and cover with plastic wrap waiting for germination to commence.
The seed will germinate at normal room temperatures. Remove the plastic
wrap when growth begins. Bottom watering will help prevent damping
off. Do not let the seedlings dry out. When the second pair of leaves
appear, it is safe to begin transplanting to individual pots (preferred)
or into trays with two to three inch spacing. A foliar fertilizer
(liquid mix) can be used with good results. Follow the label directions
for seedlings grown indoors. Harden off for a week before transplanting
to the garden.
Garden soil works best if it drains well and is mixed with compost
or other organic material. Rotate the tomato plot in the garden every
year to help prevent any carryover disease from infecting the new
crop. Tomatoes will not survive near walnuts or hickories being susceptible
to juglone these trees produce. To be safe, keep the tomatoes at least
three drip ring diameters from these trees. These tree roots grow
very long distances from the tree itself. Tomatoes can be planted
very deep, much deeper than in the original pots. Rootlets will form
along the buried stem. Deeper plantings will help enable some draught
tolerance. Either side dress with a 5-10-5, 5-10-10, or use a foliar
fertilizer such as "Rapid Grow" or "Miracle Grow"
or equivalent following label directions. The foliar fertilizer is
poured/sprayed right on the plant and becomes instantly available
to the plant. Side dressing requires rainfall or irrigation to be
effective.
I prefer to stake or cage our tomatoes. It keeps them off the ground
and clean besides allowing some control over tomato sprawl. This means
I can plant them closer together getting more varieties into a smaller
space. Rows for staked/caged tomatoes should be 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 feet
apart with plant spacing 2 to 2-1/2 feet apart in the rows. Narrower
row spacing can be utilized if the adjacent row plants are staggered
rather than lined up like soldiers in formation. Indeterminate tomato
stakes should be at least four feet long.
There is a lot of reference material about pruning tomatoes. Some
say it is absolutely necessary to remove, pinch off, the shoots growing
between the main stem and the lateral branches. It is a subjective
topic as I have never done so and our tomatoes produce just fine.
It is a good idea however to pinch off the top shoot when it reaches
the top of the stake or cage. Indeterminate tomatoes will continue
growing upward until frost. Under optimum growing conditions, one
might need a stepladder to pick the topmost fruit if the top shoot
is left untrimmed during a long growing season.
Our all time favorite tomato is an orange cherry type named Sun Gold.
It is the sweetest we have found, hardy and prolific producer of inch
sized fruits. Our best selection for a good tasting slicing tomato
is Delicious. A big bright red at 2 pounds, it is the tomato that
consistently wins the world record for size. Record setting competition
requires special growing conditions. Super Sweet 100 is another cherry
type and is red in color with good flavor and we think better than
Juliet. The Early Cascade tomato fruits are a bit larger than cherries
with 7 to 9 fruits suspended along stems much like grapes. Celebrity
and Rutgers are red tomatoes bearing 8 ounce fruits with good flavor
and production. Jubilee is a great low acid orange slicing tomato
with good flavor. Amish Paste is, according to some sources, the best
paste type. Big Beef and Better Boy are two other highly recommended
large slicing tomatoes. Both have good disease tolerance and red fruits
that weighing from 10 to 16 ounces. Sweet Cluster produces long clusters
of 6 to 8 fruits per stem in the four ounce range.
One last caution, smokers and tomato gardeners do not mix. Tomatoes
are susceptible to the tobacco mosaic virus. Cigarette smoke has been
known to carry this virus. No one should smoke in the tomato garden
and gardeners who smoke should wash their hands before handling the
plants or when picking the fruit.
The Master Gardeners stand ready to assist you in your garden research.
Just give us a call at the Cooperative Extension office at (315) 536-5123
leaving your message, name, number and time we can reach you with
our findings. Happy gardening.
Cornell
Cooperative Extension Yates Association
Last updated: 8/8/01
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