I overheard a disturbing comment the other day.  A young person said they didn't like homegrown tomatoes; they were too mushy and strong flavored.  Are we raising a generation that thinks that supermarket tomatoes are what a tomato should be?  I shudder to think of it.

Growing a big, beautiful, red, smooth-skinned, sweetly acid tomato is a gardener's right.  Eating tomatoes fresh from the garden is a gardener's joy.  Having the first tomato in the neighborhood bestows bragging rights on the successful gardener.

There are a couple of tips for growing tomatoes successfully.  One is in the planting.  The other is in the selecting.

Tomatoes are heat-loving plants.  This goes for their roots, too.  They are one of the few plants that will sprout roots all along their stem.  Take advantage of this when you set your plants in the garden or tub.

Remove the bottom leaves all the way to the top leaf cluster of six or eight.  Instead of planting in the normal way, in a hole, dig a trench sideways to bury the roots and stem near the top of the soil.  This gets more heat to the roots and gives the tomato plant more root area, which in turn supports a more vigorous bush or vine.  Slope the plant up from the roots to the top, so that the top is just out of the ground.  It will straighten itself and jump up in no time.  I suggest you place your stakes before you put in your tomatoes, just in case you forget which way the stem and root ball are lying.

Choosing tomatoes to grow is a matter of preference.  Do you intend to eat them fresh or preserve them?  The big tomatoes, like 'Park's Whopper', 'Better Boy', 'Big Beef', and 'Celebrity' are all indeterminate plants that keep on giving.  They are for slicing and eating fresh.

Determinate tomatoes like 'Biltmore Hybrid', which is a canning tomato, and roma paste tomatoes like the 'Plum Crimson' and 'Plum Dandy' are all best for cooking, canning, and juicing.  They ripen all at once, making harvesting and "putting up" easy, if not intense.

In Review, indeterminate means that the tomato will keep on vining, blooming, and setting fruit until frost or, in long growing areas, until heat wears them out.  They can grow over tomato cages, swing back down to the ground, root, and shoot up again.  What a plant!

Determinate means that the tomato plant will grow to a mature size, then set and ripen all of its fruit in a matter of days, which means the fruit needs to be harvested all at once.  Don't plan a summer vacation if you plant cooking tomatoes.

Please don't pick them green unless you want fried green tomatoes.  Their flavor depends on ripening on the vine.  When choosing tomato plants or seed, stay away from those that boast a long shelf life or claim to not bruise easily.  They were developed for the marketplace.  Grow garden tomatoes that are juicy, and just-right-firm, not dry and hard.  These tomatoes make memories.

Grow more tomatoes than you need and give the surplus to gardenless families.  Save a child's appreciation of the good things in life.

---Posted by Anne K. Moore April 8, 2004---