Time to Plant Tomatoes
by Anza Muenchow (from Tilth Happenings)
The prediction is for spring and summer to be warmer than average with less rainfall. It is time to start thinking about one of our favorite garden fruits: Tomatoes. Yes, tomatoes are a fruit because they contain seeds. Picture the vine-ripened, home grown tomato; almost nothing like it in a summer salad. However, getting a good home-grown tomato can be a challenge with our cool summer evenings, so here are some suggestions to help you.
Select a tomato variety that is suited to our climate. Local nurseries, farmers’ markets and community plant sales will have good Northwest varieties. Consider buying your tomato starts from our Tilth Farmers’ Market, which opens May 3. Local growers will have many tried and true varieties to choose from, including salad tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and sauce or plum tomatoes. It’s fun to grow a few of the heirloom types, though many require hotter, longer summers than we typically have.
There are two types of tomato vines: the shorter “determinate” bush type and the taller, “indeterminate” vining type, which seriously needs to be staked. I plant the indeterminate type because I can harvest about 20 pounds of tomatoes from each plant. The determinates are just small bushes and give only about 10 pounds of fruit. Some of my favorite indeterminate varieties are Early Girl, Sungold cherry and Fantastic. For a cherry tomato, the Sungold is especially sweet. Sweet One Million is also a great cherry because it gets so big and produces so much fruit. Sometimes you experience fruit cracking when you pick the cherry tomato. This is a problem for storing them, but not if you just eat them straight off the vine. Both the Sungold and the Sweet One Million are somewhat crack resistant.
The heritage or heirloom tomato varieties are very popular. These open-pollinating varieties have been passed down through generations for their flavor by simple backyard seed saving. Cherokee Purple and Brandywine are heirlooms that can produce well in our cool summers if given early protection with a cloche or in a hoop house/greenhouse.
Always plant your tomatoes in the warmest, sunniest spot in your garden. They need at least 10 to 12 hours of bright sunlight, often doing better on the south side of a building. Practice crop rotation, avoiding where you planted tomatoes the previous year. Some diseases can be persistent in the soil, such as tomato blight. Tomato blossoms set fruit best when night temperatures are above 50 °F, and day temperatures below 95 °F.
For soil preparation, work some good compost into the soil before you plant, but don’t add extra nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrogen is good for growing greens, but for a tomato plant, nitrogen encourages too much leaf growth and not enough fruit growth. Plant your tomato starts deep in the soil allowing for maximum root development. It is fine to bury several inches of stem when you have removed the lowest leaves.
Tomato plants don’t need a lot of water, just a couple times a week during our hot, dry summers. Use a mulch of weed-free compost or leaf mulch around the base of the plant to keep the soil moist and control weeds. Keep water off the leaves of a tomato plant. Water the soil at the base of the plant. Drip watering systems or soaker hoses are recommended.
Tomatoes are susceptible to blight, which is a waterborne infection that turns tomato leaves and stems brown and ruins the fruits. All tomatoes die of this blight in October, but less rainfall and careful watering can keep you harvesting from July until mid-October. Sometimes gardeners pick healthy green tomatoes in October and allow them to ripen indoors slowly through the fall. It’s nice to manage to have a tomato in your Thanksgiving salad.
Speaking of harvesting, there are many ways to eat your delicious, homegrown tomatoes. Besides fresh in salads and sandwiches, my favorite way to prepare tomatoes is to roast them. I fill the bottom of a baking dish with sliced onions and garlic. Then I core the tomatoes, line them up on the onions and drizzle olive oil on them. Bake at 450 °F for about an hour, until the shoulders are starting to brown. Yum, my mouth is already watering. Get those tomatoes planted!