Originally Published In The Deseret News -- Wednesday, May 3, 1995
Nothing Sparks Gardener's Competitive Nature Like Pursuit Of Earliest Yield.
Tomatoes come and go, but year in and year out, they remain the most popular home garden vegetable. From their origins in South America, they have spread to all temperate and most tropical regions of the world. In Utah, their popularity is enhanced as there are more gardeners here than anywhere else.
I think their popularity is in part due to their inherent bragging rights. No one brags about the first carrots or rutabagas they harvest. Turnips and kohlrabi go unnoticed, but get gardeners together and they are worse than anglers swapping fish stories. With each telling their tomatoes get earlier, larger, redder, tastier and more productive. Devotees of early tomatoes can develop an addiction called "tomato-itis" - to them, nothing else in life matters except getting the earliest tomatoes and claiming the bragging rights that accompany this coveted honor.
If you are considering competing for these honors this year, you are too late. You are not even out of the gate and the other contestants are already around the track. If you are serious about this pursuit, start planning for the next year by studying "tomatology." Coined by the Tomato Club, the word is defined as "the broad study of the tomato from all scientific, artistic, historic and cultural perspectives. The interrelationship of these fields pertinent to the tomato create a specialized or vertical field in itself. Gardening and plant sciences are the largest components in the study of tomatology, but history, statistics, culinary arts, general arts, environmental sciences, geography, genetics, geology, linguistics and a host of other subjects contribute to its overall and encompassing sphere of influence."
The variety of sizes, shapes and colors will satisfy any gardener. In addition to traditional red, there are yellow, pink, orange, brown, purple, white and even blue tomatoes. Fruits range in size from less than an ounce to the current world record holder of 7 pounds, 12 ounces. Their shapes include round, flat, globe, cherry, plum, pear or other configurations. Dwarf plants are ideal for containers; determinate, or bush type, ripen many fruits simultaneously and indeterminate plants grow almost indefinitely. The record holder in this category is a monstrosity that grew over 28 feet tall and produced more than 340 pounds of tomatoes in one year.
Most gardeners worry less about outdoing everyone else and are more interested in the impossible-to-duplicate flavor of home grown tomatoes. To them, I offer suggestions that work in my garden.
There is no substitute for the right variety, and there are dozens that grow and do well here. Personal favorites include Celebrity, Early Girl, Fantastic, Floramerica, Jetstar and Pole King Hybrid, with Sweet Million and Sweetie for cherry tomatoes.
Plant them in full sun and keep out the weeds. Tomatoes must be fertilized carefully. Too much nitrogen grows huge vines and a few green tomatoes. Over-fertilized plants never reward growers with the choice, tasty treats they are seeking. I solve this problem with a handful of high phosphorous fertilizer placed to the side and slightly deeper than the root ball when planting.
Anything that warms the soil increases early ripening and productivity. Black plastic controls weeds and warms the soil slightly, but my best results come from planting through clear plastic mulch. This method cuts two to three weeks off the ripening time and enhances the size and number of fruits produced.
Although it's more work, trellised plants are more productive and suffer fewer pest problems. Preformed tomato cages work for small specimens, but the big vines need cages made from concrete reinforced mesh or other substantial trellising materials.
Tomatoes are remarkably pest free. Use paper collars around the transplants to protect them from cutworms and vigorously battle snails and slugs to prevent them from destroying young plants. Tomato hornworms can be picked off and destroyed, and other insects seldom cause problems. Diseases are more serious and are best prevented by using disease resistant varieties like those listed.
Although I find most varieties available in local nurseries, for something really unusual, try the following sources: Tomato Growers Supply, P.O. Box 2237, Fort Myers, FL 33902, offers 250 varieties, 38 of which are new this year. Totally Tomatoes, P.O. Box 1626, Augusta, FL 30903-1626, offers 218 varieties. In addition, many nurseries and catalogs offer both traditional and unusual varieties.
If you are afflicted with "tomato-itis" and want to study "tomatology," consider joining the Tomato Club. For information, write to them at 114 East Main Street, Bogata, NJ 07603. Their newsletter is devoted to all aspects of the tomato.
Whether tomatoes are your gardening passion, or you're content with a few plants in the back yard, use these interesting and fascinating plants for a tasty harvest throughout the summer.
© 1998 Deseret News Publishing Co.