Time for Tomatoes

The weather is warmer now, and so is the soil, so now it’s time to put your tomatoes in the ground. Nurseries and farmers’ markets around the area have some beautiful tomato starts that are suited to our cool summer climate. Some of my favorites are cherry tomatoes, especially the super-yummy ‘Gold Nugget,’ and extra-early slicer ‘Stupice.’ In any summer, no matter how cool and rainy, I have gotten tomatoes from these varieties. But, ever the optimistic Northwesterner, I always grow other types, too, usually some type of Roma like ‘Principe Borghese’ or ‘Nova’ and some type of slicer like ‘Momotaro’. I have tried some heirlooms like ‘Brandywine,’ which is always a taste-test favorite, but after two years of harvesting only three tomatoes, I gave it up, and stick to those with only the very earliest ripening dates. Being a lazy gardener, once the tomatoes go in the ground, I do not pamper them. They do not get “Wall’o’water” or greenhouse coverings.  If you are willing to pamper and coddle your tomatoes, you will certainly get them earlier than August, which is usually about when I start harvesting in earnest.  

When you buy tomato plants, look for healthy, somewhat bushy plants, although if they are a little spindly, it’s not going to matter too much. More importantly, look for a healthy green color. If they are yellowish or purplish, they have been under-fertilized or have been exposed to too much cold. Bring them home, make sure they are well-watered, and then get ready to plant. Dig a fairly deep hole, and mix some fertilizer into the soil in the hole. Unlike most plants, you can bury tomatoes quite deeply, and they will be sturdier and healthier for it. Gently pull off any leaves that will be buried, and then plant the tomato. I don’t think I can give you specifics on how deep or how much to leave on top, because there is a huge variety of sizes that you can buy, from 2 foot tall gallon pots, to six-inch tall seedlings. Use your best judgment, but make sure you bury some part of the stem, and leave a nice healthy-looking top above ground.  

As your tomatoes grow, they will need to be staked or will need a tomato cage around them. This keeps the plant growing upright and the fruit off the ground. Some people prune their tomatoes, removing extra shoots as the plants grow. But, being a lazy gardener, I just cage my tomatoes and let them grow as they will, and that works for me.   One more important thing to growing tomatoes: water the ground under them, not the plants. Soaker hoses and drip irrigation work well, but do not use a sprinkler that will wet the foliage. Most tomatoes are susceptible to a disease called late blight. Usually occurring in late summer or early fall, this disease comes from a soil-borne organism and can infect your plants if water carrying the disease organism is splashed on the leaves. Late blight will kill the plants and ruin any unripe tomatoes. (This is the one time I baby my plants – I cover them with plastic if the rains start early in the fall when my plants are still covered in unripe tomatoes.)  

So go find some interesting tomato plants and plant them! What the heck – put a few basil plants in the ground as well. Then this summer you can wow your friends when you serve a beautiful Caprese salad (tomatoes, mozzarella and basil) with your tasty, homegrown tomatoes!