Brandon Sun - PRINT EDITION
Tomatoes are processed into soup, salsa, paste, juice, or simply processed as “canned tomatoes”. (ALBERT PARSONS/FOR THE SUN)
Three perfect slicing tomatoes. (ALBERT PARSONS/FOR THE SUN)
A bowl of cherry tomatoes left on the counter will be empty by day’s end. (ALBERT PARSONS/FOR THE SUN)
This healthy tomato plant has fruit that is ripening – nothing rivals the flavour of a vine-ripened tomato.
Tomatoes anyone?
If you are a visitor at our house these days, that is a question you might get asked. We are dealing with a bumper crop of tomatoes and we are busy processing them for winter use.
Although I must admit that one reason for our bumper crop is that I usually plant about six dozen plants — you know, just in case of a crop failure! Well, this year there was no crop failure and so we are reaping the benefits of a bountiful harvest.
Tomatoes like hot weather and this summer suited them perfectly. When we plant our tomatoes out at my brother-in-law’s farm, we stick a large spike into the ground beside each plant stem to deter cutworms.
We have done this for several years and we never lose plants to these bothersome pests although quite a number of nearby peas and other plants get cut off at ground level. The trick is to find the spikes in the fall when we are pulling up the plants — they sometimes seem to disappear!
I like to plant my tomato plants deep, making certain a good part of the stem is buried. The buried section of the stem will send out roots to better sustain and support the plant. This works particularly well if the tomato plants have gotten a bit leggy in the spring.
I do not give the plants any special attention during the growing season except to ensure as best I can that they have a fairly constant supply of moisture. By doing this I greatly reduce the chances of blossom end rot.
If you are bothered by this disease, as well as giving the plants a constant moisture supply, try adding some blood meal or crushed egg shells to supply extra calcium, which also is said to deter the disease. I mulch the few tomato plants we grow in our town garden to help ensure water levels remain constant.
I do not prune my tomatoes although I know gardeners who do. I believe that they get larger tomatoes by doing this, although perhaps not as many fruits per plant.
I also am lazy and do not stake the indeterminate tomatoes that I grow. I simply let them sprawl and since there is plenty of space in out farm garden, this doesn’t seem to present a problem, although it is more difficult to see and pick ripe fruits during the growing season.
As the growing season progressed, the plants flourished. However, around the beginning of August, I noticed some signs of early blight on a few potato plants that I had planted as far away from the tomatoes as possible. This prompted me to begin a fungicide spray program on the tomatoes, using a copper-based fungicide.
By the third week in August — I had sprayed the plants three times at seven-day intervals by then — I observed no further signs of blight. I had pulled the offending couple of potato plants and I wanted to start picking the larger tomatoes, so I discontinued spraying.
I like to pick the largest tomatoes around the third week in August as our horticultural society’s produce sale is the first week in September and I want lots of ripe tomatoes to donate to that project.
We put the picked tomatoes in cardboard boxes, cover them with newspaper and store them in the garage, being sure to check them often both for spoilage and for ripe ones. This year the tomatoes ripened quite quickly and we were canning by Aug. 28.
Gardeners all have their favourite tomato varieties. We grow several varieties — we like Early Girl and Fantastic as they have good disease resistance, and we always grow a paste tomato, usually Roma, for salsas and relishes.
We also grow a couple of Sweet 100’s in our farm garden and there has been a bowl of these tasty treats sitting on the counter for several weeks now — I pick up a couple and pop them into my mouth whenever I pass by!
In our town garden we tried a Tumbler this year and were impressed with how quickly the plant produced ripe fruit — they were the first ripe tomatoes we harvested. I also grow a couple of Tiny Tims — I like them for their compact size but their skins are tougher than those of many other varieties.
A friend gave us some yellow cherry tomatoes called Sun Sugar; she said it is her absolute favourite tomato. She is right as they are as sweet as candy. I must include them in my garden next year.
Tomatoes are easy to grow and a few plants can even be grown in containers so those gardeners who do not have vegetable gardens can enjoy the sweet taste of home-grown tomatoes — nothing beats it!
Albert Parsons is a consultant for garden design and landscaping who lives in Minnedosa.
» communitynews@brandonsun.com
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition September 13, 2012
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Tomatoes anyone?
If you are a visitor at our house these days, that is a question you might get asked. We are dealing with a bumper crop of tomatoes and we are busy processing them for winter use.
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Tomatoes anyone?
If you are a visitor at our house these days, that is a question you might get asked. We are dealing with a bumper crop of tomatoes and we are busy processing them for winter use.
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