Grow Great-tasting Tomatoes

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Indeterminate and vigorous determinate varieties are usually preferred where summers are long and warm, while determinates often perform best in cool climates, or in situations where you want a concentrated harvest for canning, freezing or drying.

Start With The Soil

Good garden soil is an important ingredient in growing great tomatoes. Chemical fertilizers will promote growth of the plant, but they do nothing for the flavor of the fruit, the Dwyers say. You have to start with rich, healthy soil.

Chip Hope is co-owner of Appalachian Seeds, in Flat Rock, N.C., which specializes in heirloom tomatoes. He suggests creating such soil by digging in plenty of manure-based or spent mushroom compost.ig a roomy hole and mix the soil with the compost. Tomatoes do best in slightly acidic soil, so you may also need to add lime if a soil test indicates your soil is overly acidic. Next, move in with mulch, which helps to retain moisture, suppress weeds and prevent problems with diseases. “We’ve been using hairy vetch as a living mulch planted in the fall,” Hope says. “In spring, we mow it down and plant through it, and it’s working very well.”

Recent research at the U.S.epartment of Agriculture’s Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., suggests that hairy vetch mulch supports tomatoes by enhancing the plants’ ability to utilize calcium and nitrogen, and by increasing their resistance to disease. Other mulches, such as wheat straw, benefit the plants’ roots and keep rain from splashing soil-borne disease spores onto the foliage

Keeping plants upright, by securing them to stakes or a trellis, or by growing them in sturdy cages, also keeps the foliage high above the ground. This reduces the risk of foliage loss due to disease and increases each leaf’s exposure to the sun. Heat and sunshine are crucial to the development of a tasty tomato, the Dwyers say, noting the distinct difference between a tomato that ripens in cool weather and one that has had the benefit of nice, hot summer days.

Keeping Plants Healthy

Hope drenches his tomatoes with seaweed (kelp) sprays throughout the season. “I think of it as a nutritional boullion from the sea, and it makes the plants tougher and hardier, and improves flavor,” he says.

The Dwyers agree, and say they find that frequent seaweed sprays prolong the life and health of their plants. “It’s basically a foliar feed that enriches the soil when it drips down through the mulch,” Jo Dwyer says. Seaweed sprays help boost the sugar content of tomatoes (and other fruits, too), and many to mato lovers cite a balance between sweetness and acidity as the key to great tomato flavor.

A steady supply of water is required to support strong growth of foliage and fruits, and to prevent cracking, which is often due to sudden changes in soil moisture levels. You can’t do anything about excessive rain, but when the water supply is under your control, take care not to overwater your tomatoes. Too much water dilutes tomato flavor

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