Enjoy Fresh Tomatoes All Year
(Page 2 of 5)
February/March 2007
By Barbara Pleasant
3. Grow Slow Tomatoes For Fall
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In spring you want tomatoes that mature quickly, but the best choices for fall are slow-maturing varieties known as storage tomatoes. Storage tomatoes load up with almost-mature fruit and then finish ripening very slowly. In years with good late-season growing conditions, fruits harvested in October may last until February and beyond.
Seeds of storage varieties such as ‘Ruby Treasure’ and ‘Red October’ (see “Best-tasting Choices”) should be started 12 weeks before your first fall frost is expected. Instead of waiting until cold weather is breathing down your neck, harvest storage tomatoes when their blossom ends lighten to a creamy green color, preferably during a spell of dry weather.
4. Transition into Winter
Diane Franklin suggests covering plants with sheets or blankets through the first fall frosts, which may add an additional two weeks or so of good growing weather. In addition to using blankets, I grow my last planting of tomatoes in pots, which I bury in a bed of compost. When cold weather stops their growth, I lift them out and bring them indoors — a messy yet rewarding project that gives me fresh tomatoes in early winter.
When an actual freeze is on the way, gather any almost-ripe tomatoes, wipe them with a weak bleach solution (1 tablespoon bleach per gallon of water) to kill any mold spores, and arrange them in a single layer on an indoor shelf or table. Even regular varieties will ripen and often can last until the holidays.
5. Grow Cherries Indoors in Winter
Near Decorah, Iowa, David Cavagnaro harvests cherry tomatoes from plants he grows indoors through winter in 10-gallon containers (see “Winter Tomatoes,” October/November 2004). He starts with cuttings rooted from his summer stock, and grows them in a sun-drenched window. If you don’t have a big south-facing window (or sliding glass door), provide supplemental light from an overhead fluorescent fixture — a great job for a grow-light that would otherwise be gathering dust until it’s needed for spring seedlings.
The tomatoes you harvest in midsummer will wow you with their great flavor, but homegrown off-season tomatoes are definitely better than those supermarket tennis balls. Plus, they don’t travel thousands of miles to get to your table, and they haven’t been sprayed with pesticides.
Best-tasting Choices
Special varieties are needed if you want extra-early tomatoes or slow-ripening storage tomatoes to harvest in the fall. How will they taste? When it comes to flavor, the four varieties below are the ones to beat.
- Among ultra-early tomatoes, Swedish-bred red ‘Glacier’ (55 days) has a successful five-year track record in trials conducted in Alaska. In 2005, it placed second in Seattle Tilth’s tomato taste test. Available from Peters Seed.
- The yellow-orange ‘Ida Gold’ (58 days) was the first to ripen in a 2001 field trial at the University of Vermont, and emerged as a top producer, too. Numerous gardeners testify to its sweet, fruity flavor. Available from Peaceful Valley.
- Among storage tomatoes, ‘Ruby Treasure’ (85 days) retains its tender texture for months under good conditions, and its flavor mellows from quite acid to almost sweet. Also available from Peters Seed.
- Hybrid ‘Red October’ (68 days) is the only storage tomato with resistance to two widespread tomato diseases, verticillium and fusarium wilts. Available from Burpee.
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