Got me a red beefsteak tomato!

The little plastic tag stated that the tomato growing in the pot was a Red Beefsteak tomato. The tag also stated that this was a heirloom variety tomato. Standing there in the outdoor garden isle of my local Home Depot, I made the decision to take one home, even though doing so violated my normal procedure of starting most all my veggies from seed. Hey, but rules are made to be broken! I bought just one plant that day and then true to my word, the rest of my purchases were for seed.

As you can see in the picture, this was one healthy looking plant! The first thing I did when I go home was to transplant it into a larger plastic pot making sure to use Miracle Gro Potting Mix as filler. This stuff has a timed release fertilizer that’s good for up to six months. The growing season for this tomato is a long 85 days. So, with any luck, I’ll be enjoying some fruit off this plant by late July. I think that this particular variety is also indeterminate which means that once it starts producing, it should continue to do so right on until the first frost. I plan to keep this plant in a pot on my balcony so as to avoid the local deer which just love to eat them down to the ground. The only problem I’ve had in the past was in keeping the plant watered. (Tomato plants, as a rule, transpire like crazy and in so doing need lots and lots of water). I plan to solve this problem by making sure to relocate the plant into progressively larger pots (i.e. larger soil mass) as it grows. By the time it fruits, I expect to be using a ten gallon container at the very least.

It should be fun watching the little guy grow as the spring moves on into summer. I’ll try and post an update or two as needed.

The case for cherry tomatoes!

For more years than I care to remember, I’ve made it a point to start a few tomato varieties each spring. Most of the time, I would choose one heirloom like Brandywine and a couple of hybrids. Better Boy and Quick Pick come to mind as two that have actually produced edible fruit for me here in southwest Missouri.

The problem is, I’ve only had limited success and am ashamed to admit it. All my fellow gardeners never ever seem to have any problems growing them, and come each fall, they complain to me about all the excess tomatoes they’re forced to give away. I smile back at them, all the while thinking about the bare shriveled vines back home. (A case of tomato envy)? Seriously, I’ve tried every which way I can think of to grow them to little or no avail. (It’s not like my heart isn’t in the right place). I generally start out each April and May with plants I started myself in addition to a few pre-grown plants from the local garden center. Some of these will go into pots and some into raised beds. Like a general getting ready for battle, I like to spread my forces around. But, by mid summer, I can tell you that all of them will be in trouble of one sort or another.

Brandywine tomatoes have been especially problematic in this regard. I remember one year (2009?) that I actually raised five Brandywine plants that not only were healthy, but which were loaded with green fruit. Woo Woo! I went to bed that year dreaming about all the ‘sumptuous meals’ to come. Then, one morning I happened to glance out my window and did a double take. All, and I mean all, the plants had disappeared! It was like a bad dream. [Insert Twilight Zone music here]. It took me some time to discover that the culprits were deer of all things (check out the night I lost my clapper). Turned out they not only liked green tomatoes,  but they also craved the entire plant as well! That year, it also turned out they were not really picky about the variety I was growing either as all the garden tomatoes were eaten right down to the ground. This left me with just a couple of plants in pots that were located on a balcony and hence out of reach. You can just imagine how I felt when they developed root rot soon thereafter and so, yet again, I was forced to get my fruit from local stores.

That’s where cherry tomatoes have come to my rescue! Seems that back in 1973, two Israeli professors developed a tomato variant that would not only handle hot conditions but which also would take longer to mature. And so, the cherry tomato was born!

With these guys, of which there are numerous varieties now available, I found I could produce bumper crops. You plant them just about anywhere (think weeds) and a month or so later, you have oodles and oodles of tiny little tomatoes that not only store well in the fridge, but which also are just perfect for salads! (When I say I’ve never met a cherry tomato I didn’t like I would be telling you the truth)! Now, while they do not have the awesome taste of a true Brandywine (nothing does actually), they make up for it by sprawling all over the place like a common weed all the while producing little fruit like there’s no tomorrow. (One gardener confided to me that he actually got over a thousand little fruits from one plant)! Way cool…

Now, each season, while I still will try and grow a few regular season cultivars, I also make it a point to start a tray of the small guys. That way, I know that come rain or shine; I will at the very least have loads of ‘red poppers’ to grace my late summer salads.

Perhaps the ugliest tomato in all of creation!

Happens also to be one of the best tasting on the planet! But alas, not only are the fruits ugly, they are also typically very few in numbers per plant. My two BW's for the 2010 season have produced a grand total of just one tomato so far this year! Adding to my sorrows, this bad girl is also slow to mature. Hey! Even the leaves look more like a potato plant than anything else. Talk about having the odds stacked against you! So, why do I bother trying to grow it?

I grow this member of the Nightshade Family as faithfully as I can every year because even just one ripe tomato, sliced on a plate with a little salt and pepper is a small taste of culinary heaven. The true taste is very hard to describe unless you’ve actually eaten one. (That will not happen around my house. I guard each fruit like it was the Holy Grail). No, not really, but I will tell you this. The sensation of eating one of these is one of a burst of sweetness with a slightly scandalous acidic bite. (Think of the best tomato you’ve ever had, multiply that by two and you have a good idea). I could never even think of making a BLT with one! This princess demands center stage!

Adding such a great taste to the mystery that surrounds its origin not to mention the challenge that growing it demands... well, you have a combo that garden purists like myself crave. It’s an addiction thing.

Burpee Seed mentions this variety of tomato as far back as 1886 in their seed catalog. However, there seems no good lineage before that. (The story that this tomato is of Amish origin is apparently a myth as there is no concrete evidence to the fact).

The bottom line; you will almost never find this tomato in a grocery store or even a roadside produce stand. You must take up the challenge, as I did so long ago, and grow your own.