YOUR GUIDE TO THE TWIN CITIES
Talking Tomatoes
Posted on March 28th, 2006 – 10:26 PMBy Jaime Chismar
Sorry, it’s taken me a while to respond to all the great comments. The design gig took over for a few days (shameless promotion here and here). Lost in code and collaboration, I’ve been missing out on all the tomato talk!
It’s weeks before we can plant, yet we gardeners are already hungry for a fall harvest. Sure, some of us may have already decided what tomatoes to plant — But others may be looking for a reason to change their minds.
What hybrids have surprised you? What heirlooms have let you down? What is your must-have tomato?
For gardeners with little planting space, what container variety do you recommend?
For those gardeners with a little too much planting space (jealous, so jealous), here’s a cautionary tomato tale from Nina P.
For the entire month of September, we made spaghetti sauce, more juice, stewed tomatoes, more juice, pizza sauce, roasted tomato sauce, more juice, tomato soup, and even froze whole peeled tomatoes. Whenever possible we gave bushels away…but still ended up with about 300 quarts (conservative estimate) of tomato products.
When my husband asked me whether he should cover the plants to protect them from the first frost, I gave him a look that would have withered any plant on the spot.
This year I will be avoiding the garden department.
16 Responses to "Talking Tomatoes"
I want to plant tomatoes in a 5 gallon bucket. Has anyone ever done that? How does it work? How many plants can you put in each bucket.
Before I bought my house, I tried growing tomatoes in pots (5 gallon-ish size) on my south-facing metal balcony. In the heat of summer, even watering every morning, those things just completely fried (who makes a balcony out of metal?). I didn’t get anything edible from them.
If you are going to grow tomatoes in pots, I would recommend picking smaller plant varieties (not a beefsteak type) and placing them somewhere a little more protected from the sun since they don’t have the cool ground to protect their roots. They also need to be watered frequently in the height of summer.
Greengirl- how are your seeds doing? My broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower are up and doing well, but i think my house is too cold for the pepper plant seeds- I may need to buy a heat mat but it seemed a little excessive. Do you have one? Anyone else have thoughts on that?
I LOVE Nina P’s story of 100 tomatoes! I, too, started far more tomatoes than I could grow last year. I picked out the best 20 plants and then took the other seedlings in to work and gave them away. The caveat was that I’d managed to mix them all up when I was thinnning/repotting them. So takers got a grab-bag of heirlooms. Maybe yellow ones, maybe purple ones, maybe red ones. The mystery turned out to make the giveaway a lot of fun for everyone. I was completely delighted to be able to share the plants, and people seemed genuinely appreciative. I got progress reports back all summer long. I plan to make it a tradition!
I’ve grown roma tomatoes in a pot. They were kind of small, but the plants were huge. The flavor was excellent though. This year, I’m looking to do some cherry tomatoes, since I’m hoping they will do better in pots.
Does anyone know where I can get good plants that have already been started? I’m looking for probably a yellow pear tomato variety and a regular cherry/grape tomato variety. Wal Mart’s plants are just beat up. I’m in the north ‘burbs, if anyone knows anywhere in that neck of the woods.
That’s a lot of tomatoes Nina P! Shady Acres in Chanhassen will have plants at the Mpls Farmer’s Market by Mid-April, I’ve had good luck with their starters. http://www.shadyacres.com/. Search for a local and organic producer in your area, there’s got to be something up there.
We’re starting seeds this year in a more methodical way. A heating pad is excessive (way too expensive, $35!), but since we’ve started using it, the peppers and tomatoes pop up. It has also helped warm the indoor greenhouse we have going.
Must have tomato for us is the Sungold, they never make it into the house. Sungold tomatoes are bite-size, yellow orange in color and grow in clusters. Fruits have a high sugar content with a tropical or wine taste. Vines are tall and vigorous. It grows well in a terracotta container and keeps producing tomatoes all season. (straight from the shady acres website)
Robyn has started a wonderful tradition. I hope we have some extras to give away. We’re growing heirlooms exclusively. http://www.seedsavers.org
In a 5-gallon tub, you won’t want more than one plant. Last summer I did everything wrong: put too many plants (three) in a 36″ pot, chose indeterminate varieties, set them out on MOTHERS’ DAY (and covered them up every night for five or six weeks!), and failed to account for the thieving nature of squirrels. 
Even with all that, I got a zillion cherry tomatoes (I don’t recall the variety), a reasonable number of Fourth of July, and about five Better Boy beefsteaks. Would have had more of the big ones if they hadn’t been crowded, and my early planting did yield tomatoes before ANYONE else had them.
This year I am taking the major step of digging up the yard.
One word of advice: don’t forget the marigolds! Even in a pot, they look pretty, and they’ll keep root nematodes away. (I love companion planting.)
If you are looking for plants that don’t look shopworn go to the smaller plant places ( mom & pop garden store ). In my humble opinion they take better care and only deal with plants.
Bachman’s usually has good looking stuff but it will cost you.
Some local floral stores bring in veggie plants for spring so look around and ask the locals where they get theirs.
Gardeners love to talk about what they are growing. Go for a walk, lean over a fence and start a conversation.
Suzi - Yellow Pear is one of my favorites, but can be tough to find. Cal’s in Shakopee and Bloomington always have them, but I know that’s a bit of a drive from the norther suburbs. (Cal’s always has a respectable selection of other tomatoes, including heirlooms.) However, if you’re still growing in pots - beware, yellow pear gets HUGE! It’s always been the tallest, most sprawling tomato I have.
Overall, in the past I’ve had bad luck with tomatoes in pots because you can never give them enough water. This year, though, I’m doing an experiment with self-watering containers from Gardener’s Supply. I’ll plant about 8 plants in the ground and 6-8 in the containers and see how they all do. We’ll see.
I’m not sure what my favorite variety of tomato is, but I LOOOVE heirlooms - I’m growing about 18 varieties in my little NE Mpls backyard this year. Pretty much every color of the rainbow, and even a peach tomato that is fuzzy! I can’t wait.
As for the containers, it’s best to get compact varieties that won’t sprawl all over the place, and get big containers, the bigger the better as tomatoes do well with a large root system. Pots should be at least 12 inches accross. Romas are usually a good pick for containers as they tend to be stocky bushier plants. Also, be careful putting the pots too close together as some “potato leaf” varieties will cross pollinate, and then I’m not sure what you’ll get.
As for me, I’m planting most in the ground this year, as the last 2 years have been pretty lousy for my container tomatoes.
Happy Gardening!
If you’re going to grow tomatoes in a pot, you’re best off going with varieties that were bred for that, like the Patio tomatoes. Other types just won’t thrive.
I’d get the biggest pot you can handle — five gallons would be a minimum, and I think is still small — pick a tomato that was bred for pot growing and be prepared to fertilize regularly and water often.
Forget about growing beefsteak or anything like it in containers. They just don’t produce.
Hey, thanks for the link Greengirl!
Actually it is the “Peche Jaune”.
Here’s a bit of the description from the Tomato Fest website I ordered it from:
“round, pale-yellow fruit, looks like a delicate peach covered with fuzz.. An elegant, mildly sweet flavor.
I’ve never failed to get “ooooh…yes!” from those I’ve introduced this to.”
There’s a whole bunch of “peach” fuzzy tomatoes out there that I just discovered this year. In fact there seems to be a never ending supply of exciting heirloom tomatoes out there, the more you look the more you find - part of why heirlooms are so exciting I think. It’s a new discovery every year.
Heirloom ‘San Marzano’ from Seeds of Change, a Classic Italian paste, has an incredibly delicious sauce. Very meaty. Word of caution, if you’re like Nina P and would rather not harvest all summer and fall, probably not the right choice. This prolific indeterminate gets big and will keep you busy. Two plants kept my family of three with plenty of sauce all winter.
JUST GROW ROMAS- EAT ONE RIGHT OUT OF THE GARDEN AND YOU WON’T GO BACK TO MUSH. ASK THE ITALIANS WHAT THEY COOK WITH. THEY KNOW A BIT ABOUT TOMATO DISHES. OH- THEY KEEP BOUT TWICE AS LONG, TOO. AND DON’T TURN TO GLOP WHEN YOU PROCESS AND COOK WITH THEM. ANYTHING ELSE IS GOOD FOR JUICE, THO.
WHAT THE HELL WERE THE LAST FIVE PEOPLE ON?? THEY GREW THAT???!! JEEZE!! I GOTTA GET BUSY!!!!
I learned somethng here! Thanks!
Hi GreenGirl, et al!
I read in the strib this morning that you are looking for Basil advice. I learned long ago that tomatoes and basil love each other in the ground, and I plant two tomatoes, alternating with three basil plants, back to two tomatoes, etc. I planted 8 plants of 4 varieties of tomatoes during the shivery days between Mother’s Day and May 21st when I went on vacation, but put fertilizer spikes in the ground at the same time…and WOW! I had my first cherry tomatoes on June 10th (!); all my tomatoes are going wild. Not counting the hundreds of green cherry tomatoes, I have at least 100+ full-size tomatoes growing vigorously this summer. I composted (thanks to the blogger last year who recommended that), and WOW, everything is going “great guns!” I live in Nokomis and have a tiny yard, 1/3rd of which is a garden. I used to live on a farm but haven’t gardened for 15 years until last year. I am delighted with the joy the garden brings.
So my recommendation for your basil is to replant it right next to the tomatoes and watch it take off….
Happy black hands!
Cecilia
Greengirls Connie Nelson, Robyn Dochterman and Jaime Chismar are dishin' the dirt from the backyard garden and beyond. Whether you're a greenthumb or greenhorn, they're eager to learn from your misshaps, mistakes -- and most importantly, your sweet successes -- all growing season long.
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