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ON THE GARDEN PATH
by Carolyn Herriot
Finding the best tomato variety for your region and garden microclimate requires some experimenting. A tomato that astounds one gardener may disappoint another; growth, flavour and yield are dependent on weather, soil and the garden's microclimate. It makes a world of difference whether you grow tomatoes in a garden that is subject to cool, ocean breezes, compared to one that is protected inland.
Extend the harvest season by growing a diversity of tomatoes with varying ripening times. Choose early, mid and late season cultivars, and take note of those that perform best and the ones you find most flavourful.
Tomatoes are grown for a variety of uses: salads, snacking, slicing, soups, canning, sauces and paste. Choose a variety that meets your needs. A uniformly round tomato, such as Moneymaker, is perfect for salads; a beefsteak variety, such as Costoluto Fiorentino, is a juicy slicer, whereas a jumbo cherry like Gardener's Delight makes for great eating and snacking.
Tomatoes are either indeterminate, vines that produce fruit throughout the season, or determinate, compact bushy plants with a shorter period of harvest, such as patio tomatoes. If growing mostly determinate varieties, I recommend growing some indeterminates too. You can then pick tomatoes throughout the entire growing season.
Tomato seeds need warm temperatures for germination and to grow happily. Six-week-old seedlings are ready to be hardened off for outdoors, but make sure that the ground has warmed up first. Black landscape fabric over the beds warms the soil by day and holds in warmth at night. You can also use cloches or bell jars to cover newly transplanted plants.
A neutral soil pH of six to 6.5 is ideal. Prepare the hole with compost and a handful of slow-release, organic fertilizer that contains lime, with a balanced NPK around 6-8-6. Tomatoes love fish heads planted underneath them, if you can get your hands on some.
Here's the trick to getting bumper yields of tomatoes: when transplanting, strip all the leaves off the stem except for the top truss of three or four leaves. Dig a deep hole, or lay the tomato plant diagonally in a shallow trench, and bury most of the stem. New roots develop on the stem planted underground, which provides the tomato with more nutrients.
Determinate varieties are more compact and can be supported by cages. For taller indeterminate varieties, you will need a sturdy, five-foot cedar stake. Proper staking and tying exposes the tomato plant to sunlight, which results in increased fruit production.
Fertilizing weekly with liquid seaweed that has a high phosphorus content boosts fruit production. Don't overwater; a deep soaking once a week is better than several light waterings. Erratic watering causes fruit splitting and blossom end rot.
Suckers are sprouts which grow between the main stem and the leaf axils. Removing suckers directs the plant's energy from vine production to fruit production. I remove suckers from indeterminate (vining) plants diligently, and train to one or two main stems. Beware of removing suckers on determinate (compact) plants, as this cuts back on tomato production.
Tomato blight is the most serious tomato disease, especially after long periods of wet weather in August and September. Blight can wipe out a whole crop in a matter of days, if left unchecked. It is caused by the fungus Phytophthora infestans, and first appears as brown blotches on the leaves and then blackened stems on the plants. To control blight, remove all infected plant debris from the garden and do not compost it. Once blight shows up in your garden, practise crop rotation diligently in future years to prevent reoccurrence.
Leaf curl early in summer is caused by viral diseases spread to plants by aphids, and by sap on fingers and tools. Practise good hygiene and aphid control. Yellowing between veins of older leaves, which then turn brown, is due to magnesium deficiency. Digging one teaspoon of epsom salt -- magnesium sulphate -- into the hole when transplanting will help prevent this problem.
Excerpted from A Year on the Garden Path, A 52-Week Organic Gardening Guide by Carolyn Herriot. $29.95. Earthfuture Publications, Victoria, BC. Available from Banyen Books and Duthie Books or
www.earthfuture.com/gardenpath
Carolyn Herriot has been operating The Garden Path Organic Plant Nursery in Victoria since 1989, from which grew her organic seed business, Seeds of Victoria. Carolyn shares her passion for gardening by way of lectures and as a garden writer, and appears weekly on Get Up and Grow and the Go show on Global and CHTV.
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