Growing Tomatoes

This article on Growing Tomatoes should be used in conjunction with the article, How to Plant Tomato. Growing tomatoes is a favorite vegetable gardening pastime. There is no mystery to growing tomatoes. I believe in “easy” vegetable gardening! But there are many different varieties and styles of tomato plants, so this article serves as a primer on the different types of tomatoes that are a part of vegetable gardening today.

Indeterminate tomato plants are the varieties of tomatoes that most people grow. They need to be staked and will grow and produce all summer. Tomato plants in the wild are perennials.

Compact or determinate tomato plants don’t grow all summer. They set fruit, and then decline. They are most often used for canning or for tomato juices.

The compact vines of midget, patio, and dwarf tomato varieties make them the favorites for planting in hanging baskets or other containers. Some of these smaller varieties can produce larger fruit or cherry tomatoes.

Miniature dwarf or basket tomatoes are very small in plant size (gets around 8 inches tall) and produce cherry sized fruit. Cherry tomatoes are generally less than one inch in diameter. You can put these in containers, pots, or baskets and grow them indoors.

Beefsteak tomatoes are the largest varieties of cultivated tomatoes. They have large fruit, and are usually chosen for sandwiches. One slice from some of these varieties could cover a dinner plate! Some varieties are:

• Beefmaster (a popular hybrid beefsteak)

• Beefsteak

• Burpee Supersteak Hybrid (a popular giant tomato)

• Big Beef

• Brandywine (a pink heirloom variety)

• Marmande

• Mortgage Lifter (a huge heirloom tomato – gets up to four pounds!)

• Caspian Pink (a Russian heirloom variety from the region of Caspian and Black Seas)

Cherry or salad tomatoes, as stated above, are about an inch in diameter. They are great in salads, on vegetable platters, hollowed out and stuffed or sliced and sautéed. A couple of plants will produce a multitude of cherry tomatoes, so be sure to plant some larger ones too. Some varieties of cherry tomatoes:

• Sweet 100 (best!)

• Tiny Tim (dwarf)

• Sungold

• Mini Charms

• Grape

• On-the-vine/cluster (You harvest these in clusters and leave on the vine a few days to absorb more nutrients.)

Roma tomatoes or plum tomatoes produce pear-shaped fruit that is small and meaty. They are favored for canning and for making tomato pastes and hence, are sometimes called paste tomatoes.

Globe Tomatoes are medium-sized and taste great in recipes or sliced.

Tip for growing tomatoes

• Tomatoes prefer a soil pH between 6.5 and 7.0.

Tomato Trivia

• Florida and California are large commercial producers. A large number of tomatoes on the world market are grown in Mexico.

• Tomatoes are great paired with olive oil, basil, dill, oregano, and parsley.

• Mozzarella cheese and basil make a great side dish layered between slices of tomatoes and drizzled with vinegar.

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