When it comes time to transplant your seedling outside… Oh, no, wait, you haven’t even chosen what tomatoes will join your garden? Time to panic.
There is a growing craze for heritage seeds. With thousands of open-pollinated varieties promising a taste of history and something different than everyone else’s, the urge to collect them all are strong. Here’s the truth: It doesn’t work that way. And it calls for an operation on your hopes.
How to Choose the Right Tomatoes for Your Garden
No, you don’t want all these variety. You want a few that is right for you, your taste, your patience, and your available space. But how do you know which variety are right for you? Think of heirlooms as having different personalities (different flavor profiles), different ways of growing. A visual guide divide them up sensibly (which makes sense).
For instance: Some heirlooms is compact, easy-to-fit-in-a-bed producers; some are giant towers in need of deep loam and a little structure. Knowing this ahead of time, before you put spade to ground; helps prevent you from planting too many seedling, and thus ruining most home tomato garden.
Take the case of Brandywine (a popular heirloom often at the top of people’s wish list). At roughly four months, this classic beefsteak is a kind of big tomato type, meaning you can expects up to 100 days before harvest, and it is capable of becoming very tall (five to nine feet in my experience if unpruned). A demand for vertical real estate. Unless staked or caged well, the plant will simply topple, laden with heavy fruit, unable to support itself. “Cage early” means don’t negotiate on that piece of advice: the tomato need your help staying upright so the fruit doesn’t rot in contact with the ground.
Then there are the little guys: the Black Cherry, for example; the Yellow Pear. The little guys tend to grow faster (some as fast as six to seven weeks), and use far less room horizontally, while filling out the canopy before bigger tomatoes has a chance to catch up. Their reward is a fast one and a big one, too. The little ones keep pests at bay, protecting themselves and all those bigger girls who follow behind once they fills out the canopy.
The chart shows what I mean about needing fewer inches between plants with the small fruits: You can plant more closely, and still ensure adequate air circulation, which helps prevent blight. There is no blight, which loves crowded, damp foliage.
The guide also points out one other very important factor. These plants does well in soil with a narrow range of chemical conditions. You want a pH between six and just over seven. This affects all available nutrients, including calcium and magnesium, which are both essential for building good-tasting cells and sturdy cell walls. When the soil is too acidic, the plant can absorbs those nutrients at all. A basic soil test saves weeks of guesswork when things go wrong, whether your fruit splits or the leaves turn yellow. And good health is worth investing in.
There’s always more strategy than just what we do to the tomatoes themselves: Companion planting, for example, is another dimension. Growing basil, garlic, marigolds (or other plants) among your tomatoes can not only help with the soil, but also repel pests. For instance, nematodes, the microscopic parasites that attack tomato roots… Are suppressed by compounds emitted by marigolds, and so those roots is better protected in their company. This is a kind of quiet biological control that works under cover.
Growing heirloom tomatoes is an exercise in balance. It’s about balance, balancing the practical limitations of your garden (how much room?) against the exotic deliciousness you want from your plants (tart? Are they smoky? A Green Zebra tomato, so bright and tart, or the smokier sweetness of a Cherokee Purple…whatever you plant, you’re making a system to suit yourself.
Plant a handful of varieties, both ones that fit your space, and ones that fit your tongue (and provide the structure they requires). Let the plants do the work. Soon enough, what started as a handful of open-pollinated seeds will become a bountiful harvest. They will feed not just your belly but also your patience, all while you watch these heirlooms becomes something your grandparents would of know. That sense of connection is realy the yield.