The Rural Voice, 2003-05, Page 47Rhea
Hamilton -
Seeger and
her husband
live near
Auburn. She
is a skilled
cook and
gardener.
By Rhea Hamilton -Seeger
Tomatoes and summer corn are
the two vegetables that we hate to
eat out of season. Both may be
picked and brought to the table
within minutes to be savoured and
extolled. But it is the flavour of the
tomato that seems to be heightened
with the warmth of the sun. There is
something both magical and
seductive in food that is still warm
from the sun as it crosses your
palate.
We treasure our tomatoes. My
uncle would often bring the bounty
of his garden for my dad to admire
and then savour. Always at the top
of the list were his tomatoes. He
would start his own seeds and nurse
them into strong seedlings ready to
withstand the rigours of his city plot.
And they were so tasty.
If you start your own seeds you
have a better selection of plants.
Commercial growers offer a
limited number of varieties.
When you pick out your
plants at the store don't
automatically go for
the biggest plants
with blossoms.
Younger plants
take to
transplanting
easier than the
larger plants and
will soon catch
up. A good size is
seven inches with five to seven
leaves.
Tomatoes are heavy feeders and
gardeners need to prepare their plot
before p:an,:ng. Garden compost,
well -rotted cow manure or
mushroom manure should be worked
together with the soil down to a
Gardening
Dreaming of tomatoes
depth of eight inches (20 cm).
Tomatoes respond well to a starter
solution which helps lessen
transplant shock and get them of to a
quick start. Commercially prepared
products, very high in phosphorus,
are available. You can also use a
basic water soluble 20-20-20
fertilizer and mix it at a rate of 1
tablespoon (15 mL) of fertilizer to
one gallon (4.5 L) water. Give each
plant a cup (227 mL) at planting
time.
We often have discussions around
staking tomatoes: to stake or not to
stake. Staking is great if you have
limited space. All the suckers
shooting out of the joints between
side branches and the main stem are
nipped in the bud as it were to force
the staked plant into producing
larger fruit. Staking also helps keep
the slugs off of your crop and helps
reduce soft rot but the down side is
that staking and pruning may reduce
your overall yield.
The natural behaviour of
tomatoes is to sprawl over
everything, acting like a living
mulch sheltering the soil from
moisture loss. Staking exposes the
soil to excessive water evaporation
which may lead to an uneven supply
of moisture and therefore a higher
incidence of blossom end rot in
pruned and staked tomatoes. You
can overcome this by providing a
mulch of straw.
Tomatoes are
quite prolific when
left to their own
tendencies. With
staking and
pruning you will
get bigger
tomatoes but the
flavour and colour
will be the same if
they were left to sprawl
on their own.
Tomato cages provide a
compromise. You can encourage
your plants to grow within the
confines of the conical cage and not
prune. Drawbacks occur when the
plant crowds itself too much — you
may have to nip off some branches
then. If you have a windy site you
may want to anchor the cages with
tent pegs. Come August when the
plants are heavy it does not take
much to blow them over.
But discussions about staking and
pruning have been somewhat
reduced. Plant breeders have come
to the rescue and divided tomatoes
into two groups. Determinate, or
bush types, are bred to grow to a
compact height of four feet. The fruit
matures over a two-week period and
you do not need to remove the
suckers.
Then there are the indeterminate,
also referred to as staking types,
which grow and produce fruit all
season long. You remove the suckers
to encourage stronger growth.
Trouble shooting: tomatoes are
hardy, rugged plants for the most
part but there are some conditions
that will cause the home gardener a
few problems. If you are having a
problem with stunted growth, lack of
colour in the leaves and blossoms
falling off before the fruit sets you
could have low nitrogen. If on the
other hand you have large lush
plants with dark green leaves and
still the blossoms are not setting
fruit, you could have too much
nitrogen. A soil test can tell you
more.
If nitrogen is not a problem
then look at the temperature. Plants
are set out after the last frost and
when the ground has warmed up a
bit. We have to remember that
tomatoes are tropical plants that love
the heat. Experiments show that the
optimum temperature range for fruit
set on tomatoes is 15C to 20 C (59 to
68 F). Below 11 C (54 F) fruit will
fail to set. That is the norm. But
there are some varieties that will set
fruit in cooler climes. Check you
seed catalogue. The name Siberian
says it all.
All this talk of tomatoes is
making me hungry. I wonder when
that first tomato will come off the
vine. Maybe I will share it wun my
uncle, or maybe not.0
THE RURAL VOICE 43