re: Hot Tomatoes!

["Garrett Clevenger" <onewildearth@hotmail.com>]

Fellow Homegrown Tomato Lovers,
'Tis sad to realize we live in a Homegrown Tomato unfriendly area.  I've 
tried all kinds of varieties with various success.  Cherry tomatoes never 
fail, so I always plant some.  There is also an early girl variety that has 
been bred for this area.  There is a tomato breeder at WSU that has a bunch 
of varieties.  I can't think of his name right now, but seeds are available.
Heat is the crucial factor.  A cool summer will yield few ripe fruits while 
a scorcher may lead to a bumper crop.
I would avoid Burpees tomato seeds and stick with varieties that have been 
bred in this area, such as from Garden City Seeds in Montana.
Actually, transplanting tomato plants is crucial, which requires either 
starting seeds indoors or buying transplants from a nursery.  That means 
they have to plant the right variety.  Unfortunately, not all tomato 
transplants sold in this area are ideal.
When you plant the transplant,  put them as deep into the ground as 
possible.  Remove the bottom leaves. Leave only the top few leaves  above 
the ground.  The deeper in the ground, the deeper the roots will be which 
means they'll require less frequent watering.
Soil temperature is crucial.  Tomato plants don't do to well if the temp is 
below 55 degrees F.  Mulching with compost is a good idea, as is mounding 
the soil to increase its sun exposure and using clear or black plastic to 
heat the soil before hand.
We can get frosts here in the first week of June, so I wait til the second 
week of June before putting the plants in the ground.  If you must put them 
in earlier, cover them at night with plastic soda bottles or visquine.  The 
key is to prevent the plants from having their growth stunted by either 
growing root bound in the pot or chilled by low soil temperature.  Timing is 
critical.
Tomato plants are either determinate, which means they stop growing and 
flower all around the same time, producing more fruits early, or 
indeterminate, which means they continue to grow and flower over a longer 
period of time, giving less fruit all at once.  From what I can tell, 
indeterminates will flower indefinately, thus they are perrenial-like.  
Determinates are more likely to give you more tomatoes before frosting.
Variety choice is crucial.  Bigger tomatoes take longer to grow, but some 
varieties require less heat units to produce ripe fruits.
You want to make sure they soil is fertilized with the proper nutrients at 
the right time.  If you use seasond compost or manure, you should be ok.  If 
you fertilize with synthetics, don't put nitrogen on after the plants have 
grown awhile.  Too much nitrogen will give you lots of leaves, but little 
fruit.  When they are fruiting, potasium, phosphorus and calcium is crucial 
to insure the fruit are nutritious and they don't get blossom end rot, which 
is a darkening and softening of the tissue on the blossom end of the fruit.
It all comes down to the end of summer.  Cool nights lower the soil 
temperature and stunt the plants.  Covering them at night is important if 
you want to extend their growing season.  You can put heat resevoirs, such 
as a black container full of water, near the plant so that it doesn't get 
too cool at night.
The worst thing is having your plants freeze with a load of green tomatoes.  
This has happened to me too many times, so now I stick with cherry's.  My 
yard doesn't get enough sun, so I can't grow varities that others with more 
sun could grow.
Tomatillos, or husk tomatoes, do well around here.  And they are very tasty, 
too!
One of the benefits of global warming may be an extended growing season up 
here.  Perhaps then we can enjoy more homegrown tomatoes!
Garrett Clevenger

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