The particulars of growing tomatoes

By Rennie Phillips

I went to Dr. Wen's office to have him check on my diabetes a couple weeks ago and the gals at the check-in desk asked about growing tomatoes and cabbage and other garden crops. Some of their garden veggies weren't doing so well. They were asking me where I write a column and am supposedly an expert. Wrong! I wish I was an expert, but I'm not. In any event, I get asked a lot of questions about gardening, but most of these questions deal with growing tomatoes.

In January I wrote some on starting tomatoes from seed. This article will add some to the January one.

Tomatoes are in two main groups: determinates and indeterminates. The determinate tomato usually only will get 3 or 4 feet tall, and most of the time they will have their fruit all come ripe in a fairly short period of time, say a month or two. One can grow determinates in the north or south, but they are the best tomato to grow where the growing season is relatively short. Indeterminates just keep growing until frost or disease kills them. They can grow to 8 or 10 feet tall here in Missouri where we live. I grow both determinate and indeterminate tomatoes. Both of these types or classes of tomatoes have their pluses and minuses.

When you go to buy tomato plants or seeds, they will list the variety of the tomato and then they should say whether it is an indeterminate or a determinate or not. In my opinion, most home gardeners would be better off growing determinates. A 4-foot cage is sufficient. They are simply more manageable.

Once you decide whether to grow determinates or indeterminates, now you have to choose which variety to grow. The varieties of tomatoes are divided into open pollinated varieties or hybrid varieties. The open pollinated are usually heirloom. You can save the seeds from an open pollinated variety and grow the same tomatoes later. Hybrids are a cross between two or more varieties with the hope that the new hybrid will inherit the best qualities from the parent tomato. Hybrids tend to have more disease resistance than heirloom varieties. But one drawback from hybrids is if you plant the seeds from them, most likely they won't produce tomatoes that are identical to the hybrid.

It's kind of like a family tree if you are into genealogy. You start with indeterminate or determinate, then branch out under each with heirloom or hybrid, and now you branch out to variety or kind of tomato. And there are literally hundreds if not thousands of varieties. There are black, red, yellow, orange, purple, pink, green, striped and multicolored tomato varieties. The tomatoes range in size from small grape size on up to whoppers that will weigh several pounds. Each one of these varieties will have a slightly different taste. I find the yellow or orange or striped ones seem to have a lower acid content.

When I first started gardening in earnest in Scott City, I might grow 15 or 20 different varieties of tomatoes. They would mainly range in size from 8 to 10 ounces on up to a pound or so. Most of them would be red, with an occasional black or purple or yellow or striped one mixed in. I would grow different varieties the following year and the year after that. I've found some that are keepers, and I grow them year after year. I still try a couple new ones each year.

I only grow one determinate and that is Celebrity. It will grow to about 4 feet tall or so. It will have a giant main stem. Huge! Celebrity is a hybrid and it is fairly disease resistant. No tomato variety is disease free. Celebrity has a resistance to some of the common tomato problems. It is a good-tasting red variety that will be 12 ounces on up to a pound.

I grow a number of indeterminate tomatoes. The open pollinated or heirloom varieties are Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Mr. Stripey and Kellogg's. The hybrid varieties are Jet Star and Big Beef. I have a few others I'm growing as test tomatoes.

Ninety percent of the tomatoes I grow are Celebrity or Jet Star or Big Beef. And of these three varieties, 70 to 80 percent are Big Beef. Big Beef in my gardens will out produce all the others, hands down. It is a great eating tomato as well as a super canning variety. Fruit will get up to a pound in size, which is a great tomato. Not all of them will get this big.

I eat a bunch of Big Beef and Jet Star and Celebrity tomatoes. But my favorite eating tomatoes are Mr. Stripey and Kellogg's. These two are just superb eating tomatoes. They are not an all-around tomato like Big Beef, which works for canning and cooking and eating. I may plant a dozen Mr. Stripey and a dozen Kellogg's tomatoes at most.

I belong to a group on Facebook that is devoted to growing just tomatoes. Recently someone asked what was the favorite tomato of those who were part of the group. Some responded with varieties I had never heard of. But each one who responded had a tomato that seemed to "tickle" their taste buds in just the right way. Keep trying until you find the perfect tomato for you.

Hope this answers some of your questions about tomatoes.

Until next time.