Getting the best-tasting tomatoes usually takes more effort than plunking a nursery plant in the ground and hoping it grows. Cultivating the sweetest tomatoes takes patience, vigilance and experience.
The tomato — that familiar bush or vine with the typically red fleshy fruit growing near millions of American back doors — “is the one thing that people who don’t try to grow anything else grow,” says Ronni Lundy of Asheville, N.C., co-author of the new book “In Praise of Tomatoes: Tasty Recipes, Garden Secrets, Legends & Lore” (Lark Books, 176 pages, $19.95).
The plant hasn’t always been popular enough to inspire a whole book, let alone another 18,000-plus tomato-related titles listed recently on Amazon.com.
In her book, Lundy shares the plant’s fascinating history. Sixteenth Century Spanish conquistadors in Central America found tomatoes being grown for food by Mayans, she writes, and brought seeds home to their Mediterranean region where the plant quickly caught on.
But by the time it made its roundabout way to North America via the English colonists, the tomato was called “wolf peach,” thought to be poisonous because of its toxic relative nightshade and grown only as an ornamental, Lundy writes. (The plant’s Latin name Lycopersicon means “wolf peach”; “tomato” is derived from an Aztec term.) It wasn’t until the mid-1800s that tomatoes were common on this nation’s dining tables.
Today the vegetable (so deemed by the 1893 U.S. Supreme Court although, botanically speaking, the tomato is a fruit, Lundy notes) is available in hundreds of varieties with fruits from pearl- to grapefruit-size in shades of red, purple, yellow, orange, salmon, black, white, striped and even green.
In general, there are two types of plants: determinate tomatoes, which usually are compact and fruit at once, and indeterminate, which keep growing and fruiting until frost. Seeds should be started six to eight weeks before the last expected frost, which is generally considered in this region to be in mid-May.
When choosing either seeds or plants, note the number of days until maturity so harvests can be staggered; the fruit of most tomatoes starts to ripen in 60 to 90 days from the time they are transplanted.
Plant them in full sun (six to eight hours), feed with well-decayed compost and grow them on stakes (to keep the plants off the ground where bugs, fungus and disease reside). And if you buy a plant from a nursery, “don’t get one with little tomatoes on it,” Lundy says.
We talked to a handful of local expert tomato-growers, some of whom also will field tomato queries from home gardeners. The Chicago Botanic Garden’s plant information service at 847-835-0972 and the University of Illinois Extension at 773-233-0476 also are available to help.
Here are five things the experts say you should know to grow the yummiest tomatoes.
1. A SIDE OF FISH
Before you plant, try dropping leftover fish into the hole you dig, suggests Mayo Underwood of Underwood Gardens in Woodstock, which sells mail-order organic and heirloom seeds through its Grandma’s Garden catalog (www.grandmasgarden.com). Underwood had a Native American uncle who buried dead fish in between tomato rows at his farm. Home gardeners can place fish leftover from dinner in the hole, covering the parts with about 4 inches of soil, and plant as usual, she says. Decaying fish releases nutrients tomatoes crave.
Other things to try in the hole for healthier plants: a teaspoon of Epsom salts for magnesium and sulfate, banana peels for potassium and egg shells for calcium.
Underwood recommends spraying fermented salmon, a fishery byproduct mixture, onto plants after transplanting or when they look stressed. “It boosts a plant’s health, protects against disease and bugs and gives a better yield and bigger tomatoes,” she says, noting liquid seaweed also might help.
2. WATER, WATER, WATER
“Tomatoes don’t like uneven watering,” says Eric Salus, greenhouse instructor at Chicago Park District’s Kilbourn Park Organic Greenhouse. “It’s better to give a healthy watering a few times a week rather than watering lightly every day.” Tomatoes like lots of water, “the equivalent of an inch of rainfall a week,” Salus advises, saying a 20 minute watering twice each week should suffice under normal weather conditions.
Uneven moisture causes cracking and blistering, which may not y affect the fruit but opens the plant to blossom end rot, a disease that rots the fruit from the blossom end, he says. Sarah Steedman, gardener for Frontera Grill in Chicago, says once tomatoes begin ripening, back off watering, perhaps to 40 minutes once a week.
“The tomato’s skin will be a little thicker but the insides won’t be as watery,” Steedman says. “The plant will be stretching out its roots, picking up more minerals and nutrients from the soil and that’s what will give the tomato a better flavor.” Salus, of the greenhouse, will answer tomato-growing questions over the phone at 773-685-3359.
3. LAYER ON THE MULCH
“If people haven’t mulched by now, they should certainly do so,” says Ron Wolford, unit educator for urban horticulture and environment with the University of Illinois Extension. Wolford notes that mulching too early in the spring before the soil has warmed can retard a tomato’s growth.
He says now is a good time to layer the plant’s roots with 3 or 4 inches of organic mulch — “anything from straw to composted cow manure,” he says — to keep soil moisture from evaporating as temperatures heat up. The organic mulch has a benefit over plastic mulch because the natural compounds improve soil as they decompose, he says. “But plastics work fine too,” Wolford says, recalling a scientific study that claimed that using red plastic produces higher fruit yields because the color reflects light differently than black plastic. (Wolford said he has tried red plastic but did not notice markedly higher yields.)
Because mulch conserves moisture during dry spells, it helps prevent the dreaded blossom end rot — which tomatoes will eventually outgrow, Wolford says. Gardeners can check out other tomato tips under the urban agriculture and natural resources program icon on the extension Web site, www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/chicago.
4. DISPATCH THE LITTLE SUCKERS
Determinate plants, in particular dwarf varieties for patio containers, do not usually need pruning. Indeterminate plants, on the other hand, are pruned to keep them in bounds. Carol Kolen of Chicago, Master Gardener with the University of Illinois Extension, is known as The Tomato Lady at the Garfield Park Conservatory, where she gives tomato-care demonstrations. Those small leaves growing at the “V” of the main branches are suckers and should be pinched off to allow in sunlight and air, important to keeping leaves dry and disease-free, Kolen says. As temperatures warm, leave a few suckers to shade the fruit.
“If you don’t prune, you’ll still get fruit, but it will be smaller and sometimes harder to pick,” Kolen says. “If you prune, you might get fewer tomatoes, but they’ll be larger.” When buying a nursery plant, remove flowers before planting so the transplant focuses on its roots and remove lower stems. Gently fold the main stem into an “L” shape and plant the tomato in a trench so the lowest remaining leaves do not touch the ground. (Make sure the new plant has a flexible stem or it could snap.)
“The plant will straighten out really quickly,” Kolen says. “New roots will develop where the stems have been pinched off. It makes for a much stronger plant.” Larger suckers can be rooted like cuttings to make more plants, an easy way to clone hybrids, she notes. Master Gardeners are available to answer tomato questions from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at Garfield Park Conservatory, 300 N. Central Park Ave., or by phone during the same hours at 773-265-9587.
5. PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE
The best-tasting tomatoes ripen on the vine and are sliced minutes before eating, says Nancy Clifton, horticultural specialist with the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe. “The natural chemicals attributed to the fresh aroma and flavor are released three minutes after you slice a tomato,” Clifton says. The effect of the flavor enhancers — which differ by variety — are reduced when refrigerated, she says. Tomatoes picked early (think orange) apparently will ripen but once they leave the vine, will stop producing flavor enhancers.
Some of the tastiest tomatoes to try in the Chicago region include `Tiny Tim,’ `Super Sweet 100′ and `Tumbler’ for containers and for gardens, `Better Boy,’ `Brandywine,’ `Orange Oxheart’ and `Mortgage Lifter’ (so-called because a Depression-era grower was able to pay off his house by selling the huge variety, Clifton says.)
When to harvest? Let the tomato tell you. “Rest the tomato in your hand and tug gently. If it doesn’t come off easily, wait a couple of days,” Clifton says.
