If you are tuned into trends, you know that heirlooms
– especially heirloom tomatoes – are the hot topic in the
garden.
But I have a confession to make. I don’t fool around with
heirloom tomatoes any more. I don’t like their taste and I don’t
think they perform very well in the garden. OK, take me out and
beat me with a rake, but that’s my position.
If you are tuned into trends, you know that heirlooms – especially heirloom tomatoes – are the hot topic in the garden.
But I have a confession to make. I don’t fool around with heirloom tomatoes any more. I don’t like their taste and I don’t think they perform very well in the garden. OK, take me out and beat me with a rake, but that’s my position.
Tomato taste is a personal thing. Some people like the tangy, acidic flavor; others prefer sweet and juicy. So, to say I don’t care for heirloom tomato taste means they simply don’t fit my idea of tomato taste.
Their performance in the garden is another matter. I found the Brandywine vines to be invasive with only a few big tomatoes. My Black Krim bush grew nicely but I got exactly one tomato off that bush the entire season.
Now, I know readers are going to write to tell me how wrong I am, and to report their own successes. Good. I’m happy for those people. My point here: Don’t expect magical results just because you are growing heirlooms. You might get that magic. Then again, maybe not.
As much as I like to try new vegetable varieties, I remain loyal to the tried-and-true proven-to-perform tomato types. So, in my garden in this region you will find Early Girl, which not only produces early as its name promises, but also late in fall as the weather changes back to cold. Also, Better Boy, Ace and Big Beef for slicing; Roma for sauce; Yellow Pear and Sweet 100 for salad, and whatever cherry tomatoes I can fit between the others for snacking.
I never liked the pink tomatoes, and happily we don’t see those around very much anymore. My husband looked at that pink tomato and said, “What’s wrong with this tomato?” The color just isn’t right to be called a tomato. Yellow Pear is OK because it looks good in a green salad, but that is as far as I’ll go with yellow tomatoes.
Whatever tomato catches your fancy, the started plants should go into the garden beds in the next few weeks. If cold nights linger, they should be protected overnight. I use the plastic film sold as floating row covers. It is available by the roll at most garden centers.
All tomatoes should be in the ground by May. They will grow and produce if planted later, but the harvest will be lighter over a shorter length of time.
You can find well-started transplants in six-packs and four-inch pots at garden centers. Pick an assortment to sample the tastes and choose your own favorites. Toss in a couple of heirlooms, if you wish. Those heirlooms may be just the taste you are looking for.
Club Roster: First club to join the Pinnacle’s Garden Club Roster is the South Valley Fleurs Garden Club. Meetings are held on the second Wednesday of the month September-June at 10 a.m. The flower devotees alternate meetings in Morgan Hill, San Martin, Gilroy and Hollister.
“We have interesting speakers, take some field trips and do community service,” says Julie Young, a long-time member.
Coming up next weekend is a plant sale on Friday, April 7, from 1 to 4 p.m. and Saturday, April 8, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Grass Farm off Highway 101 in San Martin.
For more information and meeting locations, contact Young at 831-635-9813 or
st******@ho******.com
.
The U.S. Postal Service comes up with at least one new flower stamp each year, but this year is a surprise. A new five-stamp booklet series is devoted to “Crops of America.” The 39-cent stamps are the work of artist Steve Buchanan.
As reference Buchanan used slide photographs made by his wife Rita. The slides document Rita Buchanan’s research in the late 1970s on indigenous argricultural methods in the Southwestern U.S.
The five stamps now available at all post offices include ears of corn; red and green chile peppers; lima, pinto and scarlet runner beans; various squashes; and sunflowers and seeds.
