You Say Tomato

Growing up, my dad was always a big fan of having a garden for a small array of fruits and vegetables. I remember he tried some things like asparagus and sugar snap peas, but mostly I remember having peppers and tomatoes. Tomatoes are really what he gets into, and if you asked him, he has really perfected the art of growing them (see his tips below). A few years ago, after being tired of flimsy support poles that would fall down with the weight of the massive fruit, he took sticks of 5/8″ rebar spray painted green and had 4-5″ inch pieces of cut rebar welded every foot or so to use as tie points. That’s dedication to the art.

Recently he quipped, “At my wake I want you to say ‘He loved his family and he loved his tomatoes, and not necessarily in that order'”. I’m fairly sure he was kidding.

Even though I live in the concrete jungle and have no “land”, the memory of fresh salsa and the satisfaction of putting work into a final product that is totally foreign to its grocery store counterpart was too great, so this summer I decided to try to plant tomatoes in pots.

I headed off to Home Depot and picked up everything I needed – 2 Roma tomato plants, 1 Big Boy plant, Miracle-Gro potting soil, support poles, and some hi-tech velcro ties. With the name “Big Boy” I was sure the tomato would be huge and figured it was a risk trying to grow that in a pot, so I only got one of those. Romas are small so I logically thought they would work out well with the small space for its roots.

Growing tomatoes isn’t rocket science, and I was able to get all of my plants to grow fruit, but it did take some work. I tried different sunlight variations, placing them out front so they got the morning/early afternoon sun, and putting them on the back porch where they got the afternoon to evening light. I think in the end putting them on the back porch yielded better results. I was correct in my guess that the Romas would do the best and they yielded the most high-quality fruit, but the Big Boys didn’t do too bad either. I pruned the Big Boy plant fairly heavily so that may have helped the small number of tomatoes it produced (< 20).

Regardless, the most important part of growing them was ensuring they were watered every day. On a hot day in Atlanta, I could water them in the morning and by the end of the day the leaves were already starting to wilt and the soil appeared bone-dry. There were a couple of times where I missed a day and one time I was pretty sure the romas were going bye-bye. Surprisingly they would rejuvenate quickly with a healthy watering. Having to travel for work I had to ask friends to help me out, so thanks to them. I hope to repay you with salsa. One thing I learned that is probably growing tips 101 – I learned to water the soil and not the plant. If I watered the leafs the sun would fry them quickly, resulting in an ugly plant. It never killed the any of my plants but one of the roma’s sure looked like it wasn’t doing well.

As of today there are only a few pieces of fruit that haven’t ripened and I have somewhere around 20 tomatoes sitting on my counter. While it was a lot of effort I did enjoy having a “hobby” to keep up with, and nothing beats fresh tomatoes in a Caprese salad, chopped up in some pasta with basil and olive oil, or in any kind of salsa (recipes below). The fresh tomatoes added a nice wallop of flavor to the Gazpacho I made recently too.

I am also going to try out a few recipes that were featured in the New York Times recently, specifically a tomato cilantro soup and maybe a variation of their pasta with tomato and arugula, but I want to add feta. There was also a great looking pomodori al forno (oven tomatoes) recipe in the recent September issue of Bon Appetit.

I hope you are enjoying your summer tomatoes too, and if not, why?

Here are some pictures of my plants a few days ago before the last of the major “harvests”.

Tomato Tips

1. Dig a hole about 1-1 ½ feet deep.
2. Put a cup of pelletized lime in the hole.
3. Back fill with half soil and half peat moss.
4. Add one cup of Miracle Gro for Tomatoes solution to the hole. (One scoop of Miracle Gro per gallon of water.)
5. Plant the tomato plant so about 2/3 of it is underground.
6. Water with one gallon of Miracle Gro solution each week and try to water at least 3 times a week for 30-60 minutes. (It is better to do a few deep waterings a week than daily shallow waterings.)
7. If you want tall plants pinch off the suckers (shoots coming out of the Y between branches). If you want shorter bushy plants don’t pinch off the suckers.
8. Stake the plants to 8’ wooden stakes so they don’t fall over.
9. You can plant after the last frost (mid-April) and again in July for a fall crop.
10. Don’t plant in the same area two years in a row due to plant diseases that live in the soil.
11. My favorite varieties are Early Girl (bears fruit in about 45 days), Better Boy and Parks Whopper (huge fruit), San Marzano (great for marinara sauce), Marion (medium size fruit), and Cherry tomatoes.

Pico de Gallo Salsa Recipe

• 3 medium sized tomatoes – seeds removed, chopped
• 1/4 medium onion, chopped (more onion if you prefer)
• 1-2 jalapenos or serrano pepper, minced & seeded
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Handful of cilantro, roughly chopped

Prepare all ingredients and toss in bowl with 1 tbsp lime juice or red wine vinegar, season with salt to taste.

Improved Restaurant Style Salsa

• 3 Medium sized tomatoes
• 1-2 jalapenos or serrano pepper, minced & seeded
• 1/4 medium onion, chopped
• Handful of cilantro, roughly chopped

Bring small pot of water to boil, boil tomatoes and peppers for 3-5 minutes. Meanwhile prep other ingredients and put in blender or food processor. Remove tomatoes and peppers from boiling water and peel tomato skin. Place tomatoes and peppers in blender/food processor and pulse a few times until you’ve reached desired consistency. Allow salsa to cool on the counter.

Tagged as: fruit, salsa, tomato