The Trusty Gardener-It’s Heirloom Tomato Time
Dreaming of Garden Ripe Tomatoes
I look forward to this every year. The main event. Planting tomatoes! This year again I am planting heirlooms. Some familiar ones, some new ones. As always it will be interesting to see the results.
Back on March 20th, which seems like so long ago now, I planted tomato seeds. This year I planted an heirloom mixture, along with some induvial heirloom varieties.
Germination was successful, and eventually I transplanted them into individual peat pots. This is the first step in the hardening off process.
In the meantime, I set up the portable greenhouse on the porch, which helped the plants thrive. Of course there were setbacks. Mostly cold temperatures. I had to bring the plants in the house numerous times at night since the temperatures dipped below freezing at night. But eventually the weather warmed and the tomatoes actually almost outgrew the greenhouse.
Last week I was able to get them in the garden. I planted the tomatoes and peppers the same day. I will write a separate story on the peppers.
As I wrote in a previous story, this year I am using mulching film, a thin black plastic film with perforations (to allow water through) for weed suppression. In those areas where I don’t use the film, I will add some grass clippings (such as around the potatoes), which eventually break down to amend the soil. The only disadvantage of the plastic film is I will have to discard it in the Fall, and also remove the metal pins holding it down.
I already had the plastic in place for the tomatoes, so the planting went fairly quickly. I only had to cut some circles in the plastic and plant. I normally break off the bottom of the peat pots to allow the roots to quickly adapt to the soil. I don’t remove the rest of the peat pots, since they compost into the soil.
After planting, I put tomato cages on immediately to give the plants support as they recover from the shock of transplanting. I also add a few wood shingles to provide a little shade and wind protection as the plants adjust.
Over all, I planted 26 tomatoes. Yeah, I know, that’s a lot. I have trouble cutting down on them since they are my favorite veggie to grow. And eat. I did put 8 of them outback in the “Auxiliary” garden.
In the main garden, I planted 6 of the heirloom mix plants. So there are lot of possibilities as to what I will get, since the mixture contains 18 varieties! In addition I planted 3 each of the following: Genovese Costoluto, Mortgage Lifter, Cherokee Purple, and Brandywine.
In the auxiliary garden I planted 4 of Matt’s Wild Chery, 2 Black Krim, and 2 Black Sea Man.
In the week since I planted them, they are doing well We received close to 3 inches if rain already in June, so they have plenty of moisture. And the temperatures have been above normal this week, although for a few days before I planted temperatures hovered in the mid forties for several days. It has been an up and down Spring for sure. Hopefully we have now turned the corner.
Stay tuned for updates.
