In Love with the Perfect Tomato: A Summer Treasure Grown on the Vine

When I'm talking to other gardeners about vegetables, I rarely hear much excitement in their voices over the subject of cucumbers or zucchini or green beans but all that changes when the conversation turns to tomatoes! I'll admit, I've carried out long passionate diatribes about the subject myself. Those of us who toil in a vegetable patch know there's no event more important than the first ripening of the season. I can't think of any other vegetable that elicits such ectasy, such unbridled sensual joy as biting into a ripe, juicy tomato. If you think I'm a bit wacky, you just run on down to your local supermarket and see if I'm not telling the truth. Rush right over to the tomato display, pick up a beautiful specimen and take a large bite of its pithy, tasteless flesh. Commercially grown tomatoes are for throwing, silly rabbit!

Anyway, I picked my first ripe tomato this season on the 4th of July. Happy! Not long after I pick the first, the rest tend to follow. In the above picture is an example of my favored child, Pink Girl. I picked it Saturday. Now I don't know about you, but when your tomato fills your hand, what larger joy can top that? In fact, there are others still on the vine bigger. Of course I'm bragging! After the serious conversations about growing tomatoes comes the garden rites of picking and then bragging about size. Okay, so I'm a woman and maybe my hands are small. Picture the same tomato, let's say, next to a pop can . . .

Alright, I'm done talking trash. Let's talk about varieties. In the picture are four different types I pulled out of the garden this weekend. Of course you can all spot the pink girl, at the 9 o'clock position. At the 12 position is jubilee. It is much like the pink girl in size and shape but has medium yellow flesh and has a more acidic taste. It's about the best yellow tomato I've grown. So far the plants are doing well and are setting nicely. In the 3 o'clock position are two pink oxheart. Don't waste your time. This plant is a 50/50 shot. What do I mean by that? Well, the plants are either very sturdy or very spindly. The tomatoes that set are both very sizeable or very scrawny. What I'm trying to say is it's not a variety where you can count on consistency. The flavor is, uh, okay. Moving on to the 6 o'clock position is amana orange. Both pink oxheart and amana orange are heirlooms and both won't be grown in my garden next year. The amana orange performs about the same as pink oxheart. The only difference between the two is taste. I liked the flavor of amana orange.

I'll be comparing some more later as I have other varieties ripen. This has been an experimental year for me. One that looks promising is Black Krim. I am on pins and needles for this one to ripen. The tomato is large. I would estimate it to be twice the size of the pink girl when it's ready. This is also an heirloom of the German varieity, I believe. Unlike the pink oxheart and amana orange, this is a consistent variety. It's plants are strong and set well.

Let's move on to some gardening advice. If you haven't already, it's time to help your tomato plants perform in the heat of summer. Last week I carefully loosened the dirt at the base of the feeder roots so that the tomato plants could easily drink more water. If that soil becomes compacted, either hand watering or rain will hit and run off. You want that moisture to penetrate all around the plant. I also worked a pelletized fertilizer into the soil. When the temperatures soar into the triple digits, its hard for any plant to set. Yes, they love warm weather but they'll expend their energy trying to stay alive and not set when it's an oven outside. So, make sure they can drink and feed heartily during extreme heat.

Now for a tip that's invaluable: My grandmother grew the most aromatic, succulent tomatoes in the whole world. I strive every year to emulate her gardening abilities. One thing that she stood firmly on was the use of bloom set. Why? Well, she gardened on a farm in south east Kansas where the rain fall is less plentiful than it is right here in the KC area. They relied on well water for their own needs so water was precious and not wasted. By using bloom set, Grandmother was helping her plants to grow and prosper. Bloom set can help a struggling tomato plant set more tomatoes. What I find is that bloom set also helps flush out a plants foliage. There's a visible difference in plants when bloom set is applied to the yellow blossoms. It encourages healthy growth in both plant and fruit. I pulled over 1800 tomatoes out of my garden last year. I think my grandmother had it going on! Lucky for me, with the advice of sage gardeners, my tomatoes do too!