Park Seed Garden Journal

The first challenge in starting tomato plants from seed is to choose which variety of tomato to grow.  Here's a quick guide to the different basic types of tomatoes.

The most common type of tomato is called (fittingly enough) a standard or slicing tomato.  These are the tomatoes that you generally find in the supermarket.  Standard tomatoes are a pretty good all-purpose tomato and can be used for just about anything.  If you're not growing many tomato plants and will use tomatoes in everything from cooking to slicing onto sandwiches to just eating them off of the vine, then standard tomatoes might be the best fit for you.

If you love a big, tender tomato, then consider Beefsteak tomatoes.  These are the giant tomatoes that are often perfectly sized to slice onto a burger or sandwich.  Some varieties can grow up to two pounds, so they're also great for stuffing and baking.  Despite their great flavor, supermarkets generally don't carry beefsteak tomatoes because their tenderness makes them difficult to transport.  This is no impediment to growing them in your garden, though.

Cherry tomatoes are, as you might guess, small tomatoes, usually growing no larger than a golf ball.  You'll often find these in salads in restaurants because they add a great deal of flavor without needing to be sliced, and are easy for customers to pluck out if they prefer their salads without tomatoes.  They're great as a quick snack, as they don't require preparation and are easy to pack and carry for a picnic or to take to work.  As an added bonus for the tomato gardener, cherry tomato plants are generally very productive, yielding a lot of fruit from a small area in your garden. 

Paste or plum tomatoes are generally used for canning and sauces.  They have no core and a much lower water content, so they cook and stew beautifully.  They also tend to have far fewer seeds.  They are usually on the smaller side and more pear-shaped than most other varieties of tomato.  Roma tomatoes are a popular type of paste tomato.

There are a few other considerations that you might want to take into account.  Heirloom tomatoes are bred from varieties which have been in existence for at least three generations, and these are very popular with many gardeners concerned with maintaining the integrity of plant stock.  You might also want to consider certified organic seeds, which have been bred and prepared using only organic methods.

No matter which type of tomato you choose, it is important when finding seeds to choose a reputable source.  This is the best way to ensure that you get fresh seeds with high germination rates, as well as making sure to get just the type and quality of tomato plant that you're looking for.  Once you've chosen and purchased your seeds, you're ready to start your tomato seeds.

Several years ago I planted a couple dozen strawberry plants in a patch of great garden at a friend's house (she had nothing to plant there, and it seemed a shame to let it go to waste).  I was so excited when I started to see fruit, and I was licking my chops the day that I bought some cream and went over there to devour, and possibly share, my first harvest.  I was absolutely crushed to discover that I didn't get to them first.  Ants had ravaged my crop of beautiful berries.  The voracious South Carolina ants had left no berry uneaten.  I hate using pesticides, especially around food crops, so I never got to eat a single berry that season.
So, how can we keep our tender, home-grown strawberries safe from insects without spraying chemicals all over them?  It's easy, really: grow them where most of the pests can't get to them.  Soon after losing my crop to ants, I got a couple Growin' Bags and started growing my strawberries in the sky.  Hanging strawberry plants is the best method I've found for container grown strawberries.  The strawberries are above the influence of many of the insects that most commonly affect strawberries, which is excellent for organic gardeners, or just those trying to minimize the use of pesticides.  Because the strawberries don't form laying on the ground, they also tend to be prettier fruits, without the flat side that often accompanies ground-grown fruit (and there's nothing better than a bowl of perfectly-formed, home-grown strawberries).  Growing strawberries above the ground also saves a lot of space, and means that you can grow strawberries in places you'd never consider possible otherwise.  A former roommate was inspired by my container strawberry garden, and he now has two Growin' Bags hanging the glassed-in patio of his second-floor apartment.  Now, if only I can figure out how to get him to share.

Whenever you get many gardeners together, as we have here at Park Seed, you tend to find that we have, as a group, a somewhat overdeveloped sense of whimsy.  So it should be no surprise that we go out of our way from time to time to search for the oddest plants we can find.  Maybe it's because odd food is especially appealing (don't get between me and a platter of octopus), but very often our favorites come in the form of weird vegetables.

Unusual vegetables are great for several reason.  One reason for their appeal is that few things yield more "oohs" and "aahs" at a dinner party than something that is unlike anything your guests have ever seen.  I absolutely love the look of surprise on a guest's face when I serve them delicious purple carrots or a slice of Everglade Watermelon with its deep black rind.  Another reason to grow these weird veggies is one that most people don't consider: children love them.  Because I'm an amateur cook who likes to experiment a great deal, I'm often asked how to hide vegetables in your kid's food.  I say rather than try to hide the most nutritious part of the meal, better to find an odd vegetable
that makes eating them fun for the child.  This establishes a habit of enjoying vegetables, which almost any child nutritionist will tell you is among the best things you can do for your child.  I can tell you from experience that most kids are willing to try almost any vegetable if it looks like it was grown on an alien planet, such as romanesco (which is sometimes called "Italian cauliflower").  I try to grow at least one new unusual vegetable each year, even if only for the thrill of seeing something utterly strange poking its head up in my garden.

Organic gardening is, of course, all the rage these days, and with good reason.  Nobody wants to put more chemicals into our delicate environment than is necessary, and gardeners are especially sensitive to this subject.  I know that most of my favorite activities involve taking advantage of the amazing beauty of the world around me, especially in the area around my home here in Greenwood, South Carolina (one of the most beautiful places in the world, really).  Organic gardening is a great way to help the environment out, and it’s especially good for people who have children and pets running around the yard putting things in their mouths.  It isn’t always easy, though, especially when it comes to pest control.  Most of us have come to rely on all of those fancy, easy-to-use chemicals. 

So how can you grow organic tomatoes without having them massacred by all of those
little baddies that are out to get them (like those awful pest nematodes)?  Well, one easy trick to disease prevention in tomatoes is to plant around and among your tomato bed other plants that will protect them.  There are some great guardian plants out there that you might want to consider when you’re starting your early tomato seeds.  For instance, a few sunflowers around the outside of your garden can act as a host to predatory insects that will happily feast on the little critters that are going after your precious organic crop (don’t forget to save those sunflowers, too.  Hang them upside down as great all-natural bird 
feeders later in the season.).  Some plants go after the pests directly, too.  Marigolds have been shown
to naturally kill nematodes, which attack the roots of tomatoes.  Plant some marigolds in among your tomatoes to not only brighten up your whole vegetable bed, but also to keep your veggies safe.  Breeders are even coming up with new varieties of guardian plants that are bred specifically to maximize their beneficial effects.  Some of these new varieties have been shown to be even more effective than chemical pesticides!  With some of these guardian plants, your organic tomato garden can be not only healthier and greener, but also more beautiful and successful.

Well, I’m back from the holidays, and just in time.  The most exciting time of the year for us is rapidly approaching, and we’re all bustling to get ready for spring, and our seed starting kits are already flying out the door.  Our Spring 2008 catalog is in the mail.  For us this means that orders are going to start pouring in soon, and for you this means that it’s time for my favorite part of gardening: choosing what to plant this year!  It always works best to plan out what you’re planting and where it is going in the garden before you start ordering seeds.  Just remember when you’re planning that the sun won’t necessarily be shining on the same parts of your yard through from winter to spring. It’s never fun to have your shade/sun mixtures turn out wrong after you’ve got a great crop of little seedlings ready to go.  For my garden
, I’m going to go a little crazy on the veggies this year.  I’ve got a new space cleared, and I can’t wait to get it full of all kinds of goodies.  I don’t want to spoil the surprise for anyone, but I’m going to be making my own salsa this year straight out of the garden.  That means that I get to try several different types of tomato, from Roma to Beefsteak, as well as all sorts of peppers.

I for one love to start my seeds early.  It’s great to have all of the neighbors jealous of my huge early-season tomatoes and peppers.  If you’re like me and will be getting your seed starter out of the garage in the next few weeks, don’t forget to stock up on growing media refills before spring gets here.