You Say Tomato, I Say Tomato
By Jos Van Hage
Saturday, February 13, 2010 03:45 AM
Tumbler tomato plant provides plenty of bite sized tasty tomatoes!
February is the perfect time to start seeding tomato plants which were at one time known as ‘love apples’. The reason we start the tomato seeds in February/March is because they take a long time before the plant is producing fruit. A large benefit to starting your own seeds is that the selection of seed is much larger than the selection of bedding plants and by starting your own seeds you are able to choose varieties that may not be available in bedding plants. Another advantage is economical as seeds are much less money than the plants and it is also self satisfying knowing that the tomato you will be eating was something you started from scratch!
With so many different varieties to choose from it can be hard to choose which one to grow.
McKenzie seeds thought of this and has put together a package that contains 5 different varieties of seeds in one packet. It contains ‘golden queen’, ‘sweet cherry’, ‘roma’, ‘christmas grape’, and ‘bush beefsteak’. The nice thing about this is that there are only a few seeds of each variety giving you a good selection for fewer than five dollars and you are not dealing with a lot of leftover seeds or too many plants.
Perhaps you may want to choose your own varieties or only one variety so then you will have to go through the seed racks. Most gardeners have their favorites but if you are like us at home we are always trying out new varieties along with the varieties that we have been growing for years.
A variety that has become a huge favorite is the ‘Tumbler’ tomato. This particular variety produces very tasty, bite sized tomatoes and if the plant is cared for properly it will produce throughout the entire summer and into the fall. Another nice thing about ‘Tumbler’ is that it makes a great container plant and does very well as a hanging plant.
There is a large selection of beefsteak tomatoes which are the large tomatoes that can weigh anywhere from 10-16 oz. These varieties tend to take a longer time to grow so they will certainly need to be started early.
The large/mid sized tomatoes are very popular and last year we planted ‘Celebrity’ which was a very nice tomato. They grew on average about 8 oz. and were very tasty and had very little problems. They are determinate which means that they are a bush tomato that grows well in a cage and they do not require any pruning.
If you are looking for a smaller (5oz.) tomato that will produce early in the season then the popular ‘Early Girl’ is a good choice. It is one of the earliest varieties that have become a favorite among many gardeners. It is indeterminate which means that it will need to be staked and it will also need to be pruned. Then you have tomatoes that are grown specially for cooking with such as the ‘Roma’ variety that makes a nice tomato paste because it is meatier with less juice and a higher sugar and acid content.
Now is the time to go into the garden center and spend a little time looking through the seed racks and reading the information to help chose the right variety for you, and then get planting!
-Jos
Jos Van Hage owns and operates two Art Knapp Home and Garden Centres in Prince George,
- Highway 16 West at Kimball Road
- Highway 97 North at Northwood Pulpmill Road
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