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Anyone who has ever tasted home-grown tomatoes can appreciate the vastly
superior flavor to those purchased at your local supermarket. As prices of
the pale hued, nutritionally inferior, bland tasting store bought fruits
continue to move skyward, I find myself longing for delicious, tasty sweet
fruits from the garden. I thought I was being rather clever when I tried to
grow some on my patio this summer, even starting the seeds indoors to offset
the short growing season here in the Northwest. But alas, my cats'
insatiable appetite for tasty growing green things averted my attempts to
produce delectable summer treats. So I've turned to Robin Wyll of
www.Grow-Tomato-Sauce.com
for advice on how to be victorious in the growing war next summer.
1) How did you get started growing tomatoes?
I've had a vegetable garden ever since I was a kid and I usually included a
few tomato plants in it. I started growing tomatoes from seeds about 10
years ago, but the turning point for me was when I ran across an article in
Organic Gardening Magazine about roasting tomatoes and making puree. I tried
it with the slicing tomatoes in my garden and it was so simple and so tasty
that I decided to grow sauce tomatoes the following year--that was about 7
years ago. Once I tasted roasted puree from those, I was hooked and it
became a fun garden project for my family to grow as much sauce as we can!
We grow 30 to 40 tomato sauce plants in our garden, that are started from
seeds each spring in my laundry room.
2) We are approaching winter time. Is this the wrong time of year to think
about gardening?
Not at all. Once everything freezes, I will put the vines in the compost bin
and cover the beds with layers of coffee grounds and leaves and let the
worms do my "rototilling" all winter. While that's happening, I start
planning--I go over my notes from this year and decide what tomato varieties
I will grow next year, I study the seed catalogues and order my seeds in
February along with anything else I need for seed starting.
3) I tend to do well with houseplants (despite the munching cats), but I
know some people never try to grow their own food because they claim they
don't have a green thumb. Can anyone grow tomatoes?
If you have a sunny, warm location for a garden and you remember to water
them consistently, you should be able to grow some tomatoes. However, I've
found that things can go wrong but by trial and error, I've managed to find
strategies for preventing those things the next season. I share all my
pitfalls and strategies on my website.
4) Many people do grow tomatoes each year. What tips do you have for
seasoned gardeners to improve their tomato crop?
Well, we're not experts but we have come up with several strategies that
seem to work well for us. One is that covering our plants with a plastic
dome that can be opened or closed helps maximize our harvest through better
pollination and helps prevent blight and fungal diseases by keeping the
plants at a consistent temperature and the leaves protected from getting wet
from rain. Another is spraying the plants and soil regularly with compost
tea. I have more specific info and ideas on my website.
5) In urban areas, yards and lot sizes continue to shrink. How much room
does a person need to grow tomatoes? What if they live in a condo or an
apartment?
The space you have will determine the number of plants you can grow. They
need to be spaced approximately 3 feet or so apart. Using plant supports,
such as tomato cages, will allow you to grow more tomato plants in one place
(1-1/2 to 2 feet apart). When I lived in an apartment, I grew tomatoes and
other vegetables in pots on my deck.
6) I've noticed that freshly grown tomatoes taste so much better than those
purchased at the grocery store. Why is that?
I'm not exactly sure of the science behind it but when you grow your own
food, you can harvest it at the peak of ripened perfection when they taste
the best. The fruit and vegetables at the grocery store must be picked prior
to peak ripeness or they will rot by the time they get to the store. So
instead of ripening naturally on the vine in the sun, they ripen in a heap
in a truck or something like that. I've also recently learned that there is
a big difference in flavor among various varieties of tomatoes. For example,
we grew 9 different varieties of sauce tomatoes this year and when we held
an informal family taste-test, we found that 3 of the varieties had
incredible flavor and the rest tasted very bland comparatively.
7) One of the advantages of growing your own food is knowing what goes into
(and on) your food. How can you ensure you get the largest yield of the
highest nutritional value while avoiding chemicals and pesticides?
I found a link to a list of studies done around the world comparing the
nutritional content of various fruits and vegetables grown organically vs.
conventionally (with chemical fertilizers and pesticides) you can check it
out at:
http://www.ota.com/organic/benefits/nutrition.html.
My understanding is that chemical fertilizers and pesticides not only rob
the food of nutrients but have also been linked to forms of cancer and
auto-immune disorders. (Plus the composting that Robin does at the end of
the season adds nutritionally to the plants).
8) Where can people reach you if they have more questions about growing the
best tomatoes?
They can check out my website at
www.grow-tomato-sauce.com and e-mail me at
saucytomato@hotmail.com
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