A little something about growing your own tomatoes: 1. Do it! You don’t need a large garden space or a green thumb to produce great tasting fruits. The only ‘downside’ to growing your own is that you’ll never be happy with what you find at your local supermarkets in the ‘off-season’. Tomatoes are fun and easy to grow. 2. Pick the right variety for your situation. Some varieties have a restricted growth habit and can be grown in containers on your deck or back porch. Some can even be put in hanging baskets. Most are best handled in the ground using cages or multiple staking for support.

3. Fertilization is important-especially if grown in containers. Look for plant food specifically formulated for your tomatoes. These will have nitrogen but it should not dominate the analysis ratios of N-P-K ( nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium).

4. Be patient and don’t try to rush the season. If done right, you’ll be harvesting well into late September. Tomatoes planted in cold soil don’t grow and are subject to disease, frost, and freeze damage. Mid to late May is plenty early.

5. Choosing hybrid varieties offers definite advantages. They simply are more resistant to various diseases and nematode damage. There are some great non-hybrids out there, producing tasty fruits, but the F1 hybrids are a good choice if you’re just starting out or can only grow a few plants in the space available.

Tell us what you think…
At the end of the growing season, we would like your feedback. What varieties worked for you-which tomatoes did you like or not like?
Good-luck and have fun!

This is our ‘lineup’ for 2009:

Better Boy-most popular all-around hybrid has high yields of smooth fruit with excellent flavor. Hybrid version of the old industry standard-Big Boy. 75 day 8 oz. fruits.

Big Bite-75 day 1 lb. fruits. Hybrid variety with rich-red, smooth-skinned, beefsteak-type tomatoes are great-tasting and meaty. Matures earlier and ripens more uniformly than standard varieties, Well-suited to small-space gardens: best grown staked.

Brandywine-90-100 day finest flavored large tomatoes ever offered. Vigorous plants look like potato vines with good yields of large, firm, clear skinned, rose-pink fruits up to 1 ½ lbs.

Champion II-65 day 10 oz. fruits. High yielding hybrid, great slicing, sandwich, smooth fruits.

Early Girl-60 day hybrid, 4-6 oz. fruits. Earliest slicing variety produces all summer.

Heartland-80 day hybrid, 6-8 oz. fruits. Dwarf, compact plants with tasty fruit. Great disease resistance.

Jet Star-72 day 6-8 oz. fruits. New for us this year. F1 hybrid with high yields of globed-shaped fruit with great color and taste.

La Roma II Red (Roma Hybrid)-76 day 5-8 oz. fruits. This is your tomato for Italian cooking. Elongate, pear-shaped fruits, favorite for sauces but tastes great sliced in salads and subs.

Lemon Boy-F1 hybrid, 72 day 7 oz. fruits. Unique, lemon yellow skin. Great disease resistance. Great slicing tomato with mild flavor.

Marglobe -72 day. Perfect globe shaped fruits. Uniform vine growth. Thick walled fruits.

Margo-the jury is still out. Brand new variety offered by Ball Seed Co. Claims to have the same compact growth habit as Heartland-good for containers. We only have about 25 plants and are looking for gardeners willing to take a chance, and report back to us.

Mortgage Lifter-85 day hybrid, huge 2 lb. fruits. Largest of the Beefsteak types. Also new for us in 2009.

Mr. Stripey-80 day large ridge-shouldered fruits. Tomatoes are yellow with pinkish-red stripes. Quite mild with few seeds. Great yields and definitely unique.

Super Fantastic-70 day F1 hybrid, 10 oz. fruits. High yields of solid, meaty, smooth-skinned tomatoes all Summer.

Sweet 100-65 day 1 oz. cherry tomato. Should be called Sweet 1000! Huge producer of great tasting salad cherry tomatoes. Our best selling of this type. It is a hybrid variety.

Tumbling Tom-63-70 day 1-2 in. fruits. We have both the red and yellow varieties. This is your tomato for hanging baskets and container gardening. Cascading habit up to 18 inches. High yields of sweet, red cherry tomatoes on very well-branched plants. Also new for us in 2009.

Valencia-76 day, 8-10 oz. fruits. Heirloom, smooth, round, mid-season fruit is orange skinned and full-flavored. Meaty with few seeds. Again, this is a new variety for us this year.