When people say that the only way to get good fresh tomatoes is to grow them yourself, believe them. Since I am a notorious houseplant slayer (I actually killed a cactus once), I have shied away from growing any food more complicated than snap peas for years. But having some time on my hands this year, I decided to give in to the tomato hunger and try growing my own Roma and Burpee Big Boy tomatoes from nursery starts.
I may have possibly picked the worst growing season in years to become a novice tomato farmer. After an unseasonably warm February, Seattle settled back into a cold Spring and tardy Summer. So I decided to try out those crazy Topsy Turvy Tomato planters you see on t.v. They're supposed to be foolproof BTW, but that is not actually true: you can over water tomatoes by following the product directions, causing black spots and rot to form on the plants. I learned that it's a far, far better thing to refresh a slightly parched plant than to have to amputate branches to contain the spread of fungus.
The garden, located behind the palace, is semi-shady. Nevertheless, the planters produced their advertised greenhouse effect with the limited sunlight and this helped to compensate for the otherwise cool Summer temperatures. The large "starts" were planted in early June, and flowers and then fruit formed by late August.
I did finally get some true, flavorful Roma tomatoes out of the deal by OCTOBER. (The Big Boy variety just didn't get the time/heat they needed to produce much of a crop though I found a use for the shiny green rocks later.*) The true vine ripe Roma's may have looked like their grocery store relatives and probably cost me about four times more per pound to grow, but they sure tasted different. The good kind of different. Needless to say, I hoarded them like the treasures they were!
*Next time: Green Tomatoes: Yes, I Can!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment