2013catalog

The Tomato
(Lycopersicon lycopersicum)
Tomatillo Purple
appear, which can take up to fourteen days. Once
sprouted, the seedlings need good light—putting
them on a sunny windowsill is best (though some gardeners
grow them under fluorescents or grow lights).
Other than regular watering and a little feeding of
TomaToes are The mosT popular crop
that people grow around the world, and the undisputed
queen of the garden. Every summer, gar-
diluted fish emulsion or other organic fertilizer, little
care is necessary until it’s time to transplant to the garden.
Be sure to harden off your plants prior to setting
deners vie with their neighbors in good-natured compe- them outside.
tition to see who will produce the earliest ripe tomato. Tomatoes are heavy feeders, so you should amend
And when that day comes, you know summer has really their soil heavily with compost or manure. Seedlings
arrived. Not bad for a fruit that was once believed to be grown indoors are apt to be leggy (tall and sometimes
poisonous!
a little stretched-looking), so bury them deeply, all
First discovered in the Andes more than two thou- the way up to where the leaves start. This allows the
sand years ago, the tomato was quickly traded north, buried stems to strike more roots and strengthen the
and the Aztecs enjoyed it in the sixteenth century. Even- plant. Apply a layer of mulch around the plants imtually
it reached Europe, where it was greeted with dismediately to thwart any weeds. As they grow, you’ll
dain, as it was a member of the nightshade family and notice right away that tomatoes are big plants.
was thought to be poisonous back then (indeed, many And they need something to grow on. As you put
nightshades, such as belladonna or henbane, are poi- them into the ground, or if you’re a city gardener,
sonous). Instead of being a major food crop, the tomato plant them in a large container, put a wire trellis or
was grown as an ornamental, and often referred to as cage in at the same time. In the garden, tomatoes
a “love apple.” The Italians, of course, were the first should be two or three feet apart, in rows that are six
Tomatillo
(Physalis ixocarpa) Also called “husk
tomato,” for the paper-like calyx or husk
that encloses each fruit. They are grown
about like tomatoes, except that they are
seldom staked; they do tend to be a bit faster
from seed than most tomatoes, and a little
more tolerant to cold weather. Tomatillos
are used in fresh salsas, and cooked in any
number of sauces, including Mexican-style
chili verde. 30 seeds per packet.
TOMATILLO PURPLE #TL101
(Physalis ixocarpa) 68 days. Beautiful purple fruit, large
size. Many are a bright violet color throughout their
flesh. Much sweeter than the green types, it can be
eaten right off the plant. Turns purple when ripe; rare!
Pkt $2.50 or 1/4 oz $8.50
TOMATILLO VERDE #TL102
Deep green fruit; a standard, richly-flavored type.
Huge yields as with most tomatillos. Pkt $2.50 or 1/4
oz $7.00
RIO GRANDE VERDE #TL104 New!
83 days. This special selection of Tomatillo
yields large, apple-green fruits. The mediumsized,
determinate plants need no staking. The
globe shaped fruits reach 3-4 ounces, very large
for a tomatillo, and the yields are very high.
Recommended for fresh market. Pkt $2.25
Europeans to introduce it into their cuisine, and from
there people started to realize that tomatoes weren’t
poisonous. Slowly they became an unstoppably popular
fruit throughout Europe, and with the colonists of the
New World.
The first cookbook recipe featuring tomatoes appeared
in 1692. Thomas Jefferson grew them at Monticello,
and French and Italian immigrants grew them
from San Francisco to Poughkeepsie. There is a famous
story of a Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson eating tomatoes
on the courthouse steps in Salem County, New
Jersey, to prove their safety as a food crop in 1820, even
after receiving warning from his doctor that if he proceeded
to eat this fruit he would “foam at the mouth”
and die. It is said that two thousand people watched
as he consumed a full basket, the crowd believing they
were about to see Johnson commit tomato suicide,
which of course didn’t happen. Nonetheless, some folks
remained skeptical, and it took many years for tomatoes
to be finally accepted in the United States, in the late
nineteenth century.
Tomatoes are so important to me. My first experience
in growing them inspired me to grow and save seeds
for the rest of my life. When I was just three years old,
I planted Yellow Pear—a miniature tomato variety that
dates to the eighteenth century—and I’ve been hooked
ever since. A year or so later, even though I still couldn’t
read, I gathered up all my parents’ seed catalogs in the
winter and pored over them, staring at the colorful, exciting
varieties and pictures of tomatoes. By the time I was
ten, I was ordering all the catalogs I could find to learn
about every variety they listed, from the tiny little Currant
tomatoes, which are only the size of a pea, to colossal
varieties like the Giant Belgium, which can get up to four
pounds, and every size and shape in between.
The color spectrum of tomatoes is dazzling: Besides
every shade of red, there are purple, green, pink, orange,
yellow, white, brown, and even multicolored varieties,
like Green Zebra, which is lime-green with bright
yellow stripes. Each color has its own unique taste.
Some are sweet and fruity; others are rich, complex,
and acidic.
to seven feet apart.
Tomatoes are ripe when they have reached their
final color. Another sign of ripeness is that the fruits
become soft. (Too soft to ship, of course, which is why
commercial tomatoes are picked and shipped while
green and hard. That is why store-bought can never
compare to vine-ripened, fresh-picked tomatoes. Unripe
tomatoes will ripen off the vine, but they are never
as sweet or rich-tasting as those vine-ripened ones.)
Pick the ripe tomatoes carefully to avoid bruising them
by rough handling.
Pests and Disease
Not many insects bother tomatoes, but the tomato
hornworm is a spectacular exception. Really the larva
of a moth, it can grow as big as a man’s finger and
strip even a large plant of its leaves in a matter of
days. If leaves are missing on your plants, with only
short stumps of their stems remaining, suspect the
hornworm. Their green camouflage can make them
hard to find while they’re nestled in the plants, but
they are usually near the base of the plants by day.
The most effective way to get them off is to handpick
them. Wear gloves if you are squeamish, and dispose
of them in a bucket of soapy water. Usually they occur
only here and there, but if you encounter a major
infestation of more than a dozen or so in a few plants,
spray with Bt or spinosad right away and regularly.
Tomatoes are also susceptible to a number of diseases,
most of which have no reliable organic cure.
Proper crop rotation is vital—never grow tomatoes or
other nightshade family crops on the same ground
more than once within four years. And instead of tilling
or composting spent tomato plants, dispose of
them by burning or throwing them away. This keeps
diseases from building up in your garden.
It’s also best to avoid using sprinklers in the tomato
patch, because moisture on the leaves is an invitation
to the fungi and bacteria that cause most problems.
Finally, don’t crowd tomato plants. They need
plenty of air circulation and sunshine to keep them
disease-free. Organic sprays such as fish emulsion
and vegetable oil-based preparations may inhibit the
Growing Tips
growth of diseases, but they aren’t really a cure, espe-
Tomatoes take a long time to grow. Start them indoors cially where blights are a problem, though a weekly
eight to ten weeks before the last frost. They’re frosttender,
so you need to be 100 percent sure that frost is
spray of these products may keep diseases at bay.
Rio Grande
gone before you transplant them into the garden.
Sow seeds a quarter inch deep in pots, with a fine
From the book THE HEIRLOOM LIFE GARDENER. Used
by permission. Available from Hyperion, wherever books
layer of soil. Keep them warm and moist until sprouts are sold.
127 www.rareseeds.com 127