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Learn to Grow Your Own Tomatoes

Fresh Tomatoes - Try it!

It's not that hard to grow your own tomatoes. Trust me. You don't even need a garden, tomato vines are quite happy in a large pot.

When April comes around, find a local nursery and get an Early Girl, a Better Boy, or a Striped German, although my favorite is a Sun Gold cherry. Add some good soil, organic fertilizer, water regularly but not too much, then wait for August.

You'll be glad you did.

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5 star rating April 16, 2008 Jenn A.
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Grow your own!

Tomatoes are best served homegrown!

There are many types of tomato seedlings available in grocery stores this time of year -- if you don't have yard space, make sure you pick a "determinate" or "semi determinate" variety -- that means that the plant will only grow to a certain size and is more suitable for container gardening. For a container, you can use a black plastic tub from the hardware store or re-use any plastic bucket or wooden bucket of at least 5 gallons -- put some gravel and holes in the bottom for drainage and buy good quality soil for your new plant. Container gardening is great because you can move the plant around to the areas that get the best light where you live -- if it's not doing so well on the patio, you can move it to the balcony (for example).

After buying plants for years, this year I am starting my own seedlings (fingers crossed!). I picked out 18 varieties of heirloom tomato seeds from TomatoFest (www.tomatofest.com) and I'm looking forward to sun drying some tomatoes, making my own tomato sauce for the winter, as well as yellow, white, green, purple, black, orange, red and striped tomatoes from cherries to 5-6 lb beefsteaks this year.

I'll let you know how the "Hawaiian Pineapple" variety turned out in a few months!

Jenn's keywords: tomatoes, gardening, organic produce

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User Comments:

Ed G. says:
The best way to preserve fresh tomatoes is also the simplest. Take whole, unpeeled tomatoes and put them on a baking sheet. Freeze them solid, then transfer them to plastic bags. The skins will slip right off as they... more »

Jenn A. says:
That's a great idea - it's better than scalding them to peel them! more »

Ed G. says:
Sorry I didn't see this in time, because the gardens are all planted. Mainly Early Girls and Better Boys, although I did get seven Sun Golds. Not a lot of attempts to use Heirloom varieties. We grew a Striped German... more »

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