Heirloom Tomatoes-Taste the Rainbow!

Once again, it’s time to start putting out your tomato plants.  If you’re hoping for a crop with the old-fashioned full-bodied tomato flavor like the ones your grandparents grew then your best bet would be to plant heirloom tomatoes.  So what are heirloom tomatoes?  And which ones grow best here in Tallahassee? In general tomatoes fall into two categories; hybrid and open-pollinated.

Hybrids are the first generation offspring of two distinct parents. A specific “mother” flower is pollinated by specific “father” pollen. The resulting seed produces a tomato plant and fruit that is different than either parent plant. This involves a lot of work and partly accounts for the high cost of hybrid seed.  Hybrid tomatoes have been bred for uniformity, disease resistance and the ability to withstand mechanical harvesting, packing and shipping. Unfortunately this usually comes at the cost of flavor. The biggest disadvantage of hybrids in my opinion is that they don’t come true from seed. This means you have to buy new seed every year. If you try to plant seed saved from your hybrid fruit, you will end up with an entirely different and unpredictable plant.

Open-pollinated tomatoes are varieties that have been genetically stabilized by someone patiently selecting desirable fruit and growing out generations of tomatoes. This usually takes several years, but once a variety is stabilized it will come true from seed.  That means the plants and their fruit will be the same from year to year.

Heirlooms are open-pollinated varieties that have been passed down through several generations of a family or community because of their valued characteristics. These varieties are dynamic, that is they mutate and adapt to your environment as you save seed from year to year.  Therefore the ‘Cherokee Purple’ your neighbor has been growing from year to year is likely to be better adapted to Tallahassee weather than the ‘Cherokee Purple’ seeds you order from a seed farm in Iowa.  Ask your nursery if it gets its plants from local growers who save seed.

Heirlooms come in a myriad of colors, sizes and flavors.  So what varieties of heirlooms should you plant?  I like to plant a few tried and true varieties that I have saved and grow every year, along with a few new ones to experiment with.  I am looking for tomatoes that not only taste great, but are productive and reliable enough to earn their space in my garden.

Here are a few of my top tomatoes:

• ‘Jaune Flamme’ is an old French heirloom bearing abundant, early crops of 4oz fruits with bright orange skin. Its excellent flavor is a perfect blend of sweet and tart! They are delicious fresh in salads or dried. This “yellow flame” has been the first to ripen in my garden for the last two years.

• ‘Speckled Roman’ has gorgeous long red fruits with jagged orange and yellow stripes. These paste tomatoes produce heavy yields of 4-5oz fruit with meaty flesh and few seeds. They have a great “tomato” taste and are great for processing and fresh eating. They also store well once they are picked.

• ‘Matt’s Wild Cherry’ these small red cherry tomatoes are packed with an intense, sweet and full flavor. Originally from Mexico, these large plants produce copious quantities all season. Great for fresh snacking in the garden and in salads or pasta.

• ‘Paul Robeson’ is a beautiful, “black” beefsteak tomato that is really a dusty, dark red. This Russian heirloom has a luscious, earthy flavor with a good sweet/acid balance. I’ve been very impressed with its productivity.

And these two I am excited to trial in my garden this year:

• ‘Mandarin Cross’ a Japanese variety that produces bright orange 6-10oz round fruits with a mild sweetness.

• ‘Costoluto Genovese’ an old Italian heirloom with very large, stunning tomato with deep ribbing that is known for its intensely flavorful deep red flesh.

Tomato Season Is Here!

It may seem early, but it’s time to start planting tomatoes if you want to harvest early fruit. Unlike peppers and eggplant, tomatoes will tolerate cool evenings as long as they are protected from frost. Peppers and eggplants don’t like to be planted out until the evening temperatures are consistently above 50 degrees. Planting too early can stunt their growth. Although tomatoes are much more cold tolerant, I recommend protecting them if the temperature is predicted to drop below 35 degrees. The small, young plants can be easily protected by placing an upside down pot, or halved plastic milk carton over the plant.

Homegrown tastes best!

Tomatoes seem to be a common entry plant for beginner vegetable gardeners. Why are tomatoes so seductive? The varieties of flavors, colors, shapes and sizes that are available to grow at home greatly surpass what’s available in your grocery store. The quality of flavor is also worlds above store-bought tomatoes. I am always resentful if I have to purchase a store bought tomato in winter. I usually avoid it, as even the expensive, heirloom varieties sold in stores cannot compare in flavor to a delicious, sun warmed tomato plucked at its’ peak of ripeness.

Tomatoes are also fairly easy to grow-even for beginners, and you get a lot of bang for your buck. Choosing the right variety is important for first-time success. Unfortunately, I see a lot of beginners choosing the large, beefsteak varieties to try for their first tomato plant. This is usually a mistake. I always recommend beginners plant the cherry-type tomatoes their first year. The larger the fruit, the more difficult it is to grow. Cherry tomatoes are more vigorous, pest-resistant, drought tolerant and shade tolerant than larger tomatoes. Some of my favorite cherry varieties are Matt’s Wild Cherry, Sungold, Risenstraube and Black Cherry. Slightly larger tomatoes like my all-time favorite, Jaune Flamme, are also easier to grow.

‘Jaune Flamme’ Tomato

As usual, I will be planting some of my tried and true favorites this year like Jaune Flamme, Eva Purple Ball, Sungold and my newest favorite, Mandarin Cross. This year, however, I will be saving space for some exceptional new varieties I am really excited to try. In December I purchased seed from Brad Gates at Wild Boar Farms in Napa, CA. He has carefully cultivated these unique varieties through crossing and selecting plants from different heirloom varieties. He selects for production, disease resistance, striking looks and “outrageous” flavor.  His tomatoes definitely look different, but they have been getting rave reviews across the country. They all have interesting names like Dragon’s Eye, Red Boar, and Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye, to match their striking looks. The AAA Sweet Solano looks particularly mouth watering to me! We will only have a limited amount of these tomatoes plants grown from the seed I purchased, as it is still limited and expensive. However, all of his varieties are open-pollinated. This means you can save seed from your crop this year to replant, knowing that you’ll get a plant next year with the same attributes.  I will be planting one of every variety we are trying, and I’d love to hear how they do for other Tallahassee growers.

Happy planting to you all and may you soon be swimming in a sea of tomatoes!

Autumn and Winter Berries Attract Flocks of Birds

The bright red berries of Yaupon olly provide abundant food for birds and are useful for holiday decorating. Photo by Lilly Anderson-Messec

Bird feeding is an enjoyable hobby; it gives us many hours of enjoyment watching birds up close just outside the window. However, I get even more satisfaction when I observe a bird dining on berries or seeds of trees and shrubs that we have planted in our yard. At our last home, we planted an American beautyberry shrub outside our bedroom window. Each autumn it produced many bright purple berries. One December morning, my daughter and I watched a hermit thrush, a male and a female cardinal and a whitethroated sparrow all feeding at once in this beautiful shrub. That was a colorful sight I will always remember.

Yaupon holly is another favorite of mine. We often see large flocks of robins and cedar waxwings feasting on its shiny translucent red berries. Weeping yaupon is a cultivated form of yaupon that makes a pretty accent plant in the landscape. Savannah and East Palatka hollies are also stunning this time of year. Plant hollies in sun for best fruit production.

The red fruit of the flowering dogwood is among the first to be eaten by both birds and squirrels. Remember to plant your dogwood in good, well-drained soil in some shade. They become stressed when planted in full sun.

Many years ago, we planted a native highbush blueberry just outside our home office window. Every summer, we enjoy watching cardinals and mockingbirds selecting ripe berries; I am happy to share the delicious bounty with them.

There are many other great berry producing native plants that birds love – magnolia, wax myrtle, cherry laurel, and viburnum to name just a few. Cabbage palms, bluestem palmettos and saw palmettos also produce fruit for birds and other wildlife. In early October, my husband Jody and I walked along a short trail at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge that was naturally lined with cabbage palms loaded with ripe fruit. We saw at least 8 catbirds, lots of boat-tailed grackles, a red-bellied woodpecker and a thrush feasting on the berries and a yellowthroat and other birds in and amongst the thicket of cedar, yaupon and palm.

A word of caution: choose your non-native fruiting plants carefully. Many, like the Chinese tallow tree, may be beautiful and attract a multitude of birds. Unfortunately, the birds spread the seeds and the trees take hold outside of your yard in natural areas of forest and wetland crowding out Florida's native species and upsetting the balance of nature.