The tomato is one of our most important garden vegetables. It is prepared in a greater variety of ways than any other vegetable we know. With many home gardeners, it is the most popular vegetable. Tomato As The Love Apple It was not always so popular. Known in French as “pomme d’ amour” or love … Read more
Tomatoes are a robust crop that not only makes for an attractive plant but provides a tasty controversy. However, whether you’re in the fruit (berry) or vegetable camp, one thing everyone can agree on is that tomato plants tend to attract infestations. While not as deadly as tomato worms, Aphids can be a frustrating problem … Read more
The tomato requires a long warm sea sun to mature its fruit. Consequently, in the northern states, its early life must be lived “under glass.” That is to say, the seed must be sown about March 15 in a greenhouse or where conditions are similar. Maintaining A Night Temperature In the small greenhouse opening out … Read more
It may have been the year I stood over chili sauce for hours, boiling it down to the proper consistency. Or maybe the year I tried to make tomato juice out of good old solid ‘Beefsteaks.’ But somewhere along my many tomato years, I decided it would be wise to tailor tomatoes to my family’s … Read more
An old-fashioned name for the tomato is love apple. When used by gardeners today, however, it is much more probable that they are referring to a fruit that provides “food for the soul” instead of the stomach. Delicious as it appears, the love apple is certainly not edible, for it consists almost entirely of tough … Read more
When plant nutrients are in great excess or extreme deficiency, the symptoms on the foliage or in some other plant part generally reveal themselves to the naked eye. Such plants look “sick.” However, growth and productivity are considerably reduced before definite symptoms are noticed. Be cautious, we suggest, before placing any blame for the condition. … Read more
You may be an “old hand” at raising tomatoes or an “eager beaver” who has set out his first plants this year. In either case, however, you will likely discover the bane of all tomato-growers— “blossom-drop.” Usually, the delicate tomato cluster cannot stand a night temperature under 58° degrees Fahrenheit, and it needs warm, sunny … Read more
When the tomato was first introduced into cultivation from South America, it was grown only as an ornamental in European and North American gardens under the name love apple. Belonging to the nightshade family and having several poisonous relatives, the fruit was long regarded with grave suspicion. But, some unbelievers must have eaten one without … Read more
Would you like to pick the first tomatoes from your plants 1 to 3 weeks earlier than your neighbor? Red, ripe tomatoes are meatier, firmer, larger, better colored, and better tasting? And many of them absolutely seedless? All you need do is spray the tomato flowers with a hormone blossom-set solution using an ordinary sprayer. … Read more
I wonder if most of us would consider tomatoes such good eating if they ripened white instead of red? There’s something about color in vegetables and fruits that attract appetite: the luscious scarlet of tomatoes, the crimson of raspberries and strawberries, the purple glow of the concord grapes and the eggplant, the blush of pink … Read more