We are so excited about tomatoes this year…. Why?!
Because we are continuing to grow them – but this year we want to share our tomato growing with you!
We have some amazing varieties to share that are unique and we also have the good old variety’s that we use in our kitchen with recipes. Because let’s face it tomatoes bring people together, in the garden, in the kitchen and around the dinner table.
There are some exciting + unique varieties in our nursery this year – I’m going to give you a sneak peek of 2 with you:
Italian Keepers
These are the tomatoes you grow to keep you going through winter. What?! Yes, that’s correct; Italian Keepers. This variety is planted early summer, a few weeks later the then rest but treated much the same. When it comes to harvesting, leave these ones on the vine. When you pull the others (at the end of the season), it’s time to harvest these babies! Hang them up in a cool, dark place and simply harvest as you need during winter.
They have a slightly tougher skin than the summer harvested tomatoes but we can guarantee, during winter, these are so full of flavour and better than anything you could buy. Ready for winter soups, salads or however you like. An organic home-grown tomato in winter, yes, it is possible and totally worth it!
Snow White Cherry
A new variety for this year is our Snow-White Cherry climbing tomatoes. With high yields, this tomato won’t need too much space or care compared to some others. It’s a cream coloured tomato that has a less acidic flavour and is sweeter. Isn’t that what we want in a cherry tomato??
Of course, in our nursery, we will still have available all the ‘Good old tomatoes’ we grow and love;
• Roma
• Grosse Lisse
• Oxheart
• Black Russian
• Brandy Wine
• Climbing Tigerella
• Colossal yellow
• Black and Red
• Galapagos Yellow Cherry… plus more!
A few tips to growing, big juicy tomatoes!
- Plant your tomatoes after any chance of frost, us Melbournians like to say after Melbourne Cup! Even though the Melbourne Cup is in November, it does not mean you can’t be seeding them up earlier in a hothouse or protected area.
- Did you know that all the little fine hairs on tomatoes can turn into roots? By planting them a little deeper (one to two inches) this will help them grow more roots and become more stable strong plants!
- Prune your tomatoes! Not the cherry or bush variety as they like being free, but taking away the suckers which form in between your main stems allows more airflow and less energy going to the less fruit productive stems.
We will be showing this in a video during the season so nothing to worry about! - Tomatoes need good compost and plenty of potassium, that will help put on fruit, not just leafy growth. We recommend a tomato compost.
- To prevent disease, it’s always a good idea to rotate your tomato growing area every few years.
Be sure to keep an eye on our social pages, as we will be showcasing different varieties of tomatoes and also releasing the dates for the Tomato seedling sale!
Happy Tomato Growing!
From the Edible Forest team
