How To Grow Tomatoes

Cherekee purple tomatoes

How To Grow Tomatoes:

We grow several varieties of tomatoes each year. In this post I will try to tell you how to grow all tomatoes in general, and then about the different types of tomatoes, and why we grow several types. If you do grow several types of tomatoes, they need to be separated so that they won’t scross pollinate.

We always start our tomato plants inside. This way you have a longer growing season. Tomatoes do need to be staked so they have support as they grow. There are several different ways to stake tomatoes. You can build round wire cages for your tomato plants. This is what we do in our large garden.

I stake the tomato plants by putting up a steak and tying the plant to it with an old panty hose or soft piece of cloth.

When you plant the tomato plants, you need to plant it covering the stem with soil up to the true leaves. There are pseudo leaves at the bottom of the stem; these should be covered with soil. I plant mine in pots at my house. Tomatoes love the sun, and need plenty of sunlight. Tomato plants produce suckers and vines and can use all their energy on that rather than growing the fruit. If your plant is doing this, you can just pinch off the suckers so that the plant concentrates on growing tomatoes instead.

Types Of Tomatoes:

Eating Tomatoes:

The most common type of tomato that people want to grow is a Beef Steak or Better Boy tomato. These are your typical large, red tomatoes for sandwiches. We also grow a similar tomato called a Cherekee Purple for sandwiches. These are my favorite variety. They are naturally salty, sweet, and really juicy. They grow quite large as well. These are all just eating tomatoes.  If you have never tried a Cherekee Purple, I highly recommend them. YUMMY!!

Yellow Tomatoes:

These are less acidic, and are really sweet. Some people use them on sandwiches since they are about the same size. They are also really good juicing tomatoes. We use them to can tomato juice.

Grape Tomatoes:

These are a little larger than cherry tomatoes and are a little sweeter. These are used in salads. We also have used the extras to can.

Cherry Tomatoes:

There are 2 types of cherry tomatoes, red and yellow. We plant Aunt Lois’s yellow cherry tomatoes. They are absolutely delicious. They are so sweet that they almost taste like a grape. These are so good, that they seriously don’t make it inside people just eat them as they walk by. If you are considering growing cherry tomatoes, I highly recommend this variety!! YUMMY!!  You can freeze your extra cherry tomatoes and make cherry tarts all year long.

Paste Tomatoes:

These are oval shaped tomatoes that are used for canning. Since we can a lot of tomato products, this is the main type of tomato that we grow. The two types that have done the best for us are the Roma tomatoes and Amish paste tomatoes.

Amish paste tomatoes are large tomatoes. The plant does not produce a lot of tomatoes, but they are so large that they are worth the effort. Also, they are great tomatoes for paste.

Roma tomatoes produce for a long period of time. They are smaller, but really numerous. We plant both varieties.

You can can tomato sauce, tomato paste, and whole tomatoes using these tomatoes. They are not as juicy, so they aren’t great tomatoes to eat on a sandwich, really they are used for canning. We also make our Rotel, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce and all other tomato products with these tomatoes. I love canning tomato products. It is actually my favorite item to can. You only have to use a boiling water bath for tomatoes because it is an acidic vegetable. I will try to post a lot of my recipes for tomato products for you before canning time. I also love it because these tomatoes are organic, fresh and full of nutrients for my kids with no chemicals. That is really important to me.

Long Timer Tomatoes:

This is a type of tomato that will keep producing much longer than other types of tomatoes. The taste is pretty good. It is not my favorite, but it is still delicious, plus it is nice to have fresh, red tomatoes late in the season.

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