Growing Heritage Tomatoes
December 17th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed
What are Heritage Tomatoes?
A heritage or heirloom tomato is one of many old varieties from which seeds have been saved over the years and passed down from one generation to the next. Most tomatoes purchased in a grocery are hybrids. Hybrids have been bred to produce greater yields, uniformity, shipping durability and long shelf life - rather than flavor. Heritage tomatoes stand out first and foremost for their amazing flavors. They frequently have distinctive shapes, tastes and colors (purples, oranges, greens and yellows). Many of them are just as hardy and sturdy as hybrid varieties.
Why are Heritage Tomatoes So Highly Prized?
Heritage tomatoes are highly prized by chefs, and anyone who appreciate fine food the world over because they are generally grown organically, are valued for their health giving antioxidants, vitamins, and cancer preventing agents, as well as their delightful rainbow of colors and their magnificent flavor.
Where Can I Get Heirloom Heritage Tomatoes?
Heritage tomatoes are frequently sold at the farm gate where they’ve been vine ripened. If you’d prefer to grow your own heritage tomatoes look for a seed supplier who specializes in heirloom or heritage seeds. Organizations like Seeds of Diversity have members who collect and share many varieties of fruits and vegetables including heritage tomatoes. An internet search for heritage seed programs should turn up several suppliers.
To help you grow rich, juicy, flavor-packed tomatoes we highly recommend you grab a copy of the downloadable e-book “How To Grow Juicy Tasty Tomatoes“, written by Lucia Grimmer, a plant pathologist and professional adviser to the tomato industry.
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How To Grow Heirloom Tomatoes
September 24th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed
Tomato plants are naturally self pollinating and a general characteristic of self-pollinating plants is that they become genetically homozygous after many generations. Since they do not naturally outcross very often, seeds of a tomato will produce plants resembling the parents. Growing heirloom tomatoes was a natural practice long before it was given a name.
Early cultivars did not change much because of this property and were kept in a family or community for long periods of time. Heirloom tomato cultivars dating back over a hundred years are still grown today.
Most heirloom varieties are unique in size, shape or color. Some are black, dark purple, or red with black shoulders, many are green, some have green stripes or are rainbow colored or shaped like peppers. Our course there are orange and yellow heirloom tomatoes and everything in between. Some are cherry sized and some are over 1 kilogram (2 pounds).
Because heirloom tomatoes haven’t been ‘worked on’ by plant breeders, they don’t usually have much disease resistance. However, many diseased can be essentially prevented or delayed by mulching the soil surface to prevent disease spores in the soil splashing up and infecting the young tomato plants. Mulching plus fungicidal sprays mean that heirloom tomatoes can usually be successfully grown in all but very hot humid areas.
Since heirloom tomato varieties have become popular in the past few years there have been liberties taken with the use of this term for commercial purposes. If you want to grow heirloom tomatoes that have been passed down for several generations look for Family Heirloom Tomato seeds.
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Related Tags: family heirloom tomato, grow heritage tomatoes, heirloom variety tomatoes, heritage tomato seeds, heritage tomatoes
