Epic Tomatoes: How to Select and Grow the Best Varieties of All Time

420 Pages·2015·40.15 MB·English

by  Lehoullier

DEDICATION
To my wife and best friend, Susan — for her unwavering love, support, and
encouragement. To my dear daughters, Sara and Caitlin — now growing their own
tomatoes and on their own life adventures. I am so proud of you all.
Contents
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Origins of Today’s Tomato
Chapter 2: Anatomy of a Tomato
Chapter 3: Planning and Planting
Chapter 4: Growing, Maintenance, and Care
Chapter 5: Harvest Celebration
Chapter 6: Saving for the Future
Chapter 7: Breed Your Own Tomatoes
Chapter 8: Q&A
Chapter 9: Troubleshooting Diseases, Pests, and Other Problems
250 Recommended Tomatoes
Appendix
Resources and Sources
Glossary
Metric Conversion Chart
Acknowledgments
More Great Vegetable Gardening Books from Storey
Copyright
Share Your Experience!
Preface
This book has been a long time coming. Tomatoes, or at least gardens, have played a
significant role in my life for many years. One of my first recollections is of carrying a
watering can around in a neighbor’s driveway at the tender age of two. I spent many
weekend days at a local park riding on my father’s shoulders as he lifted me up to smell
the tree blossoms. At other times, he walked me through the flower beds, pointing out the
vividly blooming dahlias, zinnias, and marigolds.
My grandfather Walter, an avid and creative gardener, delighted me with tours of his
backyard plot, which was full of sweet peas, strawberries, and, of course, tomatoes. In
fact, the first I sampled were the succulent, red fruits of his garden, bursting with flavor.
Little did I know it at the time, but that revelation would set me on a lifelong journey, one
that will last as long as I can plant a seedling.
A Garden Obsession Grows
Life intervened between those very early years in the gardens of my loved ones and the
first of my own creation. Yet, once again, the association of gardening with family, love,
and wonder arose. The spring following our marriage, Susan and I rented a nearby
community plot set aside for graduate students and embarked on creating our first garden.
Filled with flowers, herbs, and vegetables, tended to as our young daughter Sara slept in
her stroller, it was a great success. Most of the plants we grew were from starts purchased
at the local garden center. Hence our vegetables were not at all uncommon — Bell Boy
peppers and Better Boy tomatoes, for example. But we grew them ourselves, they tasted
wonderful, and we learned a lot through the experience.
Through the years, we gardened in New Hampshire, Seattle, and suburban
Philadelphia, in addition to our current location in Raleigh. We perused the varieties in
local gardening centers and learned each year a few things that helped and other things
that didn’t. However, pretty quickly I started to grow bored with the fruits of our labors. It
was clear, even early on, that people garden for many reasons. Some aim for the biggest
vegetables, some the earliest, and others for the highest yielding or the tastiest, no matter
what the specific type of crop. I realized within the first few years of gardening that
uniqueness, variety, historical relevance, and flavor are the most important criteria for me.
Perhaps it was my tendency to take a scientific approach to my hobbies, treating them as
projects, but, clearly, purchasing a six-pack of Better Boy tomatoes or a packet of green
Blue Lake bush beans just wouldn’t suffice.
Little did I know that gardening was already becoming something of an obsession.
After deciding that the nursery center offerings left me wanting, my attention turned to
seed catalogs, which meant learning how to successfully start all sorts of seeds. At that
time, I was also a subscriber to a few good gardening magazines, and they pointed to a
wonderfully diverse selection of seed companies to try to greatly expand my gardening
experience. It turned out that the mid-1980s was a perfect time to catch the serious
gardening bug. Along with the standby companies such as Burpee and Parks, smaller,
more experimental companies were popping into view, such as Johnny’s, Seeds Blum, and
Gleckler. The range of colors, sizes, shapes, and flavors grew exponentially if you were
willing and able to start your own seedlings. But even when considering seeds from seed
companies, constraints remained in terms of variety. Most companies focused on hybrid
varieties, and all companies had a need to be profitable and therefore ensure that their
selections were commercially viable.
Enter the Heirlooms
At about the same time that I was making the switch from nursery-purchased transplants
to self-started seedlings, I read a magazine article about the Seed Savers Exchange (SSE),
which enticed me to join. That significant decision revolutionized my gardening efforts.
Each of my major criteria — historical significance, uniqueness, variety, and flavor —
could be satisfied through my involvement with the SSE. I joined in 1986, and today the
relevance of the organization and the impact on what we grow has never been clearer.
Switching from mostly hybrids to mostly heirlooms felt a bit risky. If one were to
take the words of many of the catalogs as written, anyone who didn’t grow mostly or
exclusively hybrid varieties was doomed to gardens of diseased or dead plants with
disappointing yields. I sensed an interesting challenge and opportunity for some research,
so I set about growing some of the most highly regarded hybrid tomatoes alongside an
even larger selection of non-hybrid and heirloom varieties that sounded attractive to me.