The supermarkets really got into selling heirloom varieties last year. When I heard about it I thought "that's good - more people will become familiar with these great-tasting tomatoes!" Unfortunately, when I checked them out, many were soft, overly ripe and, EXPENSIVE - some over $4.00 a pound! Too bad. Well, I guess that's why they developed hybrids - they travel better, have a thicker skin and have better shelf life in general. Too bad most in the store taste like plastic.
If you haven't tried road-side, locally grown heirloom tomatoes, you're missing out! There really is a difference!
3 comments:
Last summer I was one of many people who experienced blight on many of my tomatoes....what steps do I need to take for the upcoming season to aviod this? A new, fresh plot of land for my tomato garden?? Other veggies did not succmb to the blight, brocoli, zuchini, kale, onions were all fine..Is there a type of blight that only tomatoes get??
thank you.
Hi buffalogal. You're not alone – so many of us last year had their tomato plants attacked by the yellow blight. Most likely it was due to the rainy, cool season and yes it only hits the tomato plants. I heard of one local organic farm that had 1000 tomato plants wiped out! Changing your garden location is good as the fungus can survive in the soil till the next season I'm told. You can spray with a fungicide that contains chlorothalonil (like Ortho Multi-Purpose Fungicide) but you have to start when the plants are young – once they've got it, they've got it. If they do get the fungus, the only thing you can do is pick off the diseased leaves/branches (and hopefully that's not the whole plant).
Let's hope for a better season this year! Happy growing.
PS: Here's a good article on the subject: http://www.ppdl.purdue.edu/PPDL/expert/tomato-blight.html
Here's an article that contradicts others I've read saying the the tomato blight does NOT live in the soil through the winter. Oh well, believe what you will I guess: http://northeastipm.org/newsandreports/2009fall/Fall09_LateBlight.html
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