By Karen Contreras
SDUN Columnist

It has been said, “There’s just two things that money can’t buy, and that’s true love and homegrown tomatoes.” With names like Shady Lady, Mortgage Lifter, Chocolate Cherry, Box Car Willie, Dinner Plate, Mule Team and Nebraska Wedding, it does appear that the tomato has indeed captured our hearts and imaginations as well as our appetites.

The tomato’s history is as complicated as its many colors and flavors. Known in France as the “pomme d’amour” or “love apple,” it is also celebrated as a popular non-lethal throwing weapon at mass protests and bad theatre. And although it is native to the Americas, the tomato has only been in our kitchens for 100 years or so, (because we thought it was poisonous) while Europeans have been scarfing them since the 1500’s. The fruit literally had to go “there and back” to become considered an important food item in the U.S.

There are hundreds of varieties of tomatoes today and they are definitely the plant of choice in our home gardens. They are relatively easy to grow but there are a couple of things to be aware of when planting tomatoes. Tomatoes can be planted from March through July and I’ve planted them again in early fall. If you plant early or late, choose varieties that have a short growing season such as Siberian Red (50 days), Glacier (55 days) or any “ultra early” variety. They won’t be as sweet as the mid- or late-season tomatoes, but they’ll taste better than anything you can get in a supermarket.

If you have limited space in your garden, or are trying your hand at container gardening, try planting “determinate” varieties such as Green Zebra, Manitoba and Black Sea Man, rather than “indeterminate” varieties. A determinate variety will stay short and bushy, while it’s not uncommon for indeterminate varieties to grow well over 6 feet tall.

Tomatoes love the heat, so if you can plant them in a sunny area up against a fence or wall, you’ll have lots of sweet fruit. If you plant tall varieties, be sure to trellis them early so that they do not take control of the garden. The largest tomato plant on record is a Sungold vine that reached 65 feet in length, perhaps inspiring that cult classic, “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes,” which was filmed in San Diego and voted the worst vegetable film in history.

When selecting plants at the nursery, choose vigorous plants that are rich green in color. Avoid buying plants that have yellowish foliage or are flowering prematurely. Plant seedlings as soon as possible after buying by digging a hole deep enough to bury the plant two to three inches deeper than it was growing in the pot. Roots will develop along the buried stem, giving your plant more support.

It’s important to grow your tomatoes in a different place each year to avoid diseases such as fusarium and verticillium wilt. These diseases are impossible to get out of your soil once you have them, but selecting wilt-resistant varieties will help. Look for “V & F” on the plant tags to choose resistant plants, and remember that those delicious heirlooms do not have disease resistance bred into them so they are harder to grow.

There are as many tricks to growing tomatoes as there are varieties, but I think the most important is to keep your soil evenly moist. Keep your plants fed with a balanced organic fertilizer, keep them mulched in the heat, and keep them harvested. Grandma’s trick of placing a fish head and the shells of two eggs at the foot of each plant may or may not inspire your tomatoes to produce, but the ritual will certainly add to the devotion you feel when growing your own tomatoes. Good gardening to you all!