Best tomatoes for cooler climates

Do you live in an area of the world that has a very short warm weather season? You gave up growing tomatoes because last time they never ripened because of autumn's first frost got to the plants before the tomatoes could turn red? Well, there is a solution.

You must first assess how long your average warm weather lasts. If it is only for 2 months then find a tomato variety that will ripen in less than 60 days. You have a choice of shopping for flowering tomato plants at your local nursery and plant them once your day time temperature reaches the 70's and you no longer have frosts at night or start your own plants from seed 6 weeks prior to that, indoors.

Check the seed package or the tag on the plant for the maturity time. You should look for one with a maturity time of 60 or less. Size of the tomato fruit is not an indicator of maturity time. Some cherry tomato varieties can take up to 180 days to mature.

Here are some very short (less than 60 days) season tomato plants:

• Fourth of July - 49 days
• Early Girl - 50 days
• Tumbler - 50 days
• Honeybunch - 59 days

Selling tomato plants for profit

When was the last time you shopped for tomato plants for your garden? If you had not started your plants from seed then you could be paying as much as $12 a plant for one in a 5 gallon container.

Have you thought about growing tomato plants and then selling them? If you have a greenhouse or even a small cold frame you could grow and sell young tomato plants to gardeners in your neighborhood.

Find a location or locations to sell your plants. Ask the owners of vacant lots if you can set up a mobile plant stand. Sell your plants to co-workers where you work. Look for local craft fairs or school run sales and ask about renting a booth. Park your car or truck near another roadside vendor and take advantage of their customer traffic.

Price your plants way below what you can find in stores and plant sales. You have no overhead costs to worry about. People want bargains and you can provide that.

Happy growing and selling.

Growing tomatoes - video tips

Before we get to the video below, I would like to advise you that not all tips in the video are advisable. For one, the gardener wants you to use cow manure from the bag not from the stable or barn. What he should have said was use composted manure not fresh manure. The soil he planted in was less than desirable. I would have filled the entire hole with compost and then well water the plant. Since the plant already has manure there is no need for added chemical fertilizer. Now for the video:

The cause of powery mildew on tomato plants

You have probably seen that dusty white powder all over your tomato plants and wondered what it was. It is powdery mildew, a type of fungus. If left unchecked it will kill your tomato plants and the tomatoes on the vine.

So what is the cause of this nasty destroying fungus? It is something so simple that most people don't realize they are causing it. The cause is watering your tomato plants too late in the day and they are remaining wet during the night. That prolonged wetness is a perfect environment for the powdery mildew to proliferate. To prevent powdery mildew, do not water your plants in the afternoon, water in the morning so that the plants have a chance to dry out.

Another thing to keep in mind is the fact that your tomato plants should not be overly bushy with leaves. You need to remove excess leaves and branches to allow air and light to circulate around and through your tomato plants and the tomatoes. Proper staking of your plants also helps.

Short growing season tomatoes

If you live in an area where the last frost is in late April you should be looking for short season tomatoes. The will ripen under 70 days from planting as a plant in your garden. Longer season varieties will take too long to ripen and will go to a green mush if your cool weather arrives too early for the tomatoes to ripen on the vine.

Typically it is the smaller the tomato fruit the shorter it takes for the tomato to develop and ripen. Cherry and Roma tomatoes are among the short season group. Some tomato breeders are now developing even shorter season varieties.

How to control tomato hornworms

Tomato hornworms are a large caterpillar that eats many parts of the tomato plant. Handpicking is one of the best methods of control. The large size of these pests allow them to rapidly defoliate tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, and peppers. They are often seen feeding on the green fruit. You might notice large areas of damage on the top of the plant first. Also look to the ground under the plant for the feces. The feces resemble little brown pellets.

They also emit a clicking sound so listen to your tomato crop as well as look around. The hornworm is also large. They average around the size of an adult human finger.

Are tomatoes poisonous?

The answer to that question is yes and no. The plant is a member of the nightshade family of plants that includes eggplant, peppers and the deadly nightshade. It is because of that relationship with the nightshade the green part of the plant can be toxic in varying degrees.

There have been accounts of cattle getting into tomato fields and eating large quantities of the green plant. The result was that some of the cattle died. The plant contains an alkaloid which in small amounts will not produce any harmful effects. It is the amount ingested that will produce any harmful toxic levels.

The unripened, green tomato fruit that has been fried, pickled or otherwise processed in some way has no harmful effects what so ever.

After 200+ years of commercial cultivation there are still people that believe the tomato fruit is poisonous.

When to harvest your tomatoes

Tomatoes taste the best when they are left on the plant to ripen. They are ready for harvesting when the tomato pulls off from the vine easily. If you have to tug, pull or twist the fruit off of the plant then the tomato is not ripe.

When it is close to the end of the growing season, pinch off any tomato flowers on the plant so that the developing fruit will have the energy of the plant to speed up the ripening process.

Just before the first frost at the end of the growing season you can pick all of the remaining unripened tomatoes from the plants and ripen them indoors.

Commercial tomato growers harvest the tomatoes when they are still green and the tomatoes ripen while being transported to market.

Introduction to tomatoes

The tomato is the fruit of the tomato plant. The plants can become very large with the right growing conditions. Tomato plants over 6 foot tall are not that uncommon. The commercial varieties of tomato plants are low to the ground to be harvested easily by machine.

The tomato plant is a warm weather vegetable. It needs at least 6 hours or more of direct sunlight each day to produce tomatoes on its vines. It is a long season plant and requires at least 60 days to produce tomatoes when the conditions are right.

There are a wide variety of tomato varieties ranging from the large beefmaster to the small cherry tomato.