Free Vegetable Gardening by Charlie Nardozzi

purple fruit colors. Fruits mature 65 days after transplant.

    ‘Tree Tomato' ( Cyphomandra betacea-amarillo ): Although technically in the tomato family, this tropical plant is as unfamiliar as the uncle you rarely see. It's a small perennial tree native to the Peruvian Andes that produces tons of hen's-egg-sized fruits that range from yellow to red when mature. The flavor isn't like a tomato but more like a tropical fruit.

    ‘Tree Tomato' plants need 18 months of warm weather to mature a crop, so unless you have a greenhouse, growing this variety is limited to gardeners who live in zone 10 areas. (Flip to the appendix to find out more about zones.)

    Growing Tomatoes with Ease
    After you decide on and purchase your tomato varieties, it's time to get them growing. In this section, I explain how to start your tomato plants; plant, fertilize, and maintain them; handle insects, diseases, and weather-related issues; and harvest them for your enjoyment.
    Jump-starting tomatoes
    Tomatoes require such a long season to mature that they're best bought as transplants through the mail or from local garden centers. You also can start them from seed indoors 4 to 6 weeks before your last frost date (I cover starting seeds indoors in Chapter 13; see the appendix for average frost dates in your area). Either way, you simply want to have a stocky, 6- to 10-inch tall, dark-green-leafed, flowerless transplant ready to go into the garden after all danger of frost has passed.
    For gardeners in subtropical areas, such as southern Florida, you can plant two crops of tomatoes: one in the spring and another in the fall. Start seedlings indoors in January and February for planting outside in March and harvesting in May and June. For a fall harvest, start your seeds in July, or buy transplants for a late August or September planting. By late fall or winter, you'll be enjoying ripe tomato fruits while colder areas are eating snow.
    Tomatoes love to be patted. If you're starting your tomatoes from seed at home, keep the plants short and stocky by brushing your hands over the tops of the seedlings ten strokes daily starting when they're 2 ½ inches tall. Research has shown that this brushing strengthens the stem and causes the seedling to stay short and squat, suffering less transplant shock when planted in your garden.
    Tomatoes (and their roots in particular) love heat. To give tomatoes a jump-start, preheat the garden soil by covering it with dark plastic mulch. Lay the plastic sheet over the garden bed, pull it tight, cover the edges with soil, and let the plastic heat the soil for 2 weeks before transplanting. While you're waiting for the soil to heat up, harden off your transplants (in other words, gradually make them accustomed to the outdoor growing environment) with the guidelines in Chapter 13.
    Planting, trellising, and pruning
    Tomatoes are one of the most forgiving vegetables to grow. But to get the best crop, you need to plant properly, keep the fruits off the ground by trellising, and even prune the most vigorous bushes to keep them inbounds. I discuss some simple guidelines in the following sections.
    Planting
    Here are the basic steps for planting tomato plants:

1. Dig a hole twice the diameter and depth of the tomato root ball.

2. Place a small handful of all-purpose organic fertilizer or compost into the hole.

3. Plant the tomato transplant up to its first set of leaves.

Tomatoes have a unique ability to form roots all along their stems. So even if you have a tall, leggy, lanky seedling, just bury the stem either vertically or horizontally in the ground, leaving at least two sets of leaves poking out (see Figure 4-2).

    If you're using plastic mulch, cut (or burn with a propane torch) a 6-inch- diameter hole in the plastic, and plant your tomato transplant directly through the plastic mulch using the same technique that I walk you through earlier.
    Research has shown that red plastic mulch increases tomato yields by 20 percent.