By Cindy Watter, UC Master Gardener of Napa County
The crown jewel of summer's edible garden is the tomato. It really is jewel-like, with so many brilliant hues. It has just as many flavors, too. Whether you crave the sugar-sweet pop of a tiny cherry tomato or the meaty, rich succulence of a fat beefsteak tomato, there is a variety to suit every taste.
Master Gardeners are always present to help you with your selection and give advice about successful tomato growing. See the link to reach us below.
The Master Gardeners ask for customer feedback every year. Which tomatoes did well for you? Which varieties were the tastiest? We use this feedback to decide which seeds to plant for the following year's sale. Visit our Facebook page and tell us all about them. https://www.facebook.com/NapaMG
Or send a photo to our Instagram page. https://www.instagram.com/ucmastergardenersnapaco/
Sun Gold is on the way to becoming the most popular tomato of all time. Its taste is a perfect balance of sweet and tart, and its deep yellow color with a hint of orange is attractive in the salad bowl, if it ever gets there. Most people eat this cherry tomato straight off the bush. It is resistant to pests, too.
Bodacious is a perfect name for a new Burpee variety described as "gorgeous, prolific and disease resistant." It is red, round and large—10 ounces and up—with "heirloom aroma" and an excellent balance of sweet and tart flavors. This is the perfect tomato for your sandwich.
Another first timer for the sale is Gardener's Delight, and it is. This bright red cherry tomato is a German heirloom, sweet and prolific. It will bear fruit all summer long.
It is tempting to plant your tomatoes the minute you take them home, especially if it is a sunny day, but be careful. Tomatoes need warm soil, and Napa can have cold nights well into spring. Remember that your plant has spent its life in a greenhouse. Before planting, put your seedlings outside for a few hours each day to get them used to outdoor light and temperatures.
Plant them when the soil is at least 60°F. Pick a place that gets sun for at least six hours a day. Whether you plant your tomatoes in a container, in a raised bed or in the ground, the soil should be moist to a depth of one foot. You want your tomato seedling to spread its roots and form a good base. Adding compost will improve soil texture, so the plant can easily access water and nutrients through its roots. As a result, you won't need to water as often.
Napa County Master Gardener Jill Pahl suggests planting the tomato slightly sideways, with only the top third of the plant above ground. Every single hair on the tomato stem will form a root if the stem is buried, and that will produce a stronger plant. Remove any flowers before planting. You want the energy to go into forming roots, not fruits, right now.
Mulch around the tomato plant to retain soil moisture. Some gardeners grow peppers and basil alongside tomatoes. Their leaves can shelter the tomatoes and keep them from getting scorched in a heat wave.
Napa County Master Gardener Rich Bruhns plants dozens of tomatoes in containers every year, and his yield is legendary. He makes sure his containers are at least 18" or more deep, uses good potting soil with some nutrients in it and gets new soil each year. he also waters by drip. The size of the container, the bigger the better, and consistent watering is very important when growing in containers. A light potting mix is important for drainage but the plant needs some nutrient too, but not too much. Keep in mind what is in the pot is all the plant has access to get all they need to grow good tomatoes. Once he has his set-up ready, he plants the tomato plant, waters and waits.
Tomatoes do need some nutrients; just follow fertilizer package directions and don't overdo it. If you are worried about deficiencies in your soil, send a soil sample to a lab for an analysis or do a home test kit yourself. The UC Masters Gardener office has a list of suitable labs and home kit are available at local nurseries and garden centers.
Avoid planting tomatoes in the same plot you used last year. When you rotate crops, you discourage diseases and parasites from getting established in your soil. Crop rotation also keeps plants from depriving soil of the same nutrients every year. Consider planting fava beans next fall to restore nitrogen to the soil and to keep your soil loose. Soil gets compacted when left bare.
Tomato plants need support. Put a frame or tomato cage around them the same day you plant them. Don't wait until they are falling over. Determinate tomatoes won't get any bigger after they set flowers. Indeterminate varieties keep growing and producing all summer and into the fall, and the vines will get quite large.
I have used the same Eiffel tower-shaped support for years. You can also make a support with thick dowels and gardener's tape, or even old rags tied to sticks. You can be creative here.
When flowers appear, you can shake them gently to aid pollination. I first heard about this technique a couple of years ago, and it worked. Bonus: it costs nothing.
We are looking at another dry summer. It is time to be miserly with water. Although tomatoes need more water when young, as they get established, they need less. Master Gardener Pat Hitchcock suggests slow, deep irrigation, with as much as a week between irrigation runs.
“I stop watering completely late in summer to save on water,” says Hitchcock. By then the plants have set all the fruits they can ripen by autumn anyway.
Nothing is as delicious as a freshly picked tomato warm from the sun. Enjoy your tomato plants and contact us for help with your tomato garden questions.
Got Garden Questions? Contact our Help Desk. The team is working remotely so please submit your questions through our diagnosis form, sending any photos to mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org or leave a detailed message at 707- 253-4143. A Master Gardener will get back to you by phone or email.
For more information visit https://napamg.ucanr.edu or find us on Facebook or Instagram, UC Master Gardeners of Napa
By Cindy Watter, UC Master Gardener of Napa County
The Solanaceae, or nightshade family, is a large one. Just as our own families can include the kindly grandma as well as the femme fatale, nightshade plants embrace favorite edibles such as potatoes, peppers, eggplants and tomatoes, while also claiming toxic plants such as tobacco, brugmansia, belladonna and jimson weed.
The. 2,700 Solanaceae species have diverse habits, but they all produce solanine, an alkaloid toxin. In most foods, the solanine is present in such small quantity that it is harmless.
Let us dispose of the second, more sinister, group first. These plants are attractive in the landscape and useful in attracting pollinators, but you don't want to eat them. None of these toxic plants tastes good, so you would have to have a powerful thrill-seeking urge to consume them.
Even so, emergency rooms are familiar with jimson weed patients, who find the hallucinogenic plant in the wild. These unfortunate folks usually live to learn their lesson: leave foraging to the experts.
The name "nightshade" sounds dramatic, but some believe that the term arose because some nightshade flowers are particularly fragrant at night and some of the plants don't mind the shade.
The other nightshades, the edibles, are easy to grow. The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), brought to Europe from Mexico, was initially considered inedible because of its relationship to the deadly nightshade. When people finally realized that tomatoes were safe and tasty and not just ornamental, cultivation took off, and the tomato became synonymous with Mediterranean cooking. Most of the solanine is in the leaves and stems anyway. The tomato is botanically a fruit: it develops from a fertilized flower and has seeds inside.
Tomatoes can be grown from seed, but it is easier to buy starts. Keep seedlings indoors until at least April. If the weather remains cold, you might have to wait until May or even June to plant them. The soil should be at least 60°F where you intend to plant, and the area should get lots of sun. All-day sun is ideal.
Plant seedlings deeply, so the lowest leaves are just above the soil surface. Rootlets will shoot out from the stem and form a strong base. This rooting also increases the plant's access to water and nutrients. If your soil contains a lot of compost, you will not need other amendments, although aged chicken manure and nitrogen are sometimes helpful.
Water your newly planted tomato seedlings deeply and keep the roots moist. Install supports, such as a cage, stake or trellis, when you plant to avoid disturbing the roots later. A support will keep the vine from sprawling on the ground and possibly rotting.
You can control most tomato problems, apart from gophers, by regular watering. Occasionally you may spot a large green caterpillar on the stems or leaves. That creature is a hornworm; remove it by hand.
Tomato growers enjoy friendly competition, and they love to share tips. One tip I learned last year is that gently shaking the plant when it's flowering will help spread the pollen from the stamen to the pistil, thus improving pollination and fruiting.
Bell peppers (Capsicum annuum) are a sweet pepper that can be eaten when it's underripe, or green. However, a fully ripe red pepper contains more nutrients, with more vitamin C than an orange. Wait to plant pepper seedlings outdoors until nighttime temperatures are above 55°F.
Peppers do well in containers, or you can space them 1-1/2 to 2 feet apart in rows. The warmer the weather during the growing season, the more flavorful the peppers will be. You can use row covers to keep pests out; organic bait will control slugs and snails. However, the least toxic snail bait is a jar lid full of beer. The slugs drown in it.
Eggplant (Solanum melogena) is a particularly beautiful plant. Like the tomato and the pepper, the eggplant is a fruit. Its flowers are lilac colored, and its leaves are dark green. I have seen eggplants used to great effect as part of a landscape treatment. Again, resist setting out seedlings until frost season is over. They like warm weather. Plant them three feet apart.
You can grow lots of small eggplants, or you can pinch off some flowers to encourage larger fruits. The eggplant benefits from fertilizer such as aged chicken manure or worm castings.
I sometimes wonder what the Europeans ate before they raided Montezuma's garden. The potato (Solanum tuberosum) is a staple of the European diet, yet it originated in the Andes.
To grow potatoes, cut chunks from a seed potato, making sure there is an "eye" (sprout) on each chunk. Supermarket potatoes may have been treated with a sprouting inhibitor, so it's best to start with real seed potatoes from a nursery.
As soon as you can put a shovel in the soil, you can plant potatoes. Plant them in rows in loose soil amended with plenty of compost. If you use fertilizer, don't let it touch the potatoes.
Pile a few inches of loose dirt above the seed potato. Leafy stems will emerge. When the greens are eight inches tall, bury all but four inches in loose soil, straw or shredded leaves. This process, known as hilling, creates more room for new potatoes to develop. Keep building the mound as the potato leaves grow, leaving about four inches of greens exposed. When the vines flower, you can stop hilling. Potatoes need to grow in darkness, so if the ground is disturbed and you see a potato, cover it up. Light will turn the potato green, and the green part is toxic.
The nightshade family produces some of our favorite garden edibles. Colorful tomatoes, peppers and eggplants are beautiful as well as useful. As for potatoes, it's fun to dig them out of their little hills, which add variety to your vegetable bed.
Food Growing Forum: Second Sunday of the month through November. Sunday, April 11, 3 pm to 4 pm: “Tomatoes, Peppers and Eggplants.” Register to get Zoom link: https://bit.ly/3lC3qs8
Workshop: UC Master Gardeners will lead a workshop on “Growing Tasty Tomatoes” on Saturday, March 27, from 10 a.m. to noon.” Register to get Zoom link:
Napa Library Talks: First Thursday of each month. Thursday, April 1: “Gardening on a Shoestring.” Register to get Zoom link: https://bit.ly/3rn3MF3
Got Garden Questions? Contact our Help Desk. The team is working remotely so please submit your questions through our diagnosis form, sending any photos to mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org or leave a detailed message at 707- 253-4143. A Master Gardener will get back to you by phone or email.
For more information visit http://napamg.ucanr.edu or find us on Facebook or Instagram, UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.