- Author: Gayle Nelson
UC Master Gardener Denise Levine has these alluring remarks about the virtues of the tomatoes in our upcoming tomato plant sale on April 14.
Red, yellow, purple or green? Huge, small, plum or round? Some might say there are too many choices, but you can decide next Saturday, April 14, when the U. C. Master Gardeners of Napa County hold their annual tomato sale.
Bringing you our old and new favorites, this sale is our primary fundraiser for the workshops and other educational opportunities that we provide to the Napa Valley community. This year the sale features 28 different varieties, so prepare your planting beds, bring a box and get ready to grow summer tomatoes.
If you believe any tomato worth its salt is red and round, you have many choices. Early Girl is a dependable favorite with four- to six-ounce fruits, perfect for BLTs or sliced on a burger. Better Boy can produce huge red beefsteak tomatoes, some weighing as much as one pound. Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red produces two-inch fruits weighing six to ten ounces, with good acidity and firm, juicy flesh. It is reported to have “earthy nuances” and is a new addition to our sale.
Bloody Butcher is ready to pick in eight weeks. Its fruits are deep red to purplish-black, three to four ounces each, borne in clusters of five to nine tomatoes. Crimson Carmello offers abundant round, red tomatoes for cutting in wedges or slices and enjoying cooked or raw. In my garden, Crimson Carmello vines were pest- and disease-free and produced until frost. Boxcar Willie is an all-purpose six- to ten-ounce tomato with smooth, reddish-orange skin. Rutgers 250, developed at Rutgers University and considered a classic Jersey tomato, rounds out the sale's selection of red slicers.
For pasta lovers, Big Mama supplies enormous, meaty, plum-shaped fruits that cook quickly into thick, creamy sauces. The fruits are easy to peel and have few seeds, so making sauce with them is a breeze. For traditional Italian paste tomatoes, choose between Roma and Super San Marzano, both heirlooms prized for cooking and for sun drying. Patio Paste can be grown in containers on decks or balconies, yet the small two- to three-inch fruits still deliver full tomato flavor. Gladiator completes this year's sauce-tomato selection. It is resistant to blossom-end rot and yields eight-ounce fruits for sauce and soup. Home canners and picklers know that plum tomatoes fit easily in canning jars. Pickling is a good use for early, under-ripe plum tomatoes and any stragglers that fail to ripen before frost.
Ready to branch out into the rainbow world of tomatoes? Black Beauty is sometimes described as the world's darkest tomato, with blue-black skin and deep red flesh. Black Krim is a deep reddish-brown tomato with a flavor described as smoky. It does very well in Napa Valley. Chocolate Stripes bears beautiful striped fruit in mahogany and deep green. The fruits have rich, earthy flavor and some weigh up to one pound. Green Zebra is a sweeter tomato with a sharp finish, delicious eaten straight off the vine or in salads.
Kellogg's Breakfast is a beautiful yellow-gold tomato, beefsteak size, with a sweet, tangy flavor. It was a favorite in my garden last year. Most yellow tomatoes are lower in acid than most red varieties, so consider Kellogg's Breakfast if you are looking for a mellow tomato. Jaune Flammé has many fans on the Master Gardener tomato committee. A French heirloom that bears beautiful deep orange fruit on long tresses, Jaune Flamme blends sweet and tart tastes for a multi-use three- to four-ounce tomato. Summer of Love yields hefty, multi-colored red, green and yellow fruit with great flavor. It's a descendant of Berkeley Tie Dye, but it ripens a little earlier.
Finally, choose from six varieties of cherry tomatoes. Barry's Crazy Cherry boasts huge clusters of oval, pale-yellow cherry tomatoes. Black Cherry delivers classic tomato taste in a little purplish-black package, and Super Sweet 100s are cherry-sized, scarlet-red and borne on long clusters. Super Sweet 100 is a reliable producer in a variety of climates and more tolerant of drought and heat than other varieties. Plant this tomato near your favorite garden chair or near a path you often trod, and I'll bet much of the crop will never make it to the kitchen. Cherry tomatoes seem made to be eaten on site, at least at my house.
Remember Rapunzel's tresses? Rapunzel cherry tomatoes produce bright red cherry tomatoes on extra-long, cascading tresses with up to 40 tomatoes per tress. Should you eat them, or decorate your summer table with their beauty? That's a tough question. And, finally, consider Blush, a bright yellow tomato with a red gleam and a sweet, fruity flavor.
Did I remember to say bring a box? See you next Saturday.
Tomato Plant Sale: U. C. Master Gardeners of Napa County will hold their sixth annual Tomato Plant Sale on Saturday, April 14, from 9 a.m. until sold out, at 1710 Soscol Avenue, Napa. Find more than 4,000 tomato starts in 28 varieties, from popular heirlooms to new hybrids. These Master Gardener-grown seedlings include varieties suitable for eating and cooking, plus cherry tomatoes of many colors, and early, mid- and late-season varieties. A team of tomato experts will be on hand to answer questions.
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. U. C. Master Gardeners of Napa County ( http://ucanr.edu/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
Are you looking for new tomato varieties to grow this year? There are several factors to consider in making your choice.
What is the microclimate in your garden? Do you live in one of the cooler areas of Napa Valley, such as American Canyon or Carneros? How much sun does your garden get? Do you want to grow tomatoes for cooking and preserving, or do you primarily want tomatoes to eat fresh? Is your garden small, with room for only one or two tomato plants?
Consider also whether you want to grow hybrid or heirloom tomatoes. Many hybrids have been bred for better yield or disease resistance. Check the nursery label for the letters V, F, N, T or A. If present, these symbols indicate that a variety is resistant to verticillium wilt, fusarium wilt, nematodes, tobacco mosaic virus or alternaria stem canker.
Heirloom and open-pollinated tomatoes are another option. These tomatoes offer a wide spectrum of tastes, colors, textures and shapes and tend to be more expensive at the grocery store. Some heirlooms are less productive than hybrids and more susceptible to disease, but many gardeners appreciate their unusual characteristics and the fact that their seeds can be saved and replanted the following year. In contrast, hybrid seeds will not produce tomato plants with the same characteristics as the mother plant.
If your climate is cool, try early-bearing varieties such as ‘Bloody Butcher', ‘Early Girl', ‘Crimson Carmello' and ‘Stupice'. These early tomatoes make good garden companions for the larger varieties, which produce fruit later. ‘Bloody Butcher' produces three- to four-inch fruits with rich flavor and a deep red color. ‘Crimson Carmello' is a tasty, extremely productive and disease-resistant hybrid from France. ‘Stupice', a Czech heirloom, is a cold-tolerant tomato rated highly for flavor.
Cherry tomatoes also tend to ripen early. They are ideal for salads and snacking, and children love them. Some more unusual open-pollinated varieties include ‘Black Cherry', ‘Blush', ‘Isis Candy' and ‘Blue Berries'. ‘Black Cherry' has the rich complex flavor that makes black tomatoes so popular. ‘Blush', is an elongated, plump cherry, is large enough to slice but small enough to eat out of hand. Last year it won the Napa County Master Gardeners' taste test for cherry tomatoes. ‘Isis Candy' is a productive bi-color cherry tomato with a spectacular yellow-gold cat's-eye starburst on the blossom end. It has a rich, fruity taste but is not sugary sweet. ‘Blue Berries' produces clusters of one- to two-ounce dark-skinned tomatoes that are high in antioxidants.
If you're a fan of large, beefy red tomatoes, consider heirlooms such as ‘Beefsteak', ‘Mortgage Lifter' and ‘Boxcar Willie'. ‘Genuwine', a new hybrid, is a cross between ‘Brandywine' and ‘Costoluto Genovese'. It is higher yielding and more productive than either parent, and with an estimated 70 days to maturity, it should produce earlier than most other beefsteaks.
Are you looking for a paste tomato for sauces and preserving? Some choice varieties include ‘Roma', ‘San Marzano', ‘Opalka' and ‘Big Mama'. The first three are heirlooms. ‘Roma' is the earliest producer and the best suited for container growing. ‘Big Mama' is a prolific hybrid.
Maybe you would like to grow tomatoes in a variety of colors. Sliced on a platter, they make a beautiful presentation. ‘Cherokee Purple' is an old favorite among the larger black tomatoes. ‘Paul Robeson' is another heirloom black type with medium-sized fruit. It won the Napa County Master Gardeners' taste test last year for standard-sized tomatoes.
One of my new dark favorites is ‘Chocolate Stripes'. This delicious, open-pollinated tomato has a mahogany skin with distinctive olive-green striping. The fruit can reach six inches in diameter.
Beyond black tomatoes, ‘Marvel Stripe' produces large yellow-orange fruits streaked with ruby red. Weighing up to two pounds, these tomatoes have a sweet, fruity taste.
Whichever varieties you choose, wait to plant until the danger of frost is past and the soil is sufficiently warm. Soil temperatures below 57ºF delay growth and leave the plants more susceptible to insect damage and disease.
Workshops: Napa County Master Gardeners will hold a workshop on “Growing Tomatoes” on Sunday, April 10, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., at the Yountville Community Center, 6516 Washington Street, Yountville. The workshop will focus on techniques for a successful harvest, including soil temperature requirements; tomato types; care and fertilizing; support choices; and integrated pest management. Register with the Parks and Recreation Department at
707-944-8712 or on its web site.
The “Growing Tomatoes” workshop will repeat on Saturday, April 16, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., at the University of California Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Napa. On-line registration (credit card only); Mail-in/Walk-in registration (cash or check only).
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. U. C. Master Gardeners of Napa County ( http://ucanr.edu/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
David Layland's favorite for the past two seasons has been ‘Bloody Butcher'. At three to four ounces, the tomatoes are relatively small but pack a lot of rich flavor. Best of all, they mature in about 55 days and are still producing up to the first frost.
Jill Rae enjoys many of the cherry tomato varieties. She likes to combine ‘Black Cherry', ‘Miller's Cove Currant', ‘Snow White' and ‘Sungold' cherry tomatoes in a salad with basil. The combination of colors makes for an attractive dish and the flavors mix well. Jill also likes to grow ‘Big Mama' for tomato sauce. Jane Callier counts ‘Big Mama' as a favorite also. Her bush was prolific last year and the tomatoes were sweet.
Pat Hitchcock enjoys growing tomatoes of different colors. In addition to ‘Sungold', her favorites include ‘Amana Orange'. In her experience, this tomato is sweet, late maturing, of good size and relatively resistant to disease. Steve Rae says that ‘Marvel Stripe' is not only great tasting but colorful. Orange and yellow outside, this large tomato displays internal streaks of red, yellow and orange.
Several Master Gardeners sing the praises of ‘Cherokee Purple'. One of the so-called “black” varieties, this heirloom has a deep purplish-red hue. It produces relatively late in the season, but it has such a rich, complex taste that it is worth the wait. Others say that if they could only grow one tomato, it would be ‘Early Girl', an early-to-ripen tomato that is great for salads and sandwiches. It produces until the first frost and is disease resistant.
If you are looking for new tomato varieties to try in your garden, ask yourself a few questions. Do you want tomatoes for cooking and preserving, or primarily for eating fresh? Do you have a large garden, a small one or just enough space on a patio to grow your plants in containers?
Depending on how you answered these questions, you might want to know whether a tomato variety is determinate or indeterminate. Determinate tomatoes grow to a certain size, generally between three and five feet, and bear most of their fruit within a four- to six-week period. Determinate tomatoes are often chosen for canning since the yield comes within a shorter time period.
Indeterminate tomatoes grow and bear fruit all summer, until the arrival of frost. These types need support, such as trellises, stakes or cages, to keep them from sprawling on the ground, where the fruit tends to rot.
Also consider the plant's susceptibility to disease. Many hybrid varieties have been bred to resist diseases that often plague tomatoes. Look on plant labels or in catalog descriptions for the letters V,F,N,Tand A. If present, these letters indicate that the variety is resistant to verticilliumwilt, fusariumwilt, nematodes, tobacco mosaic virus or alternaria stem canker.
The popular heirloom tomatoes offer a wide spectrum of choices in taste, color, texture and shape, and they are expensive at the grocery store. While heirlooms are sometimes not as productive as hybrids and tend to be more susceptible to disease, many home gardeners appreciate their unique characteristics. What's more, their seed can be saved for replanting next year. In contrast, saved hybrid seeds will not produce identical plants the following year.
Whichever varieties you choose, be sure to wait until the danger of frost is past and the soil is sufficiently warm to plant your tomatoes. Soil temperatures below 57ºF delay growth and leave the plants more susceptible to insect damage and disease. Tomatoes planted later usually catch up with those planted in cold soil. I am waiting until May 1 to plant mine.
Tomato Plant Sale: Napa County Master Gardeners will hold their second annual “Tomato Plant Sale and Education Day” on Saturday, April 19, in the South Oxbow parking lot on First Street in Napa. The sale will be held from 9:00 a.m. until sold out. All the seedlings have been started from seed and grown by Napa County Master Gardeners. More than 50 varieties of heirloom and hybrid tomato plants will be available. Master Gardeners will staff information tables on tomato support structures, common tomato pests and diseases, composting, good bug/bad bug displays and a mobile help desk. For a list of available tomato varieties, visit http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa or call the Help Desk (hours below).
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will conduct a workshop on “The Small Home Vineyard” on Saturday, March 29, from 9:30 am to 11:30 am, and from 12:30 pm to 2:30 pm. at the Yountville Community Center, 6516 Washington Street, Yountville. The morning session will focus on bud break to harvest. Learn the basics of managing a small vineyard including grape physiology, canopy management, vine nutrition, fertilization, irrigation and cover crop. The afternoon session will focus on identifying and managing the most common vineyard pests, especially powdery mildew. To register,call the Parks & Recreation Department at 707-944-8712 or visit its web site.
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
Napa County Master Gardeners welcome the public to visit their demonstration garden at Connolly Ranch on Thursdays, from 10:00 a.m. until noon, except the last Thursday of the month. Connolly Ranch is at 3141 Browns Valley Road at Thompson Avenue in Napa. Enter on Thompson Avenue.
There is nothing like the taste of home-grown tomatoes. If you have never grown them, you need to know a few things to ensure your success.
Most importantly, wait to plant until the danger of frost is past and the soil is sufficiently warm. I usually wait until May 1 to plant mine. Prior to planting, be sure to “harden off” the plants by placing them outside for about a week. Put them in a sheltered spot initially, and then gradually expose them to garden conditions. If frost threatens, bring the plants indoors.
Tomatoes need full sun. Choose stocky transplants six to eight inches tall with healthy, green leaves. The seedlings should not be root bound. Water the plants a few hours before planting, and water the planting area prior to planting.Set the plants in the soil so that all but the top two sets of leaves are below ground. Pinch off the lower leaves and avoid handling the stem. New roots will emerge from the buried stem.
If the plants are in biodegradable pots, break up the pots slightly so the roots can easily grow into the soil. Bury peat or paper pots completely to avoid water wicking away from the roots. If your seedlings are in plastic pots, gently remove the plants and loosen the roots. Press the soil firmly around the plant, then water thoroughly.
Tomato plants need plenty of room to grow. If planting in a pot, choose a large one. If you are planting in the ground or in raised beds, space plants 24 to 30 inches apart, assuming the tomatoes will be staked or caged. If the plants are not staked, the tomatoes will need to be farther apart.
Most tomatoes benefit from some type of support. Cages or stakes keep the tomatoes off the ground, allow maximum utilization of garden space, and make harvest easier. I prefer cages and use the collapsible type that I can store neatly over the winter. Place the cages around the tomatoes soon after planting to avoid damaging the plants. Insert two strong stakes to support the cage when the plant becomes heavy with fruit. Check the ultimate height of the tomato variety you are planting to determine the height of the cage required. The openings in the cage should be large enough for hand harvesting.
Some gardeners stake their tomato plants. For this method, select stakes six feet long and one and one-half to two inches wide. Drive them one foot into the soil approximately four to six inches from the plant. As the plants grow, pull the stems toward the stakes and loosely tie them to the stakes at intervals of 10 to 12 inches. Use strips of cloth or some other flexible material. Prune the tomato plants to a few main stems to keep the plants from becoming too heavy.
Tomatoes can also be planted along a fence or large trellis and trained upward as they grow.
Tomatoes need regular watering. They dislike extreme fluctuation in soil moisture, which promotes fruit cracking and blossom end rot. Keep the area weeded. Weeds harbor pests and compete with your tomatoes for nutrients and water. A three-to four-inch layer of mulch will discourage weeds and help retain soil moisture.
Healthy tomato transplants should not need fertilizing until the plants are flowering and fruit are forming. At that point, feed them with nitrogen every four to six weeks, following package instructions. Place the fertilizer around the growing plants in shallow grooves or on the soil surface. Scratch it in and water thoroughly.
For more advice on growing tomatoes, visit the Master Gardener Tomato Plant Sale and Education Day on April 20. You’ll find demonstrations on planting tomatoes, displays on supporting and pruning tomatoes, and information on preserving your harvest.
Tomato Plant Sale: Napa County Master Gardeners are hosting a tomato plant sale on Saturday, April 20, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Choose from 44 varieties that grow well in Napa County. Come early for best selection. Tomato experts will be on hand to answer questions. Location: Oxbow Public Market, south parking lot, 644 First Street, Napa. Plan your purchases with this Quick Guide to Tomato Varieties.
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners (http://cenapa.ucdavis.edu) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions?