Selecting the Right Tomato Plants
Selecting Tomatoes As far as tomato variety goes, your choices are endless. Your local nursery will stock tomato transplants that suit your climate. Choose dark green stocky plants with no blooms and no holes in the leaves. The ideal plant should be as wide as it is tall. Avoid the tall spindly plants. They are available in a myriad of sizes, shapes and colors. The key to a triumphant tomato garden is choosing the right type of plant.
Determinate (bush) vs. Indeterminate (vine) Determinate tomato plants are short and bushy. They are bred for their small size, and to ripen the majority or their fruit all at once. Most determinates do not need caging or staking, but some plants called vigorous determinates, could possibly need help keeping themselves off the soil. Dwarfs, however, do not need support and are idea for growing in containers. Miniatures are tiny plants with short stems and marble-size fruits that are usually grown for decoration rather than for consumption. In contrast, indeterminate tomatoes continue to grow until they are killed by frost. They do require support, and will produce earlier and greater fruit yields than determinates. Some say the taste better too. As long as the conditions are favorable, indeterminate plants will remain productive.
Resistance Tomatoes are susceptible to quite an assortment of diseases. Included are: bacterial spot, botrytis fruit rot, bacterial canker, bacterial wilt, fusarium wilt, mosaic, septoria leaf spot, curly top, tobacco mosaic, and early and late blights. Choosing disease-resistant plants is vital since many of these diseases cannot be treated. This is especially true in hot regions where humidity is high, which provides the perfect environment for many of these infections.
Tomato plant disease resistance is labeled with these abbreviations: N, nematodes; T, tobacco mosaic virus; V, verticillium wilt; A, alternaria (early) blight; As, alternaria stem canker; L, gray leaf spot; F, fusarium wilt, race 1; F2, fusarium wilt race 2.
Listed below are some of the best tomatoes and their resistance:
Beefsteak- Indeterminate; open-pollinated red beefsteak with meaty, faintly ribbed 1-pound fruits.
Better Boy- Indeterminate; red hybrid bearing large crops of 12-ounce fruits with fine flavor; good leaf cover; (VFNAs).
Big Beef- Red beef steak with meaty ten ounce fruits, exceptional disease resistance; All America Selections Winner; (VFF2AsLNT).
Brandywine- Widely perceived as the best tasting tomato available; no resistance; pink heirloom with 10 ounce fruit.
Caro Rich- Low acid, does well in cool temperature, orange five ounce fruit, high in Vit A.
Celebrity- Vigorous determinate; red hybrid with heavy yields of 7-ounce fruits, outstanding disease resistance; All-America Selections Winner; (VFF2AsNLT).
Early Girl- Indeterminate; red hybrid with high yields of rich-flavored 4-ounce fruits; early fruit production; garden favorite; (V).
Jetstar- Indeterminate; red hybrid with high yields of firm, meaty, low-acid 8 ounce fruits; does best when staked and pruned.
Marglobe- Vigorous determinate; red with sweet 6-ounce fruits; susceptible to cracking; (F).
Rutgers- (F); red hybrid with enormous yield of 9 ounce mildly flavored fruit.
Michael McAfee has almost 40 years of gardening experience, and has written a very practicle guide to growing tomatoes. For a short time you can get a free copy by visiting Your Tomato Garden. Click here to get your own unique version of this article with free reprint rights.
