The ABCs of the T-O-M-A-T-O

This Patio Tomato Is The Biggest We've Had This Season

It's probably a safe bet to say that tomatoes are the cornerstone of most home gardens. And when us novice gardeners go in search of tomato plants or seeds in the spring, there are hundreds of varieties to choose from at the garden center. This year, I tried four varieties: Patio, Big Boy, Marglobe, and Roma. The Romas have produced the most, but the Patio has done best in both quantity and quality. The past week, I've spent a lot of time picking ripe tomatoes off the four plants.

Last night on The Food Network HD, Alton Brown's Good Eats show focussed on this vegetable...errrr....fruit. That's right, tomatoes are actually fruit. And to that, homegrown tomatoes are infinitely better tasting than store-bought tomatoes. Why? Couple reasons. Mainly, the tomatoes you buy in a grocery store are not fully ripened to their full taste-potential. Sure, they look ripe, but they're not. Commercial tomatoes are picked while still green on the vine. If commercial farms waited to pick ripened tomatoes, the fruit would never last the long journey from field to grocery store. So they pick them unripe. And they pretty much stay that way until they get to our grocery cart. Why are they red? According to Brown, the tomatoes are put in an air-tight room and exposed to ethylene gas. The gas is suppose to restart the ripening process, but the best it can do is just turn the tomatoes red.

So we know homegrown tomatoes are much better than store-bought. Now, what can you do to get the most out of your garden 'maters? We've listed a couple things in previous blogs, i.e. pruning, watering, feeding. Another good idea is to grow basil next to your plants. A lot of different types of plants grow well next to each other because of their symbiotic relationships. In this case, the scent coming off a basil plant will ward off pests on your tomato plants.

Also, when you pick your tomaotes, DO NOT put them in the fridge. Storing tomatoes below 50 degrees will begin to destroy the flavor and texture of the tomatoes. Store them in a cool place away from direct sunlight. Me? I prefer storing them in my stomach.

"It's not a toooomah"

The Farmer Must Rest

After an early morning of gardening, it appears I was a little tuckered out on the couch while watching NASCAR practice sessions.

Our Little Bundle of Joy!!

He came into our kitchen at a quaint 2 lbs., 4 oz., 6 3/4 inches long. Our first cantaloupe fell off the vine this morning and is now resting comfortably on our kitchen countertop. It's funny to see the picture at the top of the blog and then see the fruit now. It didn't grow very big, but it is the same size as "organic" cantaloupes I saw in Safeway yesterday.

I worried at what point the cantaloupe would be ripe and ready to pick. Apparently the plant knew when it decided to break off the vine. And if you put your nose to the top of the fruit, you can smell the sweet melon scent.

Come tomorrow night after dinner, we're going to find out how successful our cantaloupe growing prowess really is when we cut it open and eat it.

A Proud Papa

UPDATE: We cut the cantaloupe on Friday and it was perfect.... ripe, juicy, and very tasty!!!

"Feed Me, Seymour!"

I finally got around to feeding all the plants today. The food I use is Miracle Gro's Tomato Food. Despite the name, it works for vegetable plants other than just tomatoes. When looking for vegetable food, the three important elements to look for are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Each nutrient serves a very important purpose. Nitrogen helps build green tissue in plants. This makes the plants grow stronger stems and leaves. It gives the plant leaves a dark green color. A lot of all-purpose plant foods are very high in nitrogen. That's great for other plants to grow all season. But we don't want vegetable plants with just big, green leaves. Phosphorus helps build strong root systems. So naturally, this is important when the plants are young and developing. Potassium is essential because it helps the plant develop fruits, flowers, and toughens it up against diseases and pests.

You Can Find This At Home Depot for $5

The Miracle-Gro tomato food ratio for Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium is 18-18-21. That is a very nice balance between the nutrients. So I use it all the time rather than going heavy on nitrogen and phosphorus early in the season and potassium late. Plus it's pretty cheap. Each box costs about $5 at Home Depot. I'll probably go through two boxes this year.



Watering Soil Level Gets The Water To The Roots Faster

I feed the plants every 10-14 days. It's pretty simple; I take a scoop of the food, dissolve it in a gallon of water, and spread it with my watering can. It's very important to water your plants at soil level at the base of the plants. Watering the leaves doesn't do much good. The water needs to get to the roots for the plants to fully utilize it. Also, I prefer to water in the morning for two reasons. One, during the hot summer the plants dry out fast and watering in the morning give them more of a chance to use as much water to keep cool and hydrated. Two, plants use the combo of water and sun to photosynthesize. Watering in the morning gives the plant the most opportunity to use as much water as possible while the sun is out. If you water at night, that's eight hours of the plant absorbing water with no sun.

So that's my take on feeding and watering. A little TLC and NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium) go a long way in having a healthy garden with big, tasty vegetables.

HOLY ROMOKRA!!!

There's a lot of pasta sauce and gumbo to be made!!!

I finally made it home after a couple more weeks on the McCain campaign trail. Mrs. Harlan did a fantastic job keeping the garden held together. But she said it needed some TLC from the farmer. So once I got my suitcase and camera out of the van, I went to work. First I picked all that I could find ripened on the branches and vines. And I found a lot. Today alone, I picked nine Cajun Delight okra, four Clemson Spineless okra, SIXTEEN Roma tomatoes (varying in size), 3 Marglobe tomatoes, and a Big Boy tomato.

And then I pulled out the Wusthof shears and went to work:
1) Trimmed all the dead leaves and branches from the Roma and Marglobe plants
2) Trimmed the dying leaves off both cucumber plants and the two okra plants
3)Snipped the numerous buds and small leaves from the basil plant branches
4)Cut a branch of rosemary for some red potato wedges at dinner
5)Cut a couple sage leaves off for dinner also.
6) Tied down the wire cone on the Patio tomato bush to a couple stones. The bush is so full of big, ripening tomatoes that the cone could no longer support the plant's weight and I had to get the cone upright again.
7)Pulled weeds between the pots.
8)Rotated the cantaloupe so the wet soil doesn't rot one side of the fruit.
9)Watered all the plants to cool them down in this oppressive heat. The leaves are wilting in the hot afternoons.

Getting rid of the dead leaves and branches should help reduce the amount of water the plants need each day.

I still have a lot to do tomorrow morning. Odds are there will be a couple more okra and tomatoes to be plucked. But the most important thing will be to feed the plants. It will be two weeks tomorrow since their last feeding. And with the plants getting so big, I'll need to decrease the time between feedings. It's getting really hot and humid now that August is just around the corner. Lots of water and maintenance will be key to keeping the garden from falling apart.

One more thing....the bell pepper plant is loaded with large peppers. Hopefully in the next week or so we'll start seeing the green peppers ripen to a rich red. Man, those will be sweet.

The Garden: July 20, 2008

The Vegetable Bin Is Filling Up...

It doesn't appear we'll have to worry about a salmonella outbreak anytime soon at Casa de Harlan. Today alone, Emily picked eight Roma tomatoes and two Patio tomatoes to go with three more okra and a couple wee strawberries.

No, they aren't the biggest or shapeliest looking tomatoes, but hopefully they'll taste better. Meanwhile, I'm gonna have to make another big plate of fried okra or an inaugural pot of gumbo. The Cajun Delight plant is out of control.

It also appears our little squirrel buddy decided not to wait for one tomato to ripen. But that's okay, we're happy to donate one to his cause. But we'll have to start putting out more peanuts to distract him.

They Grow Up So Fast

The heat and humidity of summer is helping everything grow faster and ripen. The small Roma tomatoes are changing colors more everyday. Just this morning, the Mrs. picked two Romas and yet another cucumber. Those cucumbers are becoming a daily harvest.

But the intriguing sight in the garden is the Ambrosia cantaloupe. When it first started to grow, it looked like a small watermelon. But as you can see, the skin is looking a lot like what we're use to seeing. I would say the fruit is about two-thirds the size of a typical cantaloupe you'd find at a grocery store. But who knows what commercial farms use to create the genetically perfect fruits and vegetables we find at the grocery store.

Got A Little Greedy...

I mentioned in my previous post about the importance of trimming back plants and not letting them overgrow. I've done a good job with the basil plant, but I seriously dropped the ball on my roma, marglobe, and big boy tomato plants. And because I didn't trim them back, too many branches grew bearing too many fruit. This means I have to water and feed the plant a lot more. And, we end with 50 small tomatoes rather than 20 good sized fruit. This week, I decided to cut a lot of the low hanging branches and pull off the small green tomaters. I'm really hoping they ripen off the vine.

So how do you properly trim the plant? Well, there are many differing theories. But here are a couple standard tips. Always cut off the budding parts called suckers. They grow in the middle of the "V" shape of branches.

Clip All The Suckers On The Plants

Also, it's been suggested to trim the first few branches just above the soil level. That helps prevent those lower branches from fungus from a wet ground and other pests looking to crawl onto the plant and cause harm.

As for our 'maters, I finally trimmed them up, but I'm worried I closed the barn door as the horse runs out in the field. Oh well, I think we will still get some great tomatoes with our not-so-great ones.

Just A Little Off The Top, Please

Snipping The Buds Helps The Rest Of The Plant Below

Ever hear the phrase, "Less is more."? Well that applies to gardening, too. Unfortunately, I haven't done a very good job of that this year with tomatoes, but I'll save that for another post this week. But one plant that needs pruning is basil. One way to get more out of your basil plant is to continually pick the leaves. The faster you pick, the faster it grows back. I guess it's like gray hair.

Other than picking leaves, you also need to snip off all the flower buds along with the top couple sets of young leaves on the stems. Doing this will keep the plant focussed on growing large and tasty basil leaves. And eventually, you can use those basil leaves for homemade pesto.

Seriously? What Could Grow In This Heat?

I see Cacti. Any Cucumbers?

Ever been to Arizona in July? Wow. Forget the, "It's a dry heat"argument. It's like sticking your head in the oven out here. So how in the world can anything grow in this arid climate? And with this heat, I'm guessing the growing and harvesting season happens a lot earlier in the year.

Well I found someone who seems to have found the right equation. Tomatoes, eggplant, corn, and......wait.....is that an artichoke? Oh man, I'm super envious. I would love to grow artichokes. Anyway, check out his blog...especially you folks living back in Nuevo Mexico. The Desert Garden

That Is Culinary Heaven, Right There

By the way, it's 75 and raining at home in Virginia. Very nice.

When The Farmer Is Away...

Fortunately for me, I have a trusty farmhand to help take care of the crops when I'm travelling for work. And today, Mrs. Harlan picked another Cajun Delight okra and two bell peppers. No, they're not red. But that's because she picked them a tad early. All bell peppers start off green and eventually ripen to another color...red, yellow, orange, purple, white, etc. They may not be as sweet as if they had matured to red, but they'll be good just the same. Plus, now the plant can focus on nourishing the other smaller peppers.


Compared to last year, just having any decent sized peppers this season is a major coup. A combo of no rain, extreme heat, and small pots last year created peppers downright awful. So to see two peppers this size on the Fourth of July is reason for fireworks.

Down Home Gardenin' to Cookin'

This year I wanted to grow a couple of unique plants. One was okra. Having Cajun French as part of my heritage, I've always had a taste for southern food. So I figured if I grew some okra, I could try my hand at homemade gumbo. But tonight, I decided to fry my first batch. With a little milk, cayenne pepper, and cornmeal, I tried my hand at fried okra. Although the oil was a bit too hot, I'd say the first go 'round was a success. But my Cajun relatives probably would say I have a lot to learn.