Beginner Gardeners, Start With Hybrids!

I was worried when he said he was planting that tomato in a pot on his patio.  Growing vegetables in containers is supposed to be easy but I haven't had much success with it, myself.  I tried to warn him.  "But. But. Tomatoes need so much water!  And containers in general need so much water!  Are you sure?"  In reality, I should have known better than to give an Heirloom Brandywine to somebody who's never had a garden before, that has a nearly fully shaded yard, the one sunny spot a piece of concrete.   Brandywine tomatoes are humongous.  Big tomatoes need lots of water!  And this one was started from seed, late.  Half assed taken care of.  It didn't stand a chance.

Last year, like usual, I sowed way more tomato seeds than I needed.  We'd originally planned to have a plant sale to raise money for Forest Park Community Garden but as it turned out, we didn't have enough places to sell everything we'd grown and before we knew it, it was past time for kitchen gardens to be planted.  Desperate, not ready to compost the few I had left, I convinced my office mate to take one of the spindly leftover Brandywines.  Between the squirrels and his toddler thinking they were balls, I believe he only got two tomatoes the entire season.  It didn't produce very many to start with.  I still feel responsible that his first gardening experience wasn't life altering like mine was.  It got me thinking that, for new gardeners, rather than starting them out with Heirloom varieties like I did in the case of the spindly Heirloom Brandywine, hybrids might be the way to go, for three reasons.

1. They're prolific.  As a new gardener it can be pretty devastating to coddle a plant all season only to harvest a few tomatoes.  Hybrids are bred to be much more prolific than Heirlooms.  When you grow an Heirloom tomato, you go in knowing that whatever fruit you get will probably be amazing, but you probably won't get very many. Hybrids still taste good and they are consistent, heavy producers.
2. They're disease resistant.  Aside from watering, new gardeners, especially ones committed to organic gardening, are pretty clueless about how to prevent or treat disease.  And at least in my experience, Heirlooms seem more susceptible to them.  Hybrids are bred to resist the most common diseases effecting that particular plant variety. 
3. They're easy to find.  Although Heirloom varieties are popping up more in big box stores and I've even found some at my local grocery store over the past 2 years, hybrids are everywhere.  

As a beginning gardener, especially a tomato gardener, (nearly all of them are!) the focus ought to be on finding a good sunny spot, getting in the habit of regular and appropriate watering, proper staking and all that stuff.  A good friend of mine always told me that successes build on each other.  That is particularly true with gardening.  My first year, I bought whatever was sold at my local big box store.  And my garden was so successful that I wanted to expand it, explore new varieties, try out these Heirlooms I'd read tasted so amazing.  By that time I had enough experience under my belt that I felt confident I could take on these sometimes harder to grow plants.  I'm pretty sure that, had I started gardening with Heirlooms I would have been so discouraged by their production and my lack of knowledge of how to control pests and diseases organically that I may not have ever gardened again.  I grow mostly Heirlooms now but I always have at least one hybrid tomato because I know that guarantees me tomatoes in case all the Heirlooms fail to produce or die from disease.

This year my office mate has agreed to give tomato growing another shot.  Not only that, I've recruited two new coworkers willing to try gardening.  They're all growing in containers. I'm planning to give them each one Sungold Cherry Tomato plant and one New Girl.  Both these hybrid tomatoes should be reliable, easy to grow and prolific, even in containers.   I want them to love gardening this year, not to stress over it.  I want them to learn and marvel and feel gratified.  If my plan works, they will make the same natural progression towards those old delicious Heirloom varieties many of us experienced gardeners have.

I know the hardcore gardeners will likely gasp over me openly endorsing hybrids here, but I have given this a lot of thought.  My goal is to grow new gardeners, not one-year-gardeners.  And I believe that starting with hybrids increases the chance that a person will continue gardening beyond that first, difficult year.

As a new gardener, did you start with hybrids or Heirlooms?  Either way, what was your experience?

Tomato Contest: Winner!

On Saturday I entered the Show Me Your Tomatoes contest hosted by this awesome Tapas restaurant called Cafe Ba Ba Reeba. I'd first read about the contest on Chicago Garden and since I had what I thought was the ugliest tomato (one of the contest categories) in town growing in my backyard, I decided to enter. And since there were two tickets to Las Vegas being awarded for the Tastiest Tomato, I thought I'd be crazy not to enter that, too. I've got 18 tomato plants growing in my garden for God's sake! I bought some from our community garden, some from Chicago Tomato Fest plant sale and a few from Jewel grocery because they sold organic heirlooms again this year and, well, they were right there while I was shopping. I had no choice!

Big Ugly is a Brandywine tomato grown organically by Forest Park Community Garden for their plant sale. I didn't do anything special to this particular plant and if you've grown Heirloom Brandywine before, you know they have a tendency to get pretty mutated. But, the flavor! Holy smokes they are amazing. In the days leading up to the contest I had a lot of fun showing the picture of Big Ugly to people and watching them grimace. My husband was so creeped out by it that he would only agree to go to the contest with me if I "covered that thing up so that he didn't have to look at it again."

I'd planned to enter a Heirloom Mortgage Lifter (I'm growing it for the first time this year) for the tastiest because I think the flavor is really interesting. But, Saturday morning when I went out to harvest the Mortgage, I was horrified to find that there was not a single ripe one that didn't have some flaw. Thank you, squirrels! But, I did find a couple of nice looking Heirloom Cherokee Purple (pictured above) tomatoes. I'm growing them for the first time this year, too, but the problem was that I had not tasted the Cherokee Purple myself. The first ones were literally just ripe on Saturday morning. So, while I'd read that these tomatoes are one of the most delicious heirlooms you can grow, I had no personal evidence of that.

Cafe Ba Ba Reeba has hosted the Show Me Your Tomatoes contest for four years. We found all the staff extremely warm and friendly and we'll definitely be going back there for dinner soon. The judges were Lyle Allen, Executive Director of Chicago Green Market, WGN's Mr. Fix-it, Lou Manfredini and Doug Tomek, owner of Uncle Dougie's. All very nice gentlemen and as I watched them taste the tomatoes, I could tell that they really love and savor tomatoes, just like me.

Just before the judging started, I was admiring all the entries in the various categories (Ugliest, Famous, Biggest, Heaviest and Tastiest) when a lady asked from her table "which one is yours". When I pointed out Big Ugly, she said "yep, that's the winner!" I was pretty confident.

Then, after I thought the entry deadline had already passed, a lady walked by me with a really big crazy looking tomato and I groaned "oh boy, I may have some competition."

Let me just cut to the chase - they did not call my name for ugliest tomato. This late entry won that prize and dinner for four at Cafe Ba Ba Reeba. I was pretty disappointed and to be honest, just wishing they'd hurry up and finish so we could go home (it was really cold on Saturday and we'd been sitting there freezing for a couple of hours by then.)

When they called my name for tastiest tomato, it was like I'd won the lottery. I screamed and my husband jumped up and high-five'd me. As I walked toward the front to claim my prize (round trip tickets for 2 to Las Vegas including 3 nights/4 days hotel stay and dinner for two at Cafe Ba Ba Reeba, Las Vegas), the judges and the restaurant owner seemed really happy. "I would like to introduce the 2009 Tomato Queen." They put a leaf tiara on me and snapped a couple of pictures of me and the chef. I really never dreamed I'd win for tastiest. In my head I'm still a novice gardener - I'm lucky to get anything to grow much less grow something that is tastier than like 15 other tomatoes probably grown by much more experienced gardeners. It was the happiest my husband and I have been in quite a while. And it's been a rough few months so we really needed this.

A word of advice about tomato contests - know the variety you are entering! The girl who won for Heaviest Tomato was asked what variety it was by the crowd and she said "I have no idea." I didn't think too much of it until my husband told me later that, after I won and somebody in the crowd asked me the variety; they were all "well at least she knows what kind it is!"

I don't think I've ever won any contest where skill was involved. It's an amazing feeling, especially considering it involved a tomato, the most perfect food on the planet.

Flawless Brandywine Takes The Bronze At Garden Olympics

Until the Garden Olympics, I thought I was just biased in my adoration for this beautiful tomato.  Well now it's an award winner!  Mary Ann over at Idaho Garden hosted the first ever Garden Olympics and my tomato was one of the bronze medallists!  Thanks again, IG!

Here are some FAQ's about my bronze medallist:

1. How do we know you didn't pick the tomato and allow it to ripen in the window, reducing the chance of cracking and other badness?  You don't!  But, hey, I'm an honorable woman so you should just take my word for it.  As soon as I picked this tomato I ran in the house to show it to my boyfriend who was unimpressed, as usual.  
2. What's so special about a flawless tomato?  I buy them all the time at the grocery. Umm have you ever tried to grow tomatoes?  They taste way better than grocery store ones but they tend to be kinda ugly (cracks, holes, animal bites) and it is especially hard to grow pretty heirloom ones because they have not been genetically engineered to resist diseases like the hybrids have. 
3. How did the tomato taste?  No clue.  It's sitting in my kitchen window on display, still.  In fact I may have waited too late to even eat it.  Sad, I know. 
4. How can I grow flawless rock star tomatoes like this?  Get yourself an heirloom Brandywine tomato plant or buy some seeds (next year, it's too late in the season now), plant it, stake it, water it, ignore it, pray.
5. How many tomatoes were in the competition that this tomato won? Just mine, I think.  Hey, don't judge me!  It's still a bronze medallist!  Show some respect!
6. Where'd you get the plant that this tomato came from?  From our local chain grocery Jewel.  They had a few heirloom varieties this year and I bought 3.  The other two were Sausage Tomato and Black Krim.  Neither as pretty as the Brandywine.

I know, I've really exploited this poor tomato and I'm vowing here before you and the e-Gods not to write any more posts about it.   Sorry, I don't have kids so I brag on my tomatoes, instead. 

Technorati Tags: garden olympics,heirloom brandywine tomato,organic vegetable gardening,prizes

A Colorful Harvest

This is the most colorful harvest I've had yet.  It's red onions, lemon cucumber, tomatoes and bush beans. 

I love the heirloom lemon cucumber but I wish they were either way bigger or produced way more. 

They are also like porcupines with little prickly things on them.  I'll definitely be growing them again!

del.icio.us Tags: purple onions,lemon cucumber,tomatoes,bush beans,organic vegetable gardening,heirloom vegetable gardening

Baby Lemon Cucumber Alert!

Behold, my first cucumber ever!  It's an Heirloom Lemon Cucumber that I direct sowed after the great folks over at Baker Creek Seeds sent me free seeds with my last order. 

The taste is supposed to be "sweet and mild".  I'm not really sure what that means in cucumber terms but I'm thinking about trying these in a tomato/cucumber/onion salad like my mom makes. 

The Lemon Cucumber gets it's name from its shape and color.  It's rounder and yellow, like a lemon.  It was introduced back in 1894.

Have you grown Lemon Cucumber before?  What's your favorite way to eat them?

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2008's First Tomato: Heirloom Sausage

Here is today's harvest which includes the first non-cherry type of tomato harvested for this season.  It's the Heirloom Sausage Tomato.  I'd never heard of this variety but I just couldn't pass it up, especially since I don't eat sausage.  Get the irony?

I had these Sausage Tomatoes on a salad for dinner and they are not nearly as interesting tasting as the name is.  I doubt I would be able to tell the difference between this and a regular hybrid Roma. 

I'm still planning to buy a dehydrator and try these dehydrated. Maybe they'll make better sun-dried tomatoes.

Have you harvested your first tomato?  What kind was it?

del.icio.us Tags: heirloom tomatoes,sausage tomato,first tomato harvest,sun-dried tomatoes,organic vegetable gardening

Black Krim Tomato

This is one of the tomatoes on my Heirloom Black Krim.  I rushed out and bought this plant from the grocery store on the advice of Margaret after all my tomato seedlings perished in the grow rack crash of 2008.  Damned Chicago wind!

So far I've not found the Heirloom tomatoes any more difficult to grow than the hybrids I've grown.  So far.  These tomatoes are really heavy so I've needed to keep a close watch on them making sure to tie up any limbs that are close to the ground. 

I wonder how much longer I'll need to wait for this little lovely to be ready for the pickin?  I've never had Black Krims before and I absolutely can't wait. 

Technorati Tags: black krim tomato,organic vegetable gardening,heirloom tomatoes

Wordless Wednesday: Pretty Heirloom Brandywine Tomato Bloom

More Wordless Wednesday

Technorati Tags: wordless wednesday,brandywine tomato,heirloom tomatoes,organic vegetable gardening