The Buzz On Growing Tomato Plants
Welcome to the growing tomato plants adventure! All journeys begin with a single step, and the journey to growing your own juicy tomato plants is a noble journey indeed. There is little that compares to growing and harvesting your own produce. Plus, growing your own tomatoes is FUN and easy, almost anybody can do it. All it takes is a little knowledge and a few basic guidelines.
A LITTLE HISTORY
Believe it or not, tomatoes were not consumed for nearly a century after they were introduced to the Americas. The Europeans thought the red fruit of the tomato plant to be poisonous. To the observant reader, you may have picked up on how I referred to the tomato as a FRUIT. This is not a typo. Tomatoes are actually classified as a fruit and not a vegetable, which is commonly thought of. If you want to be technical about the issue, the tomato is the ovary of a flowering plant, so it is rightly a berry. Whatever you like to call it, tomatoes are one of the most commonly grown vegetables throughout the entire United States. There is truly something magical about a freshly picked, juicy red tomato, straight from a vine.
Perhaps you have already encountered many different tomato plants, for there are some 25,000 different varieties, grown in a few different colors. Tomatoes range in size from a marble, to about a softball. A common small variety is known as cherry tomatoes and a common large variety is known as beefsteak tomatoes. Tomatoes are available in a host of different colors that range from orange, to yellow, to purple, and to the well known and loved, red tomatoes.
There are basically two different types of tomato plants that grow. We call these two types the determinates, and the indeterminates. Even though they have strange names, it is easy to understand why, once you know the answer of course.
DETERMINATE TOMATO PLANTS
These tomatoes grow to a pre-determined height and then stop growing, as if their genetic material was programmed to grow to that specific height from seed. Using this to your advantage, determinate tomatoes are fantastic for growing indoors in pots, or for people with limited space available.
INDETERMINATE TOMATO PLANTS
These tomato plants grow to no predetermined height. Therefore, they are sometimes called vine tomatoes, because they have vine-like characteristics. Indeterminate tomato plants are perfect for outdoor growing, but usually require some kind of support, like or fences or stakes.
When starting out on your tomato planting journey, you may find it easier to buy your tomato plants as small seedlings from your local plant supplier, especially if you are new to gardening. From there, once you become familiar with the growing process, your tomatoes can be grown from seed with relative ease. There are many places to buy seeds from these days and thanks to the internet, many obscure and hard-to-find varieties are commonly available now. One of the most important and basic growing conditions for tomato plants are full sunshine, plenty of water, and soil that is rich and well draining.
If you follow those basic steps there is little to go wrong, your tomato plants will literally grow by themselves. But, like anything, there are lots of techniques and growing methods around these days, if you want to take your tomato growing to another level. There is definitely an ART to growing and producing superior tasting tomatoes, because no one wants to grow tomatoes that taste dull and lifeless like the supermarket brought variety. To help you out, there is plenty of information on this site to get you started. Happy tomato growing!
