by Eleanor Moyer

I’m sure you all have your tomatoes securely tucked away in perfect soil ready for the harvest to come. It’s so easy for me to be hopeful now before those pesky problems develop. To arm myself for the eventual catastrophes, I’ve been doing some tomato research and discovered that North Carolina has a “tomato whisperer”, Craig Le Houllier, who has been working with heirloom tomatoes for over thirty years. He is a noted author, popularizer of the Cherokee Purple heirloom (and others), straw bale garden expert and all around great organic gardener. His website and books provide an encyclopedia of knowledge and ideas—just google his name. In 1991 he received seeds from a Mr. Green of an unnamed purple tomato that had been handed down, gardener to gardener, from the 1880s having been received from Cherokee farmers. He worked with Seed Savers Exchange and Victory Seed Company to offer these to the public after he named it, of course.

It’s usually easy to decide if a tomato is an heirloom on looks alone—they’re odd shaped and less than perfect while hybrids are round, firm, and unblemished—at least the ones in the store. The reason is of course, that hybrids are developed for merchandising. They offer disease resistance, sturdy skins for shipping, and uniformity supposedly at the cost of flavor. Craig has recently been working on developing dwarf varieties of heirloom tomatoes. There are basically three types of tomato plants: indeterminate, growing up to 10 feet tall and producing fruit all season; determinate, half that size and fruiting once; and dwarf, that produce fruit all season at a determinate size. Victory Seed carries these.

Here are a few helpful hints from the “Tomatoman.” Be in the garden often, daily if possible. Water the soil, not the plants. Mulch to conserve moisture and prevent soil borne diseases. Space plants to optimize sun and airflow. For planting tomatoes in containers, use a three to one ratio of soil less mix with manure. Feed tomatoes with a specialty fertilizer or a 10-10-10 mix every two to three weeks. Indeterminate plants can be pruned to any desired height, usually at the top of the support. When removing suckers, root a few in water to have a second crop or to give away. Early blight is shown by grayish spots with a bullethole configuration. Just remove and dispose of the leaves. If late blight develops, remove the plant. Fusarium wilt is a soil borne disease. Remove the plant and do not plant in that spot for three years. Septonia is shown by speckled leaves. Remove the leaves as soon as noticed. If radial cracking seems to be a problem, harvest the fruit before totally ripe and let ripen off the vine. Flavor will not be diminished. If you notice hornworm damage, just pick them off and plunk in soapy water. For fun, use a UV light at night—the hornworms will glow! Happy harvesting!