Growing Tomatoes

If you have never eaten a home-grown vine-ripen tomatoe, you don't know what you have missed. There is a world of difference in the taste of vine-ripe and store tomatoes(which are picked green for shipping) This is probably the main reason tomatoes are the most popular item in home gardens. Hundred's of hybrid tomatoes have been developed, bred to resist diseases and improve size and flavor. Varieties are divided into two broad groups: Early: grow to a certain size, produce and die. Main Season: produce larger and more favorful fruit and continue to grow until frost. Varieties include: Vine, Climbers, Tree, Patio, Beefsteak, Earlygirl, Roma, Cherry, Varieties as large as 2 lbs, as small as a current.

PLANTING: Start seeds indoors(4-6 weeks before last frost) when seedlings are 2 inches tall transplant into individual containers. Place seedling outside when night tempertures are above 35 degrees, dig deep holes, adding fertilizer, cover the seedling high-up stem for strong roots. As plants grow, prune suckers and stake with wire cages, to keep fruit off the ground. Harvesting begins 60-85 days.

SOME DISEASES YOU MAY INCOUNTER GROWING YOUR TOMATOES: Hornworms: fat green worms, eat the leaves, pick them off by hand. Aphid: spray insecticidel soap or malathion. Leaf-Chewing flea beetles: use carbaryl or rotenone to control. Blossom-end rot: a patch of black rot on bottom of fruit, lack of calcuim in the soil, or lack of water. add lime to soil and water well. Cutworm: eat new seedlings,leaving only a stem standing. make a collar from a paper cup, remove the bottom, press into the soil, around seedling, leaving one inch above ground, worms won't climb over.

HEALTH BENEFITS: Tomatoes are low in calories, high in Vit. C and A, recently good health news announced men eating tomatoes regularly may reduce the risks of prostrate Cancer, eating them fresh or canned, even in Ketchup or Pizza. Drawbacks, some toxic substances may trigger headaches, common causes of allerg- ies, acid content may cause indigestion and heartburn.