For people who want to grow more food with less work. 🌱 This is my weekly newsletter loved by 38,000+ subscribers—here's what one of them had to say: "These are not the regular run-of-the-mill garden-based emails. You actually touch on more unusual tidbits that encourage me to keep growing and learning."
tomatoes from seed to harvest in 42 days!? 😲
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That might sound like a click-baity subject line, but it's absolutely true—because I've grown several varieties in the 42- to 60-day range. 🙌 Most of the plants bore cherry- or salad-sized tomatoes, but they produced vigorously in pots in front of the window and even outside in my garden just a month after the last frost. When I first moved to Central Oregon almost eight years ago, I struggled a lot with growing tomatoes. I went from Southern California's zone 10b (where you can grow pretty much anything year-round) to a zone 5 microclimate (where it sometimes freezes in July and definitely freezes in September). That doesn't give me a very long growing season for warm-weather crops like tomatoes, so after a couple of seasons I realized I needed to get ahead of each year's harvest—not by starting seeds earlier (which wouldn't have worked anyway since I didn't have a greenhouse) but by choosing the right kinds of tomatoes to begin with. I was no longer looking at beefsteak varieties that took 100 days to mature—I was looking at tomatoes with names like Siberia, Oregon Spring, and Polar Beauty. Tomatoes that sound like they can handle the cold and not take their sweet time ripening every summer. And so I made it my mission to find out what other short-season tomatoes were out there. ​Turns out, there are ​at least​ 83 early-maturing tomato varieties, with many of them being heirlooms—and that's just my list of what can be found in North America.​ These tomato varieties all mature in 70 days or less, but more importantly, they'll still flower and ripen during cooler spring and summer weather (which is often the case for northern climates or foggy coastal areas). You see, most tomatoes actually slow their growth if temperatures drop below 50°F. The short-season tomatoes on my list are special in that they'll continue to develop in wet or chilly weather. There's even one variety on the list that will germinate in lower temperatures, tolerate transplanting into a cooler garden, and grow as long as the soil temp is at least 65°F. Now that's impressive! But short-season tomatoes are not just for people who live in cold climates like me. They're also a great choice for southern gardeners who struggle with blossom drop when the peak of summer heat sets in, or for long-season gardeners who want just one more harvest before winter. Short-season tomatoes grow fast, so they bloom earlier and ripen earlier. They're also ideal for growing in pots (see my link above)—a dwarf tomato variety will be happy in a gallon-sized container, while a bush variety (determinate tomato) will only need a 5-gallon pot. ​This is the same fabric pot that I use to help my potted tomato plants develop healthy, massive root systems. And if your spring weather tends to be unpredictable, I recommend these tomato teepees. They've allowed me to transplant tomatoes early and not have to worry about surprise freezes. (They also work for other cold-sensitive plants like peppers and squash, if you need to protect them for the first couple weeks outside.) P.S. Get my list of 83 fast-growing, cold-tolerant tomato varieties if you want to harvest tomatoes in 70 days or less. P.P.S. How long did it take those tomatoes to germinate? When did they first bloom? When did they set fruit and finally ripen? My Ultimate Garden Diary can help you track all of this, and more!​ |
Garden Betty
For people who want to grow more food with less work. 🌱 This is my weekly newsletter loved by 38,000+ subscribers—here's what one of them had to say: "These are not the regular run-of-the-mill garden-based emails. You actually touch on more unusual tidbits that encourage me to keep growing and learning."