Perfect for the picking
There’s one thing that every tomato grower can agree on. No, wait, there isn’t. Lots of water or just a trickle? Stakes or cage? Heavy fertilizing or not at all? Close together or far apart?
“Everybody has their own theory about how to grow tomatoes, that’s the fun thing, and people can be very opinionated about it,” says Barbara Spencer of Windrose Farm in Paso Robles.
The rules for growing miniature tomatoes are pretty much the same as for regular-sized and even beefsteaks. One advantage is that most varieties seem to be incredibly prolific -- one plot of three Juliet plants grown in a trial in Fresno yielded almost 40 pounds of tomatoes two summers ago.
So how do the best farmers market growers do it? Don’t expect any definite answers. “I have my theories, but they’re changing all the time, and I’m not saying they’re right for anybody else,” Spencer says.
For example, this year Spencer and her husband, Bill, won’t be laying down sheets of black plastic mulch as they have in the past, although she admits there are good reasons to use plastic, which moderates the soil temperature and moisture. “So maybe we’re totally crazy, but I still think when we switched to plastic several years ago, we lost something out of the flavor. I’ve got no idea why, other than guessing at something as totally bizarre as the plants like to be tickled, they like to be cultivated. Who knows?”
Paul Carpenter, who with his wife, Maryann, runs Coastal Organics, grows roughly 10,000 tomato plants on 8 1/2 acres near Santa Paula. He says home gardeners frequently make a couple of very basic mistakes. They don’t prepare the ground properly for the deep-rooted plants by digging deeply. And they over-water. “About 95% of everybody who grows tomatoes besides farmers over-waters,” he says. “The plants are very sensitive to water and if you soak them too much, lots of times what happens is you knock off all the blooms.”
The issue of watering is fraught with nuance. It’s not just a matter of how much, it’s when. Many tomato farmers withhold water for the last couple of weeks before harvest. The theory is that this concentrates the flavor of the fruit.
“We start pulling back gradually and then toward the end of the season we’ll go completely to dry land farming,” says Barbara Spencer. “I remember one year we didn’t water at all after Labor Day.
“Our plants may not be as big or as luscious as other people’s, but the fruit seems to be better. It’s more fine-grained with a smooth texture. The sugar is concentrated and holds a slice.”
The Carpenters never go completely dry, though they are abstemious with water, relying on a drip irrigation system to give the plant just the amount that it needs.
Spacing tomato plants is important too. Paul Carpenter plants his tomatoes 2 feet apart with 6 feet between rows. On his farm, mildew tends to be a problem, and that wide spacing allows plenty of air circulation, which hinders the growth of the fungus.
The Spencers, who are in a hot, dry area, don’t have as much trouble with mildew, so they can plant more closely, jamming 5,000 plants into only 1 1/2 acres.
In the end, probably the only thing growers can agree on is that even the worst homegrown tiny tomato beats most anything you can buy at the store.
