Heirlooms

Last year was my first time growing tomatoes. I had two plants and they did so-so. This year I went all in and I planted 13 heirloom plants. They’ve been incredibly prolific. We fight all kinds of critters plus incredible heat in SoCal. I dropped $$$ on 30” tall x 2” wide x 6.5’ long raised planters. Each planter was filled with smaller branches, leaves, bagged standard soil, compost from our city, and topped with good quality soil. I put one two-gallon Olla pot and two plants in each planter. I water/fill the pots every three days. I’ve been supplying two neighbors and 3 other friends with heirlooms all summer. I can usually harvest at least something every 2-3 days and my largest harvest so far was 13.6 lbs.

Our family (especially me!) is crazy for tomatoes. Mater sandwiches, tomato cheese toast, BLTs, Panzanella salad, caprese, bruschetta, broiled cherry tomatoes tossed with garlic, pasta, and basil, and tomato sauce… we’ve made them all and these are the best tomatoes I’ve ever eaten.

Pics show just a bit of my harvests.

What I planted: * = faves
Gardener’s Delight
*Red Mamba
*Dragon’s Eye
Beauty King
*Sun Gold x 2
Big Beef
Midnight Snack
*Sun-sugar
Bronze Torch
Momotaro
Green Zebra
Harvard Square