It is Late Spring, and it is a great time to talk about tomatoes and potatoes. Both plants are part of the night-shade family, and are native to South America. In order to grow potatoes, you have to held them with either soil or mulch. The tubers grow above the seed potato. And once you star to seeing the flowers, you can begin harvesting them, and you can harvest them throughout the fall in temperate conditions.
This year, I purchase organic seed potato from Maine. And in this bed, I have planted a large variety of potatoes from an all blue variety to a cranberry red variety. I cannot wait to start cooking them up. A tomato is actually a fruit. A tomato is formed wherever you see a cluster of flowers. Tomato seeds need to be started indoors before the last day of frost, and plant it in your garden in mid-spring. You can take as little as 65 days to begin harvesting tomatoes in early varieties, and as late as 95 days to begin a harvest in late tomato varieties.
Heirloom tomatoes are some of the best tomatoes that you can grow in your garden, because they are the tastiest tomatoes you can grow in your garden. Although genetically modified tomatoes, are inbread for taste, they are brought for size or color, whereas heirloom tomatoes are past down from generation to generation where only the best tomatoes get re planted year after year
This heirloom tomato here is called stiffen Mennonites. It grows into a huge plant that grows one pound red tomatoes. Tomatoes need to be supported while they grow, and you can do that by using one of three different methods
The first is sticking, as the plant grows, you attach the tomato plant to the stick to the garden type. For caging, you can purchase one like this, and place it over the tomato plant. The plant will grow through the cage. The last method is with the trellis, like this one. As the plant grows, train it through to get a better support.
Some quick facts about tomatoes. Tomatoes get their red color from lycopene. Lycopene is an antioxidant, and it has been proven to prevent certain types of cancer. Now if you find red tomatoes, a little too acidic, you can grow your own yellow or orange variety of tomatoes that contains less acid.
I am Patti Moreno, the garden girl. Thanks for watching
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