Josie and Clay Erskine in a greenhouse full of 170 varieties of tomato plants.
[HOST INTRO] We’ve had a cold Spring and gardeners are anxious to get plants like tomatoes in the ground. But when? And what varieties? In this installment of The Market & Garden Report, correspondent Guy Hand digs up some useful tips on growing tomatoes.
Listen Now to the NPR Version of This Story:
Or Download this Episode to Your Computer, iPhone, etc.
(Plant Sale sounds) (Woman): Is there a red beef steak? (Josie): There’s tons of beef steaks over there . . .
Peaceful Belly tomato plant sale
(Hand) I’m at Peaceful Belly’s annual tomato plant sale at the new North End Organic Nursery in Boise. People here are asking a lot of questions. Luckily, Peaceful Belly owners Clay and Josie Erskine have answers. Over the last 8 years, they’ve successfully grown some 20,000 tomato plants.
(Josie) Boise is just barely a tomato climate.
(Hand) That’s Josie Erskine. With our relatively short growing season, she says it’s essential to know how long it’ll take a variety to actually produce ripe tomatoes. On a plant’s label, it’s called “days to maturity.â€
(Josie) So when you’re choosing your tomatoes, make sure that if you want to try some of those fun heirlooms that take a long time for days to maturity, that you also put in a few early days to maturity. Something that has 57 days or 75 so you’ll start getting tomatoes in July and you won’t have to wait all the way into September to get those tomatoes.
(Hand) But once you choose tomatoes, when should you plant them? Instead of waiting for the snow to melt on Shafer Butte, as local lore suggests, Clay & Josie begin studying the 10 day forecast in early May.
Sign for plant sale
(Josie) Tomatoes really do not like temperatures that go below 40 degrees. So I do not plant out tomatoes until I can see in an extended forecast that the next ten days are going to have 45 degrees or above at night.  The days can be 85 degrees, but then at night it can still be freezing, so even if it’s nice and hot it still may not be time to plant out your tomatoes.
(Hand) Clay Erskine:
(Clay) If you do plant out your tomatoes just be aware that for the next couple of weeks you might take a look each day at the nighttime temperature and you might want to possibly throw a blanket over the top of your tomatoes if it gets down too cold.
(Hand) Clay says keep an eye on those nighttime temperatures until the first of June. And here’s Josie’s recommended favorites:
Tomato flower
(Josie) I say number one, put in a cherry tomato. You’re always going to have tomatoes ready to go, you don’t have to wait for them to ripen, go with Sun Gold, that is my all time favorite. Next one I would say if you want to do all heirlooms, stick in a Slivery Fur Tree, she’s going to knock your socks off. Put in a Cherokee Purple, put in a Chianti Rose, put in a Brandywine, put in a Virginia Sweet or a hillbilly and make sure that you grow a Lemon Boy.
(Hand) And start dreaming about tomato salads and homemade salsa. For Edible Idaho’s Market & Garden Report and Boise State Radio, I’m Guy Hand.
Peaceful Belly’s annual tomato plant sale continues this weekend, May 8th and 9th, at the North End Organic Nursery at 2350 W. Hill Road in Boise.
|
Guy Hand is a writer, public radio producer and photographer specializing in food and agriculture. |
[...] Market & Garden Report: Tomato Time | Northwest Food News [...]