Heirloom Tomatoes Better Late than Early

A stretch of cloudy days and mild temperatures was just what I needed to finally get my heirloom tomatoes transplanted into the garden last weekend!

I know I’m later than usual, and some of you have had your tomatoes and peppers out for weeks already, but you also endured some stressful frost warnings, dealt with covering plants on chilly nights, and maybe replaced a tender seedling or two that was damaged by unexpected changes in the weather.

Better Safe than Sorry with Tender Tomato Seedlings

Okay, so I won’t be harvesting vine-ripened tomatoes before July, but that’s fine too; I’d rather play it safe and make sure my irreplaceable heirlooms are nice, comfy, and safe. I’d also wager that my tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants will catch up with and may ultimately outproduce plants that spent April and early June shivering and waiting for the garden’s soil to warm up to their liking!

The recent cloudy weather provided the perfect cover to set out lots of transplants. The patience paid off and allowed me to set out stocky tomato plants that were healthy and vigorous with no set backs from the day they germinated right through their first weeks in the garden.

Some of this Season’s Heirloom Tomato Varieties:

•    Amazon Chocolate
•    Yellow Brandywine
•    Paul Robeson
•    Golden Giant
•    Pineapple
•    Black Krim
•    Mortgage Lifter

In total, I transplanted 14 different tomato varieties into the garden and plan to add two more cherry tomatoes to an Earthbox for good measure. The tomato transplants were set deeply as usual and placed in a row down the center of a raised bed to make it easy to implement that new tomato trellising system again this season.

Finding New Homes for a Few Good Tomatoes

A dozen extra tomato plants traveled to the office with me this week where they were quickly snapped up by co-workers. All except for that Green Zebra plant that was shunned because the idea of a green ripening tomato just didn’t go over very well.

Guess they’ll learn the hard way when I bring some Green Zebra samples in later this summer… that’s when they will discover once again that odd and unusual is often very tasty when you’re talking about heirloom tomatoes!