How do you fix a broken tomato?

Tomato paste. :-)

Unfortunately, no amount of “paste” is going to fix where my tomatoes are at now. Those who know me well know that jokes with puns are not a regular part of my repertoire. But in dealing with my current tomato situation, I felt that this joke was appropriate. And I needed a good laugh. I’ve always loved a good challenge - and my tomatoes have been delivering this from the start.

It all started in January, when I was digging through my seeds. I came across a pile of paper towels housing old tomato seeds that I had collected over the years. These seeds came from tomatoes that family and friends had found to be exceptional - Rob’s mom’s yellow and red beef tomatoes, Charlie’s red and green marble tomatoes, mémère’s yellow tomatoes, Cash s little yellow tomatoes etc.

These seeds had sat through 3 winters outside, in a shed. My initial thought was that they likely would not germinate very well. So I planted 3 trays worth to increase my odds. Well, all three trays germinated at 100%. Yup, I had 216 seedling tomato plants (growing in my foyer) and not a clue as to what kind of tomatoes they were.

I re-jigged the garden plans to make room for more tomatoes. I kept about 125 seedlings and grew them into a strong plants that I was able to transplant into the garden earlier than usual thanks to the warm May weather and plastic row covers. They all grew thick stalks, but soon the branches started to get a bit out of control. Challenge accepted tomatoes! I marched into the garden, tomato cages and trimmer in hand, with high hopes of containing and staking all of them. After a days work, I was only able to trim, stake and contain about 40 plants. Spending 3 more days in the garden with tomatoes was not an options at the time, so I decided I would let the rest go wild and see what happens.

Between mid-June to mid-July, not a single flower appeared on the plants!!! How was this possible? The plants were huge, healthy and full of leaves. Plus, we were having a beautiful, hot May and June. I couldn’t understand what I was doing wrong - did a break them somehow?

Finally, around the 2nd week of July, the fruit started to come out. Then, on the 3rd week, the fruit exploded. So much so, that the weight of the fruit on the plants that were not staked caused the branches to bent to the ground or, in some cases, snapped off.

Although it is not an ideal growing condition, the tomatoes all seem to be doing well and ripening nicely. And, when visitors tour the garden, I can now show them a model of how to grow tomatoes and how not to grow tomatoes.

Beautifully staked tomatoes, growing upright and tall:

.

Tomato jungle, branches everywhere, flat on the ground (some broken), growing into the neighboring rows:

The one row is so thick, it is going to be a challenge for me to even get close enough to the fruit to pick them. Good thing I am always usually in need of a good yoga workout.

I guess I can’t complain as we know have a variety of healthy, huge, tomatoes that are thriving, in abundance, despite the chaos.

I love how eating food can take you to amazing places. Eating my first tomato from our new garden took me back to the afternoon lake lunches with the family that Rob’s mom used to prepare. The platter of sliced tomatoes is on the table, and I can see her selecting her tomato and gently salting it before savoring her first bite. What a wonderful memory.

My first boss told me: “It’s ok to make mistakes, so long as you learn from them and try not to let them happen again”. Lessons learned here: 1) the value of labelling, 2) don’t over do it with seeding, 3) you don’t have to transplant everything you sow, and 4) put a cage on a tomato seedling the moment that it is planted, no if ands or buts.

So I am taking these lesson learned letting this mistake go. And why not - there is always tomaato..

(tomorrow!).

Ok done with puns now.