Great advice, Geoffrey, thanks! Do you have a particular
brand/strain/variant that you'd reccommend?



"Geoffrey S. Mendelson" wrote in message
...
wrote:
spring greetings to all! I want to grow roma tomatoes for canning
this year. I've planted heirlooms for salads before, but never
"sauce" tomatoes. Are there any recommendations for a nice, sweet,
prolific type? We'd prefer to start from seed, but if there's a great
seedling from garden centers or mail order, that's fine too! All
suggestions & opinions greatly appreciated! TIA, bobdrob


It depends upon how "heirloom" they really are. A true heirloom tomato
would be one that has not been crossbred. Hybrid tomatos have a bad habit
of "dehybridizing" over a few generations, sometimes just one. So you can
end up with a tomato chosen for looks, or disease resistance, and no or
bad
taste. You could also end up with one that tastes great but catches every
disease known to tomatoes, or has small ugly fruit.

If it is a true breed, then you can just save the seeds (before cooking)
and use them. We have a long growing season here, so today's salad/sauce
will produce fruit this year. You save the seeds by putting them in an
open container covered with a few inches of watter. In a few days it
will mold over. When that happens you scoop off the mold and dry the
seeds. The easiest way is to spread them out on an unscented, undyed,
unprinted paper towel.

When it comes time to plant them just cut up the paper towel and plant it
in small pots about 1/2 inch under the top. If you can't do a second crop
this year, make sure they are 100% dry and then store them in a sealed
bag in a cool place.

You can speed things up by planting them inside a month before the first
frost. They need around 70F to germinate, but we have some volunteers that
survived the winter and a few that popped up on their own.

Once it stays warm (around 50F or more) during the day, you can bring them
out for some sunshine (an hour or two to start, and add an hour a day)
as long as you bring them in at night if it freezes.

If you buy commerical seeds or plants, you should buy determinate plants
for a short growing season and indeterminate ones for a long season.
The determinate ones stop growing, fruit and die, the indeterminate
ones will continue to grow and fruit as long as it is warm.

Over a long season, you get more fruit from indeterminate plants,
over a short season, they spend too much time growing before fruiting.

If you are in the U.S. you can contact your "county agent" of the
USDA who will give you advice on which plants/seeds to buy, when
and where to plant them, etc.

Geoff.


--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM