The Great Tomato Experiment: Growing Heirloom Tomatoes

The hot, dry summers here in the Sacramento Valley provide the perfect environment to grow the king of summer produce: The Tomato. This is my first year growing tomatoes at the new house, and so I’ve embarked on what I like to call the Great Tomato Experiment. The Great Tomato Experiment consists of a few variables:

Many thanks to Gary Ibsen's Tomatofest!

1.)    To start all of the tomatoes from seeds

2.)    To find what part of the yard encourages the best tomato growth

3.)    To find out which heirloom Tomato is best (for 2012)

4.)    To save the seeds at the end of the season and plant them again next year

In February I started the seeds indoors (variable 1). I placed them in a south facing window and encouraged their growth with a heating pad. Once they became seedlings and the threat of frost had passed, I planted them outside. Aside from the colony of ants that swarmed the rich, warm, indoor soil (likely a paradise vacation for them in February), the first variable of the experiment proved a success.

Now the plants are growing quite nicely. Some sit in direct sun nearly all day, while others are shaded after noon. They are in lawn that I have sheet mulched and raised beds. In total, there are eleven plants, and all are heirloom varieties. These varieties include: Ace 55, Brandywine, Dr. Wyche’s Yellow, Yellow Pear, Bloody Butcher, and Beefsteak.

Brandywine in a sheet mulched lawn bed.

 So far there is no all out winner. The Yellow Pear produced the first fruit, but the Ace 55 has really started to catch up. I have high hopes for the Dr. Wyche plants, for while they did not flourish as seedlings, they have put on a lot of growth recently. The fastest growing plants were those with the most shade.

I purchased all of my tomato seeds through Tomatofest, and so far I am happy with the results. I hope to save seeds and try replanting next year, although I harbor no illusions that they will be anything but hybrids of those I planted this year. I will post an update on the Great Tomato Experiment soon, as the first plant to produce edible tomatoes is still undetermined!

An Introduction

Hello and welcome! My name is Blair, and this is the first post in my blog. Before I begin to share how I am turning my yard into a garden, I want to share some information about myself.

My parents' property from under the apricot tree.

I grew up on an acre and a half in Roseville, California. My parents' property was once part of an almond orchard near the center of town, situated along Linda Creek. While only a few of the almond trees remained by the time I was born, my parents planted a variety of fruit trees where they had once stood.

When I was young, those apples, apricots, plums, peaches, persimmons, and pears were all available for me to snack on as I played. Between the trees rows of other plants grew. Squash, beans, watermelons, carrots, corn, zucchini, tomatoes, and all a manner of other plants carpeted the ground. My memories of summer here in the Sacramento Valley are of swimming, friends, and eating fresh fruit and vegetables from the yard.

My first sheet mulched section of lawn, already green!

Since then, I have grown older. I am married to the wonderful and beautiful wife of my dreams. I have a three month old son whom I love more than anything, ever. I have my own home, with my own yard. And my dream is to turn that yard into a garden. I want my garden-yard to be filled with fruit and vegetables. I want to have as little unused space as possible. I want to take the local food movement and make it the home food movement here, in my backyard. I want to make grass an artifact of another era.

Achieving this dream is, in part, why I created this blog. I hope to share my successes, failures, and any entertaining events I encounter along the way. I will share both my progress here, at my house, as well as at my parents' much larger plot. Really, though, I want this blog to be an ode to nature, to gardening, to the cycle of life, and to those of us who prefer to spend time out in the elements knee deep in mud and elbow deep in compost. Welcome everyone!