![]() ![]() ![]() For companion planting benefits, plant tomatoes with carrots or onions, but avoid planting them with cabbage or tomatoes. If providing a trellis, space the plants 2' apart, but if allowing the vines to spread, space the plants 3-4' apart. When the soil temperature reaches at least 70 degrees F, plant the seedlings in full sun and very rich soil once more, bury the entire stem up to the lowest set of leaves. A week before planting the seedlings outside, begin exposing them to the weather during the day to harden them tomatoes cannot endure cold weather, and should not be transplanted outside until all threat of frost has passed. When the second set of leaves emerges, transplant the seedlings into individual pots bury the stems up to the lowest set of leaves to grow strongly rooted plants. Keep the temperature at 70-75 degrees F until germination, as well as providing adequate light in a sunny window or under a grow light keep the soil moist, but make sure drainage is adequate. If you’re looking for a decent specimen outside of true tomato season, these are usually your best bet.Sowing: Start tomatoes indoors 6-8 weeks before the last frost of spring, sowing the seeds in a flat 1/4" deep and 1" apart. They’re grown hydroponically and can be found in many grocery stores. ![]() Cocktail tomatoes are larger than grape and cherry tomatoes but still of the small, sweet ilk. Grape tomatoes are the oblong, grape-shaped ones that you’ll often find in the grocery store they have a lower water content and thicker skins than cherry tomatoes, which help them last longer. They’re super sweet and have a high water content, and they come in many colors. Cherry tomatoes are the small, round guys with thin skins that squirt juice everywhere when you bite into them. Baby tomatoes: cherry, grape, cocktailĪnd let's not forget the baby tomatoes: the cherries, grapes, and cocktails. These are the tomatoes you’ll see everywhere in Italy, the most famous type being the San Marzano. They also have a lower water content compared to other types, with an almost chewy flesh-making them particularly suited to sauce-making. Plum tomatoesĪlso known as Roma or paste tomatoes, plum tomatoes are oval-shaped and smaller than beefsteaks. The Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, and Black Krim heirlooms, for example, are all beefsteak tomatoes, too. There are around 350 types of beefsteaks out there and although you’ll mainly see the red ones labeled as “beefsteaks,” they can come in all colors: pink, yellow, green, white, technicolor. Beefsteak tomatoesīeefsteak tomatoes, which can be either heirloom or hybrid, are notable for their size-they can weigh in at over a pound each, with a diameter of six or more inches-and their texture: They have smaller seed cavities than other types of tomatoes, giving them a greater ratio of flesh to juice and seeds. These are the guys you’ll find at the farmers’ market at the peak of the season, the ones that just beg to be sliced and salted and eaten pretty much as is. Their names are just as varied: Black Krim, Mr. They're found in all different colors, shapes, and sizes: perfectly oval craggy and bulbous heart-shaped yellow, green, black, pink, striped, tie-dye. (Hybrids, on the other hand, will give birth to plants that exhibit different characteristics from each of the parents it takes around seven generations for cultivars to stabilize.) Heirlooms come from plants that have been grown without crossbreeding for at least fifty years. These types of tomatoes “breed true,” which means that if you plant one of its seeds, it will grow into a plant that bears tomatoes that look just like the parent. Heirloom tomatoes, on the other hand, are typically “open-pollinated,” which means the varietal comes from natural pollination (birds, insects, wind, etc.) rather than scientists. Off the vine, they can’t develop the sugars, acids, and other flavor/aroma chemicals that make them actually taste good-so they’re sprayed with ethylene gas instead, which induces reddening and softening. They’re also yanked from their plants while they’re still hard as rocks so that they don’t get crushed on the way to their final destination. Not all hybrids are bad, but the grocery-store ones usually are they’re bred for resistance to diseases, firm flesh, thick skin, and storage potential, rather than, say, flavor. The tomatoes you’ll find year-round in the grocery store are hybrids, which means that humans have cultivated and bred them for specific characteristics. There are two major categories of tomatoes: heirlooms, which we’ll cover below, and hybrids. Before we answer our guiding question-what’s the difference between beefsteak, cherry, grape, heirloom, and plum tomatoes-we have to address another one: Why are grocery-store tomatoes so bad? ![]()
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