New tomato year

After a couple of months of blissful tomato angst I have settled on the 2006 varieties and am ready to finish ordering seeds. Selecting the tomatoes I want to grow each year has always been a source of pleasant winter diversion but the last few years have seen me ratchet up to a tomato obsessive. Haunting the tomato forums at Gardenweb and Dave’s Garden only serves to enable. Oh darn.

Although I haven’t counted, I read that Seed Savers Exchange lists approximately 3000 heirloom tomato varieties. My garden plot allows for 20 plants. Hence the angst. Rudimentary math reveals that, magnificent medical advances notwithstanding, I will surely never live long enough to grow all of these. So I must choose carefully, weighing traits bandied about on the forums: earliness, balance, “real tomato” flavor, but with more than a nod to the pedigree and history, which are part of the allure. Last year’s rousing success with drying and saucing has also influenced my selections. I’ll be trying Principe Borghese, an Italian heirloom reputed to be especially fine for drying, and Speckled Roman and Opalka Federle, varieties considered superior for processing (I have recently read about Opalka's tendency to blossom end rot so am trying another much praised variety). I have spent hours studying catalogs and websites, drafted a list and then faced the challenge of finding the seeds. I am fortunate this year. All varieties are available and hopefully will arrive in time for my mid-February planting target.

For anyone thinking that such a fuss over tomatoes signals a pending full-blown manic episode I can only urge you to grow some heirloom tomatoes. Mania is best when shared and tomatoeheads are always looking for recruits. And given my track record with seedlings I will probably have enough extra plants to share.

So with no further ado I submit Tomatoes 2006


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Strata from My Bay Area Garden left a comment to an earlier post, requesting a follow up on last year’s tomato selections. I am happy to oblige.