I have never understood someone who goes out to eat and then says, “That was the best steak I’ve ever had!” A steak is a steak, right? And a tomato is a tomato. Or so I thought until Pete Guckenberg of rural Omro gave me an heirloom tomato he grew from seeds given to him by an Amish acquaintance in Pennsylvania. It truly was the best tomato I’ve ever had!
I had some doubts when Pete first handed me the tomato. It was very big with a diameter of at least twelve inches and was shaped more like a squat pumpkin than like any tomato I had ever seen. And the color was a washed out red instead of the bright red I associate with a tasty tomato. But the taste was fantastic!
Home gardeners know the taste difference between home-grown and store-bought tomatoes. The home-growns have much more flavor than the sickly store tomatoes that have been bred for uniformity and to withstand long shipping and storage periods rather than for taste. Now I know there’s a whole other level of taste beyond merely home-grown in heirlooms.
Heirloom tomatoes are old varieties that have been grown for hundreds of years. They will grow true from seed year after year. Newer hybrid tomatoes with names like Early Girl, Better Boy and Miracle Sweet cannot be reproduced exactly by saving seed. You can save and plant the seeds from these hybrids but the new tomato plant probably won’t produce tomatoes just like the parent plant. It may revert back to one of the types used to produce the hybrid, or through accidental cross-pollination you may discover the next big seller. Of course, you probably won’t know how you did it.
People may be hesitant to grow heirloom tomatoes because they are not as disease resistant as the hybrids. They are also not as consistent in size and shape, and may not last as long in storage. To avoid cross-pollination, heirlooms should be planted 25 feet from other tomato varieties.
Next March, I will start all eleven of the seeds I saved from Pete’s Amish heirloom tomato indoors. I’ll choose the best four or five plants and put them in the garden in late May, well away from any other tomatoes I might grow. I’ll mulch heavily to prevent disease from splashing up from the soil. I’ll make sure the plants get enough water and watch carefully for any signs of disease. I’ll remove any diseased leaves or branches or a whole plant if need be. I will probably give my heirloom tomatoes more attention than any other plants in my garden.
Nevertheless, if I can produce even one tomato like the one I got from Pete, it will be worth it!
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