Tomatoes for the Home Garden by Kurt Jones

Tomatoes are the most popular garden vegetable. They are found in home gardens, even where the climate is not suitable for commercial tomato production. Fortunately, tomatoes are responsive. Given sufficient care and the proper microclimate, they can delight gardeners and reward their efforts. Varieties of tomatoes are so numerous they cause confusion. For the gardener buying transplants, the condition of these transplants is perhaps more important than the variety. A good transplant should be at least as wide as it is high, have a stem the size of a pencil with a slight purpling at the base of the stem, and have dark green, thick foliage. Transplant tomatoes are generally hybrids of the currently popular types: Celebrity, Early Girl, Big Boy, Fantastic and Big Beef. If you want something other than these common (but good) varieties, consider ordering seed early in the season and growing your own plants. This requires a facility that permits temperature and light control, usually a fr