How We Grow These 4 Tomatoes & Why We Chose Them

Hey everyone, it's Jeff from San Diego Seed Company. I'm sitting here in front of my tomato trays because it is tomato season guys. If you haven't started your seeds, get out there. Today I'm going to talk about four types of tomatoes that I grow every single year and why you should grow them, some tips on how to start tomatoes, where to plant them, what they need, how to feed them, how much water, how much light, everything you need to know to plant these four tomatoes in your garden this year. Okay, before I get into the four types, I want to go over a few things that you're going to need to do regardless of what type of tomato that you start, and that is start your seeds. We hope if you're watching this channel at this point in your gardening career you are starting your own seeds and not buying them in the store. If you are buying them in the store, that's totally fine, you can skip over this part. But if you're starting them at home, if I were to open any of these seed packs, the seeds are going to look pretty much identical. So to start tomato seeds, you are going to want to start them either indoors or in a greenhouse somewhere that has warm soil. This time of year, the temperatures in your house, but definitely outside, are not going to make the soil warm enough to germinate the seeds. If you're wondering how warm the soil should be, it's on the back of the seed pack. So you're going to need warm soil. If you want to use a heat mat, you can, but I'd save those heat mats for the peppers. You're going to want to start, plant them about a quarter inch deep in well-draining soil, soilless mix, seed starting mix is great. If you only have potting soil, that's fine too, but I would give that a sift because there are some big pieces that can inhibit the growth of them actually popping out of the ground. Before they pop out of the ground, from the day that you plant them in their pot or their cellar or their tray, you're going to want to keep them moist. That is the other thing besides temperature that a seed is going to need to germinate. And if I'm going really quick over this, do not fear, we have tons and tons of seed starting videos. I recommend you check out all of them. Like with anything, it's a journey, so the more you do it, the better you get. So now let's talk about those four types that I plant every single year. Okay, so you all are dying to know, what are the four types of tomatoes? This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it's kind of how I group tomatoes in my head, so I'll share it with you. First, we've got sauce tomatoes. I'm thinking Roma. This is what we grow every single year. It's the only sauce tomato we grow. It's huge and prolific. The next would be a cherry tomato, and then dwarf tomato, and then a slicer or a beefsteak. And let me give a disclaimer, John is on camera right now and he just wiped up against, wiped up? He just brushed up against a little bit of nettle, so if the camera gets crazy, that's why his ankle is itching. Yeah, oh no, it's happening! Let's talk sauce tomatoes. Now is a good time to explain the difference between determinate and indeterminate. Again, we have more videos on this, but I'll go over it quickly. Determinate tomatoes produce all their fruit in a determined amount of time, meaning all at once. Usually, sauce tomatoes are determinate, but not always. With all the hybridization that we do, we, as if I do it, that scientists do, that growers do, you can get a sauce tomato that is indeterminate. Think San Marzano. The San Marzanos that I grow are indeterminate pole-binding tomatoes. The thing to remember about determinate versus indeterminate is determinate are bush. They need big, huge cages, and you're just going to kind of let them go crazy. We have a great video on how to build this. We do not recommend getting just the tiny store-bought tomato cages. It's going to fall over. It's not big enough, especially if you're giving it full sun and feeding it. So let's talk sauce tomatoes. Why are they sauce tomatoes? Because they are determinate. When you get a lot of tomatoes all at once, you can't just sit there and chop up tomatoes and eat them all day. You're going to make sauce. You're going to can them. You're going to use those tomatoes to store through the winter. You're going to want to give them a lot of support. So I suggest something metal, something big that you can stake into the ground that isn't going to fall over. When you first put it in the ground, it's maybe four or six inches tall. You've seen our garden from last year. When this tomato grows to full size, it not only grows this high, but it is spilling out, completely filling this cage. So make sure to give it some support. The other thing to watch out for with sauce tomatoes is since they're determinate, they're going to grow in a cage like this. So airflow is a huge issue. So foliar diseases are very common. So definitely don't overhead water because that increases those diseases. Do drip water right at the roots and give it some airflow. When it says plant them two feet apart, listen to the package. Plant them two feet apart. Category number two is cherry tomatoes. The best tasting tomato in the world is the Sun Gold. I've actually got a hybrid that Bridgette has come up with, the Desi Sun Gold. Her kid is named Desi. That's adorable. Let's talk about these and the best way to grow them and how we grow them in our garden. You have heard it before. This is the lower and lean method. Just a quick overview of what that is. You're going to plant the plant at the base of this string. You're going to let the string go all the way down to the base and clip it as it goes up. Let's take a quick break and talk about indeterminate. We've already talked about determinate. Indeterminate means the fruit and flowers come at an indeterminate amount of time, which is over a longer period of time. That's why this method works really well. You're going to plant the plant, take these clips, clip the string to the plant, trim off all the suckers. Again, if you don't know what that means, check out our videos on tomatoes. You're going to get one liter going up this string. Why do I recommend growing them on a string rather than a cattle panel? When it comes to cherry tomatoes, you don't have to worry that much about weight. This string and the clips are going to do just fine. It's always so good to have a support system. That's why I am standing under our favorite support system, this cattle panel trellis, 15 feet long, folded in half. This is the perfect place to grow our third category of tomato, and that is a slicer or a beef steak. I was just on the phone with my dad today asking him the difference. He said beef steak have shoulders to them. They're kind of rippled on the side, which I believe would be like a purple Cherokee. But slicers do not have ribs or shoulders on the side. They're more of a smooth, which I believe is a celebrity. If you guys know better than me, please drop it in the comments. Correct me. Educate me. But that is what I learned from my dad. I may even be getting that wrong. I'm so sorry. But what I'm here to talk about is support systems. So when it comes to these types of tomatoes, they can get really big and heavy. So where we love the lower end lean method, I don't recommend growing them on the lower end lean because you want more support, metal. You're still going to want to clip them to the metal, or at least weave them in and out. Because remember, tomatoes, unlike some vines, don't have tendrils, so you're going to have to help them grow up whatever system they're growing up. The other thing to keep in mind when growing slicers is fertilization. Tomatoes in general are fruits, and those types of plants need a lot more fertilizer than your winter crops, like let's say peas. Peas need a little more in comparison to like lettuce or kales, but just look at these sad little peas. I'm so sad. I don't know. I think I planted them at the wrong time, or something happened. They should be a lot bigger. But anyway, this isn't a pea video. This is a tomato video. Why am I down here by the soil? Not only do you have to pay attention to disease and pruning and suckers and things above the soil, but with tomatoes and all fruiting vegetables, really make sure that you have tons of organic material that is compost, mushroom compost, worm castings, things like that, but also fertilizer. Because they're heavy, heavy feeders, I recommend putting compost and granular fertilizer before the season starts, but also adding liquid fertilizer as the season goes along. Okay, before we get to number four, I've got a quick joke. Daddy tomato and baby tomato are walking down the street. Baby tomato is just lagging and lagging and lagging, and finally daddy tomato turns around and says, catch up. I mean, if that doesn't deserve a subscribe and a like and a hit the bell, I don't know what does. So make sure you do that, not only for the jokes, but hopefully we're giving some information to help you guys be better gardeners. So don't forget to subscribe. Now on to number four, and that is dwarf tomatoes. I'm going to have to get up and get in my pocket because I can't get in my pocket so I'm sitting down. That was totally worth it to show you this seed pack. This is one of the classic dwarf tomatoes, which is our number four category, the tiny Tim. But if you've followed San Diego Seed Company for a while, you'll know that we've been trialing and growing and just doing a lot of research and taste testing in dwarf tomatoes, because honestly, we just think it's the future of growing tomatoes. A lot of you guys have really small spaces and dwarf tomatoes are just that. They're small. So why am I here? I am sitting in front of a grow bag, which is one of the best ways for you to grow tomatoes. Now I will give one caveat. If you're using grow bag or really any raised bed or pot that has more surface area where warm air can steal moisture, you're going to have to give more water to this than you would if you're planting in ground. But if you do give water to it, what you have is a really tiny, compact tomato that's not just a cherry tomato. We have all kinds of different varieties, shapes and colors and sizes. I really want to recommend getting on the website, perusing our dwarf tomatoes and checking them out because they don't need a lot of structure. They grow quickly. And if you don't have enough space to grow all four of the types of tomatoes that I've talked about today, check out dwarfs. You're going to be pleasantly surprised. Okay, so those are the four types of tomatoes that we grow every year here on the homestead. I want to know what are your favorite types of tomatoes, but I really am curious of how do you guys categorize your tomatoes? We hear words like slicer and beefsteak and ox heart and all these different types of tomatoes. How do you guys refer to them? Because we're really interested in what you guys are doing so we can learn from you as well as you learning from us. He's still recording. What do I do? Ah!