I always look forward to gardening in the spring because I know I will no longer have to rely on supermarkets for a tasteless, mushy tomato on my sandwich.

The tomato plant is one of the most popular garden food plants in North America.   Most tomatoes sold today are commercial hybrids of heirloom varieties.  This is a result of desiring to increase production, uniformity, disease resistance, and extend shelf life.  This has resulted in sacrificing flavor for volume.

As a result, we have high yield, perfectly formed, tasteless tomatoes without the purples, reds, yellows, and black, often bumpy and misshapen tomatoes of our ancestors,  Heirloom tomatoes.  Although there are no specific standards of what is considered heirloom, most agree the variety is at least 50 years old, with many saying the variety had to exist prior to 1945.

Heirloom tomatoes are open pollinated, meaning that they will usually produce seeds that are like the parent plant. This makes them perfect to pass down the same variety plant for generations. Many of our heirloom varieties have been passed to us from the Native Americans, such as the Cherokee Purple (my favorite).

Most, if not all heirloom tomatoes, are of an Indeterminate variety, meaning the will grow the entire year until frost.  The summers in East Texas make it too difficult to maintain the plant in the heat, and tomato production is best when night temperatures are between 52 and 72 degrees with the plants in full bloom. Heirlooms also tend to be more susceptible to disease than modern hybrids.

After eating your first purple, black, yellow, misshapen tomato you will realize why tomatoes have been the favorite of generations. The hardest part of growing heirloom tomatoes is trying to decide which variety to grow.

Smith County Master Gardeners are volunteer educators certified and coordinated by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.

Virginia Pileggi

Smith County Master Gardener