Tomato is one of the easiest plants to grow. It grows pretty easy from seeds, and planted in enough quantity and tendered to, the plants can provide almost all the tomato requirements of your kitchen. The size of these tomatoes also vary - you can have a variety where the largest size of tomatoes can be upwards of 200 grams for each tomato, and you can have cherry tomatoes that are small and many of them can fit in the hands of a person. There are varieties where the color of the ripe tomato is not even red, but yellow; there are tomatoes that look perfectly round, and others that look like an oval or like a pear.
What are some of the varieties of tomatoes that I am growing in my kitchen garden ? I must have upwards of 10 different varieties growing in the garden, although it might be hard to look at the growing tomato and determine which variety it is (the more accomplished people can do that, not me). One variety is totally unknown for me - I just take the tomatoes bought from the supermarket or the vegetable vendor, cut one or two of them into slices and plant them under the potting mix, and soon, in a few days, tomato saplings poke their way out of the mix.
Some other varieties that I use are: Wild Texas Cherry Tomatoes, Yellow Pear, Roma, Beefsteak (the size of the tomatoes can be marvelous), Sam Marzano, Oxheart, and a few others. Watching cherry tomatoes growing (especially when they become so numerous, from the small flowers), or watching the size of the Beefsteak tomatoes where the plant branch strain to handle the weight of the tomatoes is incredible. It would be good to provide some support for the Beefsteak variety.
What do I do for my tomatoes ? The potting mix needs to be rich, with a lot of organic compost, well draining. While planting the seedlings (I transplant seedlings rather than growing directly from the seeds), added some bone meal, some Epsom Salt, and crushed egg shell in the soil (where it can steadily release some calcium to the plants as they grow). Tomato plants need full sun (although if you live in a very hot area such as I do, it is important to provide some shade), and are heavy feeders. So add some compost from time to time, and I also add some diluted seaweed extract as well as Bokashi composting leachate (and compost as well). Do all this, and you have a much higher probability of getting healthy plants that give a good product. Of course, you can get unlucky, and no matter what you do, your plant will die on you.
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