You can't talk gardens at this time of year without the conversation steering towards tomatoes. This short-lived perennial grown as an annual and believed to have originated in the Andean regions of South America has come to symbolise the revival of living by the seasons, re-connecting with heirloom vegetables and doing things by hand.
Such is the rank of the tomato that some of those committed to growing it don't cultivate anything else. And then there are those who use their tomatoes as a barometer for what needs doing elsewhere in the garden.
Time to think tomatoes, in all their variety.Credit:Elesa Kurtz
That's because the planting regime for tomato seedlings – best planted out when the daytime temperature regularly tops 20°C – is representative for how to treat a whole host of plants, particularly edible ones, in the warmer months.
In their new book Grown & Gathered, central Victorian growers Matt and Lentil Purbrick write about how they use their greenhouse-raised tomato seedlings as "indicators" for when to plant out everything from corn to cosmos. By timing their mass mid-spring planting according to when their seedlings are about 20cm tall, they avoid the very cold nights – and frosts – that permanently hamper plant growth. Once their seedlings are big enough to cope with life outside the shelter of their greenhouse, the cabbage, cauliflower, cucumber, kale, kohlrabi, potato, pumpkin and zucchini can join them outdoors. Eggplants and capsicums will often need an extra week or two indoors.
All this, of course, assumes seeds were sown in August in a greenhouse or sunny spot inside. While you still – just – have time to sow the seeds of some varieties (including cherry tomatoes), those wanting to plant seedlings around now will have to settle for nursery-bought stock. It's more expensive and you don't get such a wide choice of varieties in seedlings as seeds but you will still be able to select from a range of climbing tomatoes (which need staking) and more compact bush ones.
Despite the resurgence of interest in heritage varieties, a revival that started in the 1980s and has gathered pace ever since, modern hybrids are not without their advocates. David Glenn, from Lambley Nursery and Gardens in Victoria's goldfields region, has been spreading the word about the benefits of F1 hybrid seed of all sorts of vegetables for some years now. He says tomatoes bred using modern technologies have better germination rates and disease-resistance, as well as good flavour. In February – just as his modern Roma hybrids were ripening – he was enthusing on his website about the "bumper crops" he has enjoyed since he stopped growing heirloom varieties.
One of the benefits of heirloom tomatoes, though, is that you can squeeze the seeds from a ripe tomato, leave them to dry on tissue paper and save them to plant the following year. Tomatoes can self-seed too – last summer, sweet, bite-sized cherry tomatoes sprang up of their own accord in my garden.
Some people remove self-seeded tomatoes because of the risk of disease, which can also be carried through dried seeds and soil (the reason conventional growers avoid planting seedlings into the same part of the garden two years in a row).
Viral, fungal, bacterial and root knot diseases all strike tomatoes, distorting, wilting, withering, discolouring and otherwise weakening plants. While Glenn has found new tomato varieties to be healthier and more productive, Matt and Lentil only grow from heirloom seeds. The pair describe how on their farm, with "just the right amount of wildness" they harvest 100 kilograms of tomatoes every week for at least 15 weeks from one 60-metre row of plants.
Whichever option you choose, everyone agrees that the time is just about right to get planting.
Grown & Gathered, published by Plum, Pan Macmillan Australia, $45.
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