Why You Should Shop Seed Catalogs vs. Local Outlets, and The Great Tomato Race

             This Spring I received 65 seed catalogs. They came pouring in, all shapes and sizes, and have been filling my mailbox for the past 3 months. Do I look at them all? Yes. Do I buy from them all? Of course not, but seed catalogs are an invaluable source of information for the home gardener. Some are beautifully illustrated, working encyclopedias of shrub, tree, vegetable, flower species, and their culture. Some even include recipes. Through the diversity of seed catalogs you can take a magic carpet ride to a world of plants, from the comfort of your living room.

            Now, you might ask, why should one go to the trouble of mail ordering seeds and plants that can be bought at discount stores, garden stores, and even your local grocery store? Therein lays the secret. If you can be satisfied with the run-of-the-mill, generic plants, grown for the lowest common denominators of ease of growing in the widest varieties of weather and terrain, then you needn’t bother to mail order. But, if you want to grow something special, try something new and exciting, like the new Catalina potatoes from seed, or Novella II peas that support themselves. Or, if you want to try colorful gourmet salad greens, the exquisite taste of French filet beans, or cabbages from Denmark or England that can’t be found locally, follow me. Or, if you would like to try tomatoes from exotic lands, searching for that one tomato that tastes like Grandpa used to grow, or if you prefer to grow vegetables and flowers tailored to your particular microclimate, then seed catalogs are the answer. Besides, who has time while shopping to compare the seed packet descriptions, or plant labels, and these are often skimpy to nonexistent. Shop from those mail order nurseries that stand behind their seeds and plants and will replace them within a year of purchase, and you can’t go wrong. Try taking dead plants back to the local grocery store to get your money back!  

            I love to grow tomatoes, but someone told me “you can’t grow tomatoes here, too cold, too wet, not enough sunshine.” Picking up this gauntlet, I grew 12 varieties of tomato from different countries, all started from seed. They ranged from “Determinate” (growing to a certain height, and producing all their fruit at one time) to “Indeterminate” (growing and producing new flowers and tomatoes all season until frost, or in our case RAIN); some potato-leaved; some open pollinated (rare or endangered species whose seed is saved and shared), some heirloom and some hybrid. From the foggy San Francisco Bay Area I grew the highly touted as earliest, most flavorful Stupice, which we were picking by July 1, delicious, but quite small…about twice the size of a cherry tomato; From the deep South, we tried Spanish hybrid sun. Nice tasting but thick skinned (makes sense, it was bred for the South, to prevent cracking skins in the relentless sunshine). The most challenging was the Brandywine. The Heirloom. The “tomato of tomatoes,” with a taste all other tomatoes are compared to. This heirloom is extremely difficult to grow in this climate, being a 90-100 days tomato. Although I will admit I only managed to grow three of these, they were out of this world! From the steppes of Russia to the Siberian Altai mountains, we tried Sasha’s Pride (55-60 days), Siberia (48 days), smuggled to the US in the 1975, and the very best of the Russians, “Fireworks” a prolific determinate endangered species, producing hundreds of flowers on one plant and beautiful heart shaped, clear fleshed, superbly tangy tasting tomatoes. We tried Southern Night, a mahogany colored, thick fleshed, but mealy variety that wasn’t worth repeating for fresh eating but would be a good canner. Sasha’s Pride, in taste almost identical to Stupice came on later but much larger. From promotional Freebies, I grew “Early Experimental Hybrids” that weren’t early, but extremely tasty, and Sweet Million, a very early, prolific cherry tomato.

            At summer’s end, came the taste testing party, slices of tomatoes, all shapes, colors and sizes, fresh picked, dressed with Basil, and served with salt. For all our traveling, who was the winner? From right here in Oregon…Siletz, a 70-75 day tomato produced by Jim Baggett of Oregon State University (Nichols Garden Nursery), the earliest, most delectable of the humongous variety producing up to one pound fruits. The runner up…”Fireworks” from Russia (Seed Savers Exchange), then Sasha’s Pride tying with Stupice. Where did I find all these “off the wall” seeds? You guessed it, from the seed catalogs. Without the diversity of seed available from the catalogs, we would have been dead in the water, growing the same mundane, run of the mill tomatoes as everyone else in Oregon.

            Although I feel the urge to start seeds in late February or early March, in all actuality April is not too late to start your own tomatoes indoors from seed. Plant the seeds (4-5 of each variety is more than enough) in “Jiffy Pellets,” cover with plastic, and when they have sprouted, place on a sunny window-sill, brightly lit porch, or under a shop light. Don’t let them dry out. You don’t need special bulbs in your shop light, just new ones. You must keep the light within 2-3″ of the top of the leaves, and don’t forget to turn the lights off at night (plants like to sleep too). After about 3 weeks, you can transplant the pellets into 4″ pots, still keeping them under the lights. When the plants reach 4-6″ high, they are ready to “pot on” and to  begin “hardening off.”  Take your plants outdoors in the daytime to a shady, sheltered area, and bring them back in at night, forcing the tomatoes to become sturdier and hardier for transplanting into the ground by late May or early June.

            In this climate we need to provide all the sunshine and shelter possible. In the garden I use “Wall O’ Waters” or as I call them “Wally waters.”  These are plastic cones of tubes which you fill with water thus providing a steady microclimate, keeping the roots warm in the spring, and cool in the heat of summer, and you can set out your plants 3-4 weeks earlier than recommended. These are set up in the garden about a week prior to transplant time to warm up the soil. One week before transplant feed you plants dilute (50/50) Fish Emulsion to lessen the transplant shock. I save all my egg shells, dry, crush and sprinkle regularly around the growing tomato plants providing nutrients rich in calcium (tomatoes love calcium and it helps prevent blossom end rot) as well as deterring slugs who don’t like crawling around in egg shell powder. When the ground is warm, pop your tomato plants into the center of the Wall O’ Waters, sit back and start counting down to days until you pick your first sun ripened, succulent scarlet globe, ready to be popped into your mouth as is, or sliced between chunks of homemade bread and mayo…oh well, you know the rest of that story.

            Where do we plan to travel this year in the great tomato race? From Belgium, Belgian Giants; from England we have Marmande, an unnamed Australian; and of course, we are going back to Russia for Fireworks, Siberia, Sasha’s Altai, Sasha’s Pride, Aurora, Otraolny, and Urbikany, and just for fun we are growing a “spoon” tomato (redcurrant tomato) which is not a true tomato but produces tiny redcurrant size fruits for salads.  Want to travel along? Then dig out those seed catalogs, get growing and join the great tomato race.

SOURCES OF SHORT SEASON AND EARLY TOMATOES, HEIRLOOM SEEDS, AND SEED SAVERS

Nichols Garden Nursery – 1190 North Pacific Highway, Albany OR 97321.

Totally Tomatoes -P.O. Box 1626, Augusta GA 30903-1626  (40 Pages of tomatoes).

Tomato Grower’s Supply -P.O. Box 2237, Ft. Myers, FL 33902

Seeds Trust High Altitude Gardens – PO Box 1048, Hailey ID 83333-1048 (has Wall O’Waters, and many short season tomato varieties)

Abundant Life Seed Foundation PO Box 772 Port Townsend WA (Also short season varieties for the Pacific Northwest).

Seed Savers Exchange, 3076 North Winn Road, Decorah IA 52101 (Offers seed collections from Russia and Poland and many foreign heirloom varieties of tomato).