The Tomato Plant That Ate New York

Tomatoes - Day 1

Tomatoes are an integral part of Italian cooking. It's hard to go a whole day without seeing tomatoes somewhere on the menu. A good tomato is just as important for a hearty pasta sauce as it is for a salad or bruschetta. Not all tomatoes are created equal, and one that's good in sauce may not be quite as good in caprese. A gardener that also likes to cook will want to have a few different types in her garden so she can use the optimal variety for her intended dish. It was with this philosophy in mind that we planned our tomatoes for this year's summer garden.

We've grown tomatoes most years for the past decade or so, but we tended to be more conservative in the number of tomato plants we chose. Typically, we'd only have one or two plants--enough to enjoy most days of the week, but not necessarily enough to make sauce or can. The area in which they are growing this year has proven to be fertile tomato-growing ground in years past. The first year, we grew a single tomato plant in this area and ended up with a plant that outgrew its tomato cage by about 10 feet. No, really. We didn't feed it extra plant food, we didn't do anything special. We just put it in the ground, watered it regularly, and let nature do her thing. The plant's unbelievable growth spurt defied any growing guides we could find for any variety of tomato. They just aren't supposed to get that big. People we told about the tomato would give us the "are you sure?" look, assuming we were pulling their leg and engaging in a loose association with the truth. I assure you, we were not.

Tomatoes - Day 115

One or two years later, we planted there again. And again, we grew another Tomato Plant That Ate New York. This one might have been a little bit bigger than the first one. Again, no special plant food, just put it in the ground, watered it, and let it be. My parents blamed my green thumb; my dad claimed that because I had touched it, it was imbued with some magical plant energy that made it erupt into a monster-sized plant. I think tomatoes just like it there. There's good, rich soil, plenty of sunlight, and it's on an automatic watering system with good drainage so it doesn't get over-watered (yes, that's a thing with tomatoes). We've even had tomatoes reseed themselves and come back on their own because they like the garden so much! Tomatoes break the rules a lot with us.

The mystery tomato

This year, we have four tomatoes growing there, enough for us to enjoy and share with family, and enough to turn into sauce or can if we want to. And we seem to be experiencing more of the same Giant Tomato Plant trend. Three of the four tomatoes in this area have far outgrown their tomato cages, which were custom-made to be bigger and stronger than what you'd find at a nursery. One of the tomatoes has pulled the cage up off the ground(!). We've had to tie up multiple branches that were so weighed down with fruit. The three big plants are taller than either Mom or me (and we're 5'5"). To give some perspective, the Black Krims are only supposed to have a spread (width of the plant) of 18 inches; it exceeded that by about double. In 115 days, we've created three monsters. And to make things even more interesting, we have a mystery tomato in our midst. We thought we bought two San Marzano tomato plants, which are red tomatoes that are great for saucing. What we ended up with is one San Marzano, and one plant with these yellowish tomatoes that have green stripes. I think it's a Green Zebra tomato, but I'm not 100% sure. It's tasty and full-flavored, and works well in salads. If we can find out what it is, I'd like to have one next summer.

I dare say it's another good year for tomatoes.