Growing tomatoes in Bay Area - San Francisco Chronicle

6/30/13 10:57 AM

Home & Garden

Growing tomatoes in Bay Area

Experts pick the best for Bay Area climates
Sophia Markoulakis
7:14 AM

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Growing tomatoes in Bay Area - San Francisco Chronicle

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Erin Lubin, Special To The Chronicle

Pam Pierce

Hands down, tomatoes are the most popular home-grown vegetable. They also can be the most frustrating. "Tomatoes are the roses of the vegetable garden," says Chronicle columnist and Bay Area garden authority Pam Peirce. "There are a million varieties, they grow kind of like weeds, get fussed over endlessly to maximize health and production, yet they are vexed with pests and problems. And we love them so much that we keep trying even when we don't have the ideal climate." According to Peirce, that would be night temperatures between 59 and 68 degrees and warm sunny days, but never one above 90 degrees. The good news is that breeders and grafters continue to develop tomatoes that tolerate lessthan-favorable conditions. The key is knowing what to expect from your climate and then choosing the variety that promises the greatest

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success. To help, we asked four Bay Area tomato experts for the top performers in their microclimates and their secrets for success.

North Bay
Bradley Gates, owner of Wild Boar Farms, has been breeding tomatoes for more than a decade and has built his reputation on open-pollinated heirlooms and striped and bi-color varieties with names such as 'Berkeley Tie-Dye' and 'Pineapple Pig.' His laboratory is a 4-acre farm in Suisun Valley, where hot days and cool nighttime breezes create ideal growing conditions for 12,000 organic tomato plants. Gates sells his seeds on his website ( www.wildboarfarms.com; 707-225-5757) and his seedlings to wholesale plant distributors and a few select retail locations in the next few weeks including Orchard Nursery and Florist in Lafayette (4010 Mount Diablo Blvd.; 925-284-4474). Proven winners: The best early varieties for me are 'Cherokee Purple,' 'Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye,' and 'Black and Brown Boar.' 'Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye' won Best of Show at Kendall-Jackson's 2011 Heirloom Tomato Festival and First in taste at the 2012 National Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa. First-to-ripen varieties include 'Black Cherry' and 'Haley's Purple Comet.' Late but great include 'Berkeley Tie-Dye,' 'Beauty King,' 'Brandywine' and most large bi-colors. Tips for success: Your soil will improve if you add compost and organic fertilizers annually and put back a little more than the plant took the previous year. I've had great success with using cardboard and paper bags to mulch plants. Lay it down and cover with compost: It smothers weeds, holds moisture and eventually improves the soil. Mistakes to avoid: Overwatering. Cut water by 30 percent just as your first tomato starts to blush. This doesn't apply to container plants. Excited about: The blue tomatoes that have been crossed with a wild tomato that carries the

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anthocyanin gene - the antioxidant that gives blueberries their color - look and taste amazing. They are aggressive growers, show great disease tolerance, and are very resistant to sun scalding and cracking. They have proven to do well in hot and cool areas. These include 'Indigo Apple,' 'Blue Beauty,' 'Amethyst Jewel' and 'Blue Boar Berries.' I'm also excited about a newly discovered California heirloom 'Amos Coli.' An elderly gentleman who had been keeping the plant alive for 58 years gave the seeds to me last year. He had received them from an older Italian gentleman who had made the cross almost 40 years prior.

San Francisco/coast
Chronicle Golden Gate Gardener columnist Pam Peirce is an expert on the challenges and particulars of fog-influenced microclimates. Her book "Golden Gate Gardening: The Complete Guide to Year-Round Food Gardening in the San Francisco Bay Area and Coastal California" (Sasquach; 2010) is in its third edition and includes planting calendars for inland as well as coastal microclimates. Peirce's home garden is too cool and shady for tomatoes, so she grows her plants in a community garden in a sunnier part of San Francisco and at several other sites across the city. For six years, she has conducted formal tomato trials, looking for varieties with good resistance to late-blight, a virulent disease that causes sudden death in plants.

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Pam Peirce

'Defiant' is a relatively early variety and among the most likely to produce near the coast.

Proven winners: If you don't have tomato late blight, then 'Early Girl' and 'Stupice' are still winners. If you do have blight, count on 'Defiant,' 'Juliet' or 'Mountain Magic' to see you through. All of these are relatively early varieties and among the most likely to produce near the coast as long as the growing site is un-shaded and protected from the wind. Look for some of these varieties at Sloat Garden Center's San Francisco locations ( www.sloatgardens.com). Tips for success: Choose small-fruited varieties to give the plants more individual chances to set fruit. Tomatoes can't set fruit if nights are below 55 degrees Fahrenheit, which frequently happens in gardens near the coast. On mild nights, you want lots of flowers ready for a chance to form fruit. Mistakes to avoid: Planting too early. Cold soil can set back growth all season. Set out transplants when the soil an inch below the surface is 60 degrees Fahrenheit, which is usually true
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by the end of April. Use a soil thermometer, in the shade, early in the day. Don't give up too early. If, come September, you still have green fruit on a healthy indeterminate, you may still have two months of harvest ahead of you. Excited about: Plants with extra vigorous roots grafted with known fruit varieties. These won't protect against late blight, because it's not a soil disease, but might give you bigger plants. Select grafted varieties that require 70 or fewer days to first ripe fruit. If you do give them a try, consider growing plants of the same varieties un-grafted to compare.

South Bay
Cynthia Sandberg is the owner of Love Apple Farms, a 20-acre oasis in Santa Cruz that supplies edibles exclusively for Michelin-starred Manresa Restaurant in the nearby Los Gatos. Love Apple Farms specializes in tomato plants that thrive in the Santa Cruz Mountains and South Bay. Each spring at their annual tomato plant sale (now under way at their retail greenhouse), Sandberg offers more than 100 different heirloom varieties. Look for new varieties including grafted plants and some that show resistance to diseases such as late blight. The sale continues 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday through June 30 at 5311 Scotts Valley Drive, Scotts Valley; (831) 588-3801. www.loveapplefarms.com. Proven winners: I love the early variety 'New Girl,' which is a hybrid that has better technology than its predecessor, 'Early Girl.' Great bright-red color, perfect 8 ounce size, disease resistant and high yields. For late varieties, I love 'Spudakee,' which produced significant yields of delicious purple, medium-size fruit in our South Bay garden. Another one that is proven is 'Michael Pollan': gorgeous green and yellow striping on a small oblong fruit.

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Janet Gates

Bradley Gates of Wild Boar Farms with his tomato seedlings.

Best for cooking: My favorite types of sauce tomatoes are oxhearts. They come in many colors, but the shape is always the same: the shape of a beef heart. They have thin skins, few seeds and are very dense. Tips for success: Our planting hole recipe is unique. Dig a 2-foot hole and put a fish head at the bottom. Add worm castings, a handful of Gardner & Bloome Tomato Fertilizer, two aspirin tablets and a handful of bone meal. Excited about: 'Red Robin' is a new plant we are offering at this year's sale. It's an extra-tiny, micro-plant that will fruit in a quart container.

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East Bay
Helen Krayenhoff and Peggy Kass have been operating Kassenhoff Growers for 18 years. This beloved Oakland-based organic plant nursery grows more than 90 varieties of tomatoes and distributes them mainly through their stands at the Grand Lake and Temescal farmers' markets from February through mid-June. Their seedlings are not grown in greenhouses, but raised outdoors at their Alameda growing site where they become accustomed to the area's climate. They suggest that gardeners appreciate the happenstance that sometimes occurs in the garden. "Often volunteer tomato plants come up in our garden in the spring and it can be surprising what great plants can come free to us." For their market hours and schedule, check www.kassenhoffgrowers.com. Proven winners: At only 55 days to maturity, 'Bloody Butcher' is a great early small, red cluster tomato. It's an open-pollinated indeterminate potato-leaf variety that does well in the cooler areas of the East Bay. We also like 'Cosmonaut Volkov' (65 days to maturity). It's a cold summer insurance crop for us and does well in this area like many other Russian varieties. Its juice is sweet, rich and full-bodied. It's really big for an early tomato and a tasty reliable producer. 'Lillian's Yellow Heirloom' (85 days to maturity) is a late-season variety that we find to be the tastiest yellow beefsteak we've encountered - and it does well in the East Bay. Best for cooking: 'Martino's Roma' (75 days to maturity) has a determinate habit and is a great container saucer that is also delicious in salads. 'Costoluto Genovese' (75 days to maturity) is a workhorse midseason heirloom Italian variety. We also like to encourage our customers try green tomatoes and are loving 'Green Doctor's Frosted' (75 days to maturity). It's a new midseason cherry that has clear skin. This indeterminate productive plant produces so many sweet cherries that barely made it to the house from the garden last year. Tips for success: Adding compost is important for nutrition, but so is a well-balanced organic fertilizer without too much nitrogen. Consistent deep watering is recommended when foliage is forming, then decrease the frequency of watering when the fruits are full size to increase the intensity of flavor. Avoid overhead watering to prevent fungal diseases. Often gardeners plant tomatoes too close together. Give them plenty of space, especially indeterminate varieties.

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Indeterminates can grow to be monsters so make sure to give them room to spread and support them securely. Having good air circulation helps the plants keep leaf diseases at bay and makes harvesting more fun. Save your seeds: Play and experiment with saving seed from your strongest open-pollinated plants. Repeating this over the years, the seed becomes acclimated to your garden and produce the most appropriate and hardy plants you can imagine. Truly expressing the potential of the East Bay - a tomato grower's paradise. What's your type? Tomato varieties are classified as determinate or indeterminate. Determinate: These compact, bush varieties are ideal for containers because they stop growing once they reach a certain height. Plants have a short harvest period - about four to six weeks. Indeterminate: Vining types become sprawling plants that continue grow after fruit sets. Tomatoes in various developmental stages will be on the plant at one time and harvest can continue to the first frost. They can be grown in containers but are better off in the ground. These plants need staking and support. Early, mid or late season? Early season tomatoes are those that need 65 days or fewer to maturity - the number of days until the plant produces green fruit. While the fruit tends to be on the smaller side, these varieties are ideal for cooler parts of the Bay Area. Midseason tomatoes ripen between 65 and 80 days. Late-season tomatoes, including large types like beefsteaks, take 80 days or longer to mature and best in warmer parts of the Bay Area. Choosing multiple varieties will help ensure you have tomatoes ripening all summer long. How to plant Burying most of your tomato seedling will help it develop a strong root system. Plant when the soil warms up, usually around the end of April. Choose a sunny spot with well-amended, well-drained soil.

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Space plants 3 feet apart. Dig a wide hole deep enough to bury half to two-thirds of the plant. Remove the tomato from its pot, loosen the roots and pinch off the lower two sets of leaves. This part of the stem will be buried so it develops additional roots for a stronger plant. Set the plant in the hole and mound the soil so that just the top half or top third of the plant is above ground. Support the plant to keep it off the ground and prevent disease. Place a tall, sturdy cage around the tomato; secure with stakes. For instructions on how to make a proper cage see www.loveapplefarms.com. Water deeply and regularly until the plant sets fruit, then cut back on water to concentrate flavor and avoid split fruit. Sophia Markoulakis is a freelancer in Burlingame. E-mail: home@sfchronicle.com

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