- Tomatoes, tomatoes, tommy boys, little tamats,
whatever you call these juicy orbs
of goodness in the garden,
there are a lot of things that gardeners believe
that might not really be perfectly true
about these delicious tomatoes.
Even this guy knows that.
So in this video, what we're gonna do
is go over about seven or so
of the most pervasive tomato myths.
So we cultivate that light button
for plus 20% to your tomato ripening factor.
And let's get into the first myth,
which is the fact that just because a tomato leaf
is yellowing or dying means that your tomato plant
is in trouble.
It's really not true.
If you take a look at this plant here,
I've got some beautiful ripening tomatoes here,
I have this random little cluster down here,
but then there's all these dead and dying leaves.
And you might say,
"Okay, well this plant is on its last legs."
No, not really.
I mean, the lower leaves on a tomato plant
are the ones that are the oldest,
they're the ones that are the most blocked by the sun,
and generally speaking are the ones that are going to wither
and die and be more susceptible to disease the soonest.
So what I like to do is just prune off any tomato leaves
that are below the first cluster of ripening fruit.
So even this entire stem here,
looks like I already harvested that cluster.
So I'm just gonna remove this.
This one I'll leave
and any leaves that are below about this point or so,
I'll remove which I've already done.
You can even remove spent stems,
but don't stress if you have a ton of yellowing leaves
down low on the plant.
If it's all over the plant,
of course that's a different story.
- One common myth or misconception
is that you have to grow paste varieties
to actually make tomato sauce.
So these are Granadero plums,
they are disease resistant plum tomato,
great for making pasta sauce.
The reason why you use paste tomatoes generally for sauce
is that they have a lot less fluid in them,
so they're less liquidy, which what that means
is that once you actually start processing
and making your sauce, it won't be that watery.
So you don't have to reduce it for as long as you would
if you were to use a whole mix of beefsteaks
or other types of tomatoes.
So that's one of the main advantages,
but really you could use any tomato you want.
And one of my personal favorites
is using cherry tomatoes to make your pasta sauce.
This is one of my sungold plants.
And for me, it actually makes
probably the most delicious pasta sauce that you can make.
The cool thing about making your pasta sauce
from a cherry tomato is that it's actually a lot faster
and easier than any other sauce.
Now it might not be the exact same thing,
the sauce will be a little more watery,
but it's wonderful for a quick little summer pasta dish.
And it's great even on a cold pasta salad
- One common myth that you really shouldn't stress over
is needing to tickle tomato flowers in order to get fruit.
So if you are a commercial grower
or you grow in a greenhouse, then yes,
there are mechanical or hand pollinating techniques
that you should use to increase your fruit production.
But in most cases, if you are growing tomatoes outside
when there is wind and when there are bumblebees around
to buzz pollinate, tickling tomatoes is not necessary.
And this is because tomato plants have flowers
that are self fertile.
And structurally they're called perfect flowers,
meaning that they have both the male and the female parts.
And in normal outdoor growing situations,
when there's wind or bumblebees around
to buzz pollinate the flowers,
the pollination naturally happens
when the pollen falls on the female part
and the fruit develops.
However, if you really want to increase your yields,
you can go in and tickle those flowers
or use an electric toothbrush if you have the time
- The next myth up
is that you need to have sun hitting the tomato
in order for it to ripen.
It's really not the case.
You can have a completely protected tomato.
As long as the leaves are getting enough sun,
this tomato is still going to ripen.
So you don't really have to make sure
that it's hitting the sun.
In fact, sometimes it can warm the tomato up too much,
you can get sun scald
on extremely bright days in the summer,
and it may actually ruin the tomato.
So I wouldn't stress if some sun's hitting it,
but it's not mandatory.
- One of the most common myths
is how to actually prune your tomato.
So a lot of people are in the camp
that you have to remove all your suckers.
The sucker is the little sprout of a tomato
that comes between a leaf node and the main stem.
This will turn into basically a whole nother plant.
Now the myth behind that
is that you have to prune your suckers
or you don't have to prune your suckers
to get exactly what you need.
But the cool thing is, is that you can do both.
In this example, I started off
having both of these tomatoes as a single stem
and I allowed both of them to split
into two main leaders after that.
The advantage of this is that if you keep it tight
to just one or two stems,
then you could pack way more tomatoes into your same bed,
which gives you more variety to grow,
more flavor to experience.
And the other interesting thing about that
is that you actually will get earlier harvest
and the tomatoes will generally be larger.
But there is the other option
of not pruning your tomatoes at all.
So let's go take a look at that.
As I mentioned, you can not prune your tomatoes.
You can see here, I am surrounded
by all sorts of tomato plant material of all sorts.
And the cool thing about this,
this is a Florida Weave set up,
so way less pruning just at the beginning
for airflow and cleanliness.
But the nice thing about the Florida Weave
is that you get way more tomatoes overall.
They will come a little bit later
since you have a lot more to actually ripen at once,
but in the long run, you'll get way more tomatoes
if you don't prune your suckers.
So that's the trade off,
you either get more tomatoes earlier
or you get way more tomatoes overall
if you don't remove your suckers
- There's this really common belief
that if at time of planting,
you supply the soil or the transplant with lots of calcium,
that you can avoid blossom-end rot.
So it's this discolored patchy part
at the blossom end of the fruit.
But actually blossom-end rot is a disorder
that is related to poor or inconsistent watering practices,
not necessarily a lack of calcium in the soil.
Most garden soils actually have sufficient calcium in there
unless you've done tests that show
that you are very deficient in calcium,
then that's another issue.
But with most tomato plants,
what they want is consistent moisture.
The plant is actually unable to uptake the calcium
that's already there when the soil is dry.
So the key to preventing this blossom-end rot
is to make sure that you have a good
and regular watering practice.
- This next myth might really surprise you.
And it's the fact that tomatoes really
don't have to ripen on the vine.
Now I'm not saying pick a green tomato
and ship it to your local grocery store,
like tomatoes are traditionally grown,
that's not what we're growing tomatoes for,
but you don't have to let it get fully ripe
and it may even be advantageous
to harvest it a little bit earlier.
So let me talk about what exactly I mean here.
We have these beautiful green tomatoes here.
We don't wanna harvest those at all.
Then we have this guy, this guy is about 30 to 50% ripe.
It's at what's called the breaker stage.
So if you remember, tomatoes will ripen quite literally
from the center out and the bottom up.
Remember this was the blossom side of the tomato,
so this is the oldest section, so to speak of the tomato,
then of course the center.
So when you see it at about 30 to 50% ripe like this,
you can clip it right off and this will ripen up perfectly.
And the flavor will not be lessened in some way.
When it's at 30 to 50%, especially 50% ripe on the vine,
you can cut it and the flavor is perfectly preserved.
There's not a ton of extra advantage
to going past that point.
And the reason why is
because if I let this guy get perfectly ripe on the vine,
it has way less shelf life off the vine
and birds, rats, et cetera, more likely to hit it.
So, I mean, you really have to try this to believe it.
It kind of seems unbelievable,
but I would encourage you to harvest something like this
about 50% ripe, let it ripen indoors,
and then harvest a perfectly ripe one,
and just kind of compare and see how that works.
It really, really makes a big difference.
- This next myth
is going to be an extremely controversial one.
So lemme just say that right off the bat.
This is going to be one that if you wanna ever believe it,
you're just going to have to try it.
And trust me, this is a myth that I have long fell prey to.
This is something that I believed in a very serious way
and would tell people never do this,
which is you can't put your tomatoes in the fridge.
That's the myth.
It turns out that people have actually tried it
and it's fine.
So the deal is is that there are some caveats.
Now if you have two tomatoes,
in this case I have two cherry tomato examples,
and they are both fully ripe,
as soon as it's fully ripe and you put it in the fridge,
there should be no degradation in flavor or texture.
Now people did multiple taste trials
across multiple varieties in multiple different areas
and they basically just found
that simply there is no difference.
It's the same tomato.
And in fact, a lot of people preferred the one
that was stored in the fridge.
And the reason behind that
is that once your tomato is fully ripe,
as soon as it hits that ripe point,
it's now on a down spiral.
Just like it's before it's ripe, it's not as good,
at peak ripeness, it's the best, but overripe is not good,
it just doesn't taste good.
So now the important caveat
is that if your tomato is fully ripe
and you're going to eat it that day, just eat it that day.
But if it's fully ripe
and you're not going to eat it that day,
put it in the fridge.
You have literally nothing to lose.
The next day it could just taste awful.
So I'm gonna go ahead and try this cold cherry tomato.
Tastes like a great cherry tomato.
This is a warm one that I literally just harvested.
Tastes like a great cherry tomato.
Now there is another thing that you should consider
is that if you take the fridge tomato out,
you could let it reach room temperature
and you still get more of that flavor.
'Cause if something is warmer,
it'll generally taste more like something.
So you could either eat a cold if you want
or you just let it come back up to room temperature
and use it just like you would a ripe tomato.
- When we look at big, plump tomato varieties,
it's easy to imagine that the entire plant
requires a ton of water all of the time.
And we talked about consistency and yes,
consistent moisture helps prevent blossom-end rot
and it helps the plants stay healthy,
especially during the hotter periods,
but too much water can be a bad thing as well.
So by too much, I'm mostly referring
to consistent moisture or watering,
but only at the top level.
So if you're going in and only spraying the top
maybe inch or so of soil,
that's not gonna be beneficial to the plant
because the roots are not encouraged to go down deep
to seek out nutrients and water at a different level.
So it's not really doing the plant a favor in that sense.
And also if you're supplying a lot of moisture,
let's say maybe you're watering too thoroughly,
too consistently,
then the flavor may get a little bit washed out
and the texture may get a little bit mushy.
And on a related note, if after a dry period,
you go in and you water it very heavily all at once,
you may see the fruit crack
and that really is the plant
and the fruit not really able to handle
all that moisture all at once.
So that's why you see the splitting.
So the key here is consistent deep watering.
And if you're watering in garden beds,
do a deep thorough water, make sure it goes in a few inches
and then hit the water again, maybe in a few more days.
So stagger it out, don't do daily watering,
and especially don't do daily watering
at very, very shallow levels.
However, if you are a container gardener,
your practices are slightly different.
So make sure you check in on your plants
at least once or twice a day and water accordingly.
Don't be surprised if you need to, let's say,
hand water twice a day
during the height of the hot growing season.
And that's because containers have less soil volume
and less ability to have that water available
in the soil for the plant to stay healthy.
And there are a couple of ways to get used
to how much water is right for your plant.
Some people allow the first one to two inches dry out
and then they water.
That's a good rule of thumb, but I like to go with weight.
So as I get to know how the plant is doing with the water,
I lift and get used to how much that container weighs.
And again, mulch is really great
if you want to reduce that evaporation
to keep your plant nice and healthy
- There's 1,000,001 ways to grow tomatoes,
there's 1,000,001 tips on tomatoes,
but hopefully this video showed you a couple myths
that you simply don't have to believe anymore.
I've got a big juicy beefsteak to deal with.
So I encourage you to subscribe.
We have a tomato hacks that actually works video
coming out pretty soon.
Good luck in the garden and keep on growing.