- Hi, thanks for joining us for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Tomatoes are the most popular crop in home gardens.

Today, we're going to spend the whole show talking about them.

That's just ahead on The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

- (female announcer) Production funding for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South is provided by the WKNO Production Fund, the WKNO Endowment Fund, and by viewers like you, thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot.

I'm Chris Cooper.

The tomato is the queen of the garden.

With planting season just around the corner, we're going to spend a whole show talking about them, choosing varieties, planting, and bugs that like to eat them.

First up, Alainia Hagerty is going to talk about some interesting tomato varieties you might want to try your garden this year.

All right, Alainia, let's talk about those tomato varieties.

So I'm sure you have a lot of favorite varieties, but before we do that, let's talk about the difference between determinate and indeterminate tomatoes.

- Your determinate tomatoes will put on their fruit all at one time.

So like if you were canning and you wanna make sure you had ample supply to do your canning at one time, then you would wanna do your determinate varieties.

- Okay.

- Your indeterminate varieties, most of the home gardeners do these because for what you've put into planting them, you're gonna get your return all season long.

- Okay, all season long.

- All season long.

And a lot of people do determinate varieties because they want something more compact because they're container gardening, but I encourage you to do the indeterminate varieties and then prune 'em back.

- Okay.

- They'll live through it.

- They'll live through it.

- They'll live through it.

- All right, so you wanna start telling us about some of the tomato varieties that you like?

- Okay, there's a lot of different spectrum.

There's a huge spectrum of flavors.

You could try 10 different kinds, and every member in the household would find a different variety that they liked.

So I encourage people to try different kinds before they choose or plant only one kind.

- Okay.

- Most of what's available to us in the big box stores is just a few varieties, when there's thousands that we could try.

[Chris laughs] Whenever you're getting them, buying your varieties, try to buy named varieties.

Often they're tagged.

We find 'em in the stores as red beef steak.

That's not the cultivar.

That is the shape and the color they're telling you.

- Okay.

- If they say Roma, red Roma, - Which I've seen.

- That's a shape and a color.

- Okay.

- We wanna know which red Roma was it?

Was it San Marzano?

Was it Opalka?

Because that way you know what to reject or what to retry the following year based off of how it produced and how it tasted.

- That's good, okay, that's good.

- You'll still be limited with what you can find until you start, and nowadays, there's so many different online vendors that are selling many varieties, and, of course, we get the seed catalog.

So you can start your own or find a grower that's doing that already for you.

And then you open up a whole world to all the different kinds that you can't normally find.

- I like that, so you're encouraging folks to try more than just the one they always see, right.

- Yes, they taste different, and they're gonna produce differently.

- Sure.

- Some do better in the cooler temps that we would see in the northern states.

Brandywine is one of these.

- I'm familiar with that.

- There's some that do better in the late season, or they do better with a little bit more heat.

- And by that time, it will be a lot hotter.

- Yes.

- Later in the season for sure.

- And the ones that say they're disease, or I'm sorry, that say they're heat-resistant, - I've seen those.

- Generally they're only talking about a few degrees.

- Okay.

- Tomatoes will set the fruit, and sometimes above 90 degrees, the pollen is not as viable.

These heat-resistant varieties are saying that at 95 degrees, they'll set fruit up to 95 degrees.

That five degree difference isn't enough to only include that in your garden.

So try them all.

- Try 'em all.

- Worst case scenario, you can always self pollinate.

- So let's talk about some of your favorite varieties.

- Okay, we starting with colors or are we startings with reds?

- Oh, we gonna let you start wherever you wanna start.

- Okay.

- How about that?

- Some people like sweet tomatoes.

- Okay.

- I've got a couple sweet tomatoes.

Watermelon.

Yes, Watermelon is giant, sweet tomato.

Dad's Sunset is a good orange that would be sweet.

Kellogg's Breakfast, those would also be sweet.

- So let me ask you about that.

So what makes it sweet though?

- The sugar content and also sometimes the acidity to it will make it...

If it's not as acidic, it'll make it taste sweeter.

- Okay, do you prefer the the sweeter tomatoes?

- I'm more of the acidic.

- So you're acid, okay.

- Yeah.

But these are good too, - But they're good, okay.

- But some people come and actually will request a sweet tomato, - Okay, got it.

- These are some that I've tried that do.

If you're trying to grow Roma tomatoes or for canning, and you don't want as much juice, you'll want a thicker fruit with not as much gel or seeds.

San Marzano.

San Marzano's a good tasting one.

Then you've got some bigger ones with Pink Fang.

That's a new one I'm trying this year.

- Okay.

- Oxheart tomato is essentially the same shape as the Roma, but it's like a Roma on steroids.

[Chris laughs] So it's a strawberry shape, but it's got the same setup where the seed cavities are on the outside.

So if you wanted to remove the seeds and have a thicker paste.

- Ah.

- Now I've never met an oxheart that I didn't like.

- Good, good.

- But they're big, and you're not gonna get as much fruit.

So if you're, again, going for the Roma shape, for the paste and tomato types, try the oxhearts, but keep in mind, you'll have to plant more of those.

- Right.

- But they have a lot more flavor than the typical Roma.

- Got it, okay.

Some oxhearts would be German Red Strawberry, Wolford's Wonder, Russian 117.

Now, good general purpose tomato- - Okay, and what do you mean by general purpose?

- You're gonna get a lot of them.

- Okay, so a lot.

- A reliable production.

- Okay.

- Maybe not the best tasting tomato, but it's reliable.

- It's reliable, good, okay.

- Stupice, now it's a smaller one, - Okay.

- But you're gonna get a lot of 'em.

A lot of people have trouble growing.

Maybe they don't have enough sunlight.

You want at least six hours of direct sunlight.

If you're not getting that, try Stupice.

That's probably one that I think you'll get some.

Those are cherries.

- Good, okay.

- Other general purpose, Big Zac, Beefmaster.

- Beefmaster, how about that?

Okay.

- Now, most people like the big tasty tomatoes.

They're like, I want a big tasty tomato.

- Sure.

- This is what I got for you.

- Okay.

- Aussie, Brandywine.

- Okay, there's Brandywine.

- And it is a little sweet too.

- All right.

- Italian Tree tomato.

- Italian Tree tomato.

- It's huge.

It's another potato leaf like your Brandywine, but they're good tasting and they're big fruit.

Mexico, Neves Azorean Red.

You've seen those in the store.

- Okay.

- Colored tomatoes.

- Yeah, let's do it.

- Your purples or your blacks.

There's one called Black, and it's about egg shaped.

- Okay.

- Cherokee Purple.

- Ah, know Cherokee Purple.

- Folks know.

- Know that one.

- Purple Calabash.

[Chris laughs] I like those.

Now those are the ugliest looking tomatoes.

- Ah, oh goodness.

- But if you don't mind it being ugly and you just wanna taste a really good purple, it's a really good purple.

Yellows and oranges, Dad's Sunset, Kellogg's Breakfast.

- Oh, Kellogg's Breakfast.

- Persimmon.

- Golly.

- Now, green tomatoes.

- Okay.

- My mom likes these - Green tomatoes.

- They're ripe when they're still green.

- They're ripe...green.

- And they're green.

They're gonna have a little bit of a yellow blushing at the shoulders, maybe a little bit of a pink blushing at the bottom.

- Okay.

- And they're gonna be a little squishy.

- So that's how you can tell when they're ready?

- That's the only way you can tell when they're ready.

My mom likes those, but do not plant a whole garden of those, - Okay.

- They have a tart taste to 'em.

It's not gonna taste like a regular tomato.

- Okay.

- But mom likes 'em a lot.

- Hey, I'm going with mom.

- Ananas Noire is base green.

We talked about that one.

It's a sweet tomato, but it's really unique looking.

Your striped tomatoes.

- Okay?

- These can be the most colorful, neatest looking tomatoes.

And if you like to grow tomatoes, maybe you don't like to taste tomatoes.

There's some people out there that do not like to eat them, but they like to grow 'em.

- But they like to grow.

- These are for you.

- Right, we know some of those people, don't we?

- Yes, striped ones, splotch one's.

A well-known one would be Big Rainbow.

Yellow, and you'll get some pink splotches on the outside.

You can slice 'em and you'll have that pink starburst in the center.

- How about that?

- Okay, Pineapple.

- Pineapple.

- Hawaiian Pineapple.

But they're a little different.

Hawaiian Pineapple's got more striping.

Pineapple has more splotches, and they're huge.

Little bit of sweet.

They're fruity.

Pork Chop.

- Pork Chop, all right.

- Cherry tomatoes.

There's big cherries, little cherries.

- Okay.

- You've got your salad bar size that would be about like a quarter.

And then there's the little mini marbles that, served together, they just look excellent.

- Okay.

- If you like the little bitty ones, try Matt's Wild Cherry.

If you can't grow or think you can't grow tomatoes, try Matt's Wild Cherry.

If it ever makes once, I had one going for like 15 years.

- How about that?

- So you like that one, White Currant is a yellow version.

These are your little wild cherries, - Okay.

- Salad bar size, about like a quarter.

Black Cherry, that's different than your normal, and it's good.

It's purple.

I. candy.

- I. candy.

- That's your your salad bar size.

- Oh yeah, so again, try all of these if you can.

- Yes.

- Just try variety.

- Yes.

- Is what you're asking.

- Find named varieties - Named, okay.

- Find a selection and try different things.

- Just try different things.

- As soon as you find out what you do like, then you can start comparing 'em and talking tomatoes with your friends.

[upbeat country music] - With tomato varieties picked out, it is time to plant.

Alainia is going to show us how.

Welcome to our Family Plot square foot garden.

- We need some tomatoes in here.

- We need some tomatoes in a couple of these squares.

So we have you to help us out with that.

- We can take care of that.

- Let's take care of that, all right?

- Nighttime temperatures have to be above 50.

- Okay.

- We good?

- I think we good.

- Daytime, nighttime, - Daytime, nighttime.

- They can stunt below 50 degrees.

So, today we're planting big boys.

- Okay.

- And I tell you what, we've got some water soluble fertilizer.

- Okay.

- You can use organic - So that's your own mixture?

- If you're an organic gardener.

This is just an all purpose.

- All purpose, okay, good deal.

- I like to give them the fertilizer about 20 minutes before, 20, 30 minutes so that before we disturb the roots, they can take it up without any restriction whatsoever or without drying out.

A lot of times you put 'em directly into the dry soil, and that dryness, the dirt, will start to wick away the moisture on the root ends and could kill the root ends.

- That's a good point.

- So give 'em a good drink beforehand.

- Good drink beforehand, all right.

- Okay, so the difference between a thin stalk on our tomato plant, even in these transplants, versus a thicker stalk is how much of the stem you plant in the ground.

The stem, when you bury it, will make roots all along the stem.

- Okay.

- So that's what stem, when you transplant a little seedling, when they're burying it, that's making more roots and it makes a thicker stem.

So when we're planting it in here, we wanna do the same thing.

- Okay.

- We're planning on planting as much of the stem without damaging too much of the foliage.

- Okay, how about that?

- So, but to bury 'em, so we're gonna prune off anything that we don't need on the bottom so we can bury the stem.

So... - So you just pinch those off.

- Pinch these bottom leaves off.

- All right.

- Take them on- - That's an interesting planting technique, okay.

How do the roots look?

- So, good.

- Everything's okay.

- We're gonna plant it up to about here.

- Wow, okay.

- And it's gonna make a shorter plant, but it's gonna make a stout stem.

- Okay.

- So.

- So we want stout stem.

- Stout stems.

- Okay.

- Okay.

- All right.

Let's see how much you dig.

- Oh, this is good.

- You like that?

- Yep.

- We good?

- You wanna put it in the middle of the square?

- We can put it in the middle of the square.

- We'll loosen up the dirt.

We wanna loosen up the dirt as much as possible up underneath.

They say they need about the size of a five gallon bucket for the roots.

And of course, the roots are gonna extend up under the ground.

So they've got that and it's nice and loose.

So, just gonna loosen up a little bit to make sure.

The roots are lazy.

[Chris laughs] Anything we can do for 'em makes 'em grow easier.

- All right.

- Okay.

- Make it easy for the roots, all right, I got it.

- Let's put the roots over here on this end.

Take this little guy outta here.

- So, do we need to- - Loosen up the bottom.

- Okay.

- And they call us the trench method too where you just drag a little trench.

And we're gonna lay it down, break up the roots a little bit.

- Okay.

- Lay it down, and we're gonna turn it up, and then we're just gonna cover it here.

But I'm gonna give it another drink just to make sure, which I don't know why I'm always planting when it's dry as a bone [Chris laughs] and I have to use the whole gallon.

- Wow, that's pretty good.

- But this is good spring dirt, wet here, so we don't have to put as much.

And then just cover it over.

It doesn't have to be very deep at all.

And then it's gonna turn up.

The sun will come along and turn it up even more, but we can bend it a little bit, and we're not gonna break it.

- Okay.

- I sort of make it stand up a little bit.

- Now, - Wow.

- When you're fertilizing tomato plants, you fertilize over the leaves 'cause they foliar feed, as well as feeding through the roots.

I know when I pour the water over top of these, these are gonna end up on the ground.

So I'm gonna pinch off these ends - Wow.

- Just so my water's gonna roll off like off a duck's back.

- Okay.

- We put some water down in the hole, straight to the roots, and then we're gonna water again.

- How about that?

So we're gonna water all the foliage.

Foliage, okay.

- Now, it didn't drag it down 'cause we pruned it and took those big leaves off, and it's gonna make up for it soon.

- Now, how often would you fertilize tomato?

- A couple weeks.

- Couple weeks.

- Go by the directions, do the stronger strain, stronger strength, and it's usually about two weeks.

- Two week, okay.

- And it should say that on whatever fertilizer you are using.

- Okay.

- Or whether it's organic or all purpose.

- Okay, so you loosening up the soil again, right?

- Yep.

- Soil is good.

- It's real loose.

- Now, do you still do the trench method in a container or in a five-gallon bucket?

- Yes.

And if you had a five-gallon bucket, you would just roll this guy up and turn him up.

Roll him in a circle around the top so that he's got plenty of time to grow down in the depth of the plant.

- Got it.

Got it.

- Now, here's another one, sometimes I cheat.

You can't plant until it's above 50 degrees to keep 'em from stunting, but let's say I wanted to get, which around for us, if it's a on time spring, talking about April 15, something like that, but if I wanna get a start earlier, I get one of those cheap like flimsy like what you would buy a bush or tree in like three gallon container, and that doesn't have to be fancy.

And I cut a big hole outta the bottom.

- Okay.

- So I can keep it inside, keep it guarded, pull it in on the cold nights when we get one here and there, and then bring it back out during the day.

- Smart.

- And then my plants start before others.

- Gotcha.

- Then when I take... And it's got a hole in the bottom.

I put a piece of cardboard down, put my dirt in, put my plant in, curled it up near the top, turned its little head up.

And then as it fills up the container or grows to the bottom, it'll go on out that hole, and it can make its way outta that cardboard.

- Okay, got it.

- That's how you can get a start a month or so, - Okay, early start.

- Couple months before it's time to actually put 'em in the garden.

- Got it, got it, got it.

- But again, yeah, you would still be doing the trench method.

- Okay.

All right, so not deep.

Doesn't have to be deep.

- Yeah, doesn't have to be deep.

It's a shallow thing.

- It's shallow.

- So let's say this plant was this tall.

We would still lay it down.

I could even lay it down over here, put its root ball here, and turn its head up in the center.

- Hmm, okay.

- But I would do the exact same thing.

- Okay, I think it's such an interesting technique, okay.

- I didn't give this one any water in the hole to begin with.

So we're gonna give it more Now, I make sure I take these off.

- And again, why are you pinching those off?

- Because let's hit it with the water and see what happens.

- Okay.

Ah, good demo.

That was good.

- That's not good for 'em.

- Right, gotcha.

- They're dirty, that's not good for 'em.

And also, they're laying up against the dirt in the sun and I just know that kills the leaves.

So by pinching these back just a little bit, they don't need those big leaves, and that leaves is 'em up this way instead of out.

Does that make sense?

- Oh, it makes sense.

- Okay.

- Got it, got it.

- So let's hit it again now that it's pruned.

- Okay.

- It's a little bit of a beat down, but it didn't lay down in the dirt.

- It sure didn't.

- And it's not gonna miss it.

Besides, it's gonna put out roots all along that stem.

So when these guys in about one month, they should be maybe about as big around as my thumb.

They'll be a little bit less.

- Okay.

- If you can buy... People ask me what kind of plants do you want to buy, or what is a good plant when you see one?

I don't care if it's tall and leggy as they say.

That means to me that it's growing well.

- Okay, - If it's all light color, maybe it didn't have enough sun, that's not so great.

You might have to harden it before you put it in the garden.

- Okay.

- But let's say it's this tall.

It doesn't have any growth retardants on it.

And sometimes some of the big box stores will spray with growth retardants to keep 'em short and compact and look pretty.

- Yeah, slow down.

How about that?

- So don't get tied up with the plant needing to look pretty.

- Okay.

- If its stem is that long, that's all roots.

So by putting 'em in here, even if I wanted to keep it in the square, I could just lay it down in a circle and turn its head up right there.

- Wow, how about that?

- And it's still gonna have at least five gallons worth of volume area to grow down below.

- Okay.

- Alainia, I'm gonna let you continue to do what you're doing, but we thank you so much for that demonstration.

That was good.

[upbeat country music] Tomatoes are delicious.

Bugs think so too.

Retired UT entomologist, Frank Hale, talks about the kinds of bugs that want to munch on your tomato plants.

Everybody likes to grow tomatoes, right?

- Yeah, everybody has at least one or two tomatoes, maybe a pepper thrown in there.

I brought a tomato plant today.

It's going good.

When they put those in the ground, sometimes you find them the next day and they've been clipped off.

Now what could do that?

- It's the cutworm.

- The cutworm, exactly.

A lot of these cutworms don't even overwinter here, but they fly up on these spring stormfronts that we have.

So the moth lives down south like the black cutworm.

They lay their eggs on weeds and things, and then as soon as you start tilling your garden and planting your vegetables, guess what, they're looking for something to eat.

- Right.

- They're nocturnal feeders, so they're under clumps of dirt in the soil during the daytime.

They come out at night, and then they clip a plant and pull it back into their underground den to feed on.

- Wow, that's interesting.

- So some people will around the plant put a little circle with aluminum foil that will kind of deter the cutworms a little bit.

Some people, organic, within that circle, they might put diatomaceous earth or something irritating the insect.

- Okay.

- So those are some things, and, of course, we have insecticides that you could spray.

You wanna spray the soil around the plant and the base of the plant so that when they walk across the soil at night, they pick up the insecticide.

- Okay, how about that?

And what about aphids?

- Yeah, aphids, they can fly.

Some aphids fly, and they'll move in from wild host plants, weeds, and such.

They'll land on usually the terminal of the plant, these new tender leaves.

And aphids can give rise to other aphids very quickly.

The female can either lay eggs or she can give rise to live young.

- Wow.

- So live birth.

So, you have lots of aphids very quick.

They're life cycle's very fast.

- Okay.

- And so you can start out with just a few wing forms that come in, they start laying eggs or giving birth, and then you have lots of aphids.

So I like to, if I see aphids on a plant, and I haven't put it in the ground, I take it laying on its side and wash it down with soapy water - Okay.

- With a hose and really strong jet of water.

So you just blast the aphids off, and you could really do that still when they're in the garden.

If you see a tomato plant in the morning, just blast the top of it.

You see some aphids and just physically remove 'em.

And then let the lady beetles and other predators.

- Ah, beneficials.

- So a lot of people they want to do, the first thing is use an insecticide, but I say caution with aphids because if you just wait a couple weeks, lady beetles will lay their eggs there.

They're lemon yellow eggs.

They lay 'em on the leafs amongst the aphids.

There's also a type fly called syrphid flies or hoverflies.

They'll lay a single white egg right there where the aphids are, and the larva is predaceous.

So it'll just tear 'em apart.

There's a lot of good beneficial insects.

If we don't use a lot of insecticide in the garden, we can really build up good numbers of these insects.

- Good, I'm glad you mentioned that.

Yeah, good.

Okay, so yeah, go ahead.

- I was just gonna say the next thing is protecting the fruit.

- Okay.

- So we have a plant, we've got good size on.

It's flowering.

There's lots of different caterpillars that will lay eggs on the fruit or on the leaves nearby.

Probably the big one you see is the tomato or tobacco hornworm, and they have the little tail looking thing at the tail end.

And these caterpillars will get several inches long when full size.

And often you don't see 'em when they're small.

They kinda camouflage.

One time, not too long ago, I had tomatoes on my deck.

And guess what, we had corn earworms, we had hornworms, we had yellow striped armyworms, we had Southern armyworms.

There's a whole bunch of caterpillars.

- And all of this you said was in the city.

- Yeah, this was right in suburbia.

And they find your plants.

So the moths are out at night.

They lay their eggs on the leaves, so the plant or on the fruit.

And then they hatch out in a couple days.

And those caterpillars might feed for a couple weeks.

- Wow.

- So when they're tiny, they don't do that much damage, but maybe by the time they get an inch long when they're about a fourth or fifth instar or stage, they can do a lot of feeding damage.

- For sure.

- Yeah.

So usually you can pick off.

If you just have a few plants, you can pick 'em off every day, but you have to be out there almost every day because they can do a lot of damage, and they're hard to see.

Insecticides can be used.

One of the safer products for caterpillars is Bt.

It stands for Bacillus thuringiensis.

It's a bacterial toxin.

It's very safe for humans to be around and pets, but it's very toxic to caterpillars.

It paralyzes their midgut, and then they stop feeding almost immediately and then they soon die, but it won't hurt your beneficial insects, your lady beetles, syrphid flies, and other things, green lace wings, for instance.

So Bt is one of the safer things for gardeners to use.

We have a publication, UT Extension publication, it's called "You Can Control Garden Insects".

You might want to check that out online.

- It is a good publication.

- Yeah, it has.

It has some pictures of what the insects look for and also control recommendations.

- Doc, we're glad you're here.

That's good stuff.

- All right.

Thank you, Chris.

- Thank you.

We could tell you love this stuff.

- Oh, it's great.

[Chris laughs] What's better?

- Thank you.

Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is questions@familyplotgarden.com, and the mailing address is Family Plot 7151 Cherry Farms Road, Cordova, Tennessee 38016, or you can go online to familyplotgarden.com.

That's all we have time for today.

Thanks for watching.

If you want to learn more about tomatoes in your garden, head on over to familyplotgarden.com.

We have lots of videos with tips for successfully growing tomatoes.

Be sure to join us next week for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]