Last summer, in all of St. Albert and much of Edmonton, the only tomatoes you could find came from the grocery store. Hundreds of vegetables gardeners watched in horror as the fruits of their labours, days away from picking, suddenly turned brown and the entire plant quickly died.
"It was devastating," said Derrick Harrison, president of the St. Albert & District Garden Club, who is also an avid tomato grower. "Very few people escaped the blight."
Late blight, the airborne plant disease that contributed to the Irish potato famine of the 1850s, swept through St. Albert and didn't leave a single tomato standing. Volunteers with the city's botanic park, who are each allotted a small row in the green space to grow what they wish, were forced to uproot not just their tomatoes, but also potatoes and all other vegetables belonging to the nightshade family of plants. Those hoping for the intense, juicy taste of a vine-ripened tomato were left with nothing.
Harrison wasn't spared either.
"It got my outdoor tomatoes but not my indoor ones, which would be indicative of how the disease spreads," he said, referring to its airborne mode of travel.
With such a disastrous growing season now almost a year in the past, tomato growers are eagerly gearing up for this year's crop. While the province has issued an alert to be wary of late blight, Harrison explained the disease needs a host in order to stick around and without that host, it's unlikely the disease is still prevalent.
And so Harrison has been sowing seeds and potting like crazy. The avid gardener, who has been growing tomatoes on and off for about 60 years, was, up until yesterday, nursing some 200 tomato plants to life. Most were intended for yesterday's club auction and sale, but Harrison plans on keeping more than a few of them for himself. After all, nothing beats the taste of a fresh tomato, no matter what a store tries to sell you.
"They grow varieties that will hold their form and shape so they can ship them, including the brutal handling they'll get when picked," Harrison said. As grocers are looking for hardier stock, the strains they grow often sacrifice flavour for durability.
"It's a matter of economics. Tomatoes you grow yourself, you let them ripen on the plant, get them at peak freshness and they're a good flavour and the flesh isn't that hard. But that's not the right tomato for putting in boxes and shipping over the continent."
Hard to pick
There are literally thousands of different strains of tomatoes growing worldwide, but each tomato type has its own environmental needs. And considering Alberta's growing season is so short, that trims the list of what you can grow yourself. There are still hundreds of options.
"What's very popular now are sungold tomatoes," said Alissa Marles, owner of Morinville Greenhouses. "Northern exposure are also very good producers. Superfantastic is more like your beefsteak tomato. There's also a new one called healthkick that's got lots of antioxidants, lots of lycopene."
The choices are endless, but growing your own tomatoes, even in a blight-free environment, can be challenging. Whether starting from seed or picking up a plant at a nearby nursery, the key factors don't change — tomatoes need great soil, lots of light and plenty of water.
Most home growers start their plants from seed via seed-starting soil in small cell packs with a spritz of water. Within a week, those tomatoes germinate and start craving light and more water.
As they continue to grow, Harrison said it's important to keep giving them the space they need to form good roots, transplanting them into larger pots as required.
Once the plants are about three to four inches tall and the weather begins to co-operate, it's time to start hardening them off — gradually introducing them to life outdoors — before planting them in your garden permanently. According to Harrison, it only takes one frost to kill off your entire crop.
"That might not be such a big deal if you're growing only two or three plants. You don't really want to lose 200 all at the same time."
Raising 200 tomato plants from seed is a time-consuming process. Harrison spends about an hour each day moving his tomatoes from inside his house to the outdoors for some hardening, as well as watering them, sometimes as often as twice a day.
In the garden
Before you dig the holes for your tomatoes, whether you've delicately nursed them from seed or bought them from the greenhouse, there is one more distinction that needs to be made — determinate or indeterminate?
Determinate tomatoes are essentially bush tomatoes that will continue to grow outwards. Indeterminate tomatoes have a central growing point that expands vertically, meaning they will need to be staked or otherwise supported in the garden. Once you know exactly what you have, it's time to plant. And don't be afraid to plant deep.
"Take the bottom leaves off because tomatoes … all those little hairs will make roots," Marles explained. "Plant them fairly deep."
This rule particularly applies if your plants have turned out a little 'leggy' or tall and skinny. The deeper you bury the plant, the better chance it has to grow. In fact, Harrison says you can even go so far as to dig a long trench and plant your tomatoes lying down instead of standing up. Make sure the location for your tomatoes is sunny and don't hold back on the watering can.
"They do need watering. They are very gross water feeders. You don't want mud, but they'd need ideally a deep, damp soil."
Consistency is also important, Marles explained, saying tomato plants like a routine.
"Watering should be done easily and it should be done at the same time every day." Marles also recommends adding a little calcium or fertilizer with calcium to prevent blossom rot.
"Get it some sun in a good location and you're going to have to watch for that blight," she added.
Even now that the plant sale is over, Harrison is still excited for the coming season. He is growing one strain of tomatoes that has been described as the sweetest available. The tomatoes that grow from the plants are rewarding in and of themselves, but Harrison takes further satisfaction just from growing anything.
"This is a hobby. This isn't my career. There's a sense of achievement in growing anything, especially in Alberta. It's a challenge here, more of a challenge but tomatoes do give you a reward at the end."
