I’m going to ignore the more weighty things happening in NC right now, such as the serious (that ridiculous Amendment 1) and the high profile (the John Edwards trial and those associated shameless people) and focus instead on another NC issue and that is, “What do I have to do to grow tomatoes here???” Last summer was a total tomato disaster – I planted several plants of 4 locally procured heirloom varieties and got precisely 1 tomato all summer long and it was not a pretty one, even by heirloom-ugly standards.
It was so bad that this spring, when I’m at the farmer’s market or the nursery looking for tomato starts, I will not even walk down the aisles that have Prudens Purple, Red Cherokee, Black Krim, or Soldacki. Those varieties will get neither valuable garden space nor attention from me.
Last summer wasn’t a complete washout because the small varities I planted were really prolific – I had a couple of Black Cherry and a couple of Sungold and got something like a million tomatoes from each. The Sungold’s of course, rarely made it very far, as we ate those off the vine like little pieces of candy. The Black Cherry’s were the perfect size for making panzanella and they were really flavorful. I have planted both of those again this year.
Even my friend Kelly, who has gardened in Charlotte and now in SC for several years, and is a really good gardener, says she is about to give up on tomatoes. She says it is just too hot here. I didn’t know that was possible for tomatoes? Anyway, being the eternal optimist, I am going to try again.
According to the NC gardening Bible aka the NC State Horticultural website, the best large tomato varities for this area are: Better Boy, Whopper, Celebrity, and Mountain Pride. Better Boys are everywhere and I’ve planted several already; however the Celebrity and Mountain Pride are more elusive – every nursery and farmer’s market I’ve been to so far always says, “Oh, we just sold out of those…………………………”
So, Better Boy, it is – along with those yummy Sungold’s and Black Cherry’s.
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