Once I read an online article about what was the most popular vegetable to be grown in the USA according to gardening specialists. Listed were potatoes as number one, lower in the ranking were cucumbers, beets, carrots, and zucchini, then onion, bell peppers, and squash. After reading this list, I probably thought what you might think: Are you kidding me? Where are the tomatoes???
These are the reasons why you should grow tomatoes:
- Tomatoes are easy to grow vegetable
- They smell so good
- Tomatoes are one of the best heavy-yield garden producers
- There are different usages of tomatoes to choose from such as sauce tomato, slicer tomato, salad cherry tomato
- There is a large variety of shapes to choose from like cherry tomato, grape tomato, plum tomato
- They come in lots of colors to choose from like red, pink, orange, yellow, purple, stripe, two-color ones
- There are a lot of flavors to choose from like sweet, tart, tangy, semi-sweet, and balanced
- They are great for processing like caning, fermenting, pickling, cooking them down to sauces and paste
- Tomatoes can be eaten raw, cooked, baked, roasted
- Tomato plants are very easy to propagate from their own suckers
- You can find a tomato for any garden environment like tomatoes suitable for container gardens, raised bed gardens, inground garden
- You can choose tomatoes of various heights from short, medium to tall
- There are various types of tomatoes determinate, indeterminate, and semi-determinate
- They can be used in many meals and condiments from pizza, and salads all the way to ketchup and salsas
- Tomatoes don’t have many diseases and pests. Plus, there are varieties of tomatoes that are disease resistant.
You and I might not be a gardening specialists, but as home growers, we all know that tomato is THE number one vegetable grown in gardens in the USA. Just look in your garden and your neighbor’s garden. What do you see? I see a tomato. I don’t know any home grower that doesn’t grow tomatoes. I saw some that grew only tomatoes and nothing else because it’s such an easy veg to grow in my area. Tomatoes grow as easily as weeds here in the area. I can’t stop recommending tomatoes as one of the most important pantry stocking staples for the garden. And this comes from a gardener (me), who didn’t understand why are home growers so CRAZY about tomatoes until…..I grew them myself! I was reluctant to grow tomatoes just because everyone else grew them and they were not even my favorite vegetable to eat. However, after I grew them the first time, tomatoes won me over.
How can I use tomatoes?
Tomatoes are one of the most versatile vegetables! Not only are they quite easy to grow, and yield prolifically but they are also easy to preserve and cook with.
You can preserve them by pickling, fermenting, freezing, and canning them.
When it comes to cooking and using them in your meals, they have a lot to offer. Probably the first thing that comes to your mind is to use tomatoes in salads. They add a touch of sweetness if you grow sweet varieties. If you like to add tanginess to your salad, you can do that by growing tangy tomatoes.
Another great use for tomatoes is in tomato sauce. Whether used on your favorite pasta, or on top of your favorite pizza, tomatoes are the base for the red sauce. And let’s not forget about how important are tomatoes in cooking chili.
They are also the base for yummy salsa that you can use as topping on tacos, tortilla chips, and potatoes.
I am almost certain you have ketchup in your pantry. Tomatoes are the base for ketchup and barbeque sauces.
Many people say tomato soup is their favorite. It’s not my favorite, unfortunately, but tomato soup is another great way to use delicious tomatoes in your meals.
Are tomatoes good for beginners?
If you are a first-time gardener or beginner gardener, I would strongly recommend you to grow tomatoes. You can buy one seedling and propagate it just from its own suckers. I planted my first one in a raised bed garden and it didn’t require any special care besides watering when I remembered, I fertilized it with a store-bought organic fertilizer. The only pest I found was a long fat green caterpillar called a tomato longhorn which I took off of the plant and that was it. The tomato was happy and yielded beautiful tomatoes. I felt like a tomato was the one plant that didn’t need any special protection unlike cabbage or broccoli which I had to cover with netting and even then, the cabbage moth them both. I literary didn’t pay any attention to tomatoes just when it was time to harvest. I remember passing them by to care for other plants, and they were doing just fine. Tomatoes are warm-season crops, so they like warm weather and cannot withstand frost. So when planting a tomato seedling, make sure you plant them after all the danger of the last frost is gone. After that, they are virtually indestructible, and like I said they don’t have many pests. I heard some people fight birds off of their tomatoes but in my case, I don’t have that problem.
Grow tomatoes because they propagate easily from cuttings for more harvest
Another reason I like to grow tomatoes is how easily they propagate. You simply cut off the sucker (a sucker is a thin tomato stem that grows off of the main, thick stem). Simply cut it off and put it in the ground where you want a new tomato plant to grow and water it deeply. The tomato plant is a wine, so it is able to grow roots along the whole stem. The new cutting you planted in the ground will soon send out new roots. I propagate tomatoes every year using this simple method.
Tomatoes are also easy to sprout from seeds. I have a compost trench where I bury all my kitchen scraps over the winter. When spring comes some seeds like tomato seeds, avocado seeds, and pumpkin seeds sprout right in my compost area. Many new tomato seedlings can be found there growing all by themselves. This is also the reason I said they grow like weeds in my area. The seeds overwinter in my composting trench and grow in spring, all by themselves.
Tomatoes also smell very pleasant. I once read in an article comment that a woman grows them just because of their lovely scent, she actually doesn’t like the taste, just the smell. I have to agree, tomato leaves as well as fruit are charming. I often find myself passing by a tomato plant rubbing its leaves and smelling my hands. Gardening satisfies all senses!
Tomatoes are a heavy-yielding vegetable! Yes, if you are short on space, go for tomatoes. A heavy-yielding vegetable is one that produces lots from one plant, or in a small growing space. One tomato plant can yield lots of pounds of tomatoes that you can harvest and come again.
Tomatoes are the best vegetable for container gardening and limited spaces
Tomatoes are one of the best vegetables for container gardening and small gardens with limited space! They do great in containers and in fact, there is a large variety of tomatoes to choose from that do very well in containers.
Because tomatoes are vining plants, they are very suitable for small gardens with limited growing space. Support them and encourage them to grow vertically in a tomato cage or tied to a stake and they will reward you with plenty of fruit. There are tomatoes that come in various heights to choose the best one for your space.
Most high-yielding fruits and vegetables to grow in pantry stocking garden
