Boise, Idaho
April 24, 2008
Consider yourself lucky if you
live in one of Idaho’s warmer, lower-lying regions. Sure, you
suffer those 108 degree summer days, but, hey, at least you can
grow tomatoes.
In a cold spot like eastern Idaho, frustrated tomato growers say
it’s easy to predict their fall frosts. Just two or three weeks
after their first tomato ripens, their growing season—and, with
it, their hopes for another dozen or two vine-ripened
tomatoes—comes to a merciless end. Still, says Wayne Jones,
University of Idaho
Extension educator in Idaho Falls, “There’s just something about
growing tomatoes in your garden. They’re beautiful, they’re
braggin’ rights—and after you’ve had tomatoes out of your
garden, eating store-bought ones is never the same.”
Indeed, tomatoes that must be shipped long distances are
characteristically firm-fleshed varieties that are harvested
well before they’re ripe, says Steve Love, University of Idaho
Extension horticulturist at Aberdeen, northwest of Pocatello.
“They’ll continue to ripen after they’re picked, but you never
get the really full tomato flavor or the sweetness that you get
in a tomato that’s been allowed to ripen on the vine.”
That’s why Love and two colleagues—William Bohl and Tom
Salaiz—set out to compare 27 of what should have been promising
tomatoes for short-season, high-altitude gardens. At the
Aberdeen Research and Extension Center last year, they evaluated
a dozen plants of each of these varieties for their taste,
appearance, weight and—for the market gardeners out
there—marketable number, yield and percentage. The results:
- Of the 27 varieties
tested, only 10 offered ripe fruit in August; nine more were
ready in time for Labor Day.
- The earliest harvest was
from the small-fruited varieties Gem State and Fourth of
July, which ripened the first week of August—three weeks
ahead of the dubiously named Early Girl.
- The large-sized Marglobe
and the medium-sized Oregon Spring ripened a week or two,
respectively, before Early Girl, but the Aberdeen center’s
enthusiastic, informally assembled tasters ranked their
flavor simply average.
- The runaway best-tasting
variety—the cherry tomato Sweet 100—was harvestable by the
third week of August.
- Two beefsteak tomatoes—Big
Beef and Early Goliath—ripened by the first week of
September, producing large, extremely attractive fruit with
average (Early Goliath) to above average (Big Beef) flavor.
Bohl, Extension educator in
adjacent Bingham County, said he’s often grown Early Girls but
the trial “opened up my eyes to Sweet 100 and Fourth of July.”
The cherry tomato tasted so good that Bohl even forgave it its
harvest-day challenges: “They don’t call it Sweet 100 for
nothing,” he said. “We would harvest four or five hundred from
one plot—and we had three plots to do it on.”
Love was especially pleased with Early Goliath and Big Beef,
whose good-enough flavor lagged Sweet 100 but whose size was
impressive. Taste, he noted, is subjective. “What really
determines whether somebody likes a tomato or not is the balance
of sweetness with acidity.”
Love expects to repeat the trial for the next two years. The
first year’s results are available online at
http://www.extension.uidaho.edu/idahogardens.
“When people learn which varieties are adapted to their area,
they’ll have more success with their tomatoes,” said Bohl.
“These are all good tomato varieties if you grow them in the
right climate.”
Founded in 1889, the University of Idaho is the state’s
flagship higher-education institution and its principal graduate
education and research university, bringing insight and
innovation to the state, the nation and the world. University
researchers attract nearly $100 million in research grants and
contracts each year; the University of Idaho is the only
institution in the state to earn the prestigious Carnegie
Foundation ranking for high research activity. The university’s
student population includes first-generation college students
and ethnically diverse scholars. Offering more than 150 degree
options in 10 colleges, the university combines the strengths of
a large university with the intimacy of small learning
communities. |
|
