Purchased as seedlings March 29 at Tomatomania! and planted about a week after that. We amended the soil with “zoo poo” — free compost custom blended by the Dept. of Parks and Rec. with herbivore excrement from the LA Zoo in their custom mixer. It was broken down for a while earlier this year because of an OSHA investigation (yikes!) so we are glad the piles of compost are back. At the lovely compost center, they also sell composters and free mulch. So far we’ve stayed away from the mulch because it might contain eucalyptus, which has some nasty chemicals which inhibit growth or sprouting.
The plants have gotten one treatment of fish juice and are laden with blossoms, flowers and fruit.
Black from Tula (where is Tula anyway?)
We chose varieties for variety (duh!) and suitability to our climate — a blazing hot hillside about 15 miles inland between the LA basin and the San Gabriel Valley in Southern California. Pure Mediterranean. The tomato was domesticated and bred not far from here in Mexico, so we’re hopeful.
- Costoluto Genevese: an ugly Italian heirloom that does well in the heat
- Black from Tula: tasty heirloom that’s more like purple than black
- Ramapo: a hybrid beefsteak developed by Rutgers and named after the NJ hills where I grew up
- Jaune Flame: a productive golfball-size orange
- Country Taste: another hybrid that likes the heat
Behind our apartment building we have three pots so we chose 3 varieties that do well in tight quarters:
- Red Currant: the tiniest cherries of them all. So cute you want to string them on a necklace!
- ???: already forgot what this one is but it’s red and suited to containers.
- a volunteer: We planted cherries and heirlooms in pots in the backyard last year, recycled some of the soil and this one popped up in a houseplant! He’s doing great now, so we’ll see what he is.
