At the time when most gardeners are setting out their transplants, a few resourceful gardeners are already eating fresh tomatoes from their gardens.
Imagine picking and eating your first ripe tomatoes in April. Golden Reeves, affectionately designated as the "Tomato King," is just such a tomato grower. In 1997 he picked his first tomatoes from the garden on April 29. From his garden plot in West Jordan come tomatoes of all kinds. Early ones, late ones, large ones and cherry ones are grown by this gardener, who takes tomato growing seriously.Growing the tasty tomatoes starts in the basement. Here the seedlings are sown and started under fluorescent lights. They then are moved to the backyard greenhouse.
Reeves offers these ideas on getting very early ripe tomatoes: "My greenhouse is not large or elaborate but very functional. It is an extension of my summer garden. I do not use it to grow tropical plants but grow plants that I can move into my outside garden at the right time."
The right time for Reeves is different than for most gardeners. He starts his early crop in January to set out in the garden in mid-March. Reeves uses a variety of soil warming and climate modifying devices to protect the plants and keep them warm. This helps produce the early tomatoes that win him the title of "Tomato King."
Growing a garden has always been a part of Reeves' life. "I grew up growing a garden out of necessity. If we didn't grow our food we went hungry. I grew my own victory garden as a child during World War II. I planted it and it snowed the next day and broke my heart. After I got out of the Navy and moved to West Jordan I planted a garden and have grown one ever since."
The early tomatoes are not the only tomatoes in Golden's garden. Many years he grows 40 or more varieties. Some are old favorites, and he always tries some new varieties that have not have grown in Utah before.
"I like many different kinds of tomatoes because I want the right taste. If it doesn't taste right, I do not grow it again," he says.
For many years he has also grown a demonstration garden for Utah State University Extension Service at the community garden on 400 East in Salt Lake City. This gives him even more chances to demonstrate his unique growing style that produces these luscious tomatoes.
His observation of this year's crop: "I cut back to only 20 varieties this year. I will not have tomatoes as early as last year, but I will still have some ripe before many people get theirs planted. Using early varieties and planting Long Keepers and other varieties that will store well, I plan to have ripe tomatoes from my garden for eight to 10 months out of the year."
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Additional Information
Tips from the `Tomato King'
- Start with the right varieties.
- Set out husky transplants that are not overgrown or stressed for nutrient or for moisture.
- Set them out at the right time so they will blossom when the night temperatures are conducive to set fruit.
- Protect early plantings by using Wall O' Waters or other protective devices.
- Use plastic mulches to warm the soil.
- Keep the weeds out.
- Avoid overwatering the plants.
- Set blossoms by pollinating plants by hand or use Blossom Set spray to make blossoms produce fruit during cold weather.
VARIETY RECOMMENDATIONS
Early planting (these set fruit at colder temperatures)
Stupice, Glacier, Siletz, Oregon Spring
Cherry tomatoes
Sungold, Sweet 100, Sweet Million
Main season
Heat Wave (doesn't drop blossoms when it gets hot). Olympic, Big Beef, DX52-12 (Hamson), Celebrity, Jet Star, Fantastic, Floramerica and Early Girl.
Craziest tomato
Green Zebra