Produce Basics

Tomatoes

» Buy indeterminate vines if you want your harvest to continue well into fall. Remember, they’ll need staking, as they only grow in one direction. Get determinate (bush-style) tomato plants if you prefer less fussing and don’t mind the fruits coming all at once.

» Stagger harvests by planting according to maturity dates. Check the label and then take into account the age of the plants you’ve bought and the time of year before penciling in “harvest time” on your calendar. Good bets for tomatoes that mature early (65 to 75 days): ‘Celebrity’, ‘Early Girl’, and any of the cherry tomatoes.

» Space plants as the label directs; tomatoes placed too close together are more susceptible to illness.

» Keep them evenly moist. Uneven moisture is one cause of the dreaded blossom-end rot.

» Rotate the location of your tomatoes each year so the soil has a chance to recuperate.

Melons

» Bone up on how melons look at various stages of development before leaping to the conclusion that your cantaloupes are actually pickles, squash, honeydew, or watermelons. Cantaloupes don’t look like the ones in the produce aisle until pretty late in the game.

» Harvest melons when the stem is beginning to shrivel up and the opposite end of the melon is soft.

Herbs

» Deadhead herbs constantly or they will bolt (go to seed) early, and you will lose a lot of good eating to flowering as they prepare to make seed for the next generation. Cilantro is especially quick to bolt. —B.B.


— Bonnie Blodgett

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