No summer salad is complete without freshly plucked homegrown tomatoes. Even if your on-site soil is unsuitable for growing vegetables or garden space is limited, there is a tomato and growing system to match your site and space.
Think ornamental as well as edible when it comes to tomatoes. The fruits come in many colors, shapes, and sizes. One tomato suitable for home patios, apartment balconies, and school gardens is the trailing type. Trailing tomatoes were bred to live a life up in the air tumbling over the sides of hanging baskets with drainage tray, large containers with drainage holes, and window boxes. They are simultaneously the filler, spiller, and thriller plants for ornamental hanging baskets every bit as decorative as calibroachia or nasturtium.
One favorite trailing cherry tomato variety is Tumbling Tom Red, a compact determinate with a cascading habit that tumbles 20-24” over the edge of hanging baskets or tall containers. Strong evenly branched plants are laden with clusters of 1.25” round firm sweet-flavored fruit perfectly suited for snacking and salads.
The trailing tomato Tumbling Tom Red is easy for children to grow in hanging baskets or patio containers.
With plants in hanging baskets, fruit is at eye level for watering, fertilizing, and harvesting. The gardener will not need to stake or cage Tumbling Tom. One tomato plant fills a 12-14” hanging basket. Since tomatoes like well-composted soil, use Stout Ollie’s Compost as the potting medium.
Tomatoes request three conditions— 6- 8 hours of sunlight per day, fertilizer, and water. In summer begin using an organic fertilizer like Espoma’s Tomato-Tone, a low nitrogen 3-4-6 organic fertilizer following label directions for amounts to use for individual plants and how often to apply. Container plants will need to be watered daily unless rain occurs.
Tumbling Tom Red are resistant to fursarium wilt, verticilium wilt, and nematodes, a plus for the gardener. Weeds are rarely a problem in containers.
Breeders often remain anonymous to the consumer despite being an important part of the gardening equation. Not only do consumers need to know where their garden plants come from but also the originator or breeder.
Tomatoes are an edible ornamental every bit as decorative as vinca, nasturtium or petunias.
Vegetalis, a corporate entity of UK Floranova breeders, breeds trailing tomatoes like Tumbling Tom Red and cousin Tumbling Tom Yellow. Since 2009 Vegetalis has been breeding edible ornamental patio vegetables for growers and consumers under the brand of Patio Edibles, vegetables bred to be as productive as they are ornamental. For example, one Tumbling Tom Red plant produces four pounds of cherry tomatoes per season.
Vegetalis has bred a compact container cornucopia of basil, chive, cucumber, eggplant, okra, peppers, pumpkins, yellow squash, and zucchini— all patio edibles.
Tumbling Tom Yellow is a container tomato with bountiful yields to share with neighbors.
Bright red firm sweet fruits of Tumbl ing Tom are tempting snacks for school lunches.
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