The French Laundry vegetable garden is currently growing over 40 varieties of tomatoes, most of which I was unable to identify when I visited the garden yesterday. The plants have been grown in the vegetable garden hoop house from seeds, which were acquired either through Johnny’s Seeds, Seed Savers exchange, or their own seed saving program. Their tomatoes are gorgeous and taste like tomatoes are supposed to taste! (Another post to follow on their tips for soil amendments that produce flavorful produce).
I learned several new things about tomatoes yesterday, which I found very exciting.
First, it doesn’t matter if you trim the shooters off of your tomatoes or not. They do trim the tomatoes in the hoop house, but allow the outdoor tomato plants to just grow as they will – and they are all doing just fine. I’ve learned this year that the leaves of the tomato plant shield the tomatoes from the heat of the sun and collect and distribute needed chlorophyll to the fruit as they are growing.
Second, they have a very interesting way to grow their hoop house tomatoes, which was originally invented by the Dutch for hoop house tomatoes. They promote the growth of a single stem per plant, secured by twine, plastic clips and a pulley at the top of the plant to hold the plant upright.
They trim/train the tomato plant as it is growing to generate alternating rows of leaf – leaf – leaf – fruit. The bottom of the plant will generate the first bunch of ripe tomatoes. (The tomatoes they are growing in their hoop house is a variety similar to ‘Early Girl’ – and aren’t they gorgeous?!?).
As the tomatoes are harvested (removed) the FL gardeners trim off the leaves and remnants of the fruit, leaving the stem completely bare, allowing the energy of the plant to focus on the next rung of tomatoes, higher up on the stem.
In this method, more and more tomatoes are generated the higher up the stem you go, over time. The remaining bare stem at the bottom coils at the base of the plant, supporting the remaining and growing plant above it. The coiled stem will actually measure 8′ when the plant is done producing tomatoes! The gardeners simply adjust the support of the plant with the pulley above as the plant evolves. I found this fascinating!
The last thing I saw for the first time was the outdoor tomatoes trellised using a method called “The Florida Weave”, which generates a wall of side-by-side tomato plants with good exposure to the sun. It’s an ingenious way of trellising and directing the growth of your tomato plants. Check out this Florida Weave video I found online, for instructions on how to do this.
I was reminded yesterday that the more I learn about gardening, the more I realize I don’t know. It is endless! Thanks to Thomas Keller for making this learning opportunity available to the community.
