You Bet Your Garden Guide to Growing Great Tomatoes, Second Edition. Mike McGrath
YOU BET YOUR GARDEN® GUIDE TO
GROWING GREAT
Tomatoes
SECOND EDITION
How to Grow Great-Tasting Tomatoes in Any Backyard, Garden, or Container
Mike McGrath
© 2002, 2009, 2012, 2020 by Mike McGrath.
Illustrations © 2002, 2009, 2012, 2020 by Signe Wilkinson.
Photography © Gurney’s Seed & Nursery Company (Gurneys.com) except as noted.
You Bet Your Garden® is a registered trademark of Mike McGrath Enterprises, Inc.
First published in 2002 as You Bet Your Tomatoes! by Rodale Books.
Second edition published in 2009 as You Bet Your Tomatoes! by Plain White Press.
New revised and expanded editions published in 2012 and 2020 as You Bet Your Garden Guide to Growing Great Tomatoes by Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc., 903 Square Street, Mount Joy, PA 17552.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holders.
The author and publisher wish to express their thanks and appreciation to Gurney’s Seed & Nursery Company (Gurneys.com) for their assistance and generosity in providing the color photos of tomatoes for the 2012 and 2020 editions. Unless otherwise noted, all photos are provided by Gurney’s © 2012, 2020. Used with permission. All rights reserved. Additional photo credits found 120.
Print ISBN 978-1-4971-0075-6
eISBN 978-1-6076-5778-1
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Foreword to the New New New Edition
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Welcome to the newest edition of You Bet Your Tomatoes!, now titled You Bet Your Garden® Guide to Growing Great Tomatoes.
A lot of wonderful things have happened to this humble gardener in the years since the earliest edition of this tome was first published by Rodale Books (where I was privileged to serve as Editor-in-Chief of Organic Gardening for seven years—sixty issues of the world’s greatest gardening magazine!—in the 1990s). My public radio show, You Bet Your Garden®, which debuted in October 1998, was just going national as the first edition of the book went to press. Now, more than two decades (and many hundreds of shows) later, this hour of horticultural hijinks can be heard on public radio stations around the country, as an Internet stream, and even as a podcast (with over one million listeners a year—thank you!). There’s even a TV show! Find out more by visiting www.YouBetYourGarden.org.
Thanks to the show, I’ve had the opportunity over the years to add to my storehouse of tomato-growing knowledge (and other organic information) via the Question of the Week feature, in which I provide a detailed explanation of a particular problem or gardening topic at the You Bet Your Garden® section of the Gardens Alive! website (www.GardensAlive.com). There, you’ll find even more tomato-growing advice (who would have thought it possible?!), like how to handle squirrels, stink bugs, squirrels, and other specific pests and problems (like squirrels). And don’t just hang around the tomato section; wander afar and afield and you’ll find organic answers to virtually every garden and home problem that may have otherwise tempted you to spray away.
Author Mike McGrath.
We have once again completely revisited, revamped, and updated our tomato-growing information and top varieties, making everything as current and up-to-date as possible at the time of printing to bring you even more information about America’s favorite fruit (or, as I like to call it, “the Gateway Drug of Gardening”).
See you on the radio. Or TV (do any of you still watch TV?). Podcast! I know we got you hooked on the podcast. I won’t actually “see” you there (this ain’t Romper Room [at least most of the time]), but I’ll know you’re listening.
Well—not really. Read the book, OK?
Mike McG, canning a record amount of sauce in the summer of 2019
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Contents
Introduction: Why Am I Doing This instead of Enjoying My Summer?
Chapter 1: “Picking” Your Tomatoes
(Do all of these things have funny, rude, or mysterious names?)
Chapter 2: The Joy of Germination
(Or, Killing Your Own Tomatoes from Seed)
Chapter 3: The Art of Tomato Planting
(And no, that’s not staking or caging. It’s staking and caging!)
Chapter 5: Food, Water, and Basic Keeping-Alive Skills
(Oops—you mean I shouldn’t have watered them each and every day?)
(Am I the only creature around here not eating my tomatoes?)