Visions of Tomatoes Dancing in My Garden

As the winter months slide into memories past, I feel the nascent tug to begin plans for the summer garden and suddenly fanciful visions of rainbow-colored tomatoes begin to dance in my head: behemoth to Lilliputian sizes, round-, teardrop- and flattened-shapes with smoky, sweet and tart tastes. I have never met a homegrown tomato that I did not like!

The sun-kissed tomato with its juicy sweetness is my special delight for as long as I can remember, so you can imagine my disappointment when last summer’s cool gloom cast its withering spell over most of my crop. But this is a new year, a new beginning and I am very optimistic. The reason for my optimism is Alice Doyle from Log House Plants who has come to rescue me from my tomato-deprived condition. She has developed a grafted tomato that fuses a desired hybrid or heirloom tomato variety onto a hardy rootstock. Known as the SuperNaturals™ line of grafted vegetables, the Mighty ‘Mato is going to insure a bountiful crop of tomatoes safe from the whims of Mother Nature and disease.

The benefits of SuperNaturals grafted tomatoes vs. non-grafted tomatoes:

• Extreme vigor for improved quality and quantity of fruit
• Increased resistance to disease such as blossom end rot
• Tolerance to environmental stresses like extreme temperatures or poor soils
• More abundant harvest over a longer period of time
• Resistance to soil borne pathogens and nematodes
• Space-saving. Double grafts can be chosen for two different varieties on one plant!

My worries about puny harvests are now a thing of the past. Besides a patch of soil or a container in a sunny spot, all I need to do is choose which Mighty 'Matos to plant, but I think it will be like this year's American Idol contestants, so many great ones to select!!! For sure, I am planting some double grafts because they offer two delectable varieties on one plant:

• Green Pineapple with green, yellow and purple skin and bright green and red-streaked, sweet, citrusy flesh partnered with Hawaiian Pineapple, a producer of 1 lb. yellow and red-streaked fruit that is oh-so-sweet and fruity with a hint of pineapple flavoring (the above photo shows off their beauty)
• From the Ukraine, comes Black Icicle that bears deep purplish-brown fruit with a dark, smoky beefsteak-type taste paired with the glowing Orange Icicle that is just as flavorful with citrus overtones. Both are great in salads or use them to make tomato paste or ketchup

And don’t get me started on the single grafted Mighty ‘Matos – Big Zac, Juliet, Momotaro, Costoluto Genovese, Big Beef, Green Zebra, Jetsetter and Ingegnoli Giganta Liscio. All I can say is go to www.gardenlife.com and place your order by March 27 for May delivery and turn your dreams of tomato paradise into reality (while some retailers may be carrying the grafted tomato varieties, they may not be offering many that are available at GardenLife).