How to Grow Heirloom Tomatoes

If you think you know everything about tomatoes because you have grown and eaten them for years, you are about to be pleasantly surprised. Heirloom tomatoes are open-pollinated (non-hybrid) cultivar tomatoes. Some say that to be considered an heirloom their must be 100 years of direct lineage while others say if it’s not been altered since the end of WWII it is an official heirloom.

There are very specific instructions on how they are to be raised. You must mix soil with a quality mix then put in a sterile container and leave it overnight. Plant the seeds no deeper than the thickness of a dime and one inch apart. Leave the container for from 4 to 14 days at 80 degrees in darkness as the seed needs no light to germinate. After germination reduce the heat to 55 to 60 degrees and introduce light. Use two to forty inch shop lights about two inches above the seedlings for 16 hours a day. Keep the soil damp but not wet. When second true leaf appears, transplant into larger pots still with light 16 hours a day. About five weeks before the last frost it is time to start “hardening” your crop. This is done by exposing the plants to the outside on a cloudy day for only 15 minutes at the most. This will ensure that at the time of planting outside they will be sturdy and strong.

Now, you might wonder why all the special care for these tomatoes. Some feel that without the nurturing of the heirloom cultivar tomato the only tomatoes available in the future will be hybrids owned by government seed companies as the originals won’t be available for planting.