Topping & Growing Tomato Plants - Heirloom Paul Robeson

This will now be a 3-part post, since I've recently deleted an old website of mine and decided to combine all the related pages together before I start adding all the stand-alone pages amid multiple blogs, etc.

Part 1: "Heirloom Paul Robeson Tomato"

I've grown several different types of tomatoes over the years, but until today, I never even heard of a "Paul Robeson Tomato" before. This is a Russian heirloom tomato that is named after an equal rights advocate, Paul Robeson. I don't know anything about the guy or why they named this veggie/fruit after him, but I'm curious about growing some of these regardless. What got my attention, was when I seen some new seeds listed on a seed & nursery company's website. Well, this is what all the hoopla & ballyhoo was about. LOL!

After I read that it has a smoky flavor with a well-balanced acid/sweet taste, I really became interested in this Russian heirloom. They say the Paul Robeson tomato has such an amazing flavor that the true tomato connoisseurs out there can't get enough of 'em. Wait a minute... A tomato connoisseur? You have got to be kidding me; ha-ha! Anyway, its surface has a brick-red to black color when ripe, which also adds to the unique properties it has. After checking around the Internet, I noticed that a lot of seed/garden websites have these. Even Amazon.com has Paul Robeson tomato seeds, so maybe they are not as rare as I initially thought.

Update: It has been several years since I posted this, and I still haven't tried these yet! I was just going over all of my blogs and performing random updates, etc., and noticed this post. Dang, I forgot to try growing this particular heirloom of tomatoes. I have tried a few different tomato varieties since I originally wrote about this, but since it is no longer growing season in my area it looks like I'll have to wait a few more months. Anyway, if anybody has tried growing these before (or simply ate them) and would like to provide a comment about 'em, feel free... 

---End of Update

Shopping (Affiliate) Link: "Click Here for Robeson Tomato Seeds via Amazon"

Image Credit: Fair Use - Product Image - Amazon.com

---End of Part 1: "Heirloom Paul Robeson Tomato"

Part 2: ‘Topping’ Tomato Plants toward the end of Growing Season…

Original Post Date: 8-20-2012

This is something that I recently tried this year, as I have always denied the whole pruning philosophy when concerning tomato plants, but this year I had another problem, which was a good one, and that being the need to “top” my tomato plants (I’ll get to the reason for this, in a moment).

Well, even though this post is about ‘topping’ your lovely tomato plants, and since I’ve already managed to gripe about pruning fanatics, I shall provide a quick excerpt from ehow.com that speaks about pruning: “What Is Pruning and Why?  Pruning tomato plants means removing unwanted side-shoots, or suckers, from the main stem. This will keep your plant from getting too bushy. It will also cut down on the amount of fruit your plant produces but allow it to produce larger-sized fruit. Pruned tomato plants will also produce fruit earlier than other plants.”

Even though that is the concept of pruning, I’m yet to see why anybody would want to do that!  If you have excellent soil and your plants are thriving, why would you not want your tomato plants to be bushy and have loads of tomatoes?  If you yearn for over-sized tomatoes, then perhaps you need to try other types of plants, like the beefsteak tomato, for example.

Anyway, we are not pruning anything in my garden patch, but I did have to resort to “topping” this year, which is where you cut the tops off, in hopes that the remaining small tomatoes will produce decent-sized red ones toward the end of their growing season.

To make a long story short, I had a great growing season this year, and most of the things I planted did really well.  However, I have never had a year when the tomato plants seemed like you couldn’t kill ’em even if you tried.  Normally, they die out toward the end of summer…  But this year, they kept thriving (maybe I’m getting better at this) and this is what has brought me to this topping situation.

You see, after your tomato plants have been around for quite a while and have grown to enormous size, it gets to the point that your tomatoes get smaller and smaller as your plants vine out.  Think about how much further the fruit is from the roots, as it grows…  Well, one can normally wait for them to slowly grow and ripen when you have an ongoing, excellent yield, but not when you are heading toward the end of your growing season!  So, instead of having to throw a bunch of tiny green tomatoes back onto the ground, if you top the plants (remove/cut the tops off just above the potential fruit clusters), you will have a better chance of those last sets of tomatoes growing to full size, as no more energy and nutrients will be wasted on unnecessary growth and/or foliage.  Pretty simple stuff, eh?

Although I don’t grow this particular crop, since it is illegal, I have heard of people topping their marijuana plants to get it to bud faster and provide a quicker, higher quality yield.  I don’t even know if I should have mentioned that last tidbit, but either way, the concept remains.  If cool weather is just a month or two away and you still have tomato plants that are producing green tomatoes, then topping your plants may be the solution for you.

Side Note:  This only applies to the larger varieties of tomato plants, as it might not be a good idea to ‘top’ your small/medium-sized tomato plants; cheers!

---End of Part 2: 'Topping’ Tomato Plants toward the end of Growing Season…

Just to reiterate, I realize the above post didn't involve the Heirloom Paul Robeson Tomato, but I've recently deleted an old website and I'm trying to combine the semi-related pages together, so it will be fewer separate articles I have to spread out over multiple blogs, etc.

Part 3: "Growing Tomato Plants from Trimmings/Stem Tip Cuttings"

Original Post Date: 8-26-2012

Well, as the garden season in my area is approaching its latter days, I decided to do a little experiment this year with my tomato plants.  It is something that, for whatever reason, I never thought about doing, but it involved a technique that I used to use for houseplants.  It involves a simple process, often referred to as “stem tip cuttings” and/or what I like to call “growing from trimmings,” and it works like a charm.  Anyway, all you have to do is cut a healthy portion of your plant off from one of the tips, set it in a container of water, and within a few days, roots will start to develop and you can transplant back into the soil when the root structure is decent, and presto; you have a new plant! Some people speed up the process by using some type of root hormone, but I either just use plain water or a diluted miracle grow solution.

You can use whatever type of container(s) you like, but the way I did it, involved me placing a 5-gallon bucket near my garden that was full of water.  I added several trimmings from my tomato plants (as I was topping them for better yield) into the big bucket of water.  Of course, I lost a few, but since I was already topping my plants anyway, it didn’t matter.  Also, it is a good idea to cut back a few leaves from the stem that you are placing in the water.  This will help more energy be focused on growing a root structure as opposed to the strain of keeping all of its foliage hydrated.  Most of my stem tip cuttings from my tomato plants, were anywhere from 16 to 24 inches long.  You will most likely have a higher success rate from shorter trimmings, but I had plenty of tomatoes and took the chance.  I have a few transplanted as of now and they are doing great at the moment.  I just hope that there is enough time for them to fully develop. 

Outside of this method saving you 4 to 6 weeks or more (depending on how large your cuttings are) in time, since you are not starting the plants via seeds, there is also another benefit to this, which is the fact that you can select your healthiest plants to clone (which is basically what it is).  I find this to be an excellent late season option, for the ones who still want tomatoes for several more weeks.  Just think, some places in the world grow these suckers all year long!

This brings me to another option, which is something I haven’t tried yet:  Growing Tomato Plants Indoors. If I decide to buy some fluorescent grow lights, I may give it a GO this Fall/Winter, but I’m still not sure.  However, if I do decide to grow these self-pollinating tomato plants inside, you can bet I’ll be using the new plants I got from my prior trimmings/stem tip cuttings.  Anyway, if you’re interested in such things, you may need to check into buying growing lights, etc.

—End of Part 3 "Growing Tomato Plants from Trimmings/Stem Tip Cuttings"

---End of Post "Topping & Growing Tomato Plants - Heirloom Paul Robeson"