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- Local gardeners love to grow tomatoes and they do it very well too,
because unlike Sydney gardeners we do not have Fruit Fly to foul the effort.
There are some Italian gardeners just off the Parade at Norwood that grow
the most productive tomatoes I’ve ever seen. Grafted ‘Marko’ if I
recall and one year one grew three metres tall on a five metre long trellis
and 50kgs of luscious tomatoes were picked from one vine! That’s a lot of
pasta sauce.
- The ‘Le-Gef’ is anther local grafted tomato success story too. But why
grafted? Lee Prettijohn is the ‘Le-Gef™’ creator and grafts 20,000 a
year for local gardeners, because the rootstock he uses grows well on our
limey clay loams. The scion cultivar is a Lee secret, but unlike the ‘Hires’
rootstocks used in Europe, this one thrives on an F1 cultivar, which is what
Lee uses.
- The ‘Le-Gef’ rootstock is resistant to Fusarium and Verticillium wilts
of both races, as well as Root-knot nematode and Tobacco leaf mosaic virus,
not that you will probably need that protection, unless you are a very heavy
smoker and prune with nicotine-stained fingers! It’s a very good local
product.
- Lee also concurs with me that the best tomatoes are those planted in
October. Buy your seedlings or seed now and when they have two to three sets
of leaves prick seedlings into 10cm (4") pots to grow on for three to
four weeks. No fertilizer, grown hard and only watered when they wilt. Then
when planted why bust into flower, rather than making loads of unproductive
leaf growth.
- Never fertilize tomatoes until they have started to flower, trench
irrigate or use drippers on micro-irrigation systems, never misters, that
just encourages fungal diseases and don’t plant the seedlings too close
together.
- If you are prone to viral diseases plant a grafted tomato or one of the
improved and resistant cultivars such as ‘Mighty Red’ or ‘Super
Marmande’ (however that backyard Costaluto Marmande is not). If unsure,
ask the supplier, there are many new cultivars in the market this year that
claim viral resistance. Oh and keep us "Fruit Fly free" this
summer please! Try saying that after a few sherbets.
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