My thoughts on growing tomatoes

[Yakaboochi]

Every year without fail my garden has a huge section dedicated to tomatoes. I plant lots of them. I have about 6 varieties growing at minimum every year. We love tomatoes. BUT I got to thinking. The time and effort I put into growing all these tomatoes is NOT the best use of my time and effort. Tomatoes, at least in my area are cheap, so for $0.99 @ Walmart or any grocery store near me I can buy a large can, of many different varieties. Now fresh eating tomatoes...sure I could grow a few plants for that but Im talking the massive amounts for sauces and to add to recipes. For that matter pasta sauce is also very cheap to buy compared to the time and effort to grow all the ingredients and then prepare the sauce.
Now I understand during a SHTF situation and after a period of time growing food will be a must and we all better have seeds put away but right now in the "prepping" stage in MY OPINION I can make better use of my time doing something else. I'll grow a few tomato plants in a planter for fresh eating just not the huge section in my garden.
It will be a situation where the food you make when all your stored food runs out will taste better.

What do you all think?

[CountryGuy]

Well, on the economics of it your likely right. I know around here with all the amish and mennonite and other farms you can buy fresh ones by the bushel for cheap. All those farms and lots of homes and other places have little road side stands all over selling them cheap. So again cheap if you want to make your own juice, sauce, whatever. I've noticed many of them now with signs showing heirloom bariety, grown chemical free, etc..

Reason to do it IMO:
- home sauce is way better than any store bought stuff I have yet to find.
- great thing to share with my kids and teach them where their food comes from (for those with young ones in your life get the mout there and get their hands and feet in the dirt
- that stuff in the grocery store or Walmart - you have no idea how it was grown, often where it was grown, nor what has been sprayed on it from chemicals to bacteria contaminated water.
- A home grown tomato has a flavor beyond compare in my mind. If you have good rich soil you have built up, no way can a tomato grown in stripped out dirt with all it's minerals depleted ever taste as good.
- to touch on your point, in a SHTF situation, you better know how to garden already. Better to do it now and practice and learn how to deal with things like starting seeds and seedlings, learning what varieties you like or produce best for you(heirloom?), learning to collect seeds, knowing what to do about pests, blight and weather. Learn it now while u can still go to the store and buy them should your crop fail rather than learn it when it's for all the marbles and means whether you eat or not.Plus if you wait till it counts you won't have a garden or grow boxes with well built soil from years of being worked and developed.

[Illini Warrior]

you either enjoy gardening or not - get a feel of accomplishment or you don't .... if you put a clock or your wallet onto your various activities they probably don't make sense either ....

[Yakaboochi]

Good points. I do enjoy gardening and we do grow a lot of our own food. We have several huge veggie gardens and the kids and grandkids do enjoy helping. It was just a thought.

[RICHFL]

I also changed my garden since I have access to a true Farmers Market where they sell by the case lot. Current price is between 12-14 dollars depending on type. I can Romano. for sauces so two cases will do my family for a year. Just do not have the time any more to handle it all by my self.

[Applejack]

I have to agree. We also can get tomatoes on the cheap and this year hubby did not do well with garden.. i was not able to help him much this year with my hand surgery and it could be up to a year before I gain full use of it. Only thing we have now are peppers. Might only plant some butter beans and maybe squash next summer. We are well stocked and need to eat what we have on hand now.

[TheCamper]

Buying is surely cheap. But I do it for fun and to eat tomatoes that I cannot buy at the store. Store bought tomatoes never have the same taste or flavor that I get from my backyard summer garden tomatoes. But the bet part of it to see the plant growing, bearing flowers, all the way till I pick them ripe tomatoes. Just gives me a sense of satisfaction. More of a hobby than saving money.

[Tugaloo]

We grow vegetables using heirloom seeds. This is our third season of growing using our own seeds.

[grumpygremlin]

I grow tomatoes every year, as has been said home grown ones smell-and taste- so different to shop bought ones.

[Tugaloo]

Both of us agree with your assessment. Commercially grown tomatoes are harvested green to protect them from shipping damage; then gassed with ethylene gas to ripen them. The results are a red tomato; however, its flesh is harder than a vine ripened tomato. It also tastes kind of different when compared to a vine ripened tomato.

[grumpygremlin]

I remember the smell from the tomatoes in my fathers greenhouse as a child, modern shop tomatoes do not smell like this.

[Tugaloo]

I remember the smell from the tomatoes in my fathers greenhouse as a child, modern shop tomatoes do not smell like this.

There is a difference and it's a major difference.

I enjoy the smell of tomato plants after they were watered. I've had friends comment the potatoes we served them were the best. They asked were did we buy them? My answer was I dug them up in the garden.

Another point, I know there isn't any chemicals sprayed on them in them.

Here are some examples of what is sprayed on potatoes.

https://ethicalfoods.com/sprayed-produce-harvest/

What is CIPC [Isopropyl N-(3-chlorophenyl) carbamate]?
It stops potatoes from sprouting and has been used for the past 50 years.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4711416/

https://debbiestevenson.com/the-truth-about-wax-coatings-on-fruit-and-vegetables/

The list of what is applied to what we eat is long..