Roma Tomato Secret

The Roma tomato is a plum shaped fruit with low water content. It is, quite frankly, an excellent fruit for canning and freezing because you do not have to get rid of as much water when compared with main-season tomatoes.

Having said that, they are simple to grow and the main cultural requirements are the same as for main season tomatoes.

*Full sunshine for at least 6-8 hours a day.
*Fertile, well-drained soils
*Adequate water
*Temperatures over 60F to keep the pollen viable and the plant growing.

These tomatoes are good for cage growing and ladder growing. They are not for staking however as the growth habit is more bush-like than vine like. They are an indeterminate variety meaning they ripen most of their fruit within a fairly limited time. The harvest does not stretch on for too long (remember they are a commercial tomato)

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I grow mine on ladders. I suspend a ladder (I make my own ladder for this) approximately 12 inches above the ground using cement blocks stood on end. The plants are spaced properly and trained up to grow through the rung. I usually loosely tie them to the rung to begin with and then the plants are encouraged to flop and grow out over top of the ladder. This keeps them off the ground (reducing slug damage and rot) and makes it very much easier to harvest the individual roma tomato.

Easy plants to grow and harvest with a decent taste. Taste trials in our kitchens show that it is usually less tasty as a fresh fruit than main season plants. Once you spice it up in a recipe, it is fine and you can't tell the difference. It's that lack of water that makes it well worth growing.

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