Description
| Seeds | 25 seeds $1.99 |
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Italian Roma (Red Sauce Tomato)
Heritage: Italy
This type of saucing tomato has its roots in Italy. When it arrived in America (1950’s), it was crossed with other varieties of paste tomatoes to encourage disease resistance, climate adaptability, and control size. This created a hybrid VF variety of the original Roma.
Considered as the “father” of Italian tomatoes, we still grow and offer the original open-pollinated seed we obtained from Italy over 20 years ago. Plants are strong, compact and quite vigorous, sometimes producing vines. Each plant bears an abundance of oval shaped tomatoes with a slight point growing to 3” (7.5cm) long. Skin is bright red, with thick, meaty red flesh and few seeds. Essential for a full bodied sauce or paste. Very popular home garden variety. Semi-Determinate. Matures in 75-80 days. (310 seeds/g)
Semi-Determinate plants grow a size midway between the determinate and indeterminate varieties, producing some fruit throughout the season, with more of their crop appearing at the end. These varieties are hard to classify due to their inconsistent growth habits, and behaviour when it comes to fruit bearing.
Tips for Growing Tasty Tomatoes!
Tomatoes are heat loving plants that can adapt themselves to almost any growing zone providing there is ample sunshine and the season is long enough to allow the fruits to fully mature. Start seeds indoors in small pots 6 weeks before last frost date by planting them just below the surface of the soil. As the weather warms, harden-off the plants by setting them outside in the sun for a few hours each day. When the ground has fully warmed and the season has stabilized transplant to a sunny area of the garden. Remove all yellow leaves and any buds or flowers that have formed. This allows the plant to concentrate on developing a good deep root system in its new home. Plant deep burying the stem up to the first set of leaves. Plants should be at least 12-18” (30-45cm) apart to allow for ample circulation and room to grow. Most tomatoes do best when support is provided either by using poles, cages or trellising. The most suitable companion plants for tomatoes are; asparagus, chives, onions, parsley, marigolds and carrots. Do not plant near potatoes, corn, turnips, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. Tomatoes usually germinate within 5-7days (75-95ºF/24-35ºC).
