Beefsteak Tomato from seeds

I grew up with the impression that you can not grow tomatoes from seeds!

Now I proved myself wrong and it was a full success.

For years I heard that growing tomatoes from seeds is not worthwhile, it is cumbersome, you need to graft the seedlings.

On the other hand I read recently a lot about heirloom seeds and in that context about the variety of old tomato sorts.

This year I gave it a try. 

When I did seeds shopping at my favorite heirloom seeds collector and trader I ordered seeds for the sort beefsteak tomatoes. I fell in love with this huge fleshy tomato sort some years ago. Its taste is sweet and it has more flesh than regular tomatoes you can find at the grocery’s. So it makes the perfect tomato for a tomato morzarella salat with some fresh basil leaves on top.

 

Early in February I ordered the seeds. Still in February I’ve put the beefsteak tomato seed in a pot on the window sill. About two weeks later the first spout appeared.

 

Again a few weeks later I could separate the individual spouts. Each in its own pot but still had them at night in the house. And later in spring in a small glasshouse on the terrace near the house wall.

By May they had grown to be 12 healthy tomato seedlings to be plant in real soil.

tomato into the soil

 

Later in summer I could harvest huge and delicious tomatoes for dinner.

beefsteak tomato

 

Later in summer the weather was very wet and the rain hurt the crop. The plants itself were resistant during summer rain. But as I still have no real protection for tomatoes the fruits got late blight – at the end of summer.