Tomato - Black Zebra Roma

DESCRIPTION

Native to South America and bred in Europe, the Black Zebra Roma is a great variety for Armidale - fast fruiting and cold tolerant, it should start producing in less than two months time, and continue into early autumn. The mouth-wateringly savoury, oval-shaped fruits will be striped with burgundy and dark green when ripe, and are the perfect sandwich or salad tomato. Unlike regular Roma tomatoes, this variety is a climber (indeterminate).

POT CARE AND PLANTING

Tomatoes are easy to grow in pots, but the pot size can restrict the harvest, so I recommend planting this type of tomato in the garden bed for best results - transplant into a larger pot or a garden bed within 7 days. Soil level can be varied, but should be well below any actively growing leaves or flowers - planting a tomato in the ground slightly deeper than it is in the pot causes more roots to sprout from that part of the stem, which can make the plant stronger. Tomatoes in pots do best when set up on the grass or bare dirt so the roots can extend into the ground below.

WATERING

Tomatoes are heavy water consumers - water them a bit longer than other plants in your garden, once per day (early morning or late afternoon is best in summer). It's very hard to rot the roots of a tomato plant, unless it's in a pot with a saucer or on a surface that doesn't allow drainage. Always point your hose or watering can at the base of the plant, avoiding getting the leaves wet - splashing water spreads diseases that tomatoes are vulnerable to, like fungus. If any leaves start looking mottled yellow-brown, cut them off and throw them in the bin, trying not to touch any healthy parts of the plant while you do it. Be sure to wash your hands with soap when you're done, to stop the fungus spreading to any other plants you touch. Lower leaves often get fungus, which splashes up from the soil - so it's not a bad idea to keep the lower part of the plant clear of leaves all the time, to reduce the chances of infection moving up the plant. It's important to always use scissors to trim plants that are vulnerable to fungus, because if you make a mistake breaking something off, large wounds can let diseases inside the plant and ruin your whole harvest. Its a good idea to wash or sterilise the scissors regularly too.

SUN EXPOSURE

 Tomatoes need as much sunlight as possible to flourish. I recommend planting these in an open and sunny area of the garden, in an easy to reach spot, because you'll want to harvest them often.

COMPANION PLANTING

These Black Zebra Roma will grow as tall and wide as they can - called indeterminate tomatoes, they will initially need to be staked, and may eventually climb up a frame. If you haven't got anything for them to climb on, you can use thick string to tie them to nails in the fence, or find other creative solutions. Climbing tomatoes need to be carefully placed so they get enough sun - you don't want them to be on the south face of anything that will shade them out. A northerly aspect will prolong their fruiting in the autumn and ripen the fruit faster, but they will tolerate facing east or west as long as they get more than half a day of sun. They will grow well alongside okra, apiums, asters, brassicas and alliums - allowing enough space for each plant to expand. Give it some space from cucurbits, amaranths, and legumes - these plants, in addition to corn and potatoes, compete for the same nutrients and sunlight as tomatoes and so inhibit each other's growth. That means you also shouldn't follow one with the other in the same spot when replanting your garden next season - try enriching the soil with a legume crop instead, and/or top dressing with plenty of compost to restore the soil's nutrients. Get the tastiest fruit by encouraging pollinators with any types of flowers, but especially small white, yellow, and blue/purple flowers which attract bees. Marigolds are also a good companion, helping to keep the soil healthy when planted nearby; sage, lavender, rosemary, and comfrey attract the native blue-banded bee, which is capable of buzz pollination - ideal for increasing the genetic diversity of your seeds. These four companions need more space than average though, so usually aren't good neighbours to tomatoes - plant them at least 1m away or in a different pot nearby to keep the bees fed while you wait for tomato flowers - some of them are also thought to negatively affect the flavour of your tomatoes when planted too close.

HARVESTING AND EATING

The Black Zebra is a rare hybrid Roma that will produce ripe fruits over a period of time, that you can pick at your leisure and enjoy raw or cooked. Firm and fleshy, they're a wonderful sandwich and salad tomato with a rich flavour. Never store your tomatoes in the fridge! That lovely taste and texture will break down, and can't be restored. Towards the end of the season you might end up with more tomatoes than you can eat at once, but harvesting and preserving the end of your tomato crop is an exciting event in the garden and kitchen! When you find yourself overwhelmed with tomatoes, start collecting the fruits by cutting off the whole truss with scissors, as soon as the least ripe tomato starts to darken (only the first few on the truss will be totally dark) - this will ensure that the plant has enough energy to keep maturing as many other fruits as possible. Keep on top of bringing the fruits inside every day for about a week; washing them with a dash of vinegar in a bowl of cold water; air drying them completely laid out on clean tea towels; before storing in an open container outside of the fridge. It's vital to preserve the flavour and texture of the tomatoes by keeping them at room temperature for maximum enjoyment - in the pantry, on the counter, or hanging up inside a cloth bag. At this time, it's likely that the mornings will be getting frosty, causing your plants to die back. Collect any remaining fruit from the plant, and separate the green tomatoes to enjoy sauteed, made into a salsa or chutney, or added to stewed dishes. The unripe fruits aren't great raw and can give you a stomach ache, but when cooked well give a zesty hit to South American meat dishes, e.g. chili, to fill tacos and burritos. The ripe fruit can be cooked the same way, made into tomato sauces and purees, or semi dried and stored under vegetable oil in the fridge. Whatever you choose to try, it's best to process all the fruit in one go the week after your big harvest once it all looks ripe, discarding any that have gone bad. Please seek more information about safe food preservation techniques and recipes online - a recipe for semi-dried tomatoes is available from us on request.

SEED SAVING AND PROPAGATION

Save a few ripe fruits from your harvest to collect seeds from - I recommend choosing any that are blemished or pecked by birds, so you can preserve as many good fruits as possible. Lay a piece of tissue paper or paper towel down somewhere that it can stay for a couple of days, and squeeze the tomatoes over the paper so the seeds, juice and pulp land on it. Use your fingers to carefully spread the seeds out into a single layer, and then don't touch the paper again until it is dry and crispy enough to lift off the surface. You can cut this paper into thin strips to create homemade seed tapes when it's totally dry, and store them inside an airtight container - tomato seeds are good for up to 8 years. Don't sow these seeds again until next year when the risk of frost has almost passed - you can start them inside in October, but you'll need to wait until November to plant them outside, or the leaves will curl during the cold nights. Time your sowing carefully - they need to be moved out of seedling pots after no more than 4 weeks. Cover a strip of the seed paper with 5mm of soil and keep moist and warm - tomatoes will germinate after about a week. In Armidale, experienced gardeners know that frost tender veggies can't be planted outside until Melbourne Cup Day. Heavy frosts return here at Easter time, so your tomatoes will be done by that time each year.