Exciting Tomato Varieties with Scott Daigre - Garden America Podcast & Radio Show [3.30.24] - Garden America - Gardening Podcast & Talk Radio Show

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
We are excited and ready to go. Was that a pun? By the
way, what did I did?I say something and didn't even realize it
was a pun? Well maybe yousaid I. Oops. Hey, there
we go. There's the old delay. John John Begnasco with his telephone.
Let's drat again. Good morning,Welcome to Garden America. Happy Easter to
one and all. I'm Brian Maine, John Begnasco, Tiger Pelafox. We

(00:22):
are back at is an easter weekend. We trust you had a good,
good Friday and a happy Easter toyou here in southern California. Guys,
lots of rain. It is wet, Tiger. You talked about thunderstorms tomorrow.
Yeah, isn't that exciting that we'reactually gonna get a little bit of
weather. I mean, we donot a great weekend for having weather,
But at the same time, welike weather because we don't. We never
get weather. That often the easiestjob in the world being a weather man

(00:45):
in San Diego. Good for thegarden. It is good for the garden.
Absolutely. These spurts, yes,a little soaking, sunny, little
soaking, enough time to dry out. Twenty four, by the way,
is the number now twenty four gophersI've cut, but oh yeah, you
know what, we need to starta new no new roses like they the
gopher did not get yeah two,two or three last time. Well you

(01:08):
know now it's one. So becauseyou were two of the ones that they
I dug up two the ones thegophers got no roots at all, and
they're both coming back nice, Sowell done. And speaking of roses,
I brought a Easter present for bothyou and Brian. Yours is out in
the car and it's a rose thatis fifty years old because it came out

(01:33):
in nineteen seventy four. This istwenty twenty four. Uh huh, so
I thought fifty years and I wasdividing roses. So this is a Flora
bunda called Marina marina, and itwas you brought two of them, Yeah,
one for you, one for tiger. What and the uh it's a
Flora bunda that is orange with yellowat the base. And the reason I

(01:57):
thought you guys might like this rowus. First of all, it does
great and containers, so I thoughtBrian would like that. I love it,
and it was also used as aflorist rose. But it's fragrant and
most florist roses are not fragrant,right, so I think it'll be uh,
I think you'll like it. Ilike it already. How Come how

(02:20):
come there's two stems coming out ofthe soil. You say you divided it?
Yeah, how does this grow thatit doesn't have one stem? I
had a five gallon can that Iprobably was about six years old, So
I had all these I mean,they can was full of stems. So
I just took a saw. Ohreally, just divided it. Yeah,

(02:42):
like actual, I actually got fiveplants from it. So I've got one
coming up in the rose auction that'sgoing to be in two weeks. John,
you can conquer, but not verygood at dividing. No, no,
no, I was that's it.Not good at the conquering. Yeah.
So anyway, I think you guyswill like it. Leave it in

(03:04):
the container for at least a yearbecause you just divided it. That's beautiful.
Yesterday, yesterday, yesterday. Yeah. So if there's a little bit
of leaf loss or drew right,yeah, you know that, it's because
it you know, sometimes I'll dividesomething with a jackhammer, but yeah,
on these, I just used thissaw. Can we get a video of
you jackhammering something we could quick like, you know, I think fifteen to

(03:29):
twenty seconds would be enough entertainment.Every rose I planted up on the top
of my property by the driveway,I had to use a jack camera on
the ground. Is so hard.Doesn't that just shake your brain up?
No? No, I ended upgetting a uneasier one to use. Tiger
told me about it. Yeah,right, because the one I was using,

(03:52):
I think, wait, three hundredpounds a ninety pound breaker. Yeah,
it's like your power host that youlet me. My gosh, that
thing's heavy. It is heavy.So anyway, we are back at happy
Easter weekend to get those on BISTalk Radio. Of course, listening to
last week's show. A guest today, as always, who's that going to
be talking? For those that didnot get the newsletter, We're gonna be

(04:14):
talking with Scott Day with tomato Mania. We've had him on before. Yeah,
we have him usually every year thistime of year, a little bit
later. This time you talk abouttomatoes, see how the season's going,
give us an update on some varieties. And those of you that did get
the newsletter, Yes, John hada great article about the first person to
eat a tomato publicly, because ifyou think about it, tomato is in

(04:35):
the same family as salona, whichis a nightshade, which is a very
deadly plant. So back in theday they probably associated the two very closely.
They grew it as an ornamental justbecause you had the red fruit.
Ye, and the quote of theweek it ties in to what you're talking

(04:56):
about because we always get this question, is it a fruit? Is a
vegetable? And John's quote this weekwill clear that up. Do you know
who the quote was from? Bythe way, do you know who Brian
O'Driscoll was. He was a rugbyplayer. Oh I did not know that.
Yeah, good philosopher. Yeah,you want to hear the quote.
Well, when we're talking about tomatoes, okay, he said that knowledge is

(05:17):
knowing that the tomatoes a fruit,but wisdom is knowing not to put it
in a fruit salad. It's perfect. It just sums it all up.
It is so good. Now,the guy that ate the first tomato,
I think you had this in thearticle what what year? What's what century?
Was he? How far back dowe go? Oh? Eighteen hundreds,

(05:39):
No, not that far then,not that far back. Well,
if you think about it like everybodyelse that ate the plant that looked like
that died, So why would youdo that? You know, I always
wanted to the first person to evertaste something right, and it's like okay.
And you know what's kind of crazyabout that too, is that when
you were the first person that probablyate some things, a lot of those
people probably did get sick to somedegree when they ate it first, because

(06:02):
your body didn't know what it wasor how to react all the time to
it. You know, It's kindof like when you go to another country
even and you eat their food sometimesa little too rich, little little salty,
little too spicy for you, andthen you get accustomed to it.
So anytime you were the first toeat something, those people probably got a
little bit of some stick. Butthrough it anticipation, you're waiting to see

(06:25):
what's going to happen. My wifetold me yesterday that you can drink the
water in Costa Rica. Oh yeah, or you can, That's what she
said. Now, let me askyou this. Do we have to hand
on me? Not out of theriver or anything, but with the Caymans?
What do Yeah? I was goingto say, are you allergic to
alligator poop or what. Well,you know, when you go to certain
countries, they tell you how todrink the water, so you only use

(06:46):
bottle bottled water. Right, whatabout adapters? Are they on the same
ac DC? Do we have tolike when you go to Europe? No,
you don't. Don't do the samething. So all of our electronics
will plug it easily. Oh we'llcharge. I didn't know that. You
didn't think of that, didn't No, thanks for letting me know. Yeah,
that's gonna be April twenty first tothe twenty ninth. We're talking to
Costa Rica. In fact, wehad a lovely discussion about Costa Rica before

(07:08):
the show. We're all excited togo. Yeah, tuger to myself.
John bagnasco leaving the twenty first backon the twenty ninth. A great itinerary
actually going down a river speaking ofCaymans and wildlife to the left of you,
to the right view. Don't jumpin the water. I think that's
right. You know, wear yourlittle Safari outfit and then have like like
at Disneyland, like the little poppistol. Watch out, everybody, you

(07:30):
know. I came up with afunny scenario that you're going we're going down
the river, right, and thatthey set this up with like in Disneyland
where these natives come out of thejungles and stuff and you think it's real
because you're not expecting it. AndDana said, that's funny until somebody has
a heart attack. Yeah. True, it's the truth, right. It's
not to scare people until someone doesget hurt. Yeah. Well, it's
gonna be like these river trips inCosta Rica. I mean, you're gonna

(07:53):
think it's fun til somebody gets eatenby piranhas. Gez, you know we
can talk about piranhas. You know, you see those scales elephants coming up
out of the water all the timewhere somebody dips themselves or a cow or
something. At two seconds later theybring it up and it's completely shredded.
That we're painting our trip in reallygood lightning. I know. You know
we want to promise deliver. Youdidn't you you have a piranha at one

(08:18):
time? No? I never,but well let me I think so.
First of all, they're not asvicious as people make them out to be.
If you had a piranha in anaquarium and stuck your hand in there,
they're not going to go after you. In fact, I saw somebody
who actually cut their finger a littlebit then put it in there and they
were they didn't really react. Therewas an old dragnet out a thousand piranhas.

(08:43):
There was an old dragnet episode backin the sixties, and they were
trying to find where these people hadto stashed their jewelry. They was big
heist, right. They go tothe person's house, Joe Friday, Officer
Gannon. They're looking, they can'tfind it. I guess it's not here.
And then they they went into anotherroom. At the same time,
looked back into the living room withthe whe the aquarium was and there weren't

(09:05):
piranhas in there. They had thejewelry stuffed in the aquarium in the water,
but underneath, thinking if somebody triesto get in here, the piranhas
are gonna, you know, shredthem, and which is a fallacy.
But I thought that's very clever.Hydra jewelry in an aquarium in bags and
an aquarium full of piranhas. Perfect. Hey, Lisa talk about rabbit hole.

(09:26):
While we're talking about Costa Rica.Lisa says that or as a question,
can we do the radio show fromthere. Yeah, we're gonna re
arguing. We're going to try todo something live on Facebook, right,
yep. Yeah, we are goingto good good Wi Fi. Yeah.
I haven't locked in that yet becauseI'm still trying to figure out some of

(09:46):
the details of where we'll be atthat time and what's going on. So
I would assume we'd have to belike at a resort or hotel someplace has
good Wi Fi on there exactly.Don't expect a live show going down the
river in Cayans. No, thatmight be it. We could do it
like a a Facebook live where wejust have our phone and do that match.
We can do that and then postit. Yeah, so bring your
phone. John get good at takingvideos. Can look at the time.

(10:09):
It is time for our first breakof the day. First segment almost in
the history books. Second segment comingup with our guest. Scott's going to
be with us, and Scott's beenwith us before last year at this time,
So do stay with us. Thoseon BIS Talk Radio going to take
a break. This show as alwaysbrought to us by our good friends at
Fertilom, supporting US, supporting Guardin America. Back after these messages messages

(10:31):
back after these messages, stay withus. Okay, we are back from
the break. Thank you those onbiz Talk Radio. This of course a
pre recorded show from last week.Thank you for joining us. Those on
Facebook Live. Scott is ready togo, but a couple of things to
do first. John, Well,Yeah, our buddy John Dimenicci from south
Land, Sad says that he canhonestly say the drought is over. Do

(10:52):
you think so? I think so. And that's a good point to make,
especially here in southern California, whereyou know, rain is usually front
page news. And quite a stormbrewing and quite a storm tomorrow, John,
you know. And he makes agood point that I agree with one
hundred percent. He said water shouldn'tbe wasted, but use it efficiently.
Absolutely. You know, you cangrow whatever you want, just don't waste

(11:16):
your water, but use it efficiently. And then Tanya said that she believed
that all parts of the tomato werepoisonous except the fruit. And that's incorrect,
that tomato leaves actually are not poisonous, even though I've heard the same
thing, Tanya. People say that, but there's some chefs that have actually
used tomato leaves in their cooking.Yeah, are the are the are the

(11:39):
stems poisonous? I don't know aboutthe stems all right, but I would
think the stems weren't. If theleaves specifically, I didn't know if it
was like, well't what is thatchart? Was it? Well? That
graph? No, the the plantthat you cook and the leaf is edible,

(12:01):
but the stem is not not charredVega. No, you're thinking about
rubarb rubarby and it's the opposite.Anyone out there listening, do not eat
rubarb leaves. Okay, with thatin mind, speaking of tomatoes and such,
we're going to dive in with ScottTiger. Let's let's do it.

(12:22):
Yeah, Hey, Scott, goodmorning, one of our favorite guests joining
the program. Scott with tomato Mania, you know, to talk about what's
happening this tomato season. Already gota number of events under your belt,
and I believe you have the weekendoff this weekend, right, Scott Tiger,
good morning, Good morning guys.Yes, we have the weekend off.
How great is that? I mean, you know odd, but it

(12:45):
feels good. You've been going strongfor a month or so now and you
still have more events to come.First, tell our listeners a little bit
about tomato Mania that that are notfamiliar with your program. Thank you and
high everybody. Tomatomatias started at anamazing nursery in Pasadena in the nineteen hundreds
and I was lucky enough to workthere and help build this event that showcased

(13:09):
airloom tomatoes. And in two thousandand one I took the event on the
road and so we travel around.We've actually done Tiger. We've been in
trying to refine this. We've operatedin five states in over thirty cities,
trying to find the right combination ofthings to make this event go. But
we celebrate airlom tomatoes, hybrid tomatoes, all you can imagine, and we

(13:31):
grow out an amazing variety of rarethings that you can't find everywhere else,
and we showcase those in pop upsnow throughout southern California in the springtime.
So you're right, we've been onthe road for a month. Yeah,
And you know, some of thecool things that Scott creates or helps get
out there in the public are kindof a tomato for every situation, right,
I mean, you know that isthe hard thing when you go into

(13:52):
a garden center sometimes and you're lookingfor tomatoes. They might have five ten
varieties. They got a cherry,they got a slicing tomato, they got
a saucing tomato. They got afew other varieties in there. But that's
kind of it when when you knowyou put on your events, you have
hundreds of varieties. So if somebodysays, I want a yellow cherry tomato,
that's gonna get three feet tall,you have a yellow chilliy cherry tomato

(14:16):
is gonna get three feet tall,Like we sure, we sure hope.
So you know that is what wewant. Everybody. Everybody wants something different,
and we embrace the more different itis, the better we like it.
And so we we're out there infront trying to find the newest,
the wildest, the tastiest, allof that stuff. Well that things sound
good. Yeah, I think wejust dropped the call. Hey Scott,

(14:37):
Yeah, we dropped him. Allright, Well, you guys talk him
on the figure this out. I'llget Scott back on the phone. No
worries, because so you guys alwayshave a lot to talk about. Yeah,
hey, I do want to sincewe are going to be trying to
get Scott back on the phone.Here, I do want to go back
to John's John Diminici's comment about thedrought and how we've learned to save our

(14:58):
water, and that is probably oneof the most unique things I think that
has come out of the drought,is this idea that trying to recharge groundwater
situations, or to try to keepwater on property and not just send it
down a you know, drainage riverand out into the ocean, but actually

(15:18):
trying to keep it in the landbecause we're we're noticing that when we keep
water on property, the trees,the shrubs, all those deep rooted items
have water sources through the summertime.Also when it does rain again, it's
a faster recharge. So, youknow, I think that we're gonna see

(15:39):
a lot of evolution of water conservationover the years. Do we get Scott
back on? Scott is back on? Ready to go? All right?
Yeah, you know, but Ithink right before you had cut off,
you were just talking about some ofthe the you have a for everybody,

(16:00):
right, Well, we try,We certainly try, and every you know,
every zone tomato. Tomatoes tend tobe very universal, but there are
specific needs we find that in ourarea, and I'm sure there are those
you know, around the country andeverywhere who have specific needs. We sure
try to address that and when wecan, we do. Yeah. And
you know, it's kind of afun atmosphere too, because when you go

(16:21):
to a tomato media event, there'sall kinds of people there. And the
one thing I noticed, and wetalk about this on the program with Gardeners,
is that everybody loves to share theirexperience. So as you're you're walking
around cruising through tomatoes, if youlift one up, chances are there's someone
next to you that says, oh, I've tried that one before, and
you know it was good. Ita lot at each of our events we

(16:44):
find out about how, you know, wow, you did it that way,
you did it in that size pot, you did it in that location.
It's kind of an amazing thing.We learn as much from everybody else
as hopefully they learn from us,and then we can share that and that's
it is. You're correct, Tiger, it's the sale, it's an event,
but it's also a community and thevalue. There's so much value in
that knowledge and just fun in theexperience. Yeah, exactly. And you

(17:07):
know, tomatoes is one of thoseplants that I kind of just feel people
everybody grows every wedy love them,you know. So if you're not a
gardener, you try to grow tomato. Yeah, and it's true some people
the only thing they grow in agiven year is tomato plants. Yeah,
right, And we love that whetheryou're whether you're you're growing everything or not.
Yeah. Hey, hey, Scott. One of the things I was

(17:29):
thinking of when you had the programat our nursery there at Mission Hills was
the you know, just the conceptthat you know, you have these people
with all these varieties out there,and you do your due diligence, growing
some and kind of figuring out onesthat you want to promote that year and
ones that you're like, oh,we're gonna maybe take a break from that

(17:51):
one. How many, you know, varieties have you kind of gone through
over the years that have really peakedlike a high interest and then maybe like
falling off because you know, onethat I remember when when I first started
in the industry was the Radiator CharlittleRadiator Charlie Hill Lifter mortgage Lifter. And

(18:12):
I remember really when that one cameout, it was like nobody, you
know, that was the biggest tomatoever, you know, and now you
kind of don't really see it,right, isn't that crazy? Well,
look, there's tomato fashion, justlike in every industry, right, there's
a there's a fashion, there's today, there's whatever. There's this historical perspective,
and I think what's happened, Tigeris we've just found so much more.

(18:34):
In other words, I always creditblack crim with being the tomato that
launched tomato mania. It was wild, It probably was from another world.
It was a different color, itwas a different taste. And today there's
still a lot of demand for thattomato. But there are so many other
glorious black tomatoes that we found inthe interim that a lot of people have
just tried something else. It's notthat, you know, I guess it

(18:56):
did go out of fashion. Itcertainly didn't become a bad tomato because it's
amazing. Yeah. Hey, hey, Scott, we're gonna have to take
a break right now too. Sorryto cut you off, but when we
get back, we'll continue chatting withScott Dave with tomato Mania, of course,
So do stay with us. Gota question for a Scott or one
of us. Let us know rightthere comments section on our Facebook page.
As we take a break for BISTalk Radio. Welcome to Garden America and

(19:17):
talking with Scott. We're talking tomatoestoday, Brian Main, John Bignascar,
Tack at Pella Fox message is comingyour way on Bistalk Radio. Back from
the break. Those on BIS TalkRadio. We appreciate you tuning in each
and every week. If you wantto watch us live, here us Live,
go to our Facebook page Garden AmericaRadio Show. Every Saturday morning eight
o'clock in the West Coast Eastern timezone eleven o'clock. You can watch us
live, interact, ask questions,and really be a part of the show.

(19:41):
Until then, they'll keep listening toBIS Talk Radio. We're gonna keep
talking about tomatoes, Tiger. Yeah. And before the break, Scott was
just telling us that Black Crim wasone of the tomatoes that launched tomato mania
because it was just so so different, so different, so new than what
everybody else was used to. Andnow you're saying, you know, black
Crim, it's good, but there'sso much else out there. There's so

(20:03):
many more different ones out there,and maybe they've taken Black Crim and modified
it. Now it's sweeter, juicierhour I don't know, but it's there's
a lot of, you know,other ones out there. If we were
to ask Scott his favorite tomato,I'm sure, I'm sure he could not
answer that, right, Scott,there's no way to ask that. That's
a tough one. You'd have toask me again in fifteen minutes and it

(20:26):
might change. Yeah, yeah,absolutely, never know, Like asking me
what my favorite roses, Yeah,exactly, exactly exactly. I like them
all right on a given day,like any anyone is my favorite, and
we love them. I mean,it's like kind of the pursuit, dude,
I like finding my next favorite.That's that's part of the game,
and we love that. We havea question for actually Brian here on the

(20:49):
program, but it associates with tomato. One of our guests, Veronica,
what was the name of the tomatothat Brian talked about being so good?
I think it was an intermediate cherry. Now was that sugar or was it?
Well? I think it was Sunsugar. But since then, John,
you've discovered it. Well, there'sother sweet tomatoes, and maybe Scott
has some ideas on tomatoes. Yes, you know are sweeter, but uh

(21:11):
you the one year gro was sunsugar. Loved it? Scott what about
sun sugar? What about sweeter tomatoesthan sun sugar? Well, sun sugar
is an amazing place. It's anamazing tomato, and you know it's related
to sun gold it is. It'sa little more it's a little more golden
than that orange that that is theworld's favorite tomato. And you'll always find
the sweetness in the cherries. That'swhere the bricks ratings are. That's where

(21:33):
you get sugar, right, Ithink, guys, you know there's so
many good there's so many good sweetcherries. It's odd to find the opposite
where you can't find sugar there.But I think one of the new sensations
in cherries is one called bronze torch. Have you ever grown? It?
Wasn't that the tomato of the yearlast year? Bingo? Yes? Yeah,
it was actually two years ago.Years did we took this? Excuse
me? We got this tomato inour trials, and I kid you not

(21:57):
the first tomato we tested, andit was early because it's a nice early
variety, but the first bite ofthe first time we ever trialed that,
we just went, Okay, thisgame's over. This is Tomato of the
year next year and the rest ofthe summer, you know, bore that
out and it is a it's ait's a great It's an elongated cherry with
a point at end. It isdark, sort of that new dusky red,

(22:18):
sort of chocolate red that's so popularin tomatoes right now, with green
stripes, So what's not to light. It's unique, it's beautiful. It's
a little larger than the average bear, right, and I've gotta tell you,
the taste is so round and fulland yes sweet that it's it's the
next thing. It's it is insensation, but I think it's the next
thing. Yeah, And those tomatoesare so fun to put into salads and

(22:42):
things because to surprise people, theflavor is amazing, but then the look
is really neat The look is amazing, and you can't believe the flavor at
packs. It's kind of a itis terrific. Yeah. Rick from Idaho
says that he was at the firstTomato Mania at Florida cole Nursery. Really,
yeah, I wonder what that exost. Oh my gosh, that's amazing

(23:03):
to hear you guys. We havet shirts right from each of our event
years, and people wear T shirtsfrom nineteen ninety six all the time.
Love it. That's crazy when theycome to our events and there is a
lot of history, and I thinkit's typical of this genre because that's why
we honor in an airloom tomato forexample. Right, we're honoring their history.
And now this event has a history, and Rick, we're very grateful

(23:23):
for that, and I'm so gladyou reached out. That first T shirt
is a collector's item because it saysmade in America. It probably does,
and you're right exactly, it's prettyit's pretty amazing. You know, we've
been on the road, you guystwenty five years. Next year we are,
we are in our flagship salesmen goingon for twenty four We celebrate twenty

(23:44):
five years next year, and theT shirt will have to be a special
occasion next year for sure. Hey, you mentioned Bronze storage being tomato tomato
of the year. What was thisyear's or what is this year's tomato of
the year. This year's tomato ofthe year is one called Harvard Square.
It's a green, it is aI always called it a smaller beef steak,
but at a tasting this summer thatwas disproven when somebody arrived with a

(24:07):
bucket of huge ones. So dependingon where you grow it will be it
will be a nice sized beef steak. It's green with some red striping,
even some metallic and gold striping rightin some places and in some areas on
the inside it's green with some goldand red splashes through it. And if
you've ever tasted a Berkeley tied eye, the taste is in that family,
and so yes, we love that. And what we found about this one

(24:30):
is that it's hugely prolific, rightand it is again it's everything you want.
It's a sturdy plant, it's beautiful, it's tasty, and it's really
really unique. So a little bitmore, a little bit more tang and
excitement in the green tomatoes kind ofmakes a difference for some people. And
it's a it's a different taste sensation. But we've watched this for three or
four years in trials and always hada, you know, an affection for

(24:55):
it, and this year decided tomake it our star. And do you
know where it came from? Imean, Harvard Square, I really I
don't know. It's I don't knowits origin. It's not and and I
could go back there and I justuh, I just can't doesn't come to
you right now. Okay. Hewas developed at Yale University of Let's back
up it. We have a lotof questions. Yeah, let's back up

(25:17):
John on the question. Scott's standbyScott. A lot of questions coming your
way, John, go ahead,right you guys. Yeah, Marina,
which is uh, should get herquestion answered since I just brought you guys
a rose called Yeah, Yeah,you sure did. She wants to know
if you have heard of a tomatocalled why maya Cherry? I have not,

(25:38):
but I'm intrigued. I love thisidea. We we we get so
many inquiries about, you know,about new things, and I get seed
sent to me and I get allthis, But I haven't heard of that
one, and I'd love to knowmore, so I will I will check
it out. Yeah w A,I m e a like why like way
being Hawaii? Yeah, yeah,wah Hawai. You know that our our

(26:00):
tomato the year a few years ago, lava flow came from Hawaii. So
it's a it's an interesting, gating, interesting journey. Now I'm gonna I'm
gonna look that up. Thank you, Marina. Uh. Veronica has one
more question. She says that sheremembers an indeterminate cherry from Israel, but
she can't remember the name. Uh, and she said it was a good

(26:22):
producer, and UH wants to knowif it's still available. I can't think
there. I can't think of it. I don't I don't know obviously,
if we don't have the name.There is a beefsteak called Israel that's quite
spectacular and it's been in our it'sbeen our in our collection off and on
for the last few years. ButI don't I don't know of a again.

(26:44):
I can't can't call up that cherrythat might have been from there.
There are obviously cherries and amazing tomatoesfrom all over the world. Again,
this is this is what we celebrate, and I love knowing that everybody has
these special things from their particular regions, whether they're you know, uh.
Sometimes we find that name or namesjust happen and you know, it is
another tomato somewhere else, but peopleadopt it and give it some whatever the

(27:04):
story. We love that, andwe love the regionality of so much of
this stuff. Hey. Marina commentedthat the uh why Maya cherry was a
wild Hawaiian cherry and it was currentsize, So that really does sound interesting.
Well, it follows that it's smalland current sized. If it was
wild, that's like the first tomatothat was found or the first documented so

(27:27):
many eight centuries ago. Right,that's exciting. Tanya, who's in San
Jose right wants to know how shecan find out where the next Tomato Mania
is going to be. You're verythat's very sweet, thank you telling you.
We're tomato mania dot com. Howyou know is is your is your
is our base and obviously talks aboutour talks about our season. We are

(27:49):
primarily southern California right now. We'vebeen as far north in California as Phenoma
through the years and as our asour tour has kind of developed, and
we're always looking for NewSpace. Sowho knows, maybe we need to come
up to San Jose. We've done, we have, we have, we
have tried so much, and eventhough we have a long season, we
kind of we kind of hit theborders of that. We're always looking for

(28:10):
new space, to tell you,so hit us up and let us know
where you think we might where wethink we might be comfortable in your community.
We love this idea Yeah, Tanyais involved in gardening up in that
area, so she may want towork something out with you. Yeah,
there's wonderful. Well, we doall sorts of We have all sorts of
amazing partners of every kind. Youknow. I love the story that guys.
Now we're we're primarily at arboretums orgarden stores or farm standing like that.

(28:36):
But I've had the tomato mania ata party store before. So we've
done all that and h and welook forward. We look forward to the
next step, always looking forward tothe next place we can can show up
and and and excite people and shareshe had the good stuff. Yeah,
Scott in Pennsylvania is in Zone sixand wonders if you might have some recommendations

(28:56):
for people on the East coast.Hey, before you answer that question,
Scott, we are going to haveto take a break in about like thirty
to forty seconds, So I don'twant you to get to start too too
far into too far into the discussionon these goes. I'm sure you can
go down a rabbit hole, butwe can take a break now. Yeah,
We're gonna take a break, Scott. When we get back, we'll
answer that question. Yeah. ThenScott can start from scratch without any interruptions.

(29:19):
Yeah, okay, great questions ofthose on Facebook Live. Keep those
questions coming from Scott. Tomatoes,great subject. We're all excited about tomatoes,
new varieties, varieties we've never heardof before. So Scott's going to
be back with us. Well,all going to take a break. This
show of corresponsored by Fertilum and thesemessages brought to you by our good friends
on biz Talk Radio. Okay,we are back from the break. Yeah.
By the way, those on BISTalk Radio, this is the final

(29:41):
segment of our number one news comingup. Top of the hour. We
come back. It's six minutes after. Hopefully you can carry us or your
market does carry us one or bothhours. That would be nice. You
don't miss anything that way. Wecontinue again, last segment for biz Talk
Radio Facebook Live. We keep onrolling along, So let's get back into
it to Tiger with yet so wecan keep the conversation concerning tomatoes rolling.

(30:03):
Yeh. Scott was just about toanswer one of the questions that we had
come from our Facebook listeners about growingtomatoes more on the East coast, right
right. Well, look, guys, we're really lucky because this amazing fruit
is pretty universal. Now, Yes, we have different growing seasons, right,
we plant at different times, ourdays are longer or shorter based on

(30:26):
where we live in the United Statesor anywhere. But look, tomatoes are
incredibly willing just about everywhere. Yes, some may do better here than there,
whether it's a warmer or a coolersituation. But I think we've been
on the East Coast trying this eventand we learned so much when we were
out there. We did white flowerfarm events for a few years. We
were in Maryland and in the Bostonarea, and we found that people did

(30:48):
the base that would they We showcasedthe same varieties we really did, and
just like people in southern California,wherever you are on the East Coast or
wherever, you're going to have toexperiment a little bit. But I think
you will find that if you usegood practice you you were, and you
know, follow the rules basically,get the basics in terms of sun water,
irrigation and and feeding correct you know, and do all that right,

(31:12):
tomatoes will be will be surprisingly willingfor you. So I think it I
think it takes some experimentation, butI think you get out there and find
what you want to eat basically rightright, and and go for it.
I don't think there's a cherry ora beef steak or whatever, Scott that
will work better in Pennsylvania or oron the East Coast that it does in
Louisiana for you know ya, Butyou've got you've got to try it.

(31:33):
And and again, the core thosevarieties that we hear the most about,
those varieties that are the are thecenter of both the hybrid and the heirlooms
sort of heritage of tomatoes should workfor you. And so get it all
right, experiment and find you haveto find out what's what's available or what's
what's most willing in your area.And I think you'll be surprised because a
lot of them will. Yeah.And and you know, when it comes

(31:56):
to growing tomatoes, Scott, likethe thing that people think about is number
one, temperatures, right, becausethat's all about you know when it'll set
fruit, when it won't set fruit. And then you know they they love
water, so you know, keepit well well watered and you're good to
go, right, And and thenyou can grow them in a container.
So you know, like you say, like wherever you're at. It doesn't

(32:19):
matter about soil conditions or anything,because you just put them in a pot,
put it next to your house.Maybe maybe that keeps it cooler,
maybe that keeps it warmer, youknow, but you can find a plant
that's going to do well there andactually produce fruit for you. Absolutely,
And as gardeners you learn these lessonsevery day. And whether it's a tomato
or a lavender or a daisy,right where they where things work, how

(32:39):
they work, where they work best. And the tomato is the same.
And there are some limitations the coastmakes, you know, gives growers the
limitation mountains or or short winter,short summers give people limitations, but you
work within those and you'll find tomatoesextremely universal and willing if you do your
you get if you get the basicsright. I have three tomato volunteers on

(33:01):
my property right now. So Ihad this one, Yeah, I had
this one plant that I've just leftand I don't even it's actually two plants.
It's it's the kind of a cherrytomato. And then there was another
one that I planted from you lastyear and I don't know the name on
it now. They grew together theygrew together, okay, and I just

(33:22):
left it and still sitting there.But now I have three other plants that
have popped up throughout my property thatI have no clue how they got to
where they are what they do.So I'm waiting to see. I love
growing just random volunteer tomatoes in myyard and seeing what they turn out.
Well, it can be it canbe kind of maddening because you don't know
what they are. I get storiesall the time about it's the best thing

(33:42):
in the garden or whatever. SoI am all about volunteers. I say,
let that go, figure out whatit is and hopefully enjoy it.
Yeah, exactly. You know.Originally I'm from Michigan, right, So
we used to use tomatoes to tellus when the last frost state was because
it was the day after you plantedyour tomatoes. Yeah, it's like when

(34:04):
you wash your car Rick, andIdaho wants to know if there's any products
that you feel can be added tothe soil that enhance the flavor of tomatoes.
I don't know about the flavor,Rick, I think the health of
your soil definitely relates then to thehealth of your plant, which then hopefully

(34:25):
gives you the best tomato, thebest tasting tomato possible. Right, So
when you're talking about building soils,it's all about compost. It's all about
organic materials and not just when yougo plant your tomatoes, building your soil
all year long and just throwing stuffinto that area where you know you're going
to grow next year. Right,whether it's a manure based product, whether

(34:47):
it's a hay even that you're layeringout in the garden, or straw or
clippings of some sort, compost andcomposted materials are always the best thing to
make the best tasting tomato. Oddly, I think one of the other things
too, rick is sort of nomatter what you're growing, no matter where
you're growing, right, we wateror irrigation tends to be one of the

(35:08):
things we screw up in the garden. And oftentimes at the end of the
season, when we get most nervousabout that tomato that's ripening and we want
to take care of that beautiful bundleof you know, gorgeous beef steaks that
are on the plants, we tendto over irrigate and in the in the
end of the season, the plantis putting a lot of that water into
fruit, and so you're you maybe diluting flavors. So good farmers I

(35:30):
know in California and elsewhere, asthe summer goes along, are not watering
more, they're watering less, orthey're cutting off water so that the all
that wonderful taste in the tomato iswell balanced and rich and concentrated. And
that's where you get the best tomatotaste. So again, no matter what
you're growing, you know, watchyour irrigation at the end of the season,

(35:52):
and then and eat that tomato whenit's ripe, when it's fully fully
colored and softening. You pick ittoday, it's going to be a deeper
color and softer in two days,right, So if you if you do
that, wait for it, andthat's when you get that best tomato taste.
And I think it's not so muchabout what you added to the soil,
but that helps, and then itgets you to the point where you

(36:13):
can make a decision that gets yougets you that primo taste. Hey,
you know, it's funny you mentionedthe water situation because I remember we had
a conversation I think at the endof last season last year with these weird
rains and Son, California. Wehad all these late rains, and you
know, we were talking about yourfarm that you have up in Ohai,
about how the fruit production and thewater and you know all of that,

(36:37):
and then you know, we wejust didn't know what was going to happen
this season this spring. So youknow, I mean, have have you
you've you've started your guarden again,right, so you've already started it and
and now the season's kicking off.Have you have you noticed any kind of
carryover from last year's rains into thisyear in your farm, because you know,

(36:59):
you're your farm is more of afarm farm, not like just oh
I have some tomato plants. Butwhen we get back from the break,
I want to hear how your seasonis starting off. Okay, Scott,
absolutely, Scott hanging there. Staywith us those on BIS Talk Radio.
News coming up and again hopefully youcan hear us second hour on the show
Your Market carries us hopefully on BistalkRadio because we're back at six minutes after.

(37:22):
So again, do stay with usas we continue to talk about tomatoes.
News coming up on BIS Talk andagain those on Facebook Live. We
are coming right back with Scott DouceDay with us. I'm Brian Main,
John Big Nasco, Tiger Palafox hereon Garden America on a rainy day here
in southern California. We are backfrom the break. Those on bis Talk
Radio, those on Facebook Live,thank you for joining us here on Garden
America as we continue on this Easterweekend. Those on Bistalk Radio a pre

(37:45):
recorded show from last week to getthe legalities out of the way, we
continue Tomato Mania, Tomatoes Tiger withScott. Yeah, and right before the
break, I was asking Scott aquestion about how his farm is starting off
since last year we had such aheavy water year and then this year we're
starting off, you know with awith a good amount of rain as well
that you know on your on yourfarm up there. Have you started things

(38:09):
and how are things going? Well? I have a tiger. I'm a
am gone right. So we're onthe road this last month. So I've
got I've got way too many tomatoceilings, all my choices so far sitting
and waiting to be planted. Ourlast frostate in Ohi is Honor about the
tenth of the month of April.Okay, so we're not there yet,
and I've I've a relative to Johnson, the point that was made just a

(38:31):
minute ago, I've lost fields oftomatoes by planting too early up here,
and I do have to pay attentionto that. So I haven't I haven't
yet started. We are prepping likecrazy, and in fact, making lists
and and and enriching soils and doingall of that. But we're We're only
getting prepped, and I'll do thatwithin the next within the next two weeks,
to get mines, you know,to get our our test gardens started.

(38:53):
I've got a test garden in sandyAnds that won't go in for another
three weeks. And then adding Camerio, which is a little, you know,
a little kinder than where I am. We could be in, but
we're not yet. We're going togive it just a little bit more time
again, after those soils and getthings in. It looks like it looks
to be mid to the third weekof April, and that'll that'll be my
start. But relative to your question, I think we had such a weird

(39:14):
year last year that people said,oh my god, my summer was terrible.
But guess what, all my tomatoeshang on, hung on, and
I had an amazing fall and winter, which is really weird and we're looking
at, you know, two wetwinters in a row. Yes, it's
kind of thrown us for a loop. We're used to these hot springs where
we can start early and get things, you know, early summer and all
of that. But these last fewyears have been really strange and so a

(39:36):
very slow, very cool early summer. As you point out, last year
lent itself to plants that got reallywell situated, and after the big heat,
when things started to cool down andget really really perfect for tomatoes,
they produced to the faull. Weheard more of that this spring and continue
to hear more of that than everbefore the long, long seasons, only
because it didn't start early. Itjust kept going late. And John,

(39:57):
we've got a lot of questions toget to. Let's get we do.
Connie wanted to know if there's anytomatoes that deer or groundhogs. Oh,
Connie, I wish, yeah,I just I wish, I wish we
would. You know, it's theone that one with wire around it,
wire under it. That's the onethat the deer in the and the groundhogs

(40:19):
won't get. And for us,the gophers and the raccoons and the possums
and everything. Yeah, the squirrels, let's not forget those. So look
tough. Dealing with critters is toughin the garden, and a wire enclosure
is the I think, the onlyway you're gonna get it done. And
I know that's a lot of workand expense and time and all of that,
but if you can't grow on anotherside of the house or in another
location, or in something in ayard where the dogs are or something like

(40:43):
that, dealing with critters is reallyreally tough, but it is often the
only way we get tomatoes. Wetalk about picking time, and I talked
to just just a minute ago aboutpicking picking a tomato when it's ripe,
and many of us, many ofyou who are listening, probably can't wait
that long, because I always say, squirrel, know that tomatoes ripe or
ripening fifteen minutes before you do.And so you find it, you find

(41:06):
a tomato that begins to show somecolor, take that or clip it off
the plan, don't rip it andput it in the kitchen or a cool
place for a while, and it'sgoing to ripen up. That's how many
people with creater issues have to operateand I get pictures through the summer of
kitchen count is completely covered with basicallygreen tomatoes and it's just starting to go
grow to show some color. Soit often takes again a lot of work

(41:27):
and expense. But yes, it'sprobably perhaps the toughest thing we deal with
in gardens today. And tomatoes.Well, since you mentioned green tomatoes,
Veronica in Spring Valley wants to knowif you have recommendations for an indeterminate green
beef steak that is an abundant producerharvests. Well, look, when it
gets to the beef steaks, youknow you're not going to get as many

(41:49):
as you get. What's cherries,right, The bigger the tomatoes is the
fewer you get. We want thoseones, we want those ones that are
prolific. I'm showcasing one this yearcalled Tasty Evergreen that we really have liked
in trials. Think it's great.You look at there are beautiful new greens
in the Cherokee lines. There's onecalled Cherokee Limes Stripes that we have been
very excited about. That's in mythat's in the that's in my group.

(42:09):
Waiting you get planted. And soall these all these beautiful greens. I
think Harvard Square definitely qualifies, youknow, I think it's I think it's
amazing. And then you have standardslike Aunt Ruby's German green green and ananas
noir black pineapple that is also green, shows some red Berkeley tyed eye.
These are amazing green tomatoes. Ithink your job, in terms of making

(42:31):
it prolific is obviously again back tothe basics. Make sure everything's right,
your soil, your irrigation, you'resighting all of that. Give it,
give it what it needs, andyou will get what that plant gets.
Oftentimes we talk about, you know, we talk about pinching and pruning with
plants, and more and more we'refinding the beef steaks will benefit from a
little pruning so that they have moreenergy to produce more fruit. And I

(42:53):
think I don't. I don't prunemuch because I'm a lazy gardener, I'll
admit that, and I plant waytoo many tomatoes. But I think all
so in terms of practice, alittle pruning on some of those the little
printing and pinching on some of thosebeefsteaks may help you with the energy to
that or encourage that plant to putits energy into fruit rather than more leaves.
Yeah, and the sturdiness of theplant, right like in the sense

(43:13):
of you see those stems really bulkup and you know, be able to
transfer more water and nutrients through theplant. Like you know, I mean,
obviously you're gonna cage it and supportit, but you know you'll you'll
see some real like real strong stemswhen you start doing the pinging and kind
of pruning and lacing. So yeah, I'm out at that. And look,
it's a big job, let's belet's be honest. But if you're
if you're doing a few plants andyour goal is to get more fruit,

(43:36):
yeah, which is all our allour goals right in the beefsteak realm.
When you really want if you reallywant large and you really want again the
energy to go where you want it, that that can be it can be
a good idea. And and alsofor the greens, it's good to be
able to do that because then youcan see the fruit. The one thing
I have a problem with the greensis that you can't you can't see the

(43:57):
fruit all of a sudden, Ilook At'm like, whoa, look at
this thing. I didn't know thatyou got to think of it as it's
like finding it. It's like it'san exactly there you go, all right,
John, go ahead, Yeah,it's just gonna comment also that Fornica
was makes green tomato jam and that'swhy that's amazing one of Brian Brian's favorite

(44:22):
listeners, Dana. Yeah, mywife, Scott, So here we go.
But and you may not know thisbecause it's a supermarket item, but
there's a tomato that's being marketed astwilight tomatoes. Have you heard about,
Scott? I have not heard ofthat one. We hear about. We
hear about grocery tomatoes all the time, of course, because it's what people

(44:44):
This is what so many are ofus are eating. But I don't know
Twilight is that? Is that?It's? Know? Is that? Where?
You guys? What? Where?Where does it? Where's it being
nature Sweet? Vond's and Walmart.I believe it's called Nature's nature sweet.
I know nature sweet for sure.What color is it? It's a red
tomato, I do believe. Yeah, and it's a smaller tomato. My

(45:05):
ears are up now I got tofind it. Okay. Now, could
this be one of those situations thoughwhere they named it twilight But that's not
the actual tomato. Kind of likethe cutie absolute Manda. I'd say,
my ears are up. I maynever see that seat anywhere. It may
never be ordered, it may neverbe offered to the garden market. So
there's that as well, so youknow, for for you know, we

(45:27):
don't get it kind of thing,right, It's a market. It's a
market situation. We've seen garden thingsthat we've grew in the past sort of
captured for the grocery market. Thathappens all the time, and vice versa,
where we never get what all ofa sudden we can buy in the
supermarket. And purple industry, redand purple is the color fine, Oh
red and purple, how wonderful.There are plenty red and purple options out

(45:47):
there, though there's one called tooTasty, came out of Burpie this year.
It's like a plum that's a redwith a with a blue anti sigon
and cap the same anti sign.And that's in blueberries, which is all
all over the tomato world right now. And there's a beautiful one out of
Rows seven seeds. If you don'tknow ROAs seven seeds, take a look.
Chef driven, chef driven seed companyout of New York. There there

(46:10):
they have a they have a tomatocalled Midnight Roma that is quite extraordinary,
mostly blue roma shaped, red bassedphenomenal. So there's lots of that combination
out there, and I'm kind ofexcited to know that it's sort of hitting
the hitting the grocery market with blueand I don't doubt we'll see more of
that. You know, a lotof the uh, it used to be

(46:30):
that store bought tomatoes had no taste, you know, or tasted like cardboard.
But the new marketing plan for someof these tomato companies is to market
tomatoes that taste good. That yeah, and look, I think you know
heirlooms did that. Heirloom emphasis didthat? The world, we tomato growers,

(46:53):
eaters, all that said, wewant great tasting tomatoes supply and demand.
You know, this is this isthe industry, this is what this
is what they listened to. SoI'm really happy to and you're right,
it's happening. What was it wasthe motto we want tomatoes that taste good,
not just tomatoes that ship well.Well, look I just mentioned rows
seven seeds. That's the that's theirmatra. They went to seed seed purveyors

(47:15):
and said, hey, we reallywould like a blah blab vegetable that tastes
good and see these these seed developerssaid, well, we've never been asked
that before. Hey, we're gonnahave to take a break. When we
get back from the break, we'llwrap up chatting with Scott Day with Tomato
Mania. Uh, get you allthe information you need to know about his
program and tomatoes. Yep, youbet you. Garden America, Brian Maine,

(47:35):
John Big Nasco, Tyler Tiger Palafox, thank you Scott for being there.
It's a stumbling morning for me.It's the rain, it's the weather.
Anyway, got to take a break. Brought to us by Fertiloma break
for BIZ Talk Radio. Stay withus back from the break guard in America,
biz Talk Radio, Facebook Live.Tig, You're going to toss to
you as we we slowly wrap thingsup with Scott, very popular show this
morning, as we continue to talkabout tomatoes. Yeah, so again,

(47:57):
Scott's program, Tomato Mania is agreat way to bring a lot of varieties
to areas all around California and otherplaces as well. Uh, you know,
because I think people travel for yourprogram. I mean it's one of
the one of the rare locations whereyou can go and see two hundred or
more varieties of you know, tomatoes, and like we say, find something

(48:19):
for everyone that's right, you know, and you do your your work in
growing. As we mentioned, youknow, you have uh test facilities where
you grow out a lot of thesevarieties, so you can get the track
record on you know, how theygrow, where they grow, what they
taste like, all of that stuff. Tomato mania dot com. I posted
the link for the website. Thankyou. Lots of good information. Scott

(48:43):
has a book about tomatoes on itif you're looking for more information as well.
What do you have wrapping up theyear for you? You have a
you have a few more events comingup through April, right we do talker.
We're busy this week, and youknow that we've evolved into events and
then we so we were pop up. Now we kind of are to stay
a while in some locations. SoI have two stores open right now that

(49:05):
will remain open through through gosh intoMay, and then we have three events
next week, two of which willbecome stores and do the same. So
we we we do this series ofpop ups. So last week to your
question. Next week at more Parkat Underwood Family Farms in southern California,
popular destination we do. We willdo more Park and so much locations for
them. Then we go and workwith the Starter Farm up in Santa Anez,

(49:29):
one of my one of my testfarms, and Mark will do an
event up there with a with afloral friend of his or or business up
there. So we have three andthen more Park and so much will become
stores that we'll that will host andthat will restock through probably mid May.
So yes, we evolve, wekeep growing. And next week is the
last weekend of our events per se. Okay, And and then you just

(49:52):
get to kick back and relax rightfor the rest of the year. Oh
sure, all the time. Thenthe hard part starts. You got to
grow this stuff. You know,we work hard at it. We know
everybody else out there does. We'reso grateful for the support and just to
you know, everybody joining us,and it is great pursuit. So we
love it. And yeah, Ineed I need about ten farmers to support
me in the in the summer.So if you're out there and you're a

(50:14):
farmer, talk to me. Yeah, I me in southern California. I
want more and more test farms becausewe always want more and more tomatoes.
And you know, such a greatcommunity online you have developed. So if
you haven't yet, reach out toScott's Facebook, yep, where you know
there's great chat, there's great information, videos and things like that that they
share via that and if you wantto get you know, they have a

(50:37):
newsletter as well, get some information. Sign up for their newsletter. Thank
you. I appreciate that. Welove sharing. Yeah, so you know,
thank you very much, Scott.Enjoy the enjoy the off weekend.
Is it rainy? Where are youat right now? Are you up in
Ohio or where are you? Iam in Ohaia at this moment? Is
it rainy? Up there? Hi? We're traveling back and forth. We
opened the OHI Event or the OHIPartnership on Thursday, so that was that

(51:00):
was this week's activity. So we'llbe we'll be in a high through June
and again hitting the road and puttingtomatoes in the ground. That's what we're
going to be doing. All right. Well, you take care, Thank
you, very thank you very much, Scott. Always fun gentlemen. Thank
you have a great spring you betthank you much. I believe there's energy.

(51:22):
It's just it uplifts everybody. AndI think it you know, when
you have a guest like that thatis so passionate and so enthusiastic, it
brings it brings out a lot inour listeners who then want to ask questions.
And it really it touches a nerve, a very positive nerve. And
he boy, he brings it,no doubt. Well, Carla says that
she's motivated to turn her attention towardsgrowing tomatoes again. Yes, good for

(51:43):
her, absolutely, Now I knowthere were a few that we missed,
a few questions. Yeah, onewas well, actually there were two from
Rick. One is he wanted toknow what happened to grafted tomatoes and they're
still out there if ricks and alot of stores in Oregon carry those and
Organs right next to Idaho, soif you make a trip over there,

(52:05):
you might check ahead of time,but you can mail order those also from
Let's see, there's two companies onthe east coast, there's Jungs Young's Ju
and GS Jungs Tomatoes and then ourJungs Seed Company. And then on the

(52:29):
west coast, a territorial seed companysells grafted tomato plants. You can order
those through the mail from them.And then let's see rickhead what was his
other question? Oh, do tomatoeslike companion plants? Rick? If you
go to Amazon dot com you can, I'm sure find a used copy of

(52:53):
Louise riots book Tomatoes Love Carrots.Yeah, we have discussed that before.
Yeah. Yeah, and she wrotetoo, she wrote Roses Love Garlic and
Tomatoes Love Carrots, and they're bothbooks about companion planting. So check.
Got Connie's comment about Jung's Randolph,Wisconsin. How about that? Thank you,

(53:22):
Connie. You know, our listenersare so smart. We did a
survey about a year ago, andour listeners and viewers Tiger of all the
intelligence of people who listened to radioand podcast, they ranked really high.
They ranked top three. Yeah,top three. This year we're hoping for
maybe number one or number two.So there you go, keeping the good
work. Yeah, thank you.Kevin says that he grows the Cherokee type

(53:45):
tomatoes up in court Lane. Yeah. You know what. When I think
it was Scott and Pennsylvania had askedfor recommendations for the coast, and Scott
Daig pointed out that you have tolook at your your own micro climate,
because if you're right on the coast, the days aren't usually warm enough to

(54:07):
produce good tomatoes. So you haveto use tomato varieties that are short season
and will develop under cooler climates.And the beef steak type tomatoes usually like
hot weather to develop, so andthey need a little bit longer season.

(54:30):
So if you're growing big, hugetomatoes, you've you've got to take that
into account. So it just dependson where you are. You kind of
always what was it the general ruleif it had a Russian name, that
would grow well in that area.We're talking about stuff like Stopeacha. Yeah,
well St. Peachko is a checkname. Yeah, but I'm saying
as far as cool seasoned tomatoes,yeah, usually if it had a name

(54:52):
like Siberia exactly, or some Canadianones like Manitoba variety at one time.
But yeah, those those tomatoes weredeveloped in cool climate. San Francisco fog
Yeah, well San Francisco fog isis uh, it doesn't have good flavor,

(55:13):
let's put it that way. Isaw a T shirt one time with
a tomato and a circle around itwith a line through it that said friends
don't let friends plant San Francisco.Fuck. Oh is it? Is it
a bigger tomato? No, it'sjust a very watery just nothing to it,
not much flavor. It does produce, but you know, you might

(55:34):
as well go to the supermarket andbuy a tomato. Yeah, it does
like a tomato. Yeah. Iwas trying to look up to see why
tomatoes and peppers and potatoes are edible. But then, you know, like
we were talking about earlier in theprogram, but like there's a lot of
salanams that are not edible, right, I couldn't find any like definitive answer

(55:57):
as far as like, oh,well, these plants have this and these
don't have that. Because you hadmentioned a lot of people think that the
tomato plant is poisonous, but youknow that's not not true, you know,
but it's just interesting that, right. I Mean, they're all salanums,
so they all have that you know, root of where they're from and
what kind of plant they are.But some are poisonous and some are not.

(56:20):
You just roll the dice, Iguess early. Well, I don't
know if i'd roll the dice.I mean I would eat a tomato,
but I would not eat night shadetiger. Let's play Russian roulette. Yeah,
roll the dice and see what happensif it's with Well, you know
we were talking about uh, theKernel in eighteen twenty that ate the tomatoes
and public and two thousand people showedup to watch him eat tomato. They

(56:44):
want to see him. Yeah,they were like, yeah, it's exactly.
It's like a one man gladiator event. Sure, one man gladiator.
It's pretty good. Hey, wejust got a severe weather advisory aerial flood
advisory for scripts wrench in effect untileleven o'clock this morning. So that's on
your way home, John, Andthat's in my neck of the woods.
Did you bring your boat down?That's where you live, that's right live.

(57:07):
Yeah, So do be careful outthere, whatever's happening, whether we're
you're like I feel like i've seenit recently. Has the started to bloom?
Oh? You old? And fullblow? Okay? Yeah. Full
Blow is for those of you whodon't know as are Californian lilac. It's
a native shrub here in southern Californiaand it has a purple flower, purple

(57:30):
blue flower. Well, you knowby us what Shannon and I were taking
on walk yesterday, and we werenoticing all the different colors. Yeah,
because you know, there's light blue, there's dark blue, there's even white
whites. Yeah. Yeah, ButI think it's so it's one of those
plants that nobody knows it's there inour hillsides and on our mountains and all
that just kind of in the scenery. It really does. And then it

(57:52):
blooms and you're like, whoa,it's all blue, it's all white,
it's all light blue. And youknow, John lives in this area where
he has the he overlooks this.Would you call it a canyon valley?
Yeah, And you know I couldjust imagine both slopes got to be covered
with We're gonna take a break.We'll talk about John's incredible scenery in his

(58:15):
views. When we got back fromthe break. It is Garden America back
after these messages on biz Talk Radio. Garden America Back from the break.
We hope you had a good break. Is as we continue trying to get
to as many questions as possible onthis rainy Tomato day here in San Diego.
Brought to us by Fertilan Broadcasting fromthe iHeart Studios here in San Diego.

(58:35):
John. Yeah. Rick. Wasit Rick that had the question regarding
the ground cherry. Yes, yes, So he was asking a question about
is a ground cherry in the Salanimfamily? And that's just the crazy thing.
So Salanim you have potatoes, andthen you have peppers, you have
tomatoes, and then you know Salanim'salso there's a plant called a detura,

(59:01):
which is not Broogmancy. I mean, I'm trying to think of what the
local local weight, local local loco. Oh yeah, because you go crazy
if you eat it. Yeah,but but but it looks but toura is
the upright one. Broogmancy is theone that hangs down correct right. And

(59:22):
also a lot of people will seethat in seed form that was a big
that was a big seed to buyfor the high school kids and try to
try to get their head, youknow, right off of it was moonflower,
moonflowers, tura and you know,so so those are all in that
grouping. Did you find out wasthe ground cherry also it's it's in the

(59:46):
night shade family. So yeah,and you were you were talking about the
one that I gave you, whichwas a tall one that's called cape gooseberry,
cape gooseberry and uh, and thatone tastes really good, doesn't it.
Yeah, yeah, it's great.I think mine died. Somebody was

(01:00:07):
pulling weeds on the hill and pulledthat out. Oh yeah, really yeah.
But they come up from seed reallyeasy. If you have one come
up from seed, do you stillhave it? Yeah? It's planted right
by a lime tree, so Iknow exactly where it's that. You know,
it's gotta be nice taking these tomatoeshome that John gave us and putting
him right out in the rain.They're not tomatoes, roses. It's been

(01:00:29):
a tomato. It's a completely differentfamily. Tomatoes are different. What basically
putting the roses out in this niceweather the rain right off the bat,
yeah, especially since they were justdivided got an half yesterday. Family.
Do you know I was. Iwas pulling weeds out of pots, fertilizing,

(01:00:52):
you know, the collection of theroses you and I went and got
in Sebastopol. And while I wasdoing that, I was dividing excessive time
ago flood morning in Fallbrook. Thewhat was I saying? Oh, yeah,
did right right? And you knowhow many roses I got off that

(01:01:15):
collection? Just in the weeks I'vebeen dividing them over one hundred, So
you created another one hundred roses toyour original from right compared to your wow
but there so so now most ofthem will be for the auction. I
was going to say, those auctionroses, right, are ones that was

(01:01:37):
there any of them that you kindof are dividing because they are only one
or two left? Kind of arosy. Well, there's one that's really
rare called doctor John Snow and wasnot doing well and it was in a
twenty gallon container. Whoa, Iknow, that's what I love doing in
my room and it's not easy tomove. So I cut that up into

(01:01:59):
four pieces and I actually have onein this year's auction. Okay, Carla.
By the way, the auction isthe thirteenth and the fourteenth of April,
the weekend before we leave. Yeah, and if you go to saveth
Roses dot com or CCRs auction dotcom you can see the list of roses.
And Carla said that if you're goingto be there, let her know.

(01:02:20):
She wants to meet you in person. Next year. That's the big
one, John, next year.You got the datemark down right, I'm
committed. Okay, Well, I'vebeen committed many ways in my life,
but but I'm committed to this aswell to an actual event there. Yeah,
you know, John's like a,well, this might be a bad
analogy. You're talking about how he'sdivided his roses and he got one hundred

(01:02:40):
out of the original hundred. Kindof what drug dealers do, right,
they step on their product. Ohyeah, they cut it down. They
cut it down. Now they havethat much more to sell. For a
detail, John's addiction, John's addictions. There's a gree called Jane's Addiction.
John, I remember Jane's addiction.Hey, I'm trying to think somebody had
a song called Jane. Lady Jane. Well that's the Rolling Stones, Rolling

(01:03:06):
Stones, Yeah, lady Jane.Yeah, boom boom boom boom boom,
Lady Jane. Every sigger home withus. Yeah, a little homework to
do with music movie and then usualvery slow temple song by the Stones.
For Christmas, Tiger gave each ofus a bag of ocean forest potting soil,

(01:03:27):
which, since you've given me thatbag, I still have eighty percent
of it left. You're But meantime, in that since Christmas, I have
bought forty bags of happy Frog sothat's how much I value your It's just
for something special. Exactly. You'reright, because there's nothing more devastating than

(01:03:51):
using the very last bit of thatsoil when you're all said and done,
because it is such a good soil. Well, the reason I bring it
up is that I was going toask you how much you sell those for
your store, you know, nineteentwenty bucks because Rick says that he just
bought a bag up in Idaho,Okay, and he paid thirty three dollars

(01:04:12):
for it. Yeah, I believeit. It's called profit. Well,
you know, one of the issueswith soils is, and I know Fox
Farm, it's what they call copacking. So you know, in order to
make things less expensive in areas,they would find a producer of soils that
would bag their product closer to wherethey're marketing, are local so they don't

(01:04:34):
have to ship it. And becauseocean forest is such a how would you
say, a proprietary product, theydon't do a lot of copaking, meaning
they don't allow people to produce it. No, it's definitely a premium putting
sun. So therefore it's being shippedfrom California to Idaho, which probably drives
up that cost quite a bit.But as you know you mentioned, I

(01:04:59):
highly doubt probably have a comparable productup there in Idaho unless some other soil
producer was up there putting all thethings that Fox Farms puts in ocean forest,
which is probably kind of a toughthing to do in Idaho, especially
since you know they're a little bitmore inland. A lot of the products
come from buy products of the fishindustry and the kelp industry here in California.

(01:05:26):
Now, what about fertile o dothey have? They have? They
have actually and those would be inindependent nurseries around the country, right,
yeah, And they do a bigamount of soil in the southern Midwest,
so I don't even know about Idahothough they might not be there there,
but that would be something. Iknow that they have some pretty good premium

(01:05:49):
bod so extensive line of products toothough, right. Oh yeah, all
kinds of you know, soils,fertilizers and you know, pest controls or
besides and all that kind of stuffthat you can find in your independ Do
what you can to support fertilome agreat sponsor of ours. F E R
T I L O M. Yeah, for to loan in a matter of

(01:06:10):
can you use it in a sentence, Yes, I support Fertilan because I
think their product is better than anybodyelse. It's like a sixth grader put
that into a sentence. Well,you know, just yesterday we used a
a liquid product from there called calledhumic. It's a liquid humous additive for

(01:06:32):
the soil. And it's because Iwas at a property in Entinitis where they
were just having really poor plant healthissues and it's because it was a new
build development and the soil that wasthere was not very good. They throw
Hey, you know, you knowJohn would appreciate this. Where like a
lugustrum, a Texas provt, whichis probably one of the most toughest nail
plants out there, when it's notlooking good and it's getting water, it's

(01:06:56):
getting sunlight, you know, youhave a soil issue. So we used
the humic product in there. Sowe should see some results in a few
weeks on that. Oh that's good. Yeah. You know, prior to
the last break, you were talkingabout California lilacs cionothis, and I was
surprised when we went to England,not when you and I went, because

(01:07:19):
that was summer. But the timebefore we went it was spring. We
went to the Chelsea Flower Show.I was surprised at all the California natives
in England. It's something that youknow, we take for granted because they're
growing wild. But there was Californialilacs, There was ceonothis, there was

(01:07:39):
freumontodendrons, and you wouldn't think ofthat stuff growing there. But I thought
that they were a completely different climatethan us. And then you know,
in the summertime when we went therejust to see, like what you said,
all the all the same plants thatwe have here also there blew my
mind and it just kind of showsyou that just because it's drought tolerant doesn't

(01:08:01):
mean sometimes that it can't handle thewater. If it has more water,
it actually will be okay. NotOathus. She taught me about sethis because
they grow fast. Yeah, wehad my son planeted on the side of
the hill behind his house, planetse and Othus and they grew, I
would say, quickly to about sixfeet tall by six feet wide. And

(01:08:27):
then during this and bloomed. Andthen during the summer we turned the water
on. Everyone died. Hates thesummer watering. We're going to take a
break. We have one more segmentcoming up, so those on Facebook Live
get those questions comments, and thoseon Bistalk Radio thank you for joining us.
It is Guarding America. A happyEaster weekend to you. All Right,
we have return from the break.This is it final segment as we
continue those on Bistalk Radio pre recordedshow from last week. We're enjoying Easter

(01:08:49):
weekend. So a few more questionsto get to and we'll keep on rolling
until at the end of the show. Guys, Yeah, Carla is asking
about using soil in a pot fortomatoes and Wantsta asked Tiger if she puts
humic acid in with that help?Okay, So, I mean there's so

(01:09:11):
could you extend the life of thesoil? I guess yeah, And I
would say yes, because if youadd organic fertilizer and humic acid, you're
going to recharge that soil. Sobut both are necessary. But both are
necessary because if you just put thehumic, the humic needs something to latch
onto, which is the fertilizer.So you need to put them both to
activate it, and humic activates existingfertilizers in the soil. And if you're

(01:09:36):
trying to, you know, takesoil that's basically zero and make it into
something you need to add both.You can't just add one or the other
because they work off each other.Correct, Okay, But then also the
idea of why you don't use soilfor tomatoes year after year doesn't always have
to do with the lack of nutrients. That's that's definitely what some people say,

(01:09:58):
Oh, move your tomatoes around forthree years because you know it needs
to recharge. But like we said, you could easily recharge that with some
new soil, a little bit offertilizer, a little bit of human acid,
and it'll be fine. It's morefor the disease and the nematod is
why you move tomatoes around. Youknow, Bacilium will nematodes and what else

(01:10:21):
is there or just diseases in general? Right, it's fusarium light and verticilium.
Well, and you called it facilium, so it took both. What's
one name? That's trying to keepthe show moving along here. So I
know a lot of people are underthe impression that after two or three years,
all the nutrients are excuse me,sucked out of the soil, right,
which is true if you don't replenishit. But you could easily replenish

(01:10:45):
soil with humic acid, organic fertilizers, just a little bit of additional compost
or earthworm castings. You can reallydo a good job of recharging any any
bad soil or sterile soils, soto speak. But that's not the only
reason why you moved tomatoes around.Kevin wants you to do wants to do

(01:11:05):
another show from my house, okay, and wants you to show the rose
garden. We should do that probably, Well, we're getting into like June.
Well, no, June's too late, too late. No, hey,
it's more like we get from CostaRica. Probably when we get back,
the weather will be nice, shouldbe nice. If you're interested in
hearing what I have to say aboutroses tomorrow, if you mark down hashtag

(01:11:30):
rose Chat podcast, you can listento the podcast I did with Teresa Byington,
and the whole show's just talking aboutroses. Yeah, you're so happy.
Probably we can take the cameras aroundJohn's roses, around his property and
give you a good, good lookat what's going on out. Yeah,
she told me that, you know, she was thanking me, and the

(01:11:50):
show's coming to an end, andI said, well, what am I
going to do with this next twohours of notes? In front of it?
Right? Where did you do itfrom? Did you do it for
me? Library? Just sitting inyour library? You know, I actually
did do it from the library.It's a good spot to do it from.
Something. How over a reason toleave your house anymore, John,
except to come to the show here. How long were you on the program

(01:12:13):
with her for? I think itwas an hour show? An hour show?
Yeah, maybe maybe forty five minutes. I'm not sure. I you
know, once they start talking,well that's it. You know, you're
in your wheelhouse. Yeah, andyou won't believe this, Brian, I
off a couple of times. Iwent off on a tangent. Yeah what
she brought me back though? Shehad an out Rotcha back down to earth.

(01:12:34):
Tanya would love to see John's place. We're going to get that set
up. We're going to do it. Tanya's been to my place. Hasn't
changed much. Tiya, not Tanya. I'm sorry, Carla, Carla,
this is Tanya. Tanya wants tosee your place. You know, Tanya,
you are invited anytime roast chat.The name yes, hashtag rose Chat

(01:12:55):
podcast rose Chat. I think mightall be one word, but I'm not
sure. But if you google roseChat podcast with Teresa Byington you'll find it.
Yeah. She also has a listof podcasts that she's done with other
people in the industry, and shedid one a couple of weeks ago with
what was his name? Our guestfrom last week? Was it Andy Green

(01:13:19):
or Dave Green? Andy Green?Right? Andy Green? Dave Green?
We know for sure Green does amanage used to be the manager for the
podres Well, we know for sureit wasn't Dave Green because you said that
Randy Green is actually what it wasGreen. Yeah, isn't that amazing?
Well, one week removed from aguest and each of us has a different

(01:13:40):
take on what his name is.Well, anyway, she also did an
interview with Randy Green and h andwe we both mentioned how unique his marketing
idea or heirloom roses marketing idea wasfor sending you know, have a subscription
to beneficial insects and they send himall when it's time to put him in
your garden. And it's not justladybugs and premantis. He's actually, I

(01:14:05):
don't think there are any light.And he was actually expressed a bit of
caution on using ladybugs because you know, now there's an issue with some specific
ladybug varieties, and you know thisisn't that right, So diversifying your beneficial
insects is a good idea. Yeah, they're poisoning lady bugs and they attack

(01:14:28):
you when you're sleeping. Maybe not, maybe that was a dream last night,
but but yeah, the thing Iwas most interested in, we just
went virals attacking you while you sleep. I've got that. John has this
thing where he has to be carefulwhat he filters before he says it would
I'm going through that right now myself. No, better not say anything,

(01:14:50):
just let it be. It's funnybecause he has that filter, but then
things just still. I'm wondering whatgot filtered out. Okay, here's the
thing. You know, you haveto change feelter's now and then they get
dirty. Whenever it's something slips out, his filter's dirty. Yeah, he's
getting it when he cleans it,it doesn't slip out. I've told you
guys many times that I probably onlysay half of what comes in mind.

(01:15:11):
I get it, but you know, what I think the other half of
what you don't want to say.I can see it in your eyes to
the other So Kevin says he gothis call that package as well. Very
excited for the trip. We wegot a couple of questions for Kevin,
maybe pretending to coast read everything.All good with your packet, all the
information? Pack it look Kevin?Let us know. Yeah, all right,
guys, I think we got abouta minute. We got to wrap

(01:15:32):
things up. John go, howdoes your packet look? Hey, Carla
wanted to pack it? Okay,Carla wanted to point out that Heirloom Roses
has free shipping this weekend. Whatthere you go, free shipping Heirloom Roses.
If you go to their site,you can read about the insect sign

(01:15:53):
up to thank you for joining us. We hope you have a great Easter
weekend. Those on Facebook the Easternthanks for all the listeners that watched the
piece totally yeah sure yeah. Andthose on BIS Talk Radio Easter was last
week. We hope you had agood Easter as well. Tiger, you
can stay if you want to.The rest of us we're gonna say goodbye.
Enjoy the rain, but be carefulif you're driving in the rain.

(01:16:13):
For the entire crew, I'm BrianMaine, John Beg, NASCAR, Tiger
Palafox, Happy Easter, enjoy yourweekend, have a great weekend. We'll
do it again next week right hereon Guarden America. Take care,

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Exciting Tomato Varieties with Scott Daigre - Garden America Podcast & Radio Show [3.30.24]

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Exciting Tomato Varieties with Scott Daigre - Garden America Podcast & Radio Show [3.30.24]