[Granville-Hough] 13 Feb 2009 - French Tomatoes
Trustees for Granville W. Hough
gwhough-trust at oakapple.net
Mon Feb 13 05:18:08 PST 2017
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:12:47 -0800
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: French Tomatoes - 13 Feb 2009
Dorothy was describing the wild growth of live oaks. It reminded
me of my older brothers setting out what they thought was a live oak in
front of our house. It turned out to be a water oak and a monster tree
which took over everything in the front yard.
Dorothy, as you seem ready to put a tomato plant in a container, I
will describe how the French did it. This was in the villages where the
family lived on the floor above the animals on the ground level This
was described to me by a WW I soldier who was quartered with the family
near the end of the war. They took a small wooden barrel and filled it
half full of manure from the animals below, then put in a layer of leaf
mold, then a layer of soil. Then they set out a tomato plant or two and
sprinkled it every few days. The water seeped through the wood and
evaporated, keeping the plant cool in the sun. The tomatoes grew and
hung over the barrel in a beautiful display of delicious red, which the
old soldier remembered as the most delicious tomato he ever ate in his
life.
You might try it with good Texas bull manure. A discarded nail
container (barrel) would be ideal, or perhaps a cardboard box. Of
course, you may do just as well with a plastic container with holes
punched strategically.
P. S. I remembered this story and decided to try it with kitchen
garbage in Fullerton, CA. I dug a trench in our back yard and put the
daily garbage in it, covering it with soil. When I had the soil built
up to above ground level, I set out the small grape tomato plant. The
grape tomato was new to me, and I really liked them. This plant grew
into a vine covering the whole area. We had grape tomatoes until no one
else would eat them. I found them best when they had been sitting in
the hot sun and were fully ripe.
I then saw an ad for a tree tomato and bought a plant, and put it near
my Fullerton house. It grew into a nice bush and was bearing tree
tomatoes when we sold the home in 1975. I liked them a lot, but I never
again saw one. They look like a tomato, but are really another fruit,
possibly from South America .
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