What do You Grow Tomatoes For?

[Toomanymatoes]

Yes, you can get green tobacco sickness from handling tobacco plants too much. I have no intention to slow dance with my tobacco plants every day. So, I should be fine.

That sounds like something rare. I worked the shade-tobacco fields for three years in my teens. 6 days a week, in all kind of miserable weather. Only if severe thunderstorms were nearly 100% likely would the day be canceled. At the end of the day, you went home with body and clothing covered in the stinking sap of the tobacco plants. The only times that I heard of anyone getting sick was by accidentally ingesting a bit of that sap.

Could be. I have no idea. Just information I came across as I was researching growing tobacco. I have zero experience with tobacco plants.

[Tormahto]

Yes, you can get green tobacco sickness from handling tobacco plants too much. I have no intention to slow dance with my tobacco plants every day. So, I should be fine.

That sounds like something rare. I worked the shade-tobacco fields for three years in my teens. 6 days a week, in all kind of miserable weather. Only if severe thunderstorms were nearly 100% likely would the day be canceled. At the end of the day, you went home with body and clothing covered in the stinking sap of the tobacco plants. The only times that I heard of anyone getting sick was by accidentally ingesting a bit of that sap.

Could be. I have no idea. Just information I came across as I was researching growing tobacco. I have zero experience with tobacco plants.

I don't doubt it at all, I just think that it might be rare. I've read that some people have reactions to touching the leaves of pepper plants.

Me, if there's a patch of stinging nettles anywhere in the area, they will draw me in like a magnet.

[Acer Rubrum]

I grow them for sauces of various types and because my youngest loves to eat them fresh and for the fun of it. And to sell at the Farmers Market.

[Sue_CT]

Taste, taste, taste. Then sauce. Production is low on the list. I can enjoy a sweet tomato in a salad, a cherry or grape for example. For most main dishes and sandwiches and especially for a BLT, I need old tomato flavor, too sweet and it ruins it. Throw them all together in a pot and you get a wonderful sauce, not to sweet, not too tart. I love the eye candy a plate of colorful tomatoes presents, all colors and stripes. You eat with your eyes, too, But they MUST have good taste. Production , as I said, is low on the list although I need more than one or two per plant, lol. But I plant about 16 plants just for myself and for sauce all year, so I can sacrifice production. I rarely if ever have too many because once I have had lots of tomato sandwiches, fresh tomato pizzas, salads, etc., there is always another pot of sauce to make. So while I would love to grow 30 plants and give away boxes and boxes of tomatoes, in truth a gift of tomatoes from me is a gift from the heart.

[AKgardener]

Don’t forget the enjoyment if that’s your thang but a nice glass of wine at the end of the day over a wounderful meal you made with the food you grew it don’t get no better than that

[JRinPA]

I think I started paying attention just to get better tomatoes for grilling burgers. Instead of "big boys" "early girls" and "cherry". I'd swear until the last 10 years, those are practically all I ever saw anyone grow around here. I seem to remember a beefmaster, too. I know, I know, I just didn't know the right class of people. For me, two Big Beef plants were a revelation for production of big, pretty good tasting tomatoes. Brandywines tasted even better, but we'd get like a dozen on the whole plant, if that, 3 of which were nice size. Supersteak hybrids were good tasting, but got a very small number to good completion. Neither set fruit of decent size after the second truss. This was in cages, practically unpruned. At some point it went from burgers to BLTs as the main draw for slicers. And then canning became a big thing with the excess tomatoes from growing a dozen new ones a year for a few years, dwindling excess freezer space, AND all the free canning stuff that started rolling my way when older friends learned I was canning. All of a sudden I was getting everybody's jars and lids, and canning lots of different sauces. I still use a lot of excess slicers for canning, but I am trying to grow more tomatoes that are drier.
I'm sure I could grow better brandywines and supersteaks nowadays, but...I think I have found a good mix. I like to look at a tomato on the shelf and know which type it is solely by appearance. Or be able to tell someone, on the phone, which one to use, or what it was that they liked. So, one big oblate red, one small round red, one pink one yellow one black, one ribbed red, etc.

[Tormahto]

https://actaneurocomms.biomedcentral.co ... 018-0625-y

Nicotine isn’t all bad either.

I ran an experiment in high school with nicotine and sunflower seedlings. You likely don't want nicotine anywhere near your tomato seedlings.