Tomatoes that I planted in July

 

It may be a simple fact that germinating indoors is the best way to start summer crops but then again what about if you were left with tomato starts in peat pods in the middle of July? Would you plant them? In this case, I did. 

This is only my second year of gardening, and as I always say, I learned to expect less and experience more. In regards to growing tomatoes, I can say this is the first time that I’ve ever done so and I think I picked the right kind. I can say I never would of imagined myself growing these kind of tomatoes but I managed to make it happen. I definitely know that beginner gardeners like myself can understand that bit.

Tomande hybrid Tomatoes are what I have been talking about on my Instagram and Threads since June. You can find the early on pictures on my Instagram highlights from when I was germinating the tomatoes. It has really been such a leap for me to put my tomato plants right into the ground considering so many popular methods online say to grow in containers. It’s such a feat to grasp the reality of how a plant grows but as they say in due time, all will come to the light!

Gardening is definitely a dynamic skill and can be done in containers and this is something I want to talk more about in 2026. Since being able to plant my tomatoes into a mound at work, I realized what it takes for plants to grow and this is seriously intriguing news.

If you’re looking for earlier on harvesting pictures of these hybrid tomatoes, looking like cherry sugar candies then the place to go is my plants highlights on Instagam.

I can definitely say growing ‘Hybrid’ tomatoes has been a different experience based upon expectation. The popular varieties of fruits and vegetables that get sold locally and in stores are quite similar compared to gardeners like me who want to grow more valuable crops for what they are.

In these latest pictures from September 20, you can see that there’s a lot of red tomatoes in the picture and that’s what I was hoping for after a humid day and a big rain storm earlier this week. I really think that September 20 is the last time at least until the end of the first week in October that I will have an update on the tomatoes.

So far you can see I am putting some tomatoes into a brown paper bag but that is all I can get for the day usually; about 4 or 5. If I had planted my tomato root balls in the ground by the middle of June and not the middle of July then I would have an abundance of red hybrid tomatoes.

So far popular conversation always strikes the question, what are hybrid tomatoes?

Usually the term heirloom, hybrid and many others in the gardening community raise prompt question about the broad spectrum of the term.

The term hybrid can mean several things of course, spanning across a wide variety of plant categories but all and all it means a mix of the best of both worlds but there is mostly an awesome modification taking place due to scientific feats.

Just like my garden leader monster watermelons, I didn’t actually fertilize the plants after I put them in the ground. I did water them a lot manually, and even did so right before the last big rain storm.

The tricks of the trade seem to be never ending with gardening; and that’s good because I was expecting to have some kind of end game responsibility. End game responsibility meaning the desire to try and teach people what I learned but it can still be the best of both worlds.

The most reliable tip you can remember in terms of growing plants is that the roots are often forgotten about and/or misunderstood.

If you’re growing vegetables, flowers, herbs or fruits then this is one thing to never forget. Plant roots don’t need to dig into the ground; but they need to be established. The roots provide nutrients to the plant and if they grow farther past the germinating root wrap, it will be in width and not length.

It seems to be that easy to understand, establish roots in the container and then put in a soft hole so water can get to the bottom and the plant will grow as big as it can get and possibly even come back after the winter; even with those original small amount of roots.

It’s definitely a hard thing to grasp and considering this is one of my last gardening posts of the planting season I really wanted to share that bit of info.

I was out again on the 11th of September, and I realized that my tomatoes are at their hail mary stage; the be all and end all of tomato plants. Hybrid tomatoes are something special to think about because of their triple flavor compound. 

The most popular tomato products are obviously tomato sauce and salsa; perhaps ketchup of course. Often, the bigger and better things are left out for some reason; what’s up with that?

Thinking about making tomato sauce this fall a few times? Try and find some hybrid tomatoes. Considering the most popular sauce tomato is Roma for it’s lustful sweet and tangy preserve, it’s hard to forget how much more powerful a hybrid tomato is for popular tomato sauce menu items.

Tomato sauce is so popular and it’s out of the question and of course so is salsa and marinara for all kinds of dishes. It’s just so simple to understand the rarity in making your own tomato sauce with hybrid tomatoes; that not only bring in the water for the sauce but also some kind of magical viscosity. 

It’s a melt in your mouth kind of tomato, the tomande hybrid that is of course. I feel like it’s easy to identify the difference between hybrid tomatoes and other varieties. Of course, when you see a tomato that looks like a pumpkin or has a bunch of curvy wrinkles on the top you think it’s the ultimate heirloom but think again. Heirloom only means that one seed ever came from one of the best plants. For example buying a seed that is heirloom and harvesting seeds from the same plant still makes the seeds heirloom for next year. Of course heirloom seeds are the best but they aren’t always easily accessible. It’s not just a contemplation of having the best plant to consider the seeds heirloom, if you manage to grow your own plant from any seed and make it more valuable with care and growing methods then you can also claim your own heirloom seeds.

Hybrid plants are more of a thrill to the level seeker in the gardening world. If you’re into growing plants for some time then you must know about the genetic modification of seeds.

Of course without reason this can spark top stories and social media trends talking about the powerful big farm industry but quite frankly forget how reliable something like this can be. Seeds genetically modified to grow without manual pollination, or even seeds genetically modified to grow fruits or flowers faster in modified climates are really something to be thankful for!

Tomatoes are one of the most popular plants that people grow at home during the summer because they are super nutritious and beneficial. With this being said, there are still complications arising in some of the pizza, pasta and marinara dips I am trying. Of course, the tart factor in regular or beefsteak tomatoes is not there versus a robust and earthy compound. This is seemingly less appealing because I don’t eat tomatoes every day; when I eat tomatoes either hot or cold in any variation, I expect there to be a real tart flavor. Besides just a tart flavor expected, I look for the watery and earthy tones, of course side by side with the flavor and additives for consistency.

There are so many ways to make tomato sauce good; so it’s almost hard to leave any kind of tomato out. And of course, any fresh home grown tomato, regardless of the variety is going to smell so super fresh and citrusy!

Citrus is kind of the key factor here. If I like tomato sauce to be tangy and robust in any event then I can’t forget that there has to be citrus in the tomato as it’s harvested and I think that’s what hybrid tomatoes offer best. All other kinds of tomatoes not labeled as hybrids (genetically modified or not) are clearly not as tangy and furthermore not as soft or easy to ripen off the vine. One of the most exciting things I found about growing these Tomande Hybrid tomatoes is that they come off of the vine with some red towards the end of September and ripen in my room within 48 hours. What’s surprising is that the ripening in the room is so fast and so accurate; the tomatoes have such a luxurious viscosity, a sweet and earthy flavor that is consistent with the amount of liquid inside the fruit. 

See more pictures and information links on my official blog post: https://chrisjohnkline.blog/tomatoes-that-i-planted-in-july/