Looking at a short growth season, the Matina organic German tomato was appealing with a 50+ day to produce… In our Northern state, we planted them as an afterthought in June. We were determined to go after organics.

“An heirloom variety, originally of German origin, this bright red, golf ball sized tomato has the kind of perfect sweet and acidic balance that you normally find in larger, late season tomatoes.

Matina is a potato leafed variety, best grown outdoors as a cordon, but is also suitable for growing under glass. Very early maturing, it ripens at about 55 days after transplant, giving high yields of superb tasting medium to large 70 to 90 grams fruits which are greenback free and ripen to a rich red skin
It is an easy tomato to grow, and it continues to bear fruit throughout the growing season. So if you actually are in a situation where you can only have one early tomato, you can still get all the tomatoes you want with Matina”

I had a hard time deciding what to do with our June seedlings once they were ready for solid ground. I landed on pairing them with a bed of San Marzanos under our maple.

For a backup plan, we added a plant to our variety tomato garden.

Everything went as planned in the variety garden. 

The shaded Maple garden was impossible.   There were battles for light, air quality, water, wind…The list didn’t end.

Interestingly, the variety patch produced far more high quality tomatoes in perfect conditions.

Meanwhile, the pathetic patch under the oddly unhealthy Maple that threw off unhealthy leaves, mid August was a joke.

As I went through their fall cleanup, I reflected on how we spent so much time on a high risk bed.

Overall, we had decent mid quality yields under the unstable Maple. Could we have improved that circumstance?

It was a likely yes… Next season we will water the Maple, monitor the soil humidity level, and of course trim branches to enable cohabitation of both!

Meanwhile, we will enjoy the beautiful tomatoes from the healthy plant we raised in our variety garden. Still feeling blessed!