Golden Acre Home & Garden Centre's Plant Library

Group/Class:  Heirloom-Determinate

Description:

Thriving in cool climates, this vigorous, high yielding, heirloom variety fruits early, ideal perfect for short growing seasons; produces large, bright red fruit with a tangy tomato flavor; perfect for slicing, canning, roasting and sauces

Edible Qualities

Manitoba Tomato is an annual vegetable plant that is commonly grown for its edible qualities. It produces red round tomatoes (which are technically 'berries') with red flesh which are usually ready for picking from mid summer to early fall. This is a determinate variety, which means it bears a full crop all at once. The tomatoes have a tangy taste and a firm texture.

The tomatoes are most often used in the following ways:

• Fresh Eating
• Eating When Cooked/Prepared
• Cooking
• Preserves
• Canning

Planting & Growing

Manitoba Tomato will grow to be about 24 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 24 inches. When planted in rows, individual plants should be spaced approximately 24 inches apart. This fast-growing vegetable plant is an annual, which means that it will grow for one season in your garden and then die after producing a crop.

This plant can be difficult to integrate into a landscape or flower garden, and is best grown in a designated vegetable garden. It should only be grown in full sunlight. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in rich soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone over the growing season to conserve soil moisture. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.

Manitoba Tomato is a good choice for the vegetable garden, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. With its upright habit of growth, it is best suited for use as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.