Love Apples   Originally thought by many Europeans to be poisonous, tomatoes are now one of the most popular of fruits. Yes, we think of it as a veggie, but botanists call it a fruit. In Indiana, where I grew up, they are a staple in every garden. Thus, I decided to grow them here in the tropics. Locally, people think tomatoes are those Tiny Tim types, the size of a ping-pong ball, but I don't relish that kind. I planted six beefsteak tomato seeds in peat pots in early December. They all came up. I gave one to a neighbor. His looks like the picture on the right. They are easy to grow, but do require a little LTC. My neighbor apparently did not give them the loving, tender care that I gave mine. Curled leaves, tiny fruits and weak plants are the result of too little care given to the plant.

	1 Week before ripe   See the difference? My green tomatoes, one week before they ripened, were large. The vines were heavy and healthy. In fact, I should have built some type of support for the vines so they would not fall over from the weight of all those love apples. (That is what some people used to call tomatoes.) Since my ground is actually a limestone base from a mountain that was moved away, there is no topsoil. As usual, I paid some mountain boys to carry in topsoil in burlap bags, some cow manure, and I added my favorite fertilizer from Ace Hardware. After digging a DEEP hole, I mixed the ingredients before planting my seedlings in their peat pots.

	Results--Beefsteak tomatoes. In such a short time, I had REAL tomatoes, not those dinky little salad tomatoes that my neighbors think are so great. Happiness is a large, ripe tomato?? Maybe, maybe not. Still, they made me happy. A problem, though, is that the largest one had to be picked before it was completely ripe. The skin was splitting as if it had outgrown its hide. Why? I don't know. If you know, please write to tell me so I can avoid it in the future.