Gardening: Try a Mortgage Lifter tomato; Time to plant carrots

David Wall/Contributing Writer

If you’re looking for a “different” large (as in huge!) tomato with great flavor, then perhaps the Mortgage Lifter is a plant you should consider.  It’s an indeterminate, open-pollinated, heirloom tomato producing fruit weighing up to 2.5 pound that will produce until frost!  The plant has a pinkish-red beefsteak-shaped fruit that has few seeds.  Maturity occurs in 80-85 days. The plant can grow as large as 7-9-foot. 

 Mortgage Lifters were developed in the 1930’s during the depression by a man named M.C. Byles.  He was a radiator mechanic who worked out of his homebased repair shop in Logan, West Virginia.  Funds were tight, and he was looking for a way to pay off his $6000 home mortgage loan. For whatever reason he decided to develop a new, large tomato.  His method was somewhat unorthodox in that he chose to do so by crossbreeding four existing large fruited varieties, beefsteak, an Italian variety, German Johnson, and an English variety. 

 The German Johnson tomato plant was placed in the ground with the other three planted around it.  Gathering pollen, he then hand pollinated the German Johnson using a baby’s ear syringe! He then took the resulting seeds from the modified German Johnson fruit, replanted the saved seeds the next year and duplicated this process every year for the next six years.   

 By the 1940’s, M.C.  began selling his plants for $1 each. Word spread, and the plant fruit grew in popularity.  Gardeners were coming from up to 200 miles away (obviously prior to the internet!) to buy the seedlings.  MC was able to pay off his mortgage, and the plant thus became known as the Mortgage Lifter!  

 Due to plant growth size, spacing up to 4’ is recommended, with stake or cages to provide support.  Mulching is recommended.  Water 1-2” per week. 

Time to plant carrots is now 

David Wall/Contributing Writer

OK, why grow carrots when they’re so easy to pick up at the grocery store already peeled, cut into bite sized morsels, cleaned and packaged?  Well, I have to admit, these are pretty good reasons for using the grocery store. On the other hand, growing them for self and the needy provides a great service and satisfaction for the grower.

Many of us had grandparents who gardened and tried to instill a gardening desire in each of us.  Unfortunately, in my case, that desire took some years to take effect.  Now, depending on the crop and the growing season, I provide anywhere from 10-65 thousand vegetables for the needy and family/neighbor consumption.

It’s hard to beat the taste of a fresh cool carrot.  Many would say they’re difficult to grow.  In Actuality, they’re easy to grow, BUT an awareness of the time needed to germinate, soil preparation, and time from seed to harvest are needed.

Carrots were first found domesticated in Persia during the 10th century and were either white or purple.  Drawings from the 5th century clearly show carrots. Cross breeding over the centuries resulted in the multitude of colors available today.  Within 100 years, they had spread throughout the Mediterranean and western Europe, followed to Asia within another 300 years.  Today, the U.S. population eats nearly 10 pounds of carrots a year. One farm in California handles some 10 million pounds a day!!!

Carrots hate handling, so never transplant.  Sow only by direct seeding ½” deep in loose (not compacted) soil 12” deep.  Soil temperature should by at least 45°.  Germination can take as long as two weeks.  Once they get to 3” tall, thin with scissors to 3” apart. Time from sowing seeds to harvesting will vary from 50-75 days. Six to eight hours of sunlight needed.