Tomayto, Tomahto

 

June 2026

Pickaway to Garden

Tomayto, Tomahto

By Paul Hang

Remember that line from the song, ‘Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off,” in the film Let’s Dance? The film came out in 1937 which was even before my time, but not by much. The lyrics, by George and Ira Gershwin, sung by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, have been heard by most people. For gardeners and others, that controversy, over pronunciation, is minor. Another controversy, more controversial, mostly for non-gardeners, is whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable.

I remember hearing that a tomato is a fruit as a young boy, not a lad. I thought the proposition was preposterous. Like a lot of controversies it can sometimes be solved, by rational people, by defining the terms. What is a fruit? A fruit is a part of a plant that comes from a flower and contains a seed or seeds. A vegetable is another part of a plant not developed from a flower. Those are botanical terms.

Vegetables are parts of plants not developing from a flower. Some familiar veggies and the parts they come from are surprising. Artichokes, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and cabbage are buds, Asparagus is a sprout. Celery is a stalk. Lettuce and spinach are leaves. Carrots, beets turnips and parsnips are roots. Potatoes are tubers, modified stems whose “eyes” are buds. Onions and shallots are bulbs. A vegetable we think of as a fruit is rhubarb (a stalk).

Fruits develop from flowers and contain seeds. Strangely this includes many foods that we consider vegetables: squash and pumpkins, avocados, cucumbers, peppers eggplants, olives, peppers, zucchini, green beans. There are some weirdoes like rhubarb; figs (that are flowers that develop inward), that we consider fruits. Then there is corn, which if dry and mature is a grain, but if eaten fresh as sweet corn, we consider it a vegetable. But it is a fruit because it develops from a flower.

Ordinary people define these foods by their taste or culinary uses. Most fruits are sweet. Most vegetables are savory. It’s not that simple though. Have you ever tasted a ‘Sungold’ tomato or one of the other sweet cherry tomatoes? Have you eaten a sweet carrot or Sweet potato pie? Botany has other scientific names for the physical structure of fruits like, berries (tomatoes but not strawberries or raspberries), drupes (cherries), pomes (apples), and hesperidiums (citrus). Veggies with underground structures have names like roots, tubers, bulbs, corms, rhizomes. Many are surprising. Today, we appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to help settle our differences, which in 1937 ruled that tomatoes should be classified as vegetables under U.S. customs regulations. Or, we can do, like the aforementioned song says, “You say tomayto I say tomahto, Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off”.

Wednesday June 10, plan on attending our annual Master Gardener Volunteer Founders Day Event. It starts at 6pm at Campbell Hall at the First Presbyterian Church, 134 E. Mound St. It is FREE! Diane Kadonaga of Sunny Glen Garden will present, “Herb Your Enthusiasm.” Master Gardener Volunteer Penelope LaRock will present “Art in the Garden.”

As always, your gardening questions can be answered by calling the helpline at the Pickaway County Extension office at 740-474-7534.

 

 

Things to do in the garden:

To avoid the wilting of cucumber and melon vines cover the new plants with row cover material until the plants flower. Then remove the cover so that the pollinators can do their work. Use row covers on all vegetable plants that do not need to be pollinated: cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, lettuce, onions and root crops are examples. We eat them before they flower and go to seed, thus no need for them to be pollinated. I have begun to do this on more vegetables and it keeps most pests away. Mulch vegetables in mid-month after the soil has warmed up. You can fertilize all vegetables, corn two times, this month.

Weed and thin plants. Crowding plants more than is recommended results in all the plants doing poorly. Water deeply (not a little each day) one inch per week all summer.  Apply the water to the base of the plants rather than on the foliage. If you use a sprinkler, water early in the day so the foliage can dry before nightfall. Wet foliage overnight encourages fungal diseases to develop.

Remove seed heads from perennials. Don’t allow fancy hybrids to ripen and self-sow as their offspring will not come true. Deadhead flowers for more blooms. Iris can be divided and replanted after blooming. Pinch back mums once they are 4 to 6 inches tall. Continue to pinch back until mid-July. If your daffodils or other bulb plants didn’t bloom well it could be because they are now growing in the shade of larger grown trees or shrubs. Or, perhaps they are too crowded? Once the foliage turns yellow you can dig up the bulbs and divide and/or move them.

Fruit trees often shed small fruits in early summer called June Drop. Thin after this occurs. Thin apples to one fruit per cluster and one fruit every four to eight inches. Other tree fruit can be thinned a little less. This will cause bigger fruit. Don’t thin cherries. Pick up all fallen fruit. Only compost fallen fruit if you have a “hot” heap. Otherwise dispose of diseased fruit in the trash.

If you notice a “volunteer” tomato plant in your garden, yank it out or transplant it. Good gardeners, like good farmers, rotate their crops. A volunteer growing in last year’s tomato area allows disease to accumulate in that spot. Mulch under tomatoes keeps the soil from splashing up on the fruits. Soil on the leaves and fruits promotes disease. If you don’t stake, trellis or cage your tomatoes and let them sprawl on the ground, mulch will keep the fruit off the bare ground. Mulch also keeps the ground from drying out, suppresses weeds and moderates the soil temperature. Several layers of newspaper topped with organic mulch, leaves, untreated grass clippings, coarse compost, shredded bark etc. should do the trick. Never let your tomatoes wilt. Uneven watering causes blossom end rot.

Water your roses well but hold off on the geraniums. They will bloom best when kept somewhat dry. Roses sprouting from below the graft should be replaced. Peonies should be fertilized after they finish blooming. Newly planted trees and bushes should be watered well each week for the first two years if the weather turns dry. Give them a good soaking. Don’t give them a booster feeding of fertilizer this year. Force those young roots to search for food by stretching out into the soil. Mow the lawn high, 3-4 inches, it crowds out weeds and needs less water, and mowing.