Bob Zeni has more than 4,000 heirloom tomato plants in a greenhouse that stretches as far as one city block.
Bob Zeni, dubbed the “Chicago Tomato Man,” grows heirloom tomatoes in a greenhouse at Homan Rails Farm in the North Lawndale neighborhood.
Adam Zmick, CEO of Gardeneers, said Zeni’s planting is aligned with what the organization does and is a way to better support school gardens. Selmaan Ansari, one of Zeni’s customers, has purchased tomatoes from him for the past three years. A neighbor who knew Ansari was looking to put together a garden suggested he check out the wide variety the Tomato Man was offering. It excited Ansari to find someone who was local.
Though this is Monica’s second year purchasing tomatoes, it is her first year getting the full gardening experience. “Tomatoes are full of moisture and juice and they need the water,” Zeni said. “The other thing is if you drown it and then forget about it for two weeks, the core of the tomato grows faster than the shell of the tomato so what happens is that the core breaks the shell and that’s when you get the mold at the top.”
“It has not been warm, it has not been sunny and there has been far too much rain, so the plants are struggling, but that’s not a bad thing,” Zeni said. “You need to harden off tomatoes meaning you have to expose them to variations of temperatures, which strengthens their stem.”
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