Product Description
Costeluto Genovese Tomatoes are one of the most beautiful Italian heirloom tomatoes. The deeply ribbed fruit has a mildly sweet flavor and is excellent on sandwiches, burgers, and in salads. These heirloom tomato seeds are part of The Seeds That Built America collection by Harvesting History and are made in the USA!
Planting and Care
Sow the seeds indoors 6 weeks before transplanting outside. Plant seeds at 1/2 inch depth. After the danger of frost is over, transplant them outside, adding a quarter cup of bone meal to the soil when planting. Space plants 30 inches apart in rows 36 inches apart. Costeluto Genovese Tomatoes require full sun and have indeterminate vines.
The plants will germinate in 10-21 days, depending on weather and soil conditions. Plants reach maturity in about 110 days - just in time for summer cookouts!
Inspiration
Costeluto Genovese was possibly first described in 1553 and is believed to be one of the first tomatoes brought from Mexico and western South America to Europe. Of all the vegetables grown in America, none is more universally loved than the tomato, and yet, for many decades, this delightful fruit was shunned by Americans who considered it poisonous. In 1870, Dr. Hand of Baltimore County, Maryland, crossed a small, red, smooth-skinned tomato with a large, red, deeply ribbed tomato, producing a medium-sized, red, smooth-skinned fruit. Between 1870 and today, as many as 1000 different varieties of tomato have been developed. Some of the best-tasting have come and gone from the market shelves, but have been preserved in the home gardens of America.
Eighteenth-century Williamsburg was the home of many ardent gardeners and plant collectors who often exchanged seeds with fellow enthusiasts in Great Britain. Gardeners obtained their seeds from store merchants or from traveling seedsmen. Today, the Colonial Williamsburg seed program continues the tradition by offering many varieties grown in the 18th century.
