WEST CHICAGO, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Notable for its bold flavors, distinct coloring and unusual shapes, heirloom tomatoes are the secret ingredient to any great garden or delicious dish. Expanding the options for home gardeners and everyday chefs, Burpee Home Gardens® makes it easy to grow tasty heirlooms with Bumper Crop™ grafted tomatoes.
Bumper Crop grafted tomatoes provide a summer’s supply of fruit, promising 50 percent higher yield than traditional heirloom varieties. By increasing resistance to soil-borne diseases and tolerance to hot and cold weather, Burpee Home Gardens helps gardeners to get more from their heirlooms — more fruit, more flavors and an extended harvest time.
And because the food gardening category continues to expand to include 25 percent of United States households, the Bumper Crop line of heirloom tomatoes offers six varieties to appeal to different tastes: Big Rainbow, Black Krim, Brandywine Pink, Brandywine Red, Mortgage Lifter and San Marzano.
“Each year, we see an increasing number of young families and households grow their own produce as a way to eat healthier and control the quality and taste of their food,” said Scott Mozingo, Burpee Home Gardens product manager. “Heirloom tomatoes are common favorites for their high-quality, delicious fruit, but until recently, the risks associated with growing heirlooms were ones many beginner gardeners weren’t willing to take. Bumper Crop grafted heirlooms combine the delicious flavor of an heirloom and the reliability of a hybrid — it’s a recipe for success!”
A centuries-old, natural technique of joining heirloom and hybrid varieties, grafting is commonly used in Europe and Asia as a way to provide more fruit, more flavor and an overall higher success rate in gardens with poor soil. The process of grafting involves joining the top of an heirloom plant — which produces leaves, flower and fruit — with a hybrid rootstock to create a healthier, more vigorous plant that is ready for the home garden.
“With Bumper Crop, we’re changing the belief that you have to be an experienced gardener to grow an heirloom tomato,” Mozingo says. “We understand that younger and novice gardeners are looking to add the best-tasting, most resilient varieties to their gardens, so we’re making sure everyone has access to both the science and the know-how to be successful.”
To maintain the disease resistance and ensure 50 percent higher yield, Bumper Crop grafted tomatoes must be planted at the same level as the top of the soil in the store-bought container. If the graft line, or scar, is buried, the plant will produce roots from the original plant, eliminating the disease-resistance benefits of the rootstock.
For more information on Bumper Crop and to locate a Burpee Home Gardens retailer near you, visit www.burpeehomegardens.com.
ABOUT BURPEE HOME GARDENS®: Burpee Home Gardens is a program of garden-ready vegetable, herb and annual flower plants available nationally at retail garden centers. Backed by the 137-year history of Burpee, the first name in home gardening, Burpee Home Gardens provides gardeners with time-tested varieties and information, ideas and inspiration for success. For more information, visit burpeehomegardens.com.