Tomato ‘Big Beef’

Tomato 'Big Beef.'

* Common name: Tomato ‘Big Beef’

* Botanical name: Solanum lycopersicum ‘Big Beef’

* What it is: One of the most reliable tomatoes known to man. This award-winning hybrid resists most diseases and puts out a steady stream of tasty, red, mid-sized fruits that are seldom cat-faced and bottom-rotted like many types.

* Size: Staked, they’ll grow 6 to 8 feet by summer’s end.

* Where to use: Vegetable gardens or west- or south-facing walls. If you’re growing just one or two, trellis them toward the back of any sunny mixed garden.

* Care: Start from seed in late winter or buy transplants to set out in mid-May. Produces best in compost-enriched and mulched soil with regular water (on the ground, not on the leaves) and a monthly balanced fertilizer (switching to one higher in potassium once fruits set). Harvest ripe fruit from early August to frost.

* Great partner: Attractive color-coordinated edibles are Swiss chard ‘Bright Lights’ and red-leafed beets such as ‘Bull’s Blood.’