Spring Tomato Festival - Suggestions solicited

[DecaturDiane]

I'm the volunteer head of a community garden based at a high school near Atlanta, Ga. I just love home-grown tomatoes, and I want to host an event next spring to encourage everyone in the community to grow tomatoes.

Working title: Tomato-palooza.

I want to schedule it at around the time when one would plant tomatoes in the Atlanta area. I understand April 10 is the average day of the last frost, so planting outdoors should being after that?

I have the notion that we'll have expert gardeners on hand to give talks about tomato growing tips. We'll have plants for sale, maybe even some instructions.

Maybe in mid-summer, have a tomato-eating contest, tomato recipes, etc.

What other things would an inexperienced tomato grower want to know?

[LindsayArthurRTR]

pests and pest control.

A tomato eating contest would be AWESOME!!!! I wanna go! I'm close enough to make it!!!

[Marlingardener]

What a wonderful idea! Novice tomato growers would probably like to know what varieties are best for their location; which types can be container grown; the difference between cherry, grape, and pear tomatoes; and what the terms "heirloom" and "open pollinated" mean.
You could also have compost, natural fertilizers, and mulches on hand to show the novices.
A community garden at a high school is a wonderful idea, and I must congratulate you on heading up this garden.

[TZ -OH6]

There is already a well established Tomatopalooza (TM) in North Carolina

http://tomatopalooza.com/

It is one of the many regional tomato get togethers. Others include CHOPTAG
SETTFEST
SPLATT
DATE
MAGTAG
KCTTTT
NORCATT
Buffalo-Niagra Tomato TasteFest
MidWest Tomato Fest

Some of them have websites that may give you some ideas.



Most of the gardeners will want to plant seedlings slightly before (with protection) or on the date of the last expected frost. They may have hit the local nurseries and bought plants well before that time because the local stores don't care much about frost dates, so I would shoot for a week or even two before frost date.

[rainbowgardener]

Agree with TZ, depending on what the weather is doing that season, I usually put out my tomato seedlings a bit ahead of our average last frost date. That date is when 50% of the time there is no frost after that. However, it is based on historical data over the last 100+ years. Here in global warming times, less than 50% of the time do we have any frost at that point.