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Hi All
I need some assistance from you all.
Firstly I am from South Africa.
I have been searching High and Low for good canned tomatoes for Pizza Sauce in South Africa. I have been told that tomatos like Escalon 6 in 1 and San Marzano are of the best quality tomatoes for Pizza Sauce.
Unfortunately I am unable to obtain these here in South Africa so it looks like I have to resort to growing my own.

I have tried many locally available canned tomatoes but find the taste very acidic and sourish.

I need some direction in growing my own tomatoes.

My questions are as follows.

1) I beleive the best tomaotes for Pizza Sauce is from the Plum Variety. What are the best seeds to purchase for plum tomatoes
2) What is the best enviroment for growing plum tomatoes.
3) I have alot of monkeys around. How do I avoid my crop being damaged by these animals.
4) I need the tomatoes to have a very little acidic taste, like almost hidden and not noticeble. They should be more on the sweet side.
5) Does anyone have any idea what is in "6 in 1 tomatoes"?

I think thats should be all for now
As you can see my questions are all pre-limenary as I would first like to see if it is possible and worthwhile growing my own.

I look forward to hearing form you all

Kind Regards
Halapenio

Good morning Halapenio,

I see you really are a BRAND NEW member here. Welcome. I will try and answer some questions, but South Africa growing habits are not familiar to me.

Plum tomatoes work fine for pizza sauce, but if you want low acid tomatoes, you need to plant the yellow ones. That would not give you the typical red of a tomatoe sauce though.

Monkeys is a new problem to me. I have deer, rabbits and groundhogs being my problems. My knowledge of monkeys is that they CLIMB------anything. In order to protect your crop of tomatoes, I would imagine you would have to actually have a cage to keep them in. Do not think that a fence would work.

I don't know how the seed companies handle things for South Africa, being as you would be in a different season then here. Shipments of seeds for vegetable gardens won't be happening till about March. The catalogs we are getting now are for things like tuplips and daffodils..........things you plant in the fall and need the cold of winter to make them bloom. Maybe you can ask people on this forum to send you some tomatoe seeds from their gardens. You would need to tell them some place that they could send them too. You would need to start them right away.

I have no idea what 6 in 1 tomatoes are, so can't help you there.

Have not checked, but suspect if you check this forum, you will find a section on how to grow and take care of tomatoes.

Good luck. Let us know what happens

Carol
Pennsylvania.......................a LONG way away

to add to what carol said, we do have a member here who pops in during the "winter" (for us) to share his gardening. he is in south africa also. his screen name is hadeda (i think) and he claimed that after the bird. very knowledgeable, and nice.

Welcome Halapenio.

See: The Cook's Thesaurus at:
http://www.foodsubs.com/Tomtom.html#roma

Recipes for Tomato Sauce for Pizza at
http://www.helium.com/items/1220796-how-to-make-authentic-pizza-sauce

As to some of your questions:

1.Some Plum tomato varieties : Roma VF, San Marzano as you have stated, Grape Tomatoes. Look for seeds of these varieties.

2.How to grow Plum tomatoes
http://www.gardening-tips-idea.com/Growing-Plum-Tomatoes.html

5. 6 in 1 tomato is a brand of ground tomatoes.
http://www.pennmac.com/items/3228

@ Jiffy, I guess I do only pop in when it's winter over there

3. Easy to deal with, just open up one of the tomatoes and put in chili paste or pepper and the monkeys will never touch those again

Halapenio,
If you have any varieties you want let me know. I may have them in my inventory and can send a few for you too try. I have over 400 varieties so have a good selection. Will be going through them and filling requests soon before my busy time hits this winter and next spring. Jay

I love pizza and think it should be part of the menu at least once a week. Whats better than garden fresh homemade pizza? I use whatever tomatoes grow the best here and what I can find at the time then just add spices and a bit of sugar to take away that acidic flavor. We have been looking to purchase a home pizza oven because it just is too expensive to keep buying it from our local pizzeria not to mention not as tasty. Think about the parties you could host and have everyone bring an item to put together killer pizzas, sounds great! Does anyone have experience with a commercial pizza oven at their house? We have been thinking about adding one to our outdoor kitchen, any thoughts http://www.superprod.com/category/cooking-beverage/pizza-ovens.do? Its a big purchase but I cant really think of a better way to accessorize the new space we have. Bar with stools and a pizza oven looking over the garden area, its amazing! Looks like a picture out of Better Homes and Garden.

To cut down on the acid taste be sure to add plenty of basil. The basil neutralizes the acid better than any amount of sugar you put in and it tastes great!!

I love basil and on chicken its amazing as well, try with those cherry tomatoes cooked on the stove together then top with fresh mozzarella cheese and bake for a few. YUM YUM YUM!

Hey Hi angdeer what part of MI are you from?? I from Grand Rapids and snow is from Flint

Did you get the oven??

Thanks for this tip, I'll be using it tonight! :)