Tomato varieties.

[Dr.]

Greetings,

Not all my varieties are even ripe... yet still I'm planning what to grow next year.

What are your favorite early varieties? I grew a variety named 'Glacier' this year. Nice looking tomatoes, but no flavor whatsoever.

Next year I'd like to try a yellow variety, and a black/purple variety. Any suggestions?

Suggestions for large, bold flavored heirlooms are always appreciated.

Here's a list of what I'm growing this year:

1884 - 2nd year growing this one. Large, and great flavor. This one has earned a lifetime residency in my garden.

Rose De Berne - One ripe so far. Great flavor. Russian Rose Sweet Millions - 2nd year. Produces a boatload, and very sweet. Green Zebra - 2nd year. Makes a mean salsa. Aussie - None ripe yet... but they're HUGE.

Hungarian-Italian Paste - Picked the first ones today. Good flavor. Indeterminate... makes a good substitution for Roma, which I don't much care for because the fruit seem to fall off the vine very easily, and it's sometimes hard planting them where they won't get shaded by the big indeterminates.

Brandywine - 'Nuff said. Brandywine Red, Landis Valley Strain - See above. Costoluto Fiorentino - Remarkable flavor. Drubza German Giant - Not so giant, as of now... Though it bears some nice size fruit. Glacier - Bland. Pantano Romanesco Violacium Krypni-Rozo - Very good flavor.

This is my 3rd year gardening, and my 2nd year starting my plants from seed.

Ah... another question. I read that you should sow tomato seeds 6-8 weeks early when starting them indoors. At the 6th week, the plants were gigantic, and it was still too cold to plant. They weren't leggy.. just HUGE, with the roots growing through the sides of the 3" diameter peat pots.

I think I may know what I did wrong. I started them in my basement, which is kinda cool.. as basements tend to be. I left them on the heat mat the entire time. I'm thinking those seedlings may have grooved a little too much on all that heat. The light was always withing a couple inches of the top of the seedlings. They just got happy.

Next year, should I remove the heat mat right after they germinate?

Thankya, Gary NorthWest Ohio

[DigitalVinyl]

Don't have much in the way of experience but

Fourth of July from Burpee did really well last year. Slightly larger than cherry sized. About 2-2.5 oz. I liked them, got about 18 lbs from one plant. My friend had a very meaty cherry tomato growing. Very good--cherry sized but more like a meaty plum inside. She hasn't divulged the variety yet. I don't care for fruit that are like balloons of juice. Health KIck, a plum style, from Burpee seems to do well for me. Big bush, productive. I screwed my flas this year and lost my first batches. I ended up buying plants form Home Depot in May. For giggles I planted Healthy Kick seed in late april(after last frost). I now have two healthy plants each about 18" tall and spreading 2'+ out from the tiny pot I put them in. I thought the flavor was good and I experienced none of the falling off the stems as you have. About 23 lbs from one plant.

Grew Sweet 100 (grape sized) this year. Flavor is decent, but there is a slight flavor that doesn't strike me as tomato in them. Not bad...just different. About 80% of them split on me so far. They do fall off the plants easily. Hard to pick ripe ones without knocking off the next not-ready one. I will not grow this one again.

Burpee Burger tomatoes were okay. But they were fightig a wilt all season so the bearing was light and the tomatoes smaller than they were supposed to be.

My beefsteak is a "SuperSteak VFN" I think--have to go out and see. Got it at Home Depot. It is growing well, 7 feet tall with 3-4 major vines off the central stem. (I just suck at pinching out!!) I got two ripes from this last week which were very good. Meaty and they were eaten with a little salt and a little mayo...nothing else. I'm low carbing so a tomato sandwich is a little rich for a snack.

DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email) Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY,

[Dr.]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I may try the 4th of July next year in addtion the Sweet Millions. As you mentioned with the 100s, it can be difficult to pick the ripe ones without knocking off the green ones. .

I may try the Health Kick as a potted plant, since you're having good luck with yours. I tried conainer varieties the two previous years, but they did poorly. Thin foliage, which was causing some sun scald. I probably wasn't getting the watering just right. My peppers, on the other hand, love the containers.

Good luck with the low carbing. I dropped 40 pounds on low carb.

Gary NorthWest Ohio

[DigitalVinyl]

I wanted to try Sweet Millions but I was very disorganized at the start of the year and did a horrendous job on getting seeds and starting my seedlings. Better next year!

I've had very decent production with peppers in plants too. There are some products I rely on with containers: Terrasorb - a potassium crystal/gel that holds water. They last 3-5 years then break down into potassium. Hydromats - I call them "plant diapers". You line the bottom of the pot with them. They hold water and the roots even grow into them some. Extends the moisture holding. I've given up on clay pots--dries out too fast for me. Needs to much attention. Self watering are nice but expensive during the heat spells

Healthy Kick isn't meant as a container variety. I just didn't have the heart to kill off the seedlings once they started. They were the healthiest of the May seedings. I had this round bowl planter, 9-10" round, 5 inch deep. I stuck them in there since I wasn't using it. Because it is shallow it dries out pretty quick. I water it deeply twice a day on warm days. The plants just grew admirably. Last year's were remarkable--in size and crop. I'm thinking the variety is just a good strong one.

here you can see the shallow pot they are in but much of the growth and tomatoes are obscured.

you see better how it has grown--only 10-12 weeks from seed.

Good luck with the low carbing. I dropped 40 pounds on low carb.

That's great. I'm down 70-75 pounds and on maintenance for the rest of the summer to enjoy my harvest!

DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email) Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY,

[Steve]

I would (and in fact I do) use the heat only to get them to germinate quickly. Then they go under the basement lights with no heat added. I think providing that heat not only makes them grow too big but also makes them more tender. Maybe it didn't happen this year but sometimes the weather might turn cold right after you get them into the garden. Plans that grew slower under cooler conditions would be less stressed by cooler weather.

Steve

[Pen]

Consider a currant tomato for your salads. They're prolific, pea-sized and potent. I've grown 'Hawaiian' for many years and recently purchased a yellow currant for next year.

[The Watcher]

I experimented with different varieties for about 5 years before finding one that satisfied me enough to stop trying new varieties. I like Black Krim. It's got a great taste. The color and mottled pattern is interesting, but once you taste the flavor, those plastic tomatoes you buy in the store will never taste the same. ;)

(snip)

[Dr.]

"The Watcher" got a great taste. The color and mottled pattern is interesting, but once you

Thanks for the suggestion.

The place I've ordered my seeds from for the last couple years carries that variety. I'll give it a shot.

Gary

[Dr.]

Thanks... I'm always looking for something new to try. The source I've been buying my seeds from offers a red currant variety, however it notes that it crosses easily with other plants, so I'd have to segregate this one from the rest.

Maybe I'll plant a couple at work. The property is huge, with much wooded and field area, and I should be able to conceal a few plants quite easily.

Gary

[Pat Kiewicz]

Don't start them any earlier than 6 weeks before...unless you have a greenhouse and plans to pot them up into bigger containers.

Yes. And run a fan (or fans) on them to give them a little movement. Toughens the stems.

Planning for potting them up bigger at least once might also be in order.

I've been picking SunSugar and 4th of July for a couple of weeks. Also Ruby (which I like to dry).

Also had my first hornworm in years. YUCK! It was bigger than my index finger and I have pretty big hands.

[Dr.]

Thanks for the reply.

Next year I'll remove the seedlings from the mat as they germinate.

The tomatoes didn't seem to shock much, if at all. My peppers, however, are a different story. Most of the ones I started are very stunted. I bought some other seedlings of varieties I didn't have seeds for, and they're all doing great.

Gary

[Dr.]

No greenhouse as of yet... though I've been pondering the idea. Next year I'll start them 6 weeks early. Considering how large those plants were, I'm surprised how well they're doing. I was planning for the worse, and started a 2nd batch with 3 weeks left to planting. Those ones are doing ok, though they haven't caught up to the first batch. I couldn't manage to give away quite all the extras, and I couldn't bring myself to snuff them, so they're a little crowded.

That I'll do also. The larger seedlings had a tough time standing up on their own.

Thanks, I'll check those out.

I'd never seen one of those before, but looked it up. Nasty looking critter.

So far I've been lucky. The only insect problem I've noticed so far with my tomatoes is ants, which I had last year. So far this year, I haven't seen any.

Last year I had a rabbit get in and destroy my 4 Roma seedlings, which I started. At least it was just the Romas, and not something like my 1884s, which I couldn't buy a replacement for. The rabbits can't get in the garden anymore. In retaliation, it seems they've decided to trash my wife's flowers in the front of the house.

Gary

[Mary McHugh]

Me too! I've NEVER had hornworms here in 10 years and all of a sudden I picked off about 8 of them. What's up with that?

Mary

[Marcella Tracy Peek]

I really like Stupice. I usually order the seeds from Cooks Garden. We've had good luck with it here near foggy SF so short season tomatoes work best for us.

I agree with the person who suggested Black Krim. It is very tasty. Usually for yellows I grow yellow pear or cherry tomatoes. I haven't grown too many slicers.

We also really like Pineapple - it's a yellow/red mottled tomato and is one of my favorites to eat.

Green Zebra is also a big favorite with us.

You might enjoy browsing the variety of tomato seeds at

Just scroll down towards the bottom of the home page for the link to "tomato seeds". He gives a pretty good description of the tomatoes and sells seeds for 450 varieties. You can also browse by tomato color, so maybe you'll get some good leads on yellow or black/purple that way.

marcella

[jim book]

[Glenna Rose]

The blacks are among my favorites. The first black was Black Russian and was incredible. Since that year, I've tried many others including Black Krim which always has one plant in my garden. There'd be more if there were more room. If you have not tried Sun Gold, be sure to try it, a wonderful orange very sweet tomato. Because it grows so large and is so prolific, it's a natural if there are small children around. They can pick them like berries, just the right size for little hands . . . and soooooo good!

Well, actually, they will taste the same, still like plastic.

Glenna loving heirlooms!

[Glenna Rose]

Oh, Gary, please don't call that binging. I even take a couple of smaller cucumbers to work with me and eat them on the way home. Leaving them in the trunk keeps them cool (have been too lazy to put a small cooler in there for them). With a cup of frozen yogurt (thawed by noon but cool) for lunch and cucumbers on the way home, appetite for more filling (meaning filling out) things is considerably reduced. (And, of course, lots of ice water!)

Eating lots of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and onions is *not* binging . . . . please tell me it's not! (Actually, it sounds a bit like salsa.)

Glenna

[Penelope Periwinkle]

Oh! Where did you get it? I *love* current tomaotes, but I've never seen anything but generic gold or red.

The gold current tomato is one of the few survivors of The War of the Thrips this year.

Penelope

[DigitalVinyl]

For diebetics and low-carbers (same thing realistically) it is binging on something your body simply misbehaves with. Wonderful, natural sugars.

DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email) Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY,

[Larry Blanchard]

Stupice is good, but I've tried both it and Moskvich and had better and earlier yields with Moskvich. But as you say, it depends a lot on local conditions.