TOMATO Plants -- opinions wanted

[Thomas Jacobs]

I'm planning my garden for the year, and I would welcome opinions from people in this forum.

I live in southern Wisconsin, and I'm trying to balance my tomato crop this year. Every year, the cool weather closes in before my plants have run their full course. This year, I want to include some varieties that produce earlier. I want to make sure I'm picking tomatoes that are easy to grow and have decent flavor.

I will also still use some of the classics like Beefsteak. I would welcome opinions about any of the following tomato varieties.

Burpee (early varieties)

- Early Pick Hybrid - Early Girl Hybrid - Ensalada

Burpee (late season varieties)

- Winrer Red - Red October Parks

- Beeft Boy hybrid

Gurney

- Burgermaster

[Pat Kiewicz]

Burpee's '4th of July' hybrid is very early, produces all season, and has a very good flavor. The tomatoes are smallish but that's no problem for salads. They don't crack and aren't prone to green shoulders. 'Stupice' is also very early, and heirloom, and has maybe a *slightly* superior flavor. But it tends to decline in production very dramatically as the summer goes on plus it develops green shoulders.

'Grigori's Altai' is pretty early for a slicer, tastey and productive. I also like 'Odoriko' and 'Dona' as even-a-bit-later-in-the-season slicers.

As for varieties even later than these, I've given up on that heartbreak. 8^)

For sauces, go with sauce tomatoes. I like 'Classica' and 'Tuscany' for that. (Determinate varieties that are easy to grow caged.) 'San Marzano' and 'Polish' varieties are classic varieties of sauce tomatoes but are vigorous, indeterminate vines without concentrated fruit-set.

(For everything but '4th of July' and 'Tuscany')

[James]

[MC]

Living in a similar zone, I usually plant

Early Girl Better Boy Wisconsin 55 Viva Italia Cherry Sweet 100

I've had best results with these when I stake and sucker them. One season I tried red plastic for mulch and was surprised how good the tomatoes turned out. I usually have tomatoes up to frost but the late season ones lose some of their good taste. Guessing this might have to do with shorter days and a lower sun angle which might affect sugar production in the fruit.

In recent years I have purchased seeds for all my tomatoes and peppers from Totally Tomatoes and have had absolutely no germination problems.

[DigitalVinyl]

I agree with Pat. Burpee's 4th of July is a big producer give the room and root space. The tomatoes are about 1/8 of a pound(2 oz.). Last APr/May was excessively wet and cold in the NE, so they didn't produce in July as expected. However I had 150(18 pounds) from 1 plant.

Aug:37 Sep:50 Oct:13 Nov:12 (+35 greens, half turned red indoors before spoilage)

Another good one for me was Burpee's Healthy Kick Roma. About 1/5 of a pound each (3.2 oz). I harvested 89 tomatoes, 22 lbs (1 plant).

Aug:36 Sep:17 Oct: 4 Nov:11 (+21 greens, half turned red indoors before spoilage)

DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email) Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY, 1 mile off L.I.Sound

1st Year Gardener