Heirloom tomato question

[Northernrose]

I'm going to try some heirloom tomatoes this year for the first time.

What heirloom varieties are your favorites? I would prefer indeterminate plants.

How do you collect the seeds and preserve the different varieties?

I would assume that one would need to prevent cross pollenation from other varieties to make sure the seeds stay true to the parent plants.

I would appreciate any advice

Thanks,
Trisha

 

[digitS']

Trisha, you could probably go thru that recent thread on heirloom tomatoes and see which ones are most commonly grown by this group of gardeners and particularly, which ones they have grown repeatedly.

The ever-popular Brandywine is well represented but I was rather surprised how often Cherokee Purple shows up. (And, I've never grown either :/.) Of course, there are climate limits on what heirlooms some of us can grow since so many require such a long season.

In what part of northern California is your garden?

For twenty years, I have grown the same tomato that my grandmother grew in her garden during the Depression. My youngest uncle, who is now well over 80, grew this tomato for many years, also. My tomatoes all grow in the same part of the garden generally and I see no difference in the plants and fruit during all this time. Fresh seed is collected each year and for a long time, the entire idea of cross pollination hadn't even crossed my mind .

The potato-leafed varieties are supposed to much more commonly cross with other plants. Grandma's tomato is a regular leaf tomato. Fedco says that tomato plants should be separated by 25 feet to 100 feet to avoid cross pollination.

I live in an arid part of the country and the way I save tomato seed might not work well in more humid climates. I simple squeeze out the pulp on paper, set this in sunshine and allow it to dry thoroughly over the course of several days or weeks. The seeds can then be scrapped off the paper with the point of a knife.

Only a few heirlooms are determinate. That fruiting characteristic is much more common in commercial varieties.

Steve

Edited: Ah! I see in your signature that you live near Redding! I first became aware of the world as a small child in Redding. My other grandmother lived and gardened there . I went went back to CA from Oregon for several years of high school in Arcata - just over the Coast Range from you but in a quite different climate.

 

[hoodat]

Tomatos are, for the most part, self fertile. If you keep the varieties far enough apart so the wind won't carry the pollen from one to the other your varieties should stay true. Not that many pollinating insects visit them.
Purple Cherokee has always been a favorite of mine. It's tasty and although it isn't particularly big it has little pulp so it's a good slicing tomato. The dark purple inside also makes it decorative diced up in a salad. It's always listed as indeterminate but really I'd class it as semi-determinate. It has a lot of sturdy branches that can bear without breaking. Those in my garden right now have trunks as big as my wrist.
The other one I'm growing this year is Radiator Charlies Mortgage Lifter. It's a bragging size pink tomato and definitely indeterminate. Expect it to get as tall as 10 feet but with a thin stem that will need support for the big fruit. They can get as big as 2 pounds and are shaped perfect for really big slices. Very nice flavor

 

[Northernrose]

Thanks all for the info,
I think I'll try a kind of a " paper bag" method of isolating a fruiting/flowering cluster before open pollenation so that I can keep the variaties separate. I don't have a lot of garden space to keep them so far apart. Does anyone know if German Johnson is the same as German Queen?

Thanks

I think I'll try this year:

Arkansas Traveler
Black cherry
Cherokee Purple
German Queen

and Maybe:

Isis Candy - if I can get one. The local grower is sold out!
Black Krim

 

[digitS']

. . .Does anyone know if German Johnson is the same as German Queen?

. . .

I see tomato gardeners refer to them separately and you can buy seeds of both from a number of seed companies.

I'm also trying Black Cherries for the 1st time this year. It gets very "good press," that one .

Steve

 

[pirtykitty]

I like Black Cherry, Cherokee Purple, Mortgage Lifter, to name a few.. I have tons of other heirloom varieties too.. but these are the ones I've grown lately..
This year I have Brandy Wine, Cherokee Chocolate, Mortgage Lifter, and Roma VF..