Heritage tomato suggestions, please.

[momofdrew]

I got my heirloom seeds from Baker Creek Heirlooms

Off the top of my head as I am not at home to go check

Yellow pear is very prolific
Brandywine is of course the most flavorful it take a long time to ripen but it is worth the wait
Green Zebra looks like it's name it turns greenish yellow when ripe and is tasty
Ninevith is an heirloom from Iraq and is a small/medium size red tom...I really like the flavor and is great in sandwiches...
Cherokee Purple is not quite as big as brandywine but a good slicer...
bi-color cherry very prolific and they will self sow...I have seedlings in my rasied bed that did not have toms in last year so they are 2 year old seeds and still self sowing
I am trying mortage lifter this year

there are a few others but I dont remember the names

 

[digitS']

. . . The French heirloom Marmande is a heavy producer of 6-ounce, red, slightly flattened fruits with excellent flavour. 67 Days to maturity. I've grown these in years gone by and they are a lovely tomato.

Siletz does well in cooler climates producing deep-red, good tasting 8 oz slicer. Determinate growth at 52 days is a short season. . .

I have been very tempted by Marmande and not quite sure why I haven't grown it yet . . .

Siletz - I'll split hairs - it is open-pollinated but only a decade or 2 old. One of my heroes, Jim Baggett, developed this and some others at Oregon State U. I've grown a couple of his early season tomatoes (garden peas, too ). Siletz is a little community in the Coast Range, not very far from the ocean. Challenging tomato-growing there, I'm sure.

. . . Would be interested to hear from anyone growing a shorter season variety heirloom.

Now since Bluelacedredhead has opened this door : Bloody Butcher is a fairly modern, Dutch variety - open-pollinated. There's just about none that could be earlier in my garden. Little tomato but it has a remarkable amount of flavor. I sometimes see it said that it has a "beefsteak flavor" and think that's about right but it isn't much bigger than a cherry. Small plant.

Steve

 

[ninnymary]

Steve, thanks for sharing info. on bloody butcher. I have been meaning to try it. But, now that I know it's size, I probably won't. For some reason I'm not particularly fond of cheeries. Sungold is about as far as I venture with them.

I tried siletz last year and it didn't produce very much. I suppose I'll probably try it again before I rule it out for me.

Mary

 

[SuperChemicalGirl]

. . . The French heirloom Marmande is a heavy producer of 6-ounce, red, slightly flattened fruits with excellent flavour. 67 Days to maturity. I've grown these in years gone by and they are a lovely tomato.

Siletz does well in cooler climates producing deep-red, good tasting 8 oz slicer. Determinate growth at 52 days is a short season. . .

I have been very tempted by Marmande and not quite sure why I haven't grown it yet . . .

Siletz - I'll split hairs - it is open-pollinated but only a decade or 2 old. One of my heroes, Jim Baggett, developed this and some others at Oregon State U. I've grown a couple of his early season tomatoes (garden peas, too ). Siletz is a little community in the Coast Range, not very far from the ocean. Challenging tomato-growing there, I'm sure.

. . . Would be interested to hear from anyone growing a shorter season variety heirloom.

Now since Bluelacedredhead has opened this door : Bloody Butcher is a fairly modern, Dutch variety - open-pollinated. There's just about none that could be earlier in my garden. Little tomato but it has a remarkable amount of flavor. I sometimes see it said that it has a "beefsteak flavor" and think that's about right but it isn't much bigger than a cherry. Small plant.

Steve

Thanks for that endorsement, I've been looking at the bloody butcher, and was almost ready to try it this year but figured I'd give the 4th of July hybrid another chance to impress me with its earliness this year. The first year I had it my first tomato was mid-August, but it was a cold and rainy June that year.

 

[thistlebloom]

I have also planted Bloody Butcher, but now I'm confused by some of the descriptions of it. Mine were tennis ball size, is that considered a cherry?
They were very prolific, but didn't ripen any earlier than the later toms. But it wasn't the best tomato year.
I'm still waiting to have one of those.

I stopped by the nursery ( Judys in Hayden, Steve, if you're familiar with it) today to get bedding plants for a customer and couldn't leave without buying myself some plants . I got a variety of tomatoes since my last store bought bunch got terminal freezer burn. I was in a hurry and grabbed a bunch so I need to look and see what I'm growing, but how could I go wrong? It's their end of season sale. Buy one get one free!

 

[digitS']

I have never played much tennis and was too lazy to measure "grandpuppy's" tennis ball that she plays with . . . So, I looked up what Wikipedia says about the size: "The International Tennis Federation (ITF) defines the official diameter as 65.41-68.58 mm (2.575-2.700 inches)."

Checked Tomatofest: "2", 4 oz, fruits" . . . I kind of doubt if I ever had a 4 ounce Bloody Butcher but that's close to tennis ball size.

Tatiana's Tomatobase has it as: "60-70 days, indet., potato leaf, 2-4 oz red fruit." By the way, she is on the coast of British Columbia. I'm surprised she gets any tomato to come in that early!

You should know that not everyone likes what some describe as a "rich" flavored tomato. DW goes for mild. I had such amazing luck with mild Dagma's Perfection that I'd like to recommend that one but I have only grown it for 1 year. Perfection doesn't seem to want to set fruit in cold weather but the very warm September we had in 2011 really allowed it to produce an abundant, late season crop. Now, if it just comes out like that again this year !

Steve

 

[schmije]

We've grown brandywine for a few years now. The flavor is good, and they're quite large, but the skin is very thin. This is good for eating, but very bad for shelf life. We had problems with cracking, both due to a sudden large rainstorm and due to stacking them several deep in a basket. Once the cracks appeared, they rotted very quickly. Even an intact brandywine only lasted on our counter for about 3 days before it showed signs of rotting. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan, but DH insists that we plant a couple of them each year, and everybody raves about the great flavor and low acidity.

This year we're trying rutgers for the first time. The guy at the seed shop recommended them as a great canning tomato, so we shall see. So far the plants look good.

 

[thistlebloom]

Well, now you've got me doubting myself Steve! :/
The tomatoes I grew last year were supposed to be Bloody Butcher, but I received them in a trade...so... maybe they were something else? I had never grown them before either so had nothing to compare with them.
I'm also pretty sure they weren't potato leafed.
Great, a mystery!

 

[hoodat]

Several posters have mentioned Mortgage lifter and I agree it produces a large flavorful tomato and does it right up to the first hard frost. One caution however; be sure you have enough room. It really grows to a monstrous size and can take up a lot of garden space.
This picture was taken in mid season. It got to twice that size before it was done.

 

[SuperChemicalGirl]

Several posters have mentioned Mortgage lifter and I agree it produces a large flavorful tomato and does it right up to the first hard frost. One caution however; be sure you have enough room. It really grows to a monstrous size and can take up a lot of garden space.
This picture was taken in mid season. It got to twice that size before it was done.

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/uploads/6858_011.jpg

GREAT PHOTO!! I'd like to second that... I'm so surprised how big my mortgage lifters are so far, and it's only mid-June. And it's Maine. How big were your fruits?