Not Growing Hybrid Tomatoes Anymore

[pharmerphil]

Hoodat, our Cherokee purple did real well this season, we also had a real good harvest of black krim.
we grow Amish paste for canning sauce/pastes, few seeds and little "goo" compared to others.
I started out with purchased amish paste seed , they were great...But, somewhere along the line they got crossed with something now, for the last 9 years we have these FIST SIZED amish x?? that we have saved the seeds and grown, they have "come true" to size and quality for 9 years, so I call them a "stable" cross..
here is a pic of 4 , compared to a "normal sized Amish paste" that we grew to show a comparison to a prospective customer

sorry for quality, I'm NOT a good camera operator

 

[hoodat]

If they kept the pulp quality of the originals you have a real winner.

 

[BetterHensandGardens]

It would be hard to imagine any tomato outproducing what my purple Cherokee did this year. I had five plants and couldn't keep them picked. I canned a batch and supplied half my neighbors with tomatos. Next year, who knows? San Diego is the ideal tomato climate though. If you can't grow tomatos here you can't grow them anywhere. Until they buried the farms under tract homes there were miles and miles of tomato fields here in South San Diego. Now you have to drive to the Central Valley to see tomatos being farmed.

Hoodat, Purple Cherokee was on my list of possible varieties for next year so I'm glad to hear it's prolific. How's the flavor and texture?

 

[hoodat]

To my taste it has just the right balance of sweet and acid. Tomatos that are too sweet taste flat to me. It is plenty meaty enough to make a good slicing tomato and the purplish flesh gives it an unusual look. Not only did it produce well for me but the tomatos were really big, sometimes outdoing my Mortgage Lifters and they are big tomatos.

 

[pharmerphil]

If they kept the pulp quality of the originals you have a real winner.

That they did Hoodat, same quality, and taste, larger size...
just a few in a pot, cook down in a very short time to some very thick, luxurious sauce

I saw you mentioned Mortgage lifters, They did well here this year, they normally do fair, but we had a VERY hot spring/summer and I believe it prompted them to set more fruit.

This year, the Soldaki did Great, very large, very sweet.

we had One Nice surprise this season though...

Every year we raise one or two plants of a variety that NEVER does good here, they are misshapen, and don't produce well.

this year, by mistake, 8 of them got planted, and I believe, due to the Great summer weather/temps...they produced like CRAZY...nice, round...tasty...then, when the weather turned cooler, they went back to being somewhat ugly
the variety...
Peach Blow Sutton...odd little tomato, "Fuzzy" looks like an apple...but the taste is very "old School"
NOT...for those who need less acidic tomatoes

 

[hoodat]

Mortgage lifters are always a late tomato for me. The vines have to get huge before any blossoms set. I plant them because they kick in just about the time my Purple Cherokee are starting to poop out and keep going well into the Fall.

 

[pharmerphil]

Mortgage lifters are always a late tomato for me. The vines have to get huge before any blossoms set. I plant them because they kick in just about the time my Purple Cherokee are starting to poop out and keep going well into the Fall.

amazing how different varieties produce so differently in warmer climates Hoodat, they both do well and produce about the same time here...but then again, nothing will be producing here in 2 weeks..give or take a couple days...
37 here this morning