Tomato List

[digitS']

What does she do with that many? 12 better boys gives me more than enough to can plus I give away a lot.

Seedcorn, she has quite a few people in her family who kind of rotate in and out of her home thru the summer.

I'm sure that most, she sells at a farmers' market.

Steve

 

[Jared77]

Seedcorn we planted and used that many Better Boys and literally 3x that in Early Girls plus 2 dozen Romas the summer before I discovered TEG. We eat A LOT of tomatoes here and can a lot too. I get how someone could go through that many. That was a good harvest year too. I was picking them and filling a 5 gallon bucket what seemed like every time I turned around. But none of them went to waste.

I'm making a serious transition over to heirlooms but until I find a good replacement for EGs I'm stuck planting them. My wife's a big fan of them. She says they taste like summer. However I'm really hoping Thessaloniki can replace the Early Girls, and Azoychka can replace my Lemon Boys. I like both the Early Girls and the Lemon boys but being hybrids they are just not what I want to keep working with. Add to that Pantano Romanesco, Black Sea Man, Japanese Black Trifles, Anna Russians, San Marzano, Costoluto Genovese, & Carol Chyko's Big Paste that should keep me going pretty strong. I've got others I want to try but that's the top of my list in no particular order.

My goal is to be able to save everything I want and only have to purchase new varieties. And that goes for everything from tomatoes to peppers through pumpkins. Its a noble goal but it gives me something to work towards.

 

[so lucky]

Gosh, I bought 2 packages this year, one of Roma seeds, and one of Cushion Crimson. I started organizing (with a notebook) and checked out my saved seeds and discovered:
2009 Cushion Crimson seeds
2010 Cherry Tomato seeds
2012 Black Krim seeds
2009 & 2012 Rutgers seeds
I already started Romas from saved seeds, and I'm going to start the rest (inside first) this season, but maybe not all. I understand that this year's seeds have ~ 75-80% germination rates, but older seeds have ~50% germination rates. We all put about 3-4 seeds in every starting cell anyway, I figure I don't need to feed my "seed package buying habit."

Ducks, how did your Rutgers do for you last year?
I was so unimpressed with mine last year, both the Rutgers and Roma, that I wasn't going to plant them again, but maybe it was the horrible growing season last year? I am undecided as of now, what to plant as the main slicing and canning tomato. Got seeds from Smart Red for my sauce tomato.

 

[bj taylor]

i don't like 'em (hubby does), but i've got a sweet 100 that survived the winter & is growing - so what can you do when something is that determined to grow. so i gave it it's very own tomato territory today - so it better make good use of the space.

 

[seedcorn]

Jared, do you sell at a farmers market? To use over 200 tomato plants worth if fruit, you would have to be feeding 1/2 the population of northern Michigan.

 

[Jared77]

Oh no I meant the dozen better boys you had. I planted about 65 plants that year not 200. Sorry for the confusion

 

[joz]

If you look on those pages I linked to on the 1st post, Joz, you will find Dagma's in my basket!

That's why I axed.
Thanks for the insight. The description was intriguing, but when I ordered it, there was surprise at the other end of the phone. Most current heirloom names I've at least skimmed past on Tomatoville, but I don't recall ever having seen Dagma's before.

 

[digitS']

i don't like 'em (hubby does), but i've got a sweet 100 that survived the winter & is growing - so what can you do when something is that determined to grow. so i gave it it's very own tomato territory today - so it better make good use of the space.

Some folks don't like what is probably the most popular cherries for home gardeners: Sungold.

I've seen the flavor description as, "cloying." I think I'd describe them more as "tomato candy" . Not that this is necessarily good but I don't seem to be able to help myself in liking them. In fact, I grow Sun Sugar, too. You probably couldn't find a cherry any closer to Sungold. I kind of prefer Sun Sugar but not in the flavor department. It is nice that Sungold is about a week earlier but it seems to have a little bit of a tougher skin and the Sun Sugar plant grows larger and is more productive in my garden.

I say DW doesn't like black tomatoes but she just really doesn't like any that are very strongly flavored. I don't have much trouble with that altho' there are some that I like especially because they have a lot of flavor. Early tomatoes are known for being mild, shall we say. Bloody Butcher is a little tomato with a lot of flavor & Early Girl is flavorful. Some people associate that Early Girl with garden fresh flavor because it is such a popular variety. That is just subjectivity - it is as "real" as anything else that has to do with tastes and preferences.

Like Jared, I'd like to have a little more control over my choices for the garden without the dependence on the corporations. And, I also want healthy productive plants. I suppose that I should explore the world of pink, yellow and gold hybrids beyond the golden cherries. However, I came to the game at the same time as the color and heirlooms choices were expanding .

Dang it Jared, I predate Early Girls, too!! I remember some of those commercial varieties of the 1950's when I didn't really care for tomatoes. I don't think the food industry had any choice but to go the appearance and handling route. Early Girl wasn't a part of that if we can believe the horticulturalist who was responsible for bringing it to a US seed company. He just thought it was a shame that he couldn't grow tomatoes very well in his Reno, Nevada garden.

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

SeedCorn, have you ever tried an heirloom Tomato from Italy called Costoluto Fiorentino?

Those puppies grow very well, and make a good number of good Tomatoes. They don't have that typical heirloom flavor. It's more of an almost spicy flavor fresh, that'll make you want to use some for spaghetti sauce.

 

[seedcorn]

SeedCorn, have you ever tried an heirloom Tomato from Italy called Costoluto Fiorentino?

Those puppies grow very well, and make a good number of good Tomatoes. They don't have that typical heirloom flavor. It's more of an almost spicy flavor fresh, that'll make you want to use some for spaghetti sauce.

No, do you grow them? From pix, look to be meaty tomato. Sounds intersting, name means ribbed from Florence. Beefsteak background?

I'm a novice on heirlooms. Because I buy plants, Better Boys bear as early as Early Girls for me. So that is my fall back.