Tomatoes for 2023

[digitS']

It occurred to me that you could be sending tomatoes with @Cosmo spring garden to her farmers' market .

There is a problem with that -- she would spend so much time explaining what each of the 67 varieties are to customers that she wouldn't be able to handle more than a half dozen sales through the day ! If someone decides to "gear themselves up" for market sales, it would probably be best to limit varieties to where having room for one sign for each would be enough to inform the public without the vendor being too engaged in enthusiastic inquiries ...

Our half dozen ripe grape tomatoes were all from the potted Yellow Jellybean here at home. The plants are growing in the distant garden but I couldn't see a single fruit with a blush, yesterday. Days-to-maturity only provide some guidance and it has been best to stay below the 80 day level. This is limiting but still provides an opportunity to explore several new choices every decade. Yes, I am risk-averse.

Steve

 

[Branching Out]

Over the course of the past couple of weeks I have been putting my extra tomato seedlings out at the curb with descriptions of each variety and a sign encouraging folks to help themselves. It was hard to part with them; it felt like I was offering up my children. Lol. In the end about 35 nice looking starts went to new homes. A few days ago some of the empty pots were returned, along with this note-- it really made my day!

 

[Branching Out]

I spent the whole day yesterday watering tomato plants and pruning suckers off the 100 tomato plants (and I have been thinking that if each plant produces 10 lbs of tomatoes we could end up harvesting half a ton of fruit, which is insane). We have cooler weather in the forecast for the new few days, with lots of sunshine and temperatures expected in the 23C(73F) range; that should make for good 'growing' weather so I wanted the plants to be well hydrated. There are robust trusses forming now, which is encouraging. My tomato planting is complete, with the exception of Spanish Winter Storage Cherry. I ordered seeds of that one from Eagle Ridge Seeds at the last minute, and while the starts are only an inch high I am hoping that they will have time to grow into viable plants with green fruit by early October (yes--I am an optomist!) Spanish Winter is the first 'storage' tomato that I have found with cherry form.

The extra-early varieties that I planted are all fruiting now, so seed saving has begun extra-early too. My kitchen counter is full of fermenting jars of pulp and plates of drying seed. How weird is that? And weirder yet is that the 42 Day Tomato hardly contains any seed-- or else its seeds are so incredibly tiny that I can't see them. Maybe I need a new prescription??

 

[heirloomgal]

Do you put lids on the jars @Branching Out ? I used glass jars last year for tomato seeds for the first time and really liked how well that worked - except for the remarkable pressure that can build! lol I think I read somewhere that the 42 Day Tomato does have quite small seeds. I've found early tomatoes do tend to have less seeds as well, but I've only grown a few of them over the years.

 

[Branching Out]

Do you put lids on the jars @Branching Out ? I used glass jars last year for tomato seeds for the first time and really liked how well that worked - except for the remarkable pressure that can build! lol I think I read somewhere that the 42 Day Tomato does have quite small seeds. I've found early tomatoes do tend to have less seeds as well, but I've only grown a few of them over the years.

Hmmm...I do not put lids on the jars. Sounds dangerous! I just add a bit of water and leave them for several days, and then rinse them. I'm going to get out my magnifying glass for those 42 Day Tomato seeds.

 

[heirloomgal]

I have zero ripe tomatoes so far, but they are sizing up. One nice thing about OP tomatoes is you can pretty much tell by this point is if they're coming true or not. Fruit set is pretty good for July in the north.

Long Tom

Greek Assemina

Kabuli Black

Yubilenyi Tarasenko

Zagadka aka Mystery of Rose Valley. No doubt this one will be the first to ripen of all the cooking toms.

Grightmire's Pride

Rescue mission, Gruschevij. Last seed. It's still small, but it's a relief to see that it is coming true to it's pear shaped form.

Portugese Bullheart

 

[heirloomgal]

A new tomato I tried, ‘Mikhalych’. Was supposed to be smaller, and the rest on the plant are smaller, but this one ripened first. I don’t usually get whoppers, so this surprised me. Love Russian tomatoes.

 

[ninnymary]

Last year Praire Fire did really well for me. It's sweet and pretty! Actually all of my tomatoes did really well like Black Krim, Japanese Triefle, Dr. Whycee's Yellow, Terra Cota, and Berkeley Tie Dye.

This year none of them are doing as well. Part of the problem is that I moved them slightly to a different location. I also planted an apricot tree 2 years ago that I plan to keep as small as possible and it is affection the tomatoes. So next year I will plant 5 back where I used to have them and 4 to the left of the apricot tree and 4 to the right of it.

Will probably have to buy tomatoes at the farmer's market to have enough for my 36 jelly jars of salsa that I make every year.

Trying Pink Fang which is a paste tomatoe. But it's weird 2 large tomatoes have fallen off when I was checking on them and they were totally green. Never have had totally green tomatoes come off the vine so easily before.

Mary

 

[digitS']

I pushed the tomatoes too close together. The tomato sprawl has done a good job of weed suppression this year however, it has delayed the development of fruit perhaps and, I am quite sure that it is the reason for limiting fruit size.

The cherry tomatoes at one end of the row developed and matured first. Everything else is just starting. Today, some small Bloody Butchers came home. It's a start. We will see if I have anything close to a 1 pound slicer, this year. Doubt it.

Steve

 

[heirloomgal]

I pushed the tomatoes too close together. The tomato sprawl has done a good job of weed suppression this year however, it has delayed the development of fruit perhaps and, I am quite sure that it is the reason for limiting fruit size.

The cherry tomatoes at one end of the row developed and matured first. Everything else is just starting. Today, some small Bloody Butchers came home. It's a start. We will see if I have anything close to a 1 pound slicer, this year. Doubt it.

Steve

I never realized that happens with tomatoes. I thought it was mainly a bean thing. Certainly explains part of why container grown plants mature faster. What is puzzling is my big tomato was on a plant in a 12 inch square pot. I thought to grow big ones they need to be in ground.