Tomatoes for the Garden!

[digitS']

Thank you, Chris!

The only one of the group that I've grown is Stupice. I was frustrated with it because nearly all of the fruit was deformed. Just now, I checked some of these on Tatiana's TomatoBase and see no Stupice that is anything but round! Maybe, it was seed origin.

Moskovich, I'd kinda thought was Market Miracle . . . Must be the alliteration that made me think that. Both Russian but certainly different in fruit size.

Siletz is a little town near the Oregon coast. Legend is another Jim Baggett variety. You know, you could fill your garden with that guy's veggies !

Yeah! It is the standards . . . cherries are quick enuf altho' some with large plants may take all of my season.
Steve

 

[mothergoose]

Steve,
BOy, that is too bad. It is unfortunate that so many take so long to set fruit and ripen. DOes it make a difference when you cut off the branches that do not set blosoms, so the plant can put more energy into the branches that have blosoms for fruit?

Here are some more earlier heirloom options...


Rutgers select 55-60 days very early, nice medium sized red tomatoe
Marglobe 73 days usually a little earlier this one is determinate. Nice med. size red. great canner/slicer
Beefsteak 55-60 days nice size average 10 oz. red tomatoe
Tigerella 55-65 days small red striped tomatoe, usually the earliest ones I pick. SO more like 50 days.

Christie :tools

 

[digitS']

Tigerella is one I'll have again this year, Christie! I was very pleased with Tigerella the last time I grew it . Nice little, quick, tender-skinned, flavorful tomato! DW thought the beautiful color was "weird." . . . no accounting for some people . .

I may have been growing Beefsteak for a friend the last few years . He had these plants that we thought were Gary O Sena in his garden - he never uses my plant stakes to keep track of things :/. There were very nice fruits on those plants so I saved the seed and replanted in '10 & '11. I think they may have been from Beefsteak plants, he bought! Now, I've gotta go back to my original Gary O Sena seed and make sure that I haven't mixed them up!

That's my big problem with growing so many varieties. I get plants mixed up in the garden ! My garden . . . let alone, the neighbor's! If I save the seed there's a serious risk this ID problem will just grow! Maybe Ginny (barefootgardener) will come along on this thread and tell us how she can keep track of the dozens & dozens of varieties that she grows! It would be quite beyond me.

Christie, I think I could probably experience more heirlooms if I restricted them by pruning. I realize that in places where the plants can grow rampantly, pruning may even be required. Right now, I need to have varieties that can produce fruit real well. That's why the delicious Orange Minsk may have to go!

Maybe I'll get to the point where I can grow them a little more intensely and claim "bragging rights" for varieties that don't tolerate the growing conditions here very well. One thing that I have done and - if I'd get back to growing them in cages, could do again - is wrap the cages with plastic early in the season. That worked well years ago before I really got into testing the limits of varieties I could grow . . . back when I was just interested in getting my Large Red Cherries into the kitchen a little earlier in the year .

Steve

 

[swampducks]

Is there any particular website that sells a lot of those short season tomatoes? I'm going to do a search but love to know about reliable sources from you guys. Maybe I will buy a few more tomato seeds if I don't have to get one from here and another from there, etc.

Okay, checking out seedsavers.org and Annie's Heirlooms. Like the look of Annie's website already, they list days to maturity right on the front, have to drill down on ss for each one. Annoying.

(edited to add website info)

 

[Collector]

Thanks for the history lesson about Early Girls, I found it interesting. We are growing The Rutgers again this year, cuz I think they need another chance to grow here. They seemed to grow OK, it just seemed like maybe the cooler temps and wet weather kept the fruit from setting until the weather cleared up. Hoping for some better growing weather early in the season this year, any Word on how the growing season will be this year?

 

[chris09]

Is there any particular website that sells a lot of those short season tomatoes? I'm going to do a search but love to know about reliable sources from you guys. Maybe I will buy a few more tomato seeds if I don't have to get one from here and another from there, etc.

Totally Tomatoes has;

Glacier -
http://www.totallytomato.com/dp.asp?pID=00303

Siberia -
http://www.totallytomato.com/dp.asp?pID=00652

Silvery Fir Tree -
http://www.totallytomato.com/dp.asp?pID=00654

Stupice -
http://www.totallytomato.com/dp.asp?pID=00678

Alaskan Fancy -
http://www.totallytomato.com/dp.asp?pID=00020

New Yorker -
http://www.totallytomato.com/dp.asp?pID=00515

Reimer Seed isnt cheep but they have;

Moskovich -
http://www.reimerseeds.com/moskvich-tomato.aspx

Northern Lights -
http://www.reimerseeds.com/northern-lights-tomato.aspx

Stokes has the best prices and they have;

Conestoga -
http://www.stokeseeds.com/product.aspx?ProductID=39804&CategoryID=790

Sub Arctic Maxi -
http://www.stokeseeds.com/product.aspx?ProductID=39772&CategoryID=140

Bush Beefsteak -
http://www.stokeseeds.com/product.aspx?ProductID=39825&CategoryID=140

Ultrasonic VFT -
http://www.stokeseeds.com/product.aspx?ProductID=39801&CategoryID=146

Ultra Pink VFT -
http://www.stokeseeds.com/product.aspx?ProductID=39812&CategoryID=146

Ultra Girl VFN -
http://www.stokeseeds.com/product.aspx?ProductID=39823&CategoryID=146

Beefmaster VFN -
http://www.stokeseeds.com/product.aspx?ProductID=39829&CategoryID=146

Note that a packet of Stokes seeds are in either packets of either 40 or 200 seed. Example; A packet of Beefmaster tomatoes contains approximately 40 seeds at $3.25 and Bush Beefsteak contains approximately 200 seeds at $2.35


Chris

 

[swampducks]

Thanks Chris. Neither totally tomatoes nor stokes came up in my google search, not even by page 3! Hadn't gotten to looking at reimer yet.

thanks.

 

[chris09]

Thanks Chris. Neither totally tomatoes nor stokes came up in my google search, not even by page 3! Hadn't gotten to looking at reimer yet.

thanks.

You can either click the link below the tomato name and go directly to that tomato or here are there home page links.

http://www.totallytomato.com/
http://www.stokeseeds.com/
http://www.reimerseeds.com/default.aspx

Chris

 

[digitS']

. . . any Word on how the growing season will be this year?

Oh Collector, they missed it so badly with the La Nia January . . . About all I can say is that it looks like rain today:

http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/pacnorthwest_loop.php

Not gonna go back to Sub-arctic . . . not gonna do it. I got my standards. They're low but I got 'em.

Sub-arctic was a "ya got nuthin' else" choice when I lived several hundred feet higher. We didn't have all the varieties from the Soviet Union and Jim Baggett hadn't gotten wound up down in OSU. I remember I was there when Early Girl came out -- picture on the cover of the Burpee catalog. Instead of ordering the seed, I moved . . . . .

Now, I've at least more choices! Earliana was the 1st slicer I went with. Then, Fantastic. I'm not sure you can even buy Fantastic seed now. It might be all Super Fantastic but . . . I don't care - SKY's the Limit!!

Steve

 

[swampducks]

Well, I blame y'all for talking me into ordering MORE seeds. I got them from Annie's Heirlooms once I discovered it's a Michigan company and MI needs all the help it can get!

I got

Stupice
Glacier
Marmande
Moskovich
Black Cherry

and then I went and picked up some other veggies, too.
I am doomed, I need to buy another flat of peatpots now.