What's It Take to Get an Early Tomato Around Here?

[digitS']

I always have a litany of about 20 excuses for any problems in the tomato patch! It may start off with my own shortcomings but the sheer number of "other issues," hopefully distract the onlookers with environmental problems beyond my control .

This year has been a pretty good tomato year. Oh, my Casey's Yellows really, really, really need protection from the slugs! Start off by getting them staked up off the ground, Steve! My 1st try at Gold Dust was a big flop! Partly because of those slugs. What IS it with their attraction to yellow tomatoes??

Anyway, we have been talking about alternatives to Early Girl Hybrids. What open-pollinated variety can match their qualities? Earliness is a BIG deal with them and they handled it well again in 2013. I was once again kind of sadly looking thru the '13 Tomato Growers Supply catalog and aaaalllll the varieties that are listed as well over 70 days for ripening! Gee, I get crowded down to small tomatoes . . .

I've come up with 2 ideas - I'll call them "precociousness" and "cold-setting." I'm not sure but these might be the right words when one is talking about early tomatoes.

Precocious varieties mature sexually at an early date. They flower. However, if the weather is hot - our southern gardeners especially, know that the flowers drop off without setting fruit. But also, cold stress does the same thing. In fact, it will retard growth and the plants just can't overcome that environmental problem.

Some varieties are better to set fruit in the cold. I grew a couple of Cold Set plants this year. They weren't early!! I guess I can understand why they were something of a "flash in the pan" a decade or so ago. It took them as long as my Goliath Hybrids to flower and make fruit. Now, Goliath does okay in that regard but I'd expected that the Cold Set would, at least, flower so as to take that 1st step in living up to their name.

Most smaller plants mature more quickly than varieties that will grow large, rambling vines. It isn't always the case but mostly. This is also true with the maturing of large and small fruits. A cherry tomato that weighs only an ounce, ripens more quickly than a 16 ounce beefsteak. I'll tell you what -- it is a good thing I've got a 200sqft greenhouse so that I can populate a patch with lots & lots of small plants and it is a good thing that I like cherry tomatoes! Growing anything over about 3 ounces is something of a challenge. Oh, I got a few choices but, thankfully, Early Girl gives me some "larger" tomatoes in August. Still, I'm left with setting out 3 month old transplants and praying for a warm, late summer/early fall with just about anything else!

Any ideas for me? Something you've tried or haven't tried? What was your earliest slicing tomato this year or in past years?

Steve

 

[ninnymary]

Steve, have you heard of "First Lady"? I once tasted it and it was very similar to Early Girl. The gardener said it produced earlier and longer than Early Girl. That's why she preferred it. It was the same size and color as Early Girl.

Mary

 

[Ridgerunner]

When I lived in Denmark, the only way I could get a tomato to ripen at all was to grow it in a greenhouse. Not just start them in a greenhouse, let them live out their life in a greenhouse.

I cant give you any help on varieties. Im in a totally different climate and suffer that heat of summer thing you mentioned.

Something I did notice this year. I set out a few tomato plants early and had to protect them from frost. We had a snow the 1st of May. First time in recorded history that has happened here. I lost about half of what I set out but I had plenty of starts so that wasnt a concern. I knew I was taking a chance.

What I noticed was that some of the early starts that got cold lagged behind the ones that I set out after it was warmer. Some of the early survivors developed at the same rate and produced about the same as the later sets, but some early ones never did catch up. They did produce, but later than and not as prolific as the later warmer starts.

Ill still try setting them out early if I have them. In 2012 spring was 3 weeks early instead of 2 weeks late. I set some tomatoes out early and got really good production before the heat of summer hit, especially with my Brandywines. Its a gamble both ways. I try to cover my bases as best I can.

 

[digitS']

It is a hybrid, Mary, but the idea points me in two directions. One, check out Reimers and Pase seed companies a little more closely. They both have quite an online selection!

Secondly, think about starting my own hybrid . It may take that "hybrid vigor" that we heard about in high school biology, to gain some weeks on ripening. I also may have gotten away with cross-pollinating some tomatoes this year! They were not for slicers, however, but those plants have green fruits developing on every flower that I messed with . If hybrid vigor amounts to something, I'd just need 2 parent plants every couple of years to gain my-very-own hybrid seed!

Ridgerunner, I certainly have learned that "too early" doesn't work as well as "later" with this year's cucumbers. With some of the warm-season plants, like tomatoes, I would run very late if I wait to set out plants for our not-uncommon, July warm up! I wonder what about 50 walls-of-water would cost me . . ? If I caged the plants I could go back to wrapping them in plastic during their first weeks out there. That seemed to really help the few times I tried it.

Steve

 

[so lucky]

I bet you will come up with a good idea. Maybe you could get a few walls-o-water and try them, and wrap a few with cages. You may be able to kind of "scientifically" find out which works best in your area.
(I'm presuming you could keep better records than I do.)

 

[digitS']

Don't ya know, So Lucky?

All my records . .

. are on here!

Steve