What's your favorite tomato variety

[Mothergoat]

I can't count on a warm summer, so my favorites include Stupice from Territorial Seeds in Cottage Grove. It's a potato-leafed variety that always gives me some nice little salad toms in August, a week before anything else. I also like Willamette and Siletz, I think they were developed near here by Dr Bagget (sp?) from OSU. I've had good luck 2 out of 3 years with an heirloom beefy type called Super Marmande. Nice big pink slicer. My sister lives near here but her place faces full south, not southeast like mine; she likes Prudence Purple. I do go to some lengths to get those plants going early, though.
Linda

 

[barefootgardener]

Steve,

My growing degree day's for my area is close to 3000, with normal around 2500.

As I stated in my post, I start (most) all my Tomatoes etc. from seed sometime in early to mid March . It gives me a jump start on the season.

I have four different garden areas I plant in. One is a small side entrance garden that has a south/east exposure. It is partially enclosed by a low wall of stone and foundation by my house. This area has more protection and heats faster. This is my Potager garden.
Which means I plant a mix of herb's, vegetables, fruit trees, flower's etc...When I plant out my tomatoes(only one plant of each variety goes in this area) in early to Mid May, each tomato plant has a wire cage surrounding it which is wrapped in clear plastic and at the base of this I place stones, then I will fill plastic milk jugs with water to put inside each cage to help retain the heat at night when temps cool.

In my larger garden area is where I plant the majority of my tomatoes. This get's full sun exposure and has some protection from a small forest of trees on the west side. We put down Black plastic to warm the soil first, etc.. and our tomatoes are planted in small homemade hoop houses along the row's (Covered in plastic) which we put stones and milk jugs inside to help retain heat at night. I make sure to keep track of daytime temp's to make sure it dont get to hot and to make sure they get proper ventilation.

 

[digitS']

Barefoot, you've got me beat by 300 - 400 growing degree days and beat all hollow in the protection you afford your heirlooms! Shucks . . .

This season, Bloody Butcher will find a place in my garden and I have great hopes for its earliness but I'll probably need to find some other name for it when talking to DW . Additionally, two "moderns" are likely to make an appearance. The first is Mountain Spring. Its the original in the "Mountain" series from North Carolina and a determinate type.

Linda, Jim Baggett also played a role in developing a tomato called "Legend." He considers it a superior variety to his Siletz, according to OSU. Don't really know a thing about it other than what I've read even tho' its been out there a couple years.

Legend is also a determinate tomato and I've ALWAYS had problems with determinate plants developing what must be blight before all the tomatoes are ripe. I'd really like to be able to grow a determinate because they are not so unruly in their growth. Generally, indeterminates stay healthy for me but grow so rambunctiously that I have trouble getting in amongst them and weeding, harvesting, etc. Legend is supposed to be blight-resistant and well-mannered.

Prudens grew well for me in 2007 and I really appreciated the size, earliness and flavor. It did quite a bit of splitting tho' - darn it!

Steve

 

[Mothergoat]

I've been very fortunate to never have blight in the 15 years I've lived here. I am rather isolated, though. I grew Legend last year, too. It was on the end of the garden, though, and didn't get enough care, I think. The nubians rampaged through that area a couple of times, too, and knocked the plants over. I'll have to try it again. Thanks.

 

[barefootgardener]

Steve'

Glad to hear Thessaloniki turned out well for you and you liked the taste. In my Baker Creek seed catalogue, it states it has excellent flavor, high yield's, and disease resistance. Sound's like a keeper to me.

Good luck with Bloody Butcher. My seed catalogue say's it has a nice tomato flavor, production is really good, and it's an early ripening tomato, and much tastier than Early Girl.

I dont know if you have heard of Baker Creek Heirloom seed's, located in Mansfield, MO
But if you go to their website at www.rareseeds.com you can see all their wonderful selections of Tomatoes. You can also send away for their free beautiful seed catalogue. They have a nice variety of early tomatoes.

Ginny

 

[digitS']

Linda, I thought that OSU developed Legend because blight was so bad in the Willamette Valley. It seemed a little odd to me because it's a late season issue - whether it's early or late blight, I haven't a clue but it shows up usually after I've got about one-half of the determinates picked. The hot, dry weather has really taxed everything, then wham!! The darn plants may even die. I'd say that the indeterminates are effected but they tuff their way thru it.

In a Master Gardener magazine I was reading a few months ago, they have the same caveat as the linked article - resistance just means resistance; it doesn't mean they don't get the virus. Baggett says in that article that he'd want Legend whether or not he had blight because of the earliness and size - once again, as individuals, we have no real idea about taste until we do. Uh, taste it, that is. That part of the equation is completely up to us.

Nice to know Baker Creek's review of Bloody Butcher, Ginny. I think it might be one of those with LOTS of flavor in a small package. I'd want to put something like that in a sandwich and might wish it was of beefsteak size. Maybe I'll get better at making a quick salsa . . .

Thessaloniki - - I'm wondering how similar my Summer climate is to sunny Greece - probably pretty close. Reading the tomato's history suggests to me that it may have been the last of the open-pollinated tomatoes to HIT America before hybrids took over. Oh, by the way, Legend is an open-pollinated tomato. That's unusual for this late in the plant breeding game.

I got my Thessaloniki seed by purchasing 2 tomatoes at the farmers' market in 2006. When I realized how pleasantly they tasted - I scraped a seed or 2 off my shirt and kept them for my garden.

Steve

 

[Reinbeau]

Here are a few interesting tomatoe links I've stumbled upon over the seasons:

Pictures of many heirloom and standard tomatoes

Amishland Heirloom Seeds

Chuck Wyatt's Heirloom Tomatoes Now carried on by Donna, his neighbor.

Selected Plants

I haven't done anything with these vendors, but they came highly recommended from Dave's Garden. I'm fortunate in that a local guy started selling heirlooms two seasons ago, so I have my pick from around 25 or 30 varieties each season, I don't have to grow my own starts I do like Tomatoberry for a cherry, though, so I'll start a few of them this coming spring.

 

[Mothergoat]

Steve, blight is a serious problem for a lot of gardeners here. I'm not sure why I haven't been troubled. I do have the room to move my tomatoes/potatoes/solanaceous plants a fair distance every year. I also am careful about selecting seed potatoes, and I start my tomato plants indoors from seed. I have no close neighbors (within a half-mile) who grow vegetables. I've been gardening organically here for 15 years, and the only other residents on this ground prior to that were Mennonite, good farmers and gardened organically too. So, I'll just say thank you to the powers that be and keep on!

 

[digitS']

Oakman should note that Selected Plants is in Hamilton, Alabama.

I especially like how the homepage provides links to good seed choices. And, that guy in North Carolina mentioned really knows his stuff!! That measure of generous recognition by the website owner makes me inclined to believe that he knows his stuff as well.

digitS'

 

[Buff Shallots]

Someone mentioned Bloody Butcher heirloom tomato - I had never heard of it before my neighbor offered me two last year that she had raised from seed.

The only problem was that we were building a chicken coop and run about five feet from our gardens. I felt so bad about planting a tomato called "bloody butcher" so near to baby chickens! (One of the b.b. tomato plants wilted, but the one farthest from the chicken run prospered all summer.)