Hello Everyone,

Last year was my first year growing anything, so I picked, tomato's. Well regardless of how easy they usually are to grow, I did a lousy job!!! I dont know if it was the type of tomato seed I bought, or my lousy taking care of! but I need to know, what kind of seed will give me a Huge, Nice, Don't care if its ugly, Tomato????? I thought thats what I bought last year, but it wasn't. There were really Little!!! Remember, I don't really know what I am doing, so please keep that in mind....


ninni

Hi Ninni!!!

Huge Tomatoes that I grow are Beefsteak and
Beefmasters..but the plants can be 6ft or more...

I love Celebraties for taste and they are a
nice sandwich sized, like a tennis ball sort of..

But there's a ton of Tomatoe growers here,
I know you'll get more response's on other varieties..

I know Bigboy and Julianna/Tomatofreak are really in to tomatoes..
Julianna does alot of heirloom one's too....

I always grow Brandywine Tomatoes and they are a large tomato and very good. They are are a non hybrid, so you can save seed from year to year. And some are ugly looking, but doesn't change the taste LOL. They get very tall and bushy, the leaves look like potato leaves. They produce well even if negelected, I had aphids take over them one year and still had a good harvest in spite of it, but the only thing that is the real pain is picking those green horn worms off at a certain time of year, picking them off is not the problem its finding them that is the pain. If you want to try some of these I have ALOT of extra seeds, just PM me with your address and I'll send you some.

Sounds like you should stick with hybrids for their improved yields and disease resistance. Try varieties like Big Beef, Beefmaster or Burpee's Supersteak for instance.

Thanks for everyones Input, it is definitely Needed! LOL!! About the Worms, Last year, I didnt have ANY worms, I'm not even sure what those green worms are that you guys are talking about. Do they hideout or something? Are the Big Enought to see or pick off??


ninni

Ciao Nini,

Contrary to what Comfrey has stated, the Brandywine tomato variety can be finicky and I wouldn't recommend it for a newbie. A really large heirloom variety that's relatively trouble-free originates from France and is called Cuostralee. This plant will grow very large, however, so you'll need to stake it with 8' wooden or rebar stakes driven 1' into the ground, so the plant won't topple over in a big wind or thunderstorm. The fruits can weigh up to 2 lbs each. Have a look at www.tomatogrowers.com for seeds. If you're hesitant about growing from seed, visit several reputable nurseries and talk to their staff about relatively trouble-free plants. Most of the plants found at nurseries are hybrids, but that's ok if you're not interested in saving the seeds for the following year.

As for the hornworms..there are typically 2 critters, the tobacco hornworm and the tomato hornworm and unless you're a budding entemologist, they look very similar and do similar damage to your plants. They grow quite large, 4" long and 1/2" across, before they get to the point of wanting to pupate. They have the same colouration as your plants, so that can make it hard to find them, but they're a BIG critter and you'll want to pick them off when you do see them. If you're squeamish, just cut the leaf that they're in the process of eating off and either kill them (which I don't advocate) or donate them to a local grade school so the kids can learn about nature.

Good luck and I hope some of this info helps you,
Julianna

I've never had a problem with Brandywine tomatoes. And like Comfrey said...the taste is amazing!!

You should also remember how "big" you want your tomatoes. A 2lb tomato is huge..definitely more than a meal tomato and unless you are feeding a family and I don't know about you or others but when I cut open a tomato, I like to use the entire thing. I don't like wrapping it up 'til the next day, and then rewrapping it, etc...the tomato gets mushy and I always have to cut off a slice for garbage. I suppose you could can them but most like to use a paste tomato for that purpose. Remember, it's what you prefer.

BTW, you should take a look at Comfrey's webshots. Her vegetable garden is amazing! So strong and healthy looking.

Comfrey...I PM'd you quite awhile ago to warn you that I'll be full of questions come spring time...be aware. You've been warned.

Brandywine's taste alone makes it well worth growing. Even if you only get one fruit off the plant, but it's yield is normally not very good as Sorellina points out.

The best yeilding variety of Brandywine is Red Brandywine. The "TRUE" red brandywine. Look for the Landis Valley Strain at Tomato Grower's Supply HERE . It should be a regular leaf plant with med sized delicious red fruit.

One thing I found out last year is that if I through half decomposed compost on my tomato plants about halfway through the season it helps them produce bigger and more tomatoes. I plant to amend the soil big time with 50% compost where I'm planting the tomatoes this year. I have roma, tiny tim and grape in the ground as of today. I don't care for the extra large tomato because they are usually very juicy and I like the meatier kind. But I wish you the best of luck with whatever you grow.

I have growing Brandywine's for years they were the first tomato I ever started from seed, And I have never had any problem getting seed to germinate or having healthy plants, The yield in my opinion is excellent, I also can them and they make wonderful tomato juice. It is just a matter of opinion here about tomatoes and I am sure everyone has their own favorite variety and reasons for growing it. That is why Ninni posted this question to begin with to get input from different opinion's so she could form her own opinion. So Ninni, hope you take every ones thought into consideration and experiment..grow more then one variety and see which kind you prefer.

Thank You everyone!! I think the problem I had last year, had more to do with the soil I bought. My Mom said it looked Too Woody!??? I'm not sure if that meant the soil stayed wet and moldy or the wood soaked up the water and Made the soil too dry!!??
Different Varieties is an EXCELLENT idea!! I think I will try a Few Types this year!! Looking forward to getting the seeds from Comfrey!!!!

When should I start them?? Now, or wait a few weeks?

Thanks!!
Ninni

PS.... We are getting HAMMERED here with snow!(Southern NY)

ninni

You need to start your seeds 6-8 weeks before your last frost date, proable sometime around the middle of March for your zone????

Ninni, I'm in Zone 6 and will be starting mine the first week in April for transplanting out on Memorial Day weekend. But who know's....We got 25 inches of snow yesterday. I probably won't melt til May.

Ciao Nini-

I'm between zone 5 & 6 and I usually start my seeds around the last week in March. If you don't use any artificial lighting source, you may want to wait a week and start them when John starts them so they won't get tall and leggy from stretching towards whatever light they can find.

Just my 2c cdn. Good luck with your tomatoes and keep us posted with your results ;o)

Julianna

I've also had great luck with Brandywines. They're often rated as the best tasting of all tomatoes, and I think that's true.
Weezie mentioned the Celebrity...I've had great luck with those, and they taste great, too. And they're a perfect size.
Ninni, I've bought soil like that before, and it had no nutrional quality. If you're growing in containers, you'll need excellent soil.

The celebrity is a good tomato and has a good taste also, but is a little smaller, We like mator sandwiches here, so the Brandywine fills up the bread better. There are so many good tomato varieties out there, it is sometimes hard to chose.

Did I mention that my grape tomatoes have sprouted. They are the first of the three varieties I planted. I am soooooo looking forward to having them this year. And the peppers and the flowers and everything. Woohoo I just love gardening.

I love the taste of those grape tomatoes..
I think they have a good flavor...

yeah, if I had to pick one, Celeb's would be it,
nice size, good taste, easy to grow...
*I like the beefsteak/master, etc types, but they are big plants, and BIG TOMATOES.. *

Someday, Julianna's gonna talk me into growing the others...when I move outta town and I have more room....

Yep Celibirty is good to grow....till about June here....then if it DOES survive the heat of summer.it WILL go back to produceing about october.Maybe if I made a climate controlled box with AC..... But is easier for me to just grow early girl.It will produce in the heat of summer.I also got some seeds of some from germany called Red giant tomato. Brandywine is a good beefstake type,but not easily found in my area(& done lost them seeds)

I think Julianna had some of those kinds...
not sure if she still does..
but she does those heirloom varieties...

If you guys like Celebrity as a hybrid, you should really try Big Beef. As hybrids go, it is one of the best next to Brandy Boy.


I have seeds to most brandywine varieties if you like a few. Then you could save some for yourself in the fall. Or you could purchase them at the many good seed websites like TGS or Sandhill.

Well, thank you Comfrey. We like Comfreys also. {grin}

John,
I googled BIG BEEF TOMATO...
got one that said "Big Beef VFFNTAST"
(would it also be Beefsteak VFN???)
Very, very curious..if you know...????

I usually always bought pre~started tomatoes,
most of the years, and what ever was available.
but the tomato disease's were/are bad in my dirt..

Since finding my greenhouse, I have been doing seed, and mostly find the Rutger kind here, but last year I did find a package that said Beefsteak VFN, and they did a wonderful job with the disease resistance... thumbsup, but were very tough to get off the vine...

Do you know is the same true for that variety you mentioned..
I'd do those again, but was curious as to the variety you posted about..

More info ????

Yes it is Weezie. Big Beef was an All America Selection winner back in '93 I think. Tastes as close to heirloom as you can get in a hybrid. It's a different tomato than Beefsteak, but it is usually regularly availible at Walmart or Lowes as transplants. They sell seed for it everywhere too.

http://www.tomatogrowers.com/midseason.htm

Regarding the diseases in the soil, mulch the plants heavily with straw or something to keep the rain and water from splashing soil onto the plant's foliage.

Oh John, I have tried every method and the complete gauntlet you could imagine with warding off that stuff..
HONEST, go thru the ARCHIVES and theres' so many things I've gone thru, mulches, styles of watering, raised beds, varieties, different places..

I can work with it, I plant enough varieties,
I can't stop, I'd have 50 kinds if I had the room..
but when I plant many, I get many from the early crops.. and *enough to share too* and then because of the shorter growing season, just about when the plant is totally gone or eaten up by disease, it's time to close up shop here anyways...

The one thing with that one variety, it was a bit slower to produce, and the tomatoes were HUGGGGEE!

And oooooooooohhh do those tomatoes look soooooo good, I could dive right into that page and devour them...My mouth is watering already, and I'm wishing for FALL TIME AND HARVEST, RIGHT NOW!
I'll have to look at those kinds a little closer..
Thanks for the info!!!

And it was Wally~World I got those VFN seeds from.

Weezie...I'm a little reluctant to do a lot of hybrids, 'cause these days I don't know what might be a genetically modified type, and I don't want pig genes in my 'maters, lol. But anything that has all those vfn, f2, on and on suffixes are going to be VERY tough. You probably know what those things stand for, right? (probably better than me.)

JohnCT...my climate here is vastly different than yours, but I believe I'll try the Beefmaster. You've sold me. I think one I grew last year was a Beefsteak, or Big Beef, and it was fabulous...huge, round, no cracks, tasted GREAT!
It's funny how some tomato plants you buy have all this great stuff on the label, but are short on taste.
My favorite remains the Red Brandywine, but they always have some green areas on them, whereas the Beefsteaks are uniformly ripe.
I've been starting most of my own plants, and find that tomato seeds still have about 100% germination after 2 to 3 years. I grew one last year called Kelloggs Breakfast. If you like yellow, low acid tomatoes, it's a nice big one with a unique flavor. Not the same as the acidy reds, though!

Yes, and no, only what I've read..
**Realllllly wished I did know alot more..
like all that scientific stuff.. someday**

The VFN stand for something to the effect of
Verticillium Wilt, Fusarium and Nematode resistance.
*so, if you have those problems in your garden,
you can grow that type of plant and know that it is resistant to that stuff... so they say*
It catches up with the plant, but not as fast...***

They were terribly hard to pick off the vine...
I think they'd still be hangin' there if I hadn't of picked them off... whewwwwww!

I LOVE Beefsteaks and Beefmasters...
Soooooooo yummy, and HUGE!!!

Did you know that it's not technically that it's low in acid,
it's the sugar content in the tomato...
When there's more sugar, the acid is then considered lowered,
but it's the sugar/sweetness you taste..
Did that make sense????
*where's the gremalin with the twisted tongue*

That's funny. Some of mine were easy to pick, others, I'd break the vines picking. I don't remember which varieties did what, but I wound up using scissors eventually.

I used my pruners!!!
Heyyyy, I'd go to bed with those things
if my poor husband would let me....

I have an apron I wear, from the time I get, to
the time I go to bed...
Pruners, clippers, snippers, kleenex's, twist~ties, 2 or 3 trowels, rubber gloves, ohh, geesh the things' packed to the nine's!!!

We should do a thread on tools. I like Corona hand pruners, and I have a pair of Corona snips that are a cross between regular handsnips and scissors. They're great, but since they lost their edge, I can't get them as sharp as they once were.
I'l like to get a pair of those cool Japanes style garden scissors for dead-heading!

Kellogg's Breakfast! What a great tomato peppereater. Definitely an orange though. One of the best oranges also. There are so many great varieties of OP tomatoes out there. And the best part is you only need to buy seeds once and just save them whenever you need them. A few other great large ones are Tidwell German, Coustralee and one with a great story behind it, Mortgage Lifter.

I've had a lot of catastrophic losses over the years...extreme drought, alternately, extremely wet summers, one year a grasshopper plague that was so bad they stripped some of the trees of their leaves, so you can imagine what they did to my garden...Pests to numerous to mention. Last year was the first time I had so many tomatoes that I actually got tired of them, after eating 2 or 3 pounds a day for 3 months!
One variety I grew once was Black From Tula...what a pretty thing, and what flavor! I only got to harvest 2 of those before the plants were destroyed by grasshoppers! I love the heirlooms, and all the exotic names.
Ror one reason or another, my Mortgage Lifters didn't fare well, and I don't remember if I got to taste those. I've already got my seeds for those for this year, though!

Dave, could you not make a make~shift tent/covering/cage like stuff from Bird netting??
Could that not keep out them pesky things??

Weezie, it was one of those once in a century types of infestation. They called it a "plague of Biblical proportions." They would have found their way into pretty much everything. They ate all of the plants I had that are said to repel grasshoppers. They ate all of my plants, period. I had five varieties of sweetcorn, so I'd have sweetcorn all summer with ton's to give away. I had 2 good meals from the earliest variety.
I had 20 varieties of tomatoes, all started from seed. I got maybe 3 pounds.
I had someone tell me that they had eaten the nylon window screens off of their house.
I bought some Nosema (a.k.a Grasshopper Spore) from the only local nursery that even knew what I was talking about, and used it, and then discovered it was out of date by 8 years, and that stuff only keeps a few months REFRIGERATED!
I finally found some online (after much searching) at HYDROGARDENS, got some and treated about 2 acres. I also bought Guineas to free range. A month later the plague was over at our place, but there was nothing left of the garden. They'd eaten most of the leaves off of my cherry trees, even.
And that is just the story of one year here in good ole Oklahoma.
Remember, we're the Dustbowl state, and tornado alley...
It's always something!
But we can grow magnolias, crepe myrtles, and KILLER tomatoes here...and evidently camellias, too...
And it was 75 degrees here on Wednesday (23 today!)
We take the good with the bad!

This is so true! I have grown Mortage Lifters, very interesting story about how they got thier name, I use to try a different variety every year, but it just seems like to much trouble to grow a bunch of different kinds. I am trying some black plum tomatoes I got in a trade, but will plant them in a different area then my main tomato crop.

Ciao all, what a great thread, thanks for starting it (and I can't remember at the moment who it was).

Weezie's correct, all tomatoes have roughly the same pH..it's to do with the level of sugars inside the fruit that influences overall flavour. Some tomatoes when ripe are on the tangy side, some are full-bodied like a good Italian red wine, some are very mild (a number of whites and yellows come to mind). One person's favourite might not taste the same for you due to different climate, rain/sun, and also taste-buds are highly variable from person to person.

John in CT listed a number of excellent OP (open-pollinated) varieties and he's right, too..you grow these instead of hybrids and you're not only able to save seed and have them grow true from year to year, you're also potentially preserving someone's priceless family heirloom from disappearing off the face of the planet..and that's a good thing as a very famous housekeeping ex-con once said.

Comfrey, Black Plum is an excellent variety, in my opinion and I'd call it a semi-determinate because at least in my zone 5/6 garden, it wasn't the largest plant in the tomato bed, far from it. I think it topped out around 5' tall or so, much shorter than say my monster Aunt Ruby's German Green which reached over 8' tall by season's end. These tomatoes are excellent dried..plump them up with a bit of boiling water, then drain and cover with extra virgin olive oil and they'll last you all winter long in the fridge (if you don't scarf them all). We had them on pizza last night..YUM.

Njoynit, PM me with your mailing address if you'd like some Brandywine seeds, darlin. I've got plenty.

Oh, one more thing before I forget...some varieties of tomatoes retain green "shoulders" even when completely ripe. Dr. Wyche's Yellow and Black Plum come to mind as examples of this. It's just cosmetic. The more you gain experience in growing tomatoes that don't look like the perfect red cardboard globes you get at the grocery store, you'll be at peace with some funny-looking, exquisite-tasting heirlooms..Weezie?

Buona fortuna a tutti,
Julianna

Julianna...you still have to keep OP's widely seperated, and maybe take other precautions as well, to keep the strain pure?
I'd love to get some Aunt Ruby's and black plum if you've got excess seed!

Alrighty Julianna,
You may end up talking me into growing them...
hehehe...

What kinds of the heirlooms are there that are
like the size or consistancy of a Celebrity and like a Beefsteak??

weezie, whatever you do, don't go HERE!
http://www.totallytomato.com/
Actually, I think you posted a link for khaadu to there...
the first time I got their catalogue, I ordered MUCH more stuff than I should have!
I do that everywhere, though.

Tomato Siberian looked like a nice tomato...
Good sized..

Anyone had that kind???

I grew Siberian once expecting it to be the earliest to ripen. It wasn't...but then my climate is vastly different than yours. I didn't have a great year that year...I think that was the year of the grasshopper infestation. Let me look and see if I still have some seeds...they'd be a few years old...if I do, I'll send you a few so you can try a plant or two...

My luck with tomatoes has been spotty since I've lived in the country, in part because the soil is poor and I've been working hard to build it. I can recommend things based on my success, but my failures don't reflect on the varieties...for instance, I had a low opinion of Kellogg's Breakfast when I first grew them, they were small and not that tasty, but last year they were huge, tasty and productive. I'll go look for those Siberia....

I have tried both Bigboy and Betterboy without much luck.

The Betterboy's last year were ugly, all of them. I cut them up and froze them.

I started some Rutgers this year in peatpots. I am going to try some different brands this year.

I think most of my problem is the soil, it sets up like concrete. After many passes with the tiller I am finally able to get the tiller all the way down. I have a strip about 6' wide that is much harder then the the rest of the soil, this is right over a old gas line, so maybe it was packed down a bit. The line east and west.

Also I have a LOT of trash in the ground, mostly on the west end of the spot. I have picked up many handfuls of glass, metal, and plastic. I keep a plastic bucket out there just to put the trash in.

I found Rutger's seeds at Wally~World, twice, I've eaten them, ther'e not bad...
Not a Celebrity or Beefsteak.. but not bad..

You soil sounds like the old, in ground garden I used to have on my side of the property..
**I switched to raised beds on my mom's side**
but that garden was filled with crapp~ola...
Doorknobs, coal, glass, buckets, etc.. I couldn't believe the stuff.. I think it was an old dump before, get me the willies, and was lucky to change to the raised beds..

I do alot of reading, and some of the big gardener's on tv, books, etc.. are saying not to till the soil, as it wrecks the soil...*turns it like concrete* that you should take something like a "broad fork" and aerate the soil...
When tilling, it breaks down all the worm tunnels, air pockets and such..
To encorporate soils or composts, should mix it in lightly with a trowel or something..

I didn't rototill for the first time this year,
can't say I saw a huge difference, but didn't seem to harden as bad.. I will do the same again this year, I think...

I think it mostly compacts the soil at the depth the times bottom out at. Use a fork, spade etc. and stab around so it breaks up the "hardpan" caused by the tiller. Another problem with tilling is that it disrupts the "strata," the minute variations of bacterial, fungal and other colonies that are very happy where they are. That's why you should just loosen soil with a spade or fork before planting...it takes a little while before all those beneficials get busy again if they're tilled.

One more thing, Weezie...I think the Rutger's is an all purpose tomato...good for cooking, canning drying or eating fresh, if I remember right...so they wouldn't be as good for slicing as a beefsteak type or others, but versatile...I may grow some just to see.

Yeah, I grew them, twice now...
Not a bad tomato.. easy to pick and the size wasn't bad at all...
I basically eat fresh or make salsa..
**I'm not into canning and stuff, just love a raw tomato**
I love Beefsteaks, but as I am the only one eating them *tomatoes* it's hard to eat a big huge one like that, all by myself.. *well, in the begining it's not hard, but when you're all tomatoe'd just about out, that's a big tomato to eat by myself, especially in warm weather and I do not like a cold, refrigorated tomato..

I just caught Pat's post...zoomed right by it before. If the area over the old gasline is that hard, it's because they backfilled with clay, I'm thinking. You probably have a little more clay than me...or a LOT more. We have pretty much all sand here...
My tomatoes do well mostly in variations of the lasagna bed...I thought I had invented that type of gardening the first time I did it! I did that 7 years ago as an experiment! And didn't hear that term until last year, or the description.
In my experience, the only way to know if a varitety is good or not is to try it in different soils in different years...if it's good once, it's good. If not, it's not condemned. Raised beds are the way to go, when you've got the time.
The best ammendment I've come across around here that's available commercially is mushroom compost!

That's funny, cause......
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
I THOUGHT I INVENTED IT.. heehee,
seriously...

No we have a lot of clay here.

When I first tilled it I borrowed a counter-rotating tiller from a guy it work, all it did was get stuck a lot. The wheels spun one way and the tines spun the other way. It would dig 2 holes everytime it did this.

The tiller I have now is forward-rotating. I have tilled several spots and it's all hard to till up.

I trenched a water-line for the son last fall in Broken Arrow, and his yard was full of clay about a foot down.

The only way a worm is going to burrow in my yard is if he uses a jack-hammer and some dynamite!!!

Got one word!!!
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
COMPOSTTTTTTTT!!!

heheheheehe..
That's a good one..

But use COMPOST...
Best soil, clay buster~upper you'll find..
Will ad to drainage...and break that stuff up..

I added 6" of wood chips to the east half last fall, and I have about 6" piled on the west end, and have some more left for the east end.

My compost pile was VERY big. I plan to get some more wood chips from the city this year. I also added some lime, and some 27-13-13 to it to help it.

With what you posted,
I'd get some kind of manure too...

Pat, with all that wood chips, the manure will
help... it'll ad to the nitrogen the plants need, and help break down the woodchips..

and if for the area for your tomatoes,
I'd lay off the lime....

Tomatoes love acid, like you'd get from leaves, pine needles and wood stuff.....

I have not heard anything good about Totally Tomatoes. These are more reputable sources of tomato seed.

Tomato Growers Supply
Sand Hill
Marianne\'s
Heirloom Tomatoes
Seed Saver\'s Exchange

I think a member of ours, though I haven't spoken with him in a bit, RICK, grows seeds for there,
I think.. I'll have to find out from him...

I'm a first year member. I just got their annual yearbook. Over 100 pages of unique OP tomatoes. I've ordered many tomato varieties from their public catalog and have about another 15 varities I'm requesting from the yearbook.

I just ordered some hot pepper seeds from Tomato Growers Supply. They have a great selection!
Another great source of heirloom and open pollinated tomatoes is Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Peppereater,

I didn't save any seed from Aunt Ruby's last year so my stock is pretty low. I do have an excess of Black Plum that I can send you. PM me with your mailing address.

John, I'm so looking forward to joining SSE with all the talk and drooling going on regarding the yearbook. I have to see what all the fuss is about. Of course it just feeds my tomato obsession, lol. It'll have to wait until next year, though. This year the budget's very tight. The big purchase I'm looking forward to in March is a set or two of shop lights for the seedlings.

Weezie, I haven't grown Siberia so I can't speak to whether it's a good variety. Like whoever mentioned before about Rutgers, it's a very decent canning tomato, so it doesn't surprise me that you wouldn't like it as a slicer. Get your hands on some German Red Strawberry seeds. That one doesn't get huge and it's a WONDERFUL fruity tomato for eating out of hand and not too big.

Cheers,
Julianna

I hear ya Julianna. I actually need a couple more shoplights myself.


Dave, I can send you a few ARGG. Just drop me a PM with your snail mail addy.

I already have a place to pickup a truck load of cow manure. Was going to do that last week, but I didn't have time.

Julianna...thanks for the offer. You too, John. I'll be PMing you both. Anyone want Cosmic Orange Cosmos seed? I think it's that variety, that's what they look like.
Julianna..."German Red Strawberry" is a great name! I'll be looking into those!

Sure! I can throw in few German Red Strawberry if you want.

Just my input. I order from TT every year and have always gotten good service and good germination on the seeds. I know that they also sell plants and haven't ever ordered those. I was on a site called watchdog or something and checked out their ratings there. There were several negatives, mostly related to their live plants, though many of those reviewers said that TT had either refunded their money or reshipped the plants.

Pat, Then you are alllllll set to go...


Try some orangic fert's too, Cotton meal,
blood meal, I think, oh, goshhhhhh, brain drain,
Terry posted some somewhere's around here of some good mixes to mix up too...
Try some experimenting...

Just fixed your quote mike, that was all!

Do you all like Early Girl???? I've started some from seed this year and it's the first time I've tried them.

My mother likes early girl, if for any other fact than, they're early and they are not a store bought :p tomato...
They do produce well, she gets a good supply to hand out to the Meals on Wheels people...

Thanks Weezie. BTW, is there a way to reply to a specific message? I didn't see one.

Mike

Like this one Mike???

Click on the quotation makrs at the top of the person you are tryin' to answer or question,
clean it up, if you'd like, to specify what you wanted to quote or know about, like I did with your question above..

Let me tell you, My mom planted a few of the tomato seeds from Comfrey, and a few store bought, and Comfrey's are ZOOMING past the store bought!!!! Can't wait to start mine!!!!!!!!!

Ninni

PS. Thanks again Comfrey!

Early Girl is very productive, but not much on taste.

Thanks John, that's just what I wanted to know......

Does your mom like the taste of them Weezie? Do you?

Good thing I also have beefsteaks, romas, and cherry tomatoes to fall back on.

Well, after a winter of store boughts...
having a fresh picked tomato, in my eyes, and really also in my mom's eyes'... they're good.
But I do preferr like the Celebrity, Rutgers,
Beefsteaks, etc. that I also plant..

but they are early, we were eating those kinds, at least 2 or 3 weeks before the other on'es..
so, we can not complain..

And they were very good producers...
and like I said, she gave a whole bunch away to the MOW's people and no one gave them back to her...

Well if nobody gave them back then they can't be all that bad right!

Well, I guess you never know...everyone likes different things, and different tastes...Maybe I'll like these more than any others...You just don't know. Last year we gave a ton of them away too...to anyone that would take them...Mark took them to work, I gave them to neighbors, etc....

Njoynit said that the early girls do well in the summer heat...if they're that early, and produce in the heat, I guess I'll have to grow those, too. Anyone know of any heirlooms that will keep producing at 90 degrees, 100 degrees?

Arkansas Traveler, Costoluto Genovese, Stupice(Very Early) and Homestead 24 are known to be very heat tolerant OP varieties.

John, seems like I read somewhere that Stupice was delicious, is that right? Which of these would YOU recommend?

I have yet to grow AT or CG. I'm a fan of trying as many new varieties as you have room for. There are just so many better tomato varieties than just the common hybrids. I need to give Stupice another try. I grew it last year for the first time. It was not a great year for tomato growing here in CT. Spring seemed to last forever and then right into the hot summer temps. The early varieties on my list this year are Kimberly, Taxi, Silvery Fir Tree and possibly Siletz if I can find the room.

John, you look familiar, I bet I've seen you on another forum. I grew Stupice last year and really was not overly keen on the flavour. It does produce early so for that we got garden tomatoes in our salads in July and that's never a bad thing, but as soon as any of the others came on strong, the Stupices were relegated to salsa cruda or something with a lot of other spices so the flavour of the tomato wasn't the star attraction.

I also grew Costoluto Genovese last year. This is a big producer and we had a bad patch of humid, droughty weather in the height of the summer which caused a LOT of blossom drop. This tomato kept right on producing and I personally liked the flavour because it harkens back to the Italian tomatoes of my childhood. It also has really pretty pleats and looks a bit like one of those jack be little miniature pumpkins in shape-it's a red tomato, not orange. It's also great for any Italian red tomato salad like caprese or panzanella.

Other tomatoes that did really well in those conditions were Black Plum which cranked them out all season and the plant itself doesn't get overly enormous, just very bushy. All the cherries except for Sungold F1 which succumbed to Early Blight did very well. I'd recommend just about any cherry for hot weather. I just got a whole whack of cherries from a chap down in Texas, so if he's growing them there, they must do ok in heat. I remember growing Yellow Pear cherry tomatoes in Davis, California when I lived there and I had tomatoes coming out my ears until well after American Thanksgiving.

John, you're growing Kimberl(e)y this year as your early...woohoo, so am I and am very excited about it.

Buona fortuna,
Julianna

I am alll giddy over so much tomato BEST!!

And you as well Julianna! Yes, I'm looking forward to it also. CAN'T WAIT to finally start all of these new seeds I've been fanatically collecting. I'm in the process of building a new combination seed starting/potting bench for my basement.

Peppereater/Dave,

You've got mail. I'd love some of your cosmos seeds if you still have some to spare. I'm pretty clueless about most flowers but I have had some success with growing cosmos from a large packet of mixed butterfly garden flower seeds so hopefully that will work again. Mostly I grow flowers thatn I can eat: pansies, nasturtiums, sunflowers.

Regarding isolation distances for tomoto seed-saving. You're right, Dave, I grow a LOT of varieties and I don't isolate them so what I do instead is cover the blossoms with a tule bag, like those sold at wedding favour supply stores. They have a little wee drawstring so you just cover the flower cluster and pull the string carefully against the stem to prevent cross-pollination. Once you see a tiny tomato growing inside the bag, remove it and mark that tomato or cluster with a bright coloured string or ribbon so you can find it later. Save the seeds from several different bagged tomatoes and you'll have yourself some seed that should breed true the following year. Keep in mind this won't work for hybrids so you want to check the package. If it says "F1" that is an indicator that you've got a hybrid. Look for OP or Heirloom on your packaging and save those seeds.

Weezie, you want tomatoes that are like Celebrity or Beefsteak. I've told you what I think of Celebrity, lol. A beefsteak just refers to a large slicing tomato and you've already indicated that you don't like the real huge ones. John's got some extra German Red Strawberry seeds and I think that variety would be an AWESOME one for you to try this year. It's productive for a heart-shaped variety and the fruits are really outstanding.

I have to agree with John, Early Girls are well...just early. They taste like cardboard to me and that's not hybrid snobbery, I really do love Sungold cherry tomatoes and they're a hybrid. I just don't like Early Girls, especially since there are so many other earlies out there that beat EG hands down. Probably the best early we tried last year was Azoychka, a medium yellow, slightly flattened beefsteak from Russia and I'd also have to mention Silvery Fir Tree which gets another go in our garden this year for a really lusty, jump in your mouth red.

C'mon Weezie, come on up to Heirloom Heaven..John and I will keep your seat warm ;o)

Cheers,
Julianna

PS more about seed saving as the season progresses. John and I can help you out on that score. It's messy but fun.

Great post Julianna!

Dave...everyone (not me) here in Arkansas swear by the Arkansas Traveler, I tried them one year, but I wasn't crazy about the taste. But our weather here is pretty close to what you get Dave...My Dad lives in Oklahoma and I get a weather report every time we talk, at least weekly, so I know the weather is pretty similar...Hot, dry and humid in summer

Weezie, did you ever plant those heirlooms I sent you a couple years ago? How about the Great White? I had one planted last year and it was sooooooooo sweet tasting.

You scare me with the talk about taking your pruning tool to bed with you. Does your husband know?!

Talking about tomatoes sure has me pumped up but I must restrain myself and not plant my seeds too soon. Been there, done that. I'm shooting for about April 1 here in MN. Too chilly at night until almost Memorial Day. No growth, soil too cold.

Tiller lessons I've learned: it's not good to over till soil- especially soil that has high loam or clay content. The more you till the harder it gets after a rain or watering. I remember my dad, a 60 year farmer, always said that it was bad to plow too deep, work the soil too much, or be in the field when it was wet/damp enough to pack the soil into a ball in your fist. Once, when I first got a garden tractor tiller, I thought it fun to make repeated passes every few days between the sweetcorn rows- even when there were no weeds present. I had 17 rows each 100' long planted side by side. After a soaking rain and a few days of dry weather, those rows were like concrete while the ones I had stayed out of were mellow and unpacked. Most good farmers in our area of high loam seldom use a disc to work ground in the spring . . . it, like a tiller, breaks the ground up too much into small, non-aerated soil. Instead they make one pass with a spring toothed digger/field cultivator (multiple rows of teeth) and then plant.

FWIW

Same here BigBoy. I'll be shooting for the weekend of April 1st also. If I can control myself that is! I'm most likely gonna experiment by starting a Silvery Fir Tree, a Kimberly and maybe a Stupice in a couple weeks though to see how early I can get a ripe fruit.

As far as tilling, I do it once a year in the fall to mix in my compost and thats it. Otherwise I'll use a digging fork to turn over soil if I need to. Tilling often just does too much damage to the soil's structure IMO.

Heyyyyyyyy Bigboy
Remember you sent me those seeds, and I planted them, and I got sick, some flu bug, that had me down in bed, like 3 days, and the temps in the greenhouse were like 100+*'s...
And they got fried !!!
I was soooooo sad..
You sent me Great Whites, Purples, a Golden one and one other, which slips my brain as of this typing...

And Limey sent me some from England area too and they got fried also..

I felt sssssssssssssoooooooo bad...
I never took any seeds from anyone again...
**I didn't want to hurt anymore seeds **


I start my seeds for the greenhouse in April...
*I'm waiting for Santa Claus to send me a greenhouse heater **

As it is right now, the temps' get up into the 100's right now, but can't hold night time/over night heat....

Ooooooooh yeah, he knows, he's put his foot down.. he won't let me...
and he says I can't wear my MUCK BOOTS either :p

Aw Weezie-meister, if you were closer to Buffalo, I'd come down and plant tomatoes FOR YOU just in case they croaked, you could then blame ME, lmao.

Hugs,
JuliBean

I have some roma, cherry and grape tomatoes sprouted and I got some brandywine from Obywan that I hope to plant real soon I just need to find a spot. indoor space is definitely at a premium now. Once I start planting outdoors it won't be so bad I guess lol.

I am only about 50 minutes really from Buffalo...

Tammy,
Congrats on the "sprouts"
It's still wayyyyy too early for up here..
Afternoon temps are 100+*'s in the greenhouse,
but below 32*'s at night still!!!

Best tomato I've found is Chianti Rose from Reneesgarden.com. Walmart has the Brandy Boy and Jellybean cherry tomatoes - 2 winners

Does it matter if I plant all sorts of tomatoes close together, was wondering about cross pollination?

detectorbill...that's only an issue if you're going to save seed...Is that part of your plan?

Hum so when I save seeds from mine this year they will be just plain tomatoes? I don't have enough space to plant them in different places. Almost wish I did though. But that's ok. Who knows maybe the hybred will be even better next year lol.

does it work the same for the peppers?

Hybrids don't come true from saved seed TK.

not planning on saving seeds, thanks!

Then you shouldn't be concerned about plant spacing and cross-pollination. However, try to plant them a least a couple feet apart to allow for airflow between the plants. This will increase airflow around the plants reducing the possibility of foliage disease.

That's where I run into problems,
I have "X" amount of space in my raised beds,
and I try to space them, but I can only get 8 plants to the smaller sized beds...
but they don't do too bad...

I'm really enjoying all of the posts about tomatoes.
Question: What do the catalogs mean when they say, "Famous Jersey flavor" ?
I'm a container gardener, and as for tomatoes, I have bush beefsteaks coming up in the bio-dome seed tray, and one store- bought Celebrity about 18 inches tall. It's showing some blossoms now.
I'm hoping it will be as good as described in the catalogs !

Hi,
I am seeing some white patterns on the leaves of my tomato plants. Can someone tell me what this is. Is this some disease.

Sounds like it. Can you post a picture or provide more info? Plant age, fruit, etc.

Davis and JohnCT,
I had to shut this post down, it was over 100 posts, but here is a link to TOMATO Part II
so you can go directly there and keep answering...