Tomato trial update.

This year we are trying new varieties of tomatoes to find out which will grow the best for us here.
These are what we are growing!
1. sweet 100 (sure fire)
2. coyote
3. Tigerella
4. Robson Angolan
5. Mule team
6. Benewah

1. Sweet 100's These are the only tomatoes on the list we have grown before. I wrote sure fire beside them because in our garden they super produce and we really like the taste. Pretty sure these will always be grown here. Although the first cherries we ever grew were Sweet baby girl and they really produced well and we liked the flavor also. The next year we could not find the seed for them so we planted sweet 100 instead and stuck with them. We need to find the seed for sweet baby girls again.

2. Coyote, A white cherry tomato that is supposed to be a good producer and very sugary sweet. So far this tomato is growing neck and neck with the sweet 100's, they have grown out the top of the 4' cages by about 16" gonna have to top them soon. Like the sweet 100's they have fruit setting and tons of blooms on them. So far I am impressed with them, Cannot wait to see how they taste.

3. Tigerella, really like these so far. They have grown out the top of the cages also, have fruit setting and many, many blooms. I think we are gonna like Tigerella!

4. Robson Angolan. Really don't know much about them except they are a brown tomato 68 days to maturity. They are about 4' tall have a few tomatoes setting and a good number of blooms. Waiting to see what happens.

5.Mule team. Kind of Disappointed with these tomatoes, after reading up on them we really had high hopes. they have been growing the slowest in what I think is the best spot in the garden. One has reached 4' tall no fruit yet but quite a few blooms. We are not giving up hope on them yet, could be just taking their time getting going. fingers crossed!

6. Benewah. We ( I ) are really excited about these tomatoes, they are named after the county I come from in Idaho. They were bred for cool mountain temps with short growing seasons.They are about 2 1/2' tall and look like a shrub covered in blooms. These did not get started indoors until the second week of April , but they have grown quickly. The foliage is thick and dark green, they really look like they could take some frosty temps. Benewah are the only determinant we have planted this year, so we will see how things go from here.

Keep us posted, Collector.

Sweet 100 starts out as such a huge plant. Kind of nice to have Sweet Baby Girls around to fill in and mind their manners.

I know you are trying to go with the more diversified, independent seed companies rather than the big guys. How about checking out Tomato Growers Supply (link)?

They've got your cherries! Pretty catalog, too. (Gotta look at their lists because not every variety has a picture ... )

Steve

I'm keeping an eye on your trials Collector.
I grew Mule Team last year also, and though it wasn't a stellar year for my garden overall I wasn't impressed with it either.
I like to give something two tries in case it didn't perform because of something I did, but it should at least show some potential.

This year all my tomato plants were bought due to the "something I did" with all my starts. But I have some hybrids I've never grown before and probably wouldn't have if I hadn't massacred all those little seedlings.

We love the Sweet 100's too. Boy, do they put out the tomatoes!

You'll be glad you took such good notes in years to come. I've been taking detailed notes on my beans, tomatoes, etc. too. I need to buy a nice notebook just for garden journalling and add to it each year. Right now, I just flip back and forth on threads here and *hope* that I typed it down somewhere. This makes a good place to keep notes really.

Sweet 100's are a good cherry tomato. Have you tried Reisentraube from Baker Creek? I think they out perform the Sweet 100's! I grew them last year, but this year I am growing Tommy Toes for cherry tomatoes.

Thanks for all the feedback!
Steve, Thank you for posting the link to tomato growers. Great selection of cherry tomatoes, I saw pink bumble bee's on the list, Have you posted an update about them. would be interested to know how they are doing around these parts.

Thistlebloom,I remember you saying you grew muleteam and did not have much luck with them. The darn plant description sounds so good about them though, i just had to try them for myself. We even saved the best spot in the garden for them. there is still time for them to turn around, and I hope they do!
I hope you have good luck with your replacement tomatoes, What varieties did you end up with, and how are they doing?

Journey, I need to get my garden notes more organized for sure. I have planting dates and harvest dates going back to 2010 on my cell phone of all things. I also have stuff on the computer, hand written notes here and there it really is not a good system. I can never find stuff when I really need it, just stumble across it every once and awhile lol. I should make a real effort to consolidate all my garden info In one place.

baymule, Have not tried the Riesentraube yet, ill put it on the list for next year.
How are the Tommy Toes doing?

Tommy Toes are the tomato of my DH's childhood. His father planted them and as a boy, my DH would sneak out to the garden and eat them off the vine. I could never find seed until this year and my DH is thrilled. They make a medium to large cherry tomato, are bright red and have a good tomato taste. They produce well, but nowhere near as prolific as the Reisentraube. But because of the childhood memories they invoke, Tommy Toes will always have a place in the garden.

Collector said:

Thistlebloom,I remember you saying you grew muleteam and did not have much luck with them. The darn plant description sounds so good about them though, i just had to try them for myself. We even saved the best spot in the garden for them. there is still time for them to turn around, and I hope they do!
I hope you have good luck with your replacement tomatoes, What varieties did you end up with, and how are they doing?

Click to expand...

@Collector, I just went out to refresh my unmemory and read the tags. I seem to have a tag thief because I could only find two. I know I stuck the tags in front of all the tomatoes because I was going to hang them in front of each variety when I finished putting the staking re-wire in front. I still haven't gone to the hardware store to get another piece of cement re-wire, so there they sprawl. Some days I feel just like Alice's White Rabbit.

At any rate the two tags I found were for Manitoba, a 62 day-er, and Golden Jubilee. I'm pretty certain there is also an Early Girl or two, and a Big Boy, a Sungold (?) and another bush cherry that just said it was a "patio" tomato.

Then there's my just for fun tiny plant that is in the strawberry barrel, ( probably not the wisest place as the strawberries are doing what strawberries do and going wild in there ).

The Manitobas have a cluster of green tomatoes growing in the center of the plant by the stem. Looks a little weird, but...?

The tiny one in the barrel is loaded with fruit even though it's only about 5" or 6" tall. That one is either Tiny Tim, or Red Robin.

The others all look very healthy and are loaded with blooms so it's just wait and see. These warm nights have got to be helping with pollination this year.

No doubt I'll find the tags at the end of the season when I pull the plants. I wish I had a garden secretary to do all my paperwork and keep records....

Here is what is happening in the tomato patch,
Sweet 100, loaded with green fruit. have had about a dozen or so ripe ones so far, but when all them tomatoes start ripening it will be a bonanza.
Coyote, are a strong second. we have shared around 8 or 10 so far, the first couple were not all the way ripe lol. The taste is hard to describe, but DW and I both like them. Like sweet 100's they sorta grow wild even with pruning twice a week.
Tigerella, We are mere days away from having 2 ripe ones. the plants have a lot of fruit on them and many blooms. The fruits are somewhere between a golf ball and a tennis ball in size.
Mule team, There have been positive developments. They have set fruit not a whole lot yet though, but still have many blooms. They also boast the largest tomato in the patch so far, a little larger than a baseball. Also one of them seems perpetually wilted, is that bad, should i get rid of it?
Robson Angolan, They are trucking along blooming and setting fruit. Not sure what to expect from them, but things are looking promising in the brown tomato department!
Benewah, Wished we could have got them in the garden about 3 weeks earlier than we did we would no doubt have tomatoes already. These plants are not even 3 feet tall but they are 3 feet around and look like shrubs. They are a determinate so they have set a ton of fruit all about golf ball size at this point, sure hope they get a little bigger.

Things are cooking along in the mater patch fer sure!

@Collector , you have some of the same varieties I have. BTW, the Pink Bumblebees - I've lost track of the plants. They're out there! But, I can't see all the tags. Nothing ripe that looks like the pictures in the catalog.

They are probably mixed in with the Sweet 100. I think there are 4 of those. There hasn't been a single red cherry!

There are 2 Coyote! DW, the neighbor, and I had the 6 ripe tomatoes off one of the plants yesterday. They ARE different. We 3 agreed that we liked our 2 cherries each ...

If it wasn't for a Sungold/SunSugar here and there, or a Kimberley, I would have no tomatoes at all!

Steve