Starting My Tomato Seeds

[Broke Down Ranch]

OK, so for the spring/summer crops I have 17 different varieties to try. These are the varieties:


1) Giant Oxheart - 90 DTM
2) Amish Paste - 80 DTM
3) Neves Azorean Red - 75 DTM
4) San Marzano - 80 DTM
5) Indian Stripe - 85 DTM
6) Cherokee Purple - 80 DTM
7) Cherokee Chocolate - 80 DTM
8) Black Cherry - 65 DTM
9) Isis Candy - 80 DTM
10) Mr Stripey - 80 DTM
11) Black Krim - 75 DTM
12) Hillbilly - 85 DTM
13) Cherry Brandywine - not sure
14) Kellogg's Breakfast - 80 DTM
15) Burracker's Favorite - 80 DTM
16) Cuostralee - 85 DTM
17) Mortgage Lifter - 82 DTM


I had a HARD time limiting myself to the longer DTM tomatoes (I have another 10+ for the summer/fall season). Now I am undecided on how many of each one to plant. Actually, I wonder if I should plant only 2 each of the paste tomatoes or should I plant 3-4 each of the paste? What do ya'll think??

 

[journey11]

Wow, that's an impressive roster, Broke! Unless you have a lot of people to give tomatoes to, I would do no more than one or two of each of the slicers. That's 30 plants right there. I put in 30 (of 3 varieties) last year, and I had to throw tomatoes at people as they ran from my house...hehe. I canned a lot and we ate tomatoes daily, but still there were so many.

Now on the paste tomatoes, that all depends... Are you planning to can and/or freeze any? I put up 40 quart jars of pasta sauce, a dozen pints of salsa (not enough!), and 8 quarts of quartered tomatoes in water...all that from 3 bushels of tomatoes (purchased in Ohio, because all I planted were slicers ). You have a big family right? I have a family of 3. So I would say depending on what you plan to put up for winter, you'd need at least a dozen paste tomato plants, maybe a few more?

I planned a lot better this year for what I want to do with all my tomatoes. Here's my seeds waiting to go into flats here soon...(mostly OP/heirlooms)

Persimmon Tomato - sweet yellow heirloom tomato for my DH
Delicious - planted last year and so far it's my fav red
Giant Belgium - huge, pink
Super Sweet 100 Cherry Tomato - to bait the toddler away from my slicers!
Cherokee Purple and Black Krim - you gave me these in a trade
San Marzano - for sauce/paste/cooking
Costoluto Genovese - fluted Italian heirloom for sauce (couldn't decide between the two, so gonna try them both)

You are going to have such a nice variety, you ought to do the farmer's market or do roadside. That will be a beautiful basket full of colorful tomatoes!

 

[Broke Down Ranch]

You are going to have such a nice variety, you ought to do the farmer's market or do roadside. That will be a beautiful basket full of colorful tomatoes!

See, that's what I was thinking. There are SO MANY tomato varieties that sound so scrumptious that I couldn't make up my mind so I figured I would grow most of the ones I wanted to try and any overages I could do a roadside stand thing. There is a resort just 1.5 miles up the road from me where rich folks from Dallas come for a get-away so I think they will appreciate having the more exotic, organic, homegrown 'maters

You have a nice list going too!

There are 6 of us and I do do a lot of canning. Last year I didn't do ANY paste tomatoes and still managed to put up lots of various tomato items. The hands-down favorite is my pizza sauce altho DH loves the salsa I made from end-season tomatoes and mesquite smoked pablanos.

So you think I should do more paste's than 3-4 each? Hum.......

 

[Ariel301]

Ooh, Black Krim is a good one. One of my favorites!

I'd plant a couple of each if you have room for that many. If you get too much fruit, you can always share it with all your friends.

 

[Broke Down Ranch]

Well, I got them all in peat pellets yesterday. I did 4 of each of the slicers and cherries to make sure I end up with at least 2 each along with 6 of the San Marzano (would have done more if I'd had more seed) and 8 of the Amish Paste. I've had a couple of neighbors request to buy plants from me instead of the local nursery so I did a few extras and ended up starting a total of 78 pellets. I figure whatever I don't need I can find someone who would love to have them

Now I am doing my peppers and cucurbits. Is it Spring yet??? My goose laid her first egg day before yesterday so it must be getting close..... :watering

 

[HunkieDorie23]

Funny, BDR. You know if you ask a question like that on this site what kind of answer your gonna get. Plant the larger amount! LOL. Serious I always plant at least 4 together for better cross pollenation. I don't know if it necessary but that's what I tell myself.

The last 2 years I have had a terrible time with Septoria leaf spot. Last year my roma's were the size of cherry tomatoes and I swore this year I was only planting 1 type of tomato like an early girl or something. Got my seed order a month ago. Here it is...

1. Roma's (I am only growing them to give away...)
2. Super Itialian Paste *
3. Amish Paste *
4. Yellow pear *
5. Rutgers
6. Mountain Princess *
7. Hungarian Heart *
8. Marglobe
9. Moneymaker * (this was a free gift from the seed company)

The problem is that I also swore I was only going to plant 3 rows instead of 6. How can I plant 4-6 each of 8 types in 3 rows? My rows hold 9 plants.