hoodat
Garden Addicted
I tried two new tomatos this year and HURRAH, both seem to be successful. I've had a few ripe ones to eat but they are just about to bust loose with big crops.
The first is Reisentrab. I got the seeds as a free gift with an order (forgot which seed company). Reisentraub is a German heirloom. The name means grape cluster and that's how they grow. The trusses can contain as many as a dozen cherry tomatos. The flavor is sweet and juicy, just right for salads. They are more restrained in growth than many tomatos and the foliage is not too thick to find your tomatos; they're right up top in plain sight. It puts most of its energy into fruit rather than foliage. It has one very good feature. The stems and flower clusters are heavily coated with stiff hairs which makes it hard for aphids and the ants who guard them to get around. As a matter of fact the hairs seem to pierce the aphids. I find dead aphid husks all over them.
The second is San Marzano. It's a great sauce tomato with very thick walls and small seed cavities. It doesn't contain much juice which makes it faster to cook down into sauce. The flavor is outstanding and in blind taste tests San Marzano sauce is almost always picked as the best. The skin is rather thick which makes them easy to scald and skin when canning them. Their solid texture also makes them a great salsa tomato. The plants are rather large and sprawling and the foliage very heavy, which may help prevent sun scalding in hot areas. They need lots of room. San Marzanos were almost lost. They were down to growing in only two gardens in Italy by members of the same family who had passed the seeds down through the generations. Depending on which garden the seeds came from they are designated San Marzanos 1 and 2. The variety I have is 1.
Neither of the two show any sign of disease and few pests. That may be due to resistance or just a good growing year. I highly recommend both varieties.
The first is Reisentrab. I got the seeds as a free gift with an order (forgot which seed company). Reisentraub is a German heirloom. The name means grape cluster and that's how they grow. The trusses can contain as many as a dozen cherry tomatos. The flavor is sweet and juicy, just right for salads. They are more restrained in growth than many tomatos and the foliage is not too thick to find your tomatos; they're right up top in plain sight. It puts most of its energy into fruit rather than foliage. It has one very good feature. The stems and flower clusters are heavily coated with stiff hairs which makes it hard for aphids and the ants who guard them to get around. As a matter of fact the hairs seem to pierce the aphids. I find dead aphid husks all over them.
The second is San Marzano. It's a great sauce tomato with very thick walls and small seed cavities. It doesn't contain much juice which makes it faster to cook down into sauce. The flavor is outstanding and in blind taste tests San Marzano sauce is almost always picked as the best. The skin is rather thick which makes them easy to scald and skin when canning them. Their solid texture also makes them a great salsa tomato. The plants are rather large and sprawling and the foliage very heavy, which may help prevent sun scalding in hot areas. They need lots of room. San Marzanos were almost lost. They were down to growing in only two gardens in Italy by members of the same family who had passed the seeds down through the generations. Depending on which garden the seeds came from they are designated San Marzanos 1 and 2. The variety I have is 1.
Neither of the two show any sign of disease and few pests. That may be due to resistance or just a good growing year. I highly recommend both varieties.
