AMKuska's 2022 Garden

[AMKuska]

My hands down all time favorite is Cherokee Purple. It will always have a place in my garden. I like to try other varieties but none ever match up to Cherokee Purple. Fresh, dehydrated (great to crumble over winter salads) canned into sauce, they are my favorite. In Lindale, I used cow panels raised a foot off the ground, wired to T-posts. I left them up, never took them down. The vines would grow over the top, fall over, hit the ground and start back up, just so you know, they GROW.

Is Texas long season though? I wonder if it would do well with cool summers and short seasons.

 

[Alasgun]

Our primary Tomato efforts are in the greenhouse and every year i start around 50 plants; keeping 4-6 for our own usage and the remainder are given to folks from Church. The majority of which end up grown outside! I’m surprised at how well “Some” of them do in our area.
As a result, i’ve started branching out a bit from our standard “Celebrity” to include Stupice, Morovia Div and Mat-Su Express. Most years these do pretty well outside.
Mid Valley greenhouse here in Wasilla has been trialing and breeding tomatoes for 30 years and have a couple Russian Determinate types that REALLY do well up here. Might be worth a look?

Tomatoes | Midvalley Greenhouse

www.midvalleyak.com

 

[AMKuska]

Our primary Tomato efforts are in the greenhouse and every year i start around 50 plants; keeping 4-6 for our own usage and the remainder are given to folks from Church. The majority of which end up grown outside! I’m surprised at how well “Some” of them do in our area.
As a result, i’ve started branching out a bit from our standard “Celebrity” to include Stupice, Morovia Div and Mat-Su Express. Most years these do pretty well outside.
Mid Valley greenhouse here in Wasilla has been trialing and breeding tomatoes for 30 years and have a couple Russian Determinate types that REALLY do well up here. Might be worth a look?

Tomatoes | Midvalley Greenhouse

www.midvalleyak.com

If it grow for you it will surely grow for me! I'll definitely take a look.

 

[AMKuska]

The university got back to me! The reply was from the master gardener program there. The person essentially said I'm best off experimenting with seed specifically from the PNW, but included their personal favorites:

My current favorite is "Pomodoro Squisito" from Territorial seed. It is 72 days and seems to be less susceptible to blossom end rot than other San Marzano varieties (at least for me) and produced a lot of fruit. I've heard that others like the following varieties but I have not personally grown them:

• 'Work Release Paste' and 'Midnight Sun.' are oxheart varieties with "Midnight Sun" being a yellow fruit
• 'San Marzano Redorta' -I don't know it's origin but looks good
• 'Sheboygan' a medium sized pink variety from Wisconsin

 

[baymule]

Is Texas long season though? I wonder if it would do well with cool summers and short seasons.

Start it in the greenhouse.

 

[heirloomgal]

Russia has some fantastic early reds - Krainiy Sever (Extreme North), Marmeladnye Krasnye (Red Marmalade), Aurora (from Siberia) and Moskvich. All early, all huge producers, all have very good taste. Tomatoes are not huge though.

 

[digitS']

The "natural" environment for the tomato is a mystery to me. Some information that I have read described the original location for the wild tomato as one of the driest places on Earth. And yet, it is very near the ocean. But, it's mountainous terrain ...!

Apparently, the tomato homeland is where the Andes Mountains are right against the Pacific Ocean shoreline and very near the equator. So, what does the tomato want for growing conditions?

My guess is that such a great body of water stabilizes temperatures even if it doesn't contribute as much rainfall as most of North Americans would expect from a maritime environment. Of course, tomatoes are cosmopolitan after several centuries of culinary interest (umm, enthusiasm ?)

I looked at Ilse's Yellow Latvian on the Tomatofest website and thought, "I wonder how much difference there is between the Seattle growing season and that of Latvia?"

🤔 Steve

 

[ducks4you]

My hands down all time favorite is Cherokee Purple. It will always have a place in my garden. I like to try other varieties but none ever match up to Cherokee Purple. Fresh, dehydrated (great to crumble over winter salads) canned into sauce, they are my favorite. In Lindale, I used cow panels raised a foot off the ground, wired to T-posts. I left them up, never took them down. The vines would grow over the top, fall over, hit the ground and start back up, just so you know, they GROW.

I like them. I have even saved seeds two years in a row and I WILL grow them in 2023.
The downside for ME is that they took FOREVER to ripen.
They did get huge.
I think there is something to the idea that if you grow and save seeds, the next generation will do BETTER on your land than the previous plants.

Saving Seeds From Your Homegrown Vegetables

Saving seed from one year to plant the next is an age-old tradition. It may sound like extra work but the results can be extremely rewarding and save you money in the process. Saving vegetable seeds can help preserve the particular variety you are growing (for example if you are growing an...

www.growveg.com

" Saving vegetable seeds can help preserve the particular variety you are growing (for example if you are growing an heirloom variety). It can also help vegetables adapt to the local conditions in which they are grown and this can increase yields."

 

[Zeedman]

I've heard that others like the following varieties but I have not personally grown them:

• 'Work Release Paste' and 'Midnight Sun.' are oxheart varieties with "Midnight Sun" being a yellow fruit
• 'San Marzano Redorta' -I don't know it's origin but looks good
• 'Sheboygan' a medium sized pink variety from Wisconsin

I can vouch for the flavor of 'San Marzano Redorta', and the large tomatoes have few seeds. They are somewhat conical... think of what an oxheart tomato would look like if you stretched it until it 3-4 times as long as it was wide. Like most indeterminates, they should be given tall support - and pruned to promote good air circulation. Fairly late, but I assume temperature, not season length, is the main issue.

There is a Russian heirloom, "Black Pepper", that is very similar to SMR in both shape & maturity, and has a rich flavor. (the color is more chocolate brown than 'black' when ripe) If planning sauce (which I don't do every year) I make a point of growing both in the same year, and combining them.

 

[ducks4you]

@AMKuska , I am so glad that the University gave you some good information,
You and I have FAR different climates.
We go through droughts with humidity and reach nearly 100 some summers, we can have late freezes and a late start for tomatoes.
I think you have gotten some good ideas about what to grow.
Go buy your seeds, and start your 2023 planning.