Let's Talk About Heirloom Tomatoes

[Ken Adams]

Yellow pear can overwhelm you late in the season. We like to halve them and use in pasta dishes. My indigo rose is barely over a foot tall and already loaded

 

[aftermidnight]

Someone wanted a picture of Black Sea Man, here it is. First tomato ripe other than cherries,not as big as they can get but mine are grown in a bucket. Not only is this a pretty tomato it tasted real good in a sandwich, I was surprised at the sweetness.

Annette

 

[baymule]

Thanks for posting pics! This pic looks like a real tomato! I have seen pics of this tomato online and it looks more like a painter's palette than a real tomato. Google Black Sea Man tomato and this is what you get. Hope this picture is showing up, I copied it off the internet.

@aftermidnight is this your first time to grow this tomato and would you grow it again?

 

[aftermidnight]

Baymule, that picture is nowhere near what mine looked like, I used both tomatoes in sandwiches for lunch today, both looked the same when cut. Yes this was the first time growing Black Sea Man and yes, I will grow it again, it's up there with Cherokee Purple in my books. It's ahead of all the other tomatoes I'm growing with the exception of Cherokee Green Grape a cherry tomato, love this one too. Looks like the next one to come ripe will be Cherokee Purple, to date this has been our favorite tomato overall.

Annette

 

[journey11]

I got my first tomato from the garden yesterday, a Golden Egg! I put it in my pocket and forgot about it. Found it much later when I realized my pocket was damp and I had squashed it! Ate it anyway. It was heavenly!

 

[baymule]

Make sure you get a picture of the next one!

 

[Kevin B Walsh]

Among the tomatoes you have tried, which roma-types (for canning) do you like?

Locally, I have heard the hybrid varieties produce as much as three times the weight of fruit per plant. For me, that is very important, as I must put up a year's supply (about 100 quarts) by the end of the summer.

I am growing in a hoop house in New Mexico. Due to the altitude, the nights here are too cold and the season too short for tomatoes to produce much otherwise. That is true even for varieties that are adapted such extremes. Still, a few OPs could be interesting to try. Sometimes, the vigor of the hybrids is actually a problem when they overgrow the space planned for them (still working on predicting that).

For a slicer, I liked the Brandywine. It makes a great tomato sandwich, and it did well back in Massachusetts in my father's garden, but it barely survives here in NM, even in the hoop house. I like those pink tomatoes, which remind me of him.

 

[baymule]

@Kevin B Walsh I can understand about the hybrid production, but I made the decision to go with heirloom vegetables as much as possible. I want to be able to save seed and what I read is that each year, the seed I save become more adapted to my own little climate. I used to grow Celebrity hybrid. It produced like crazy! But I saved seeds one year and it took forever for them to make tomatoes and they were stunted little things, not worth the time and trouble to grow them. I want an heirloom tomato or 2 or 3 that grows well in my area and has real tomato taste and is a good producer.

Roma type-I grew San Marzano this year and I can't really comment on productivity because my vines were struck with early blight. But what I harvested and canned made some purely awesome tomato sauce. There are others on here who grow Roma types, let me call Steve for you so you can get an tomato expert! Hey! @digitS' !!! Will you please come help Kevin with a choice of OP Romas?

 

[seedcorn]

San Marzano Roma of choice here. Not even a close second.

 

[journey11]

San Marzanos and the regular Romas have been most productive for me.