Tomato List

[digitS']

I thought about putting this with Thistle's post from January - the one where she had "committed" herself to growing tomatoes again and gotten her seed orders off (click).

Then I thought, "we just haven't been talking about tomatoes enuf on TEG!" So, here is what I dropped into some soil mix this afternoon:

Sungold
Sun Sugar
Dr. Carolyn
Pink Pearls
Porter
Bloody Butcher
Kimberley
Dagma's Perfection
Casey's Pure Yellow
Earl of Edgecombe
Gary O Sena
Rainy's Maltese
Thessaloniki
Fireworks
Legend
Goliath
Gold Dust, & what I call
Jay's (because I don't know what it is )

Soon, I will sow seed for a few more varieties:

Buisson
Super Sweet 100
Big Beef
Early Girl

So, I'm happy !

Steve

 

[Mickey328]

Holy cow, Steve...and I thought I was doing well with 6 varieties! LOL

I went with:

Jelly Beans (a hybrid...the only one, though)
San Marzano
Roma
Cherokee Purple
Abe Lincoln
Better Bush

 

[Smiles Jr.]

Holy cow, Steve...and I thought I was doing well with 6 varieties! LOL

I went with:

Jelly Beans (a hybrid...the only one, though)
San Marzano
Roma
Cherokee Purple
Abe Lincoln
Better Bush

What he said. Why so many, Steve?

 

[lesa]

Oh drat! I guess I better order mine!

 

[canesisters]

YIKES! And I thought I was going overboard with 4......

I'm starting these this weekend:

Uncle Mark Bagby (picked bacause my Uncle Mark was an AWESOME gardener into his 90's - even made it in the paper a couple of times for his garden)
Thessaloniki Tomato ('cause of the 'sort-of' Bible reference)
Chocolate Stripes Tomato ('cause they looked cool)
White Wonder Tomato ('cause they will be really neat salsa with my black bell peppers...)

I don't know if any of these will do well for me... and if you do know, please don't bust my bubble before I even get them in the dirt...

 

[seedcorn]

Tell me about thessonolica tomato

 

[canesisters]

All I know is what the catalog said:

"60-80 days. The Greek tomato that was introduced to the USA in the 1950s by Glecklers Seedsmen of Ohio. It is a popular large, red uniform fruit with excellent flavor, high yields and disease resistance. An early variety perfect for home or market; keeps well"

Seemed like a good bet for a basic, normal, red tomato.
The name reminded me of the 2 letters in the Bible that were written to the church in Thessalonica.

 

[digitS']

Cane', are you living close to where your Uncle Mark lived?

I am happy to have Kimberley back in the line-up even tho' I wasn't terribly impressed with how it was put together (fairly large core) when I grew it before. I even checked with the seed company about that one but not to complain about the core. I asked why it was a 5 oz tomato in my garden when everywhere it was listed as a 2 oz. The response was that no one else had asked that question and it couldn't really have crossed with anything else. Okay, maybe it likes it here .

The community of Kimberley is just a few miles over the Canadian border. I intend to cross it with some others and see if I can eliminate the core. We will see how that goes - I have never done any hybridizing .

Kimberley will join Bloody Butcher and the golden cherries as the earliest tomatoes in my garden. This is a BIG deal for me! There isn't an 80 day tomato on the list. I'm not sure if there is a 75 day tomato unless it is that Thessaloniki.

Thessaloniki was the first larger-sized heirloom that I grew, about 10 years ago. It may not be considered a "beefsteak" because it probably never goes above 8oz. But, it is a very nice 6oz tomato in my garden. The fruit ripens just a little late but that's okay. Somewhere it says that they just "never go bad" sitting on the counter! I've had one off the vine from September to December! Still, it isn't really their keeping quality that I like. They are a wonderful heirloom for here and seldom split!

Gary O Sena was a 1st timer last year. You wouldn't believe the bother I went to over 3 season trying to grow that one. See, there was this late frost in my garden a few years ago . I'd given some plants to a neighbor and he, typically, hadn't saved the marker but I thought his Gary O survived. I saved seed from the wrong :/ plant in his garden - grew those for 2 years . . . Wondered why the heck they weren't like the catalog descriptions . . . what was so special about them . . . Well hey! The real Gary O is a big pink (or purple) that held up against splitting in a very bad year for that in 2012!

I'd love to continue growing Rainy's Maltese! It will be the very earliest of the big beefsteaks and is my wife's favorite tomato. Wonderful! Still, it has problems with splitting. Maybe things won't be so bad out there in 2013. I really owe it to the Maltese, & to us, to keep trying it for probably its 7th year.

High hopes for Jay's tomato. It was supposed to be my first try with Kellogg's Breakfast - turned out to be a very early red . I have no clear idea why. Still, it was a serendipitous experience! I have now grown Kellogg's Breakfast twice and realize it is a yellow tomato that is just TOO LATE for my garden!

Some golds and yellows were NOT too late last year !!! Here (click) And, here (click) The biggest "deal" for me in the tomato patch the last few years has been discovering that I can grow some nice yellow/gold varieties! I will be so happy to have some of those new-to-me tomatoes from last year . I can't grow too many plants, tho'. Generally, they aren't good keepers and can't "pile up" in the kitchen but I'm excited to try University of New Hampshire's Gold Dust this season!! It is an open pollinated variety.

Hybrids? I've had a few ♪ ♫. But then again ♪, too few to mention. I did what I had to do ♫ ♪. And saw it through ♫ without exemption. Okay, I "need" those hybrids to get good production and I've never had a golden cherry that can match Sungold & SunSugar. I grew open-pollinated "Wow" several years ago. Wow, why did I do that . . . There was a volunteer red cherry in my garden last year, I let it grow and it was absolutely covered with cherry tomatoes! Nothing like that has ever happened before - volunteers are usually too late. Still, the flavor was no where close to Super Sweet 100's. And those 100's are probably the healthiest plants in my garden.

I realized that I didn't come across the seed a variety that was sent to me by a Colorado gardener. Now, where is that packet???!!

Steve

 

[canesisters]

<~ Thinks that Steve might have OCTD (obsessive compulsive tomato disorder)

Sadly, my Uncle Mark lived about 2 hrs from where I am now and he passed away when I was in my teens. At that time I was COMPLETELY into horses and had ZERO interest in his garden. As far as I've been able to find out, none of my relatives that lived near him cared to learn about it either. A lifetime of successful gardening experience lost forever. My Aunt Hester was a MASTER preserver. If it could be somehow put in a jar, she'd do it. As a small child I used to sneak into their basement and stare amazed at all the weird things floating in jars lining shelf after shelf....

 

[digitS']

Thessaloniki means something like "the city of the Thessalonians."

It is "a good bet for a basic, normal, red tomato."

At least, for my garden .

Steve, OTV (off the vine)