Tomatoes for 2023

[baymule]

My favorite is still Cherokee Purple. But the vines grow super tall, they grew over the top of my cow panel trellis, fell over, hit the ground and started back up. I may have to plant something that is a short stocky plant with a good yield. Anybody got any suggestions?

 

[seedcorn]

My favorite is still Cherokee Purple. But the vines grow super tall, they grew over the top of my cow panel trellis, fell over, hit the ground and started back up. I may have to plant something that is a short stocky evplant with a good yield. Anybody got any suggestions?

What color? Orange ones I had, had good flavor and decent production. Surprised how early they were as I remember oxhearts being a late tomato.

 

[baymule]

What color? Orange ones I had, had good flavor and decent production. Surprised how early they were as I remember oxhearts being a late tomato.

Boring red I guess.

 

[heirloomgal]

Here's my example of being a little disappointed in 2022.

Gary O Sena tomato plants have been in my garden for 10 years or so. A couple of seasons ago, they had obviously crossed with something and I didn't have the pre-cross seed from an earlier year. I ordered a new supply from Restoration Seed. Restored, I once again had this big, mild slicer keeping DW happy .

Plants from the new seed, just like the originals, were healthy and doing just fine. Even through all-time record heat in late June 2021. Maybe the heat came too late in 2022 -- hottest August in history. The Gary O Cena had huge tomatoes; unfortunately, they all had those concentric breaks.

A problem with the entire process was travel time and irrigation time needed in the distant garden this year. I was trying to get by with my usual 2x/week watering schedule out there. It wasn't working and I was about 2 weeks late in realizing that. Nevertheless, I had more than enough of a tomato harvest. Yes, the potted tomatoes here in the backyard required daily watering. Their roots pass through the holes in the bottom of the pots but it isn't enough.

"2023" @heirloomgal ?? One thing about the gardening experience, we all are anticipating, anticipating ...

Steve

Freudian slip.

 

[heirloomgal]

How did they taste? Would like a paste type that has some flavor. IMO, Roma’s lack any flavor. San Marranos still lack some flavor compared to Better Boys.
Had Lincoln’s-yuck!
Amish paste-yuck!

Nearly all varieties of roma types I've tried have been dry, and little to no taste fresh. Jersey Devils fit that profile, IMO. I've found a few exceptions, but most of them are not nearly as productive as the standard roma types. Prue (grown this year) was a good one, but production was not fantastic probably because they are bigger like the J Devils. The only one I can think of I've tried that was a canner type, and had both huge production & good taste, were Santa Clara Canners. Egg shaped tomatoes, lots of juice.

 

[heirloomgal]

BTW @heirloomgal ,

how did Jaune Flamme do for you?

Aren't those pretty things ? I don't grow paste tomatoes as a usual thing but might those serve a dual purpose as both a paste and for fresh eating?

Soooo good. Hadn't grown it since 2016/17 and grew them mostly to not lose the seeds to age. Not only did they germinate at near 100%, they were delicious, and gorgeous, and mega producers. I forgot how good those were, having grown so many others since then.

The only thing is, are 'cocktail' sized tomatoes really a practical selection? You can't slice for a sandwich, you can't just throw them in the salad, too big to eat in one bite. Thank goodness we eat so much brushcetta here in tomato season, otherwise, whaddya do with them? Kinda goopy for processing.

 

[flowerbug]

Soooo good. Hadn't grown it since 2016/17 and grew them mostly to not lose the seeds to age. Not only did they germinate at near 100%, they were delicious, and gorgeous, and mega producers. I forgot how good those were, having grown so many others since then.

The only thing is, are 'cocktail' sized tomatoes really a practical selection? You can't slice for a sandwich, you can't just throw them in the salad, too big to eat in one bite. Thank goodness we eat so much brushcetta here in tomato season, otherwise, whaddya do with them? Kinda goopy for processing.

quarter them and eat them?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

As with most years, I'm torn. On one hand, I DID say that next year I'd plant the Wooly Zebra seeds I got, and I WOULD be nice to keep the selection of Darkest Night going.

On the other hand, since I already know that, here, if it isn't a cherry tomato I'll get one small fruit off the plant, tops, there's a pretty good incentive there to plant ONLY cherry tomatoes so as to maximize my final crop.

And splitting the difference will just wind up with not having enough of either to get a decent crop.

Not that it matters necessarily, if I have learned one thing, it's that any tomato I plant with clear intent and purpose never does anything. It's only the ones that show up by ACCIDENT or UNINTENTIONALLY that wind up doing anything. By that logic, I might as well take all of my tomato seeds, mix them all up, toss them randomly into pots, and hope for luck to be on my side.

 

[Branching Out]

I have been having a hoot starting many, many different varieties of tomatoes this spring. Germination has been going well for me, until my last tray of seeds. It stagnated to the point that I thought I would have to start over with all of those varieties; now after 14 days I am finally beginning to see some sprouting action. The only thing that seemed different with this batch is that we had a mini heat wave, which made the house hot, dark, and stagnant (we had the blinds closed, and the screens weren't on the windows yet so the air was hanging quite heavy indoors. During that heat wave I had damping off on a couple of sprouts on a different tray, which is something I don't usually see.

Yesterday I gave the tray some heat and lots of air, and I am even trying to put them outside in the shade for extra air circulation since we have temperatures over 20C (70F) for a few days.

I never would have thought that I would have to change my indoor seed starting protocol based on the weather. Has anyone else experienced something like this?

 

[Zeedman]

I never would have thought that I would have to change my indoor seed starting protocol based on the weather. Has anyone else experienced something like this?

Only to a point. Due to cool Spring weather, my seed starting protocols never change... I add heat as necessary to get good germination. But my seed starting is based upon a rotation: from the heated folding greenhouse for germination, to lights indoors at room temperature (the lights do generate some heat), to the outdoor greenhouse as the plants get larger. It is this last step - rotation to the outdoors - which can cause problems. If May weather stays abnormally cold & the first transplants (mostly tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant) are forced to remain indoors, they will (a) outgrow the lights, and (b) back up the following wave of transplants.

If the weather temperature is only slightly below optimal, I can put a small thermostatically controlled space heater in the greenhouse (much as I do for the germination greenhouse in my garage) to keep the night temp above 50 F. degrees. That is enough to prevent most yellowing & stunting. I can also keep plants longer in the folding greenhouse; but until this year, the old T12 shop lights in there were not strong enough for plants to be left there long-term (they would quickly become leggy). That hopefully will change this year, since I replaced the lights on 3 shelves with much-brighter LED's. Chances are that I will be putting that arrangement to the test soon, when I start the second wave of transplants. The water spinach I'm starting today needs strong light. Hopefully the stronger lights will enable a total of 14 trays of transplants indoors, which should be enough for the gardens I have now.

The tomatoes under the high-bay T8 lights are doing well, and growing like weeds. I need to raise the hanging lights over the tomatoes by one link in their chains almost daily. The tomatoes will be potted up when they move to the outdoor greenhouse, which should be in 7-10 days. The 10-day forecast is not encouraging though; at least partly cloudy every day during that span, and frequent rain. The possible lack of sunlight concerns me more than the temperature.