Tomatoes for 2023

[Branching Out]

I am trialling early and cold tolerant tomatoes this year, and am a bit frustrated with descriptions such as 'sets fruit under cold conditions'-- because they never seem to indicate exactly what temperature they are referring to as 'cold'. Similarly, Sub-Arctic Plenty tomato plants can supposedly be grown close together, but they don't indicate the recommended spacing. If only the details were a little more specific.

 

[seedcorn]

I hope you can revive most of them.

Nope. Fried. Hey, when I set out to mess up, I don’t mess aro7nd.

 

[seedcorn]

Direct sowing is something that I think anyone with a longer growing season should try. But ... that's just me, thinkin' .

With our incredibly delayed first frost last year, I had a volunteer that was just covered (literally covered!) with small red cherries. A few fruits finally ripened and they were incredibly flavorless. Probably from a Sweet 100 F1 parent and genes were from a tasteless grandparent.

As I recall, Seed' is all-about RED tomatoes, so these may not be good choices. Coyote would volunteer and ripen year after year after year. And yet, when I tried to direct sow -- the seed didn't germinate. In fact, I had real trouble with the seed indoors. They wanted just the right conditions and made their own determination what those were.

Gold Nugget matures its fruit incredibly quick. The seeds are widely available, a 55 day tomato. Bloody Butcher is a red! It will be the earliest this year in my garden. Yesterday, as I moved it back to the greenhouse for the night, I noticed a blossom that had opened on one plant. Burpee claims that it is also a 55 day variety.

The Spruce has some ideas. I have grown Tigerella and Sub Arctic. It was a relief to move to a location where I didn't feel the need to grow Sub Arctic "the world's earliest tomato!"

Steve

I’m also using orange oxheart that were sent to me.

 

[heirloomgal]

I am trialling early and cold tolerant tomatoes this year, and am a bit frustrated with descriptions such as 'sets fruit under cold conditions'-- because they never seem to indicate exactly what temperature they are referring to as 'cold'. Similarly, Sub-Arctic Plenty tomato plants can supposedly be grown close together, but they don't indicate the recommended spacing. If only the details were a little more specific.

I think what 'cold conditions' might really mean is the variety can set fruit in *cooler* conditions that the average tomato requires. I'd be surprised if a tomato plant could produce when it's actually cold. I've tried some early planting trials with protective cover and extended exposure (planted directly in the garden) to cold temps in the 50's hardens the cell walls of the stems and they essentially cease to grow further.

 

[baymule]

Nope. Fried. Hey, when I set out to mess up, I don’t mess aro7nd.

Not everyone is so talented!

 

[Branching Out]

I think what 'cold conditions' might really mean is the variety can set fruit in *cooler* conditions that the average tomato requires. I'd be surprised if a tomato plant could produce when it's actually cold. I've tried some early planting trials with protective cover and extended exposure (planted directly in the garden) to cold temps in the 50's hardens the cell walls of the stems and they essentially cease to grow further.

I think you're correct is supposing that they in fact mean 'cooler' temperatures. At this point I am reluctant to put the 'cold tolerant' varieties out much sooner than the regular heat-loving tomatoes because I would hate to lose them. I finally got around to checking the soil temperature in our garden and currently we are sitting at 13C (55F).

 

[digitS']

Okay, I'm encouraged to say something about messing up with cold temperatures, tomatoes, and "cold tolerance." It involves one on that Spruce list: the Bloody Butcher.

I once responded to a greenhouse overflow problem inappropriately. Chilly overnight and I moved a good number of tomato starts to the hoop house without plans for any added heat. It just hit the freezing mark by morning -- unexpectedly. There was a remote thermometer in the middle of the hoop house so I could see that it had not frozen in there. Howsomeever ... the tomatoes had spent their short lifetime either in the South Window of the house or in the heated greenhouse where they had never experienced a colder temperature than 60°f (16°C). Clear days with the sun heating the greenhouse to very warm temps then plunge them into the hoop house.

Some plants near the plastic film had damaged leaves and branches. The ONLY plants that died were the two Bloody Butchers. They were right in the middle, not near the walls, right near that thermometer, I know that they didn't freeze. They died!

Ironic that the Spruce have them in that list but I'm wondering. Perhaps they respond just as much to warmer temperatures. So, they caper off to blossom and set fruit while some varieties are still hunkered down from the chill. Well, whatever they are capable of, and as I say, they will likely be the earliest of my plants to ripen tomatoes in 2023. I just have to treat them as the capricious things that they are.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

I started some “improved” Better Boys. When they were looking good-along with 4 different types of peppers and the orange o hearts, I sprayed them with a carbon source. HUGE MISTAKE! Lost 1/2 of them, rest look bad. Dumb on my part.

did you mean nitrogen source? carbon itself is relatively inert...

and sorry for the loss. it's always a pain to have to replant.

 

[flowerbug]

Direct sowing is something that I think anyone with a longer growing season should try. But ... that's just me, thinkin' .

ha!

With our incredibly delayed first frost last year, I had a volunteer that was just covered (literally covered!) with small red cherries. A few fruits finally ripened and they were incredibly flavorless. Probably from a Sweet 100 F1 parent and genes were from a tasteless grandparent.

if you take just sweet 100s and juice them you get incredibly bland tomato juice. when we were regularly growing them when we harvested and put up the other tomatoes if there were enough sweet 100s i'd throw them in the pot too and it did make the overall batch sweeter but alone, nope, i'd not want just them.

 

[Branching Out]

ha!




if you take just sweet 100s and juice them you get incredibly bland tomato juice. when we were regularly growing them when we harvested and put up the other tomatoes if there were enough sweet 100s i'd throw them in the pot too and it did make the overall batch sweeter but alone, nope, i'd not want just them.

Here Sweet 100 cracks like crazy, and then molds given our often damp climate. I quit growing them for that reason, and instead I try to source varieties that do not crack.