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Best Michigan Upper Peninsula Tomato Varieties

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 8:26 am
by councilbob
I recently picked up 2 tomato varieties that I have not had any experience with. "Sub Arctic" and "Siberian" mostly because of the 42 days to maturity. I was hoping someone could let me know of any quirks or problems with these varieties? Or a suggestion for a good cold tolerant variety.

Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 10:06 am
by joed2323
Where do you live in upper michigan. I Live in menominee county. Just wondering where you picked those varieties up from?? must of been through the internet or from seed??

Ive grown a few different variety tomatoes up here, from sweet 100 cherries to rutgers, celebrity, brandywine red...

Ive really never had problems, except up here you have to make sure to wait after last frost, tomatoes hate cold they do not like it what so ever, so just make sure its warm enough outside.

Right now I have tomato seeds germinating, last year I bought plants and put them in ground, this year I'm trying it differently, I want to see how much of a difference it makes growing tomatoes from seeds.

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 11:19 am
by digitS'
I don't live in your part of the world but this is an area where I have little trust that an 80 days-to-maturity variety will ripen fruit. The spring warm-up is incredibly slow and nighttime temperatures during the growing season are just too low, generally.

At a home about 500 feet higher in elevation, I only had about a 90-day growing season :? . The only tomato variety that I knew of back then that would give me ripe tomatoes each year was Sub-arctic. I remember growing a couple of types, S-a Plenty and S-a Maxi. Honestly, it was a great relief to move to a little lower elevation so that I could grow those less than 80-day varieties that I have now.

The cherries, of course, are kind of a mainstay. Thirty-five years ago, I only knew of Large Red Cherry and they dang near wouldn't ripen for me :roll: . Now, I have this "very serious" competition going between Sungold and SunSugar that's been going on for years now - to see which is the "better" tomato ;) . Sungold begins to ripen fruit a little earlier . . .

Really, there are lots of cherries that are quicker than my old Large Red Cherries. Gold Nugget is a very, very quick cherry but it's a determinate so it "plays out" quickly, also. Ildi is a very productive little yellow cherry. Like Joed, Sweet 100 gets room in my garden each year. I've often grown Bloody Butcher for a real early-maturing smaller tomato. It has a nice full flavor for an early variety.

For a slicer, and once I moved down off the hill, I first went with Earliana but am happy to have settled with Big Beef as a standard choice for about 20 years. Goliath hybrid also does well and is just a day or 2 earlier than Big Beef but they will both always come thru for me.

Siberian? No walls had come down with the Soviet Union back when I only had a 90 days frost-free :? . I have Sandul Moldovan to try this year and grew a Bulgarian variety last year. Orange Minsk has been in my garden the last 3 years but I'm not terribly happy with the production of that big, rangy plant . . . Woodle Orange is a much smaller tomato, much smaller plant but I doubt if you will find the plants easily, altho' there are a number of online companies that sell the seed. I first grew it in 2011 and was really impressed how it came thru for me and what a nice little tomato it is. I've got a couple more yellow/oranges to try in 2012.

Going back to the cherries, I grew Dr. Carolyn last year and it did real well. My understanding is that this variety was derived from Galina and that was one of the first tomatoes out of the Soviet Union. There is a group of Dr. Carolyn-types these days and I know a Wyoming gardener who grows Galina each and every year and will only try 1 or 2 others to join it in her wind-swept garden.

I hope that was a little help.

Steve