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lakngulf
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Tomato varieties -- have you grown these?

feldon30 wrote:This is my 5th year gardening (my first in South Carolina) and I am growing a dozen tried-and-true heirlooms and plus another half-dozen favorite hybrids (some of them are pretty amazing), all told 29 plants and all selected for flavor and those which have done well for me in past years. Some favorites include Cherokee Purple, Earl's Faux, Tony's Italian, Big Beef, Sungold, Black Cherry, etc.
Have you ever tried Fantastic, or sometimes called Super Fantastic? I think it was a Texas guy on another forum that got me on them. I had never heard of Fantastic, but he raved about them I decided to try. Had some for late tomatoes last fall. They were good, but I had only a few plants. This year I have several in the ground for summer production. Plants look great so far. We will see how well they do.

I grow my tomatoes in as rich of top soil as I can get from some old farmland. They are have a great taste: hybrids like Better Boy and Brandywine heirloom. I love to be able to save seed (from beans, okra and heirloom tomatoes) and see another year's production from seed I have saved. There is just something good about that.

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feldon30
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Can't say as I have ever grown or tasted Super Fantastic.

For heirloom/OP, I'm growing Arkansas Traveler, Black Cherry, Cherokee Purple, Earl's Faux, Gregori's Altai, Hege German Pink, JD's Special C-Tex, Kalman's Hungarian Pink, Summer Cider, Stump of the World, Tony's Italian, and Wes. I've grown or tasted all of them before.

For hybrids, I'm growing Big Beef, Better Boy (since everyone else grows it here!), Jet Star, Sungold, and Sweet Quartz.

I am also a firm believer that rich soil can improve a tomato variety dramatically. I tasted varieties that were just "ho hum" in one garden which were quite remarkable in a plot that received 12 inches of composted leaves every year. When we see commercial farms that use zero compost and just add chemicals, it's no wonder the crops don't taste like anything and worse, the topsoil is drying up and blowing away!

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lakngulf
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feldon30 wrote:For heirloom/OP, I'm growing Arkansas Traveler, Black Cherry, Cherokee Purple, Earl's Faux, Gregori's Altai, Hege German Pink, JD's Special C-Tex, Kalman's Hungarian Pink, Summer Cider, Stump of the World, Tony's Italian, and Wes. I've grown or tasted all of them before.

For hybrids, I'm growing Big Beef, Better Boy (since everyone else grows it here!), Jet Star, Sungold, and Sweet Quartz.
Wow, that's a lot of varieties. More than one plant of each? Do you know which is which? Couple years ago I tested several types to see if any would perform well in soil that was rich, but had tomatoes the year before. I had some issues with wilt. But this year, except for the test varieties sent by the Webmaster, I have narrowed down to Fantastic, Better Boy, Brandywine, Celebrity and Sweet 100s. I give a ton of tomatoes away to friends around the lake, so I go with my old standards.

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feldon30
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Mostly 1's and 2's. I've got 3 Earl's Faux in as it is the best pink potato leaf beefsteak I've grown so far -- tastier and more productive than Brandywine. As for keeping track of them all, I've got a planting chart, plus each tomato cage has been labeled with a label maker (I was surprised at how long printed labels last outside -- up to 5 years!).

Here's my planting chart:
https://feldoncentral.com/garden/RockHil ... g_rev7.png

Note that I did not start seeds of Neves Azorean Red or Pink Berkeley Tie Dye so I will be changing those to something else, probably more Cherokee Purple!

Sungold, Black Cherry, and Sweet Quartz are all cherries, and I've got 1 of each planted. Sungold and Sweet Quartz are both Japanese hybrids which have wild tomato in their lineage. They can easily produce 1-2 gallons of tomatoes per plant. I'm pretty sure I will be buried in cherries. As for Black Cherry, it's not as productive and sometimes goes down to botrytis (grey mold), but the taste is worth the hassle.

phonelady61
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this is my halms gelbe it did surprise me for such a small plant .
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feldon30
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I had to look it up. Looks like a nice dwarf tomato.
https://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Hahm ... Topftomate

If you are into dwarves, you may want to look into some of the varieties which have come out of the community Dwarf Project.

If I expand my garden next year, I may have to try some dwarves. I've grown New Big Dwarf, but the constant rains and humidity of Houston caused fungal problems in the dense rugose foliage. It would probably grow well there now since Houston is in, what, it's 5th year of record drought? :(

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lakngulf
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Here are some of the Super Fantastic tomatoes that I have this year. The plants from day one have been the healthiest. They are responding well to good soil, sunshine and water.

Image

Here a close up of one of the plants. Putting on little tomatoes early, and the plants are not shooting out the top of the tomato cages like some varieties do.

Image

dtizme
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trying cherokee purple this year. apparently not a very good producer but supposed to be very tasty tomatoes. I have 2 of them. hoping for the best.

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Hi, I'm trying a couple three heirloom, I don't know the names, didn't get the seed from a package. There is one grape sized golden, and another red grape sized and a couple stripped larger tomatoes, I'm looking forward to seeing them in fruit. I've three or four different larger reds. Hard to give a name, I'll have to name them: like Jenet Gold, Ellen Rose or Red Ready Betty.

I think I'll be keeping them, some of them, inside the greenhouse this year.

Richard

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feldon30
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dtizme wrote:trying cherokee purple this year. apparently not a very good producer but supposed to be very tasty tomatoes. I have 2 of them. hoping for the best.
Purple tomatoes, like all tomatoes I suppose, can vary on taste and productivity in different climates. Cherokee Purple was usually pretty productive for me (15-25 tomatoes) and excellent flavor, but in Houston it was scorching hot when they were turning ripe. Looking forward to your report of how they do for you.

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lakngulf
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It's Harvest Time

I love it when a plan comes together. I took a quick trip to North Carolina to visit my son and his family. I had been picking several tomatoes, squash, peppers, beans etc., and was able to take some good produce to them. The tomatoes had been plentiful but not over abundant. Well, that changed in four days.

I got back today, checked the garden and found these:

Image

We have eaten all the varieties listed above and all have been very tasty. I try to taste test but it becomes difficult to keep them separate. On another thread, the Celebrity was not given high marks by another member. These two basket fulls are beautiful tomatoes, and I tasted the ripest one, and it was great.

As you can tell from my signature, I like a good tomato sandwich, and had a good one tonight.

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RogueRose
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Lets see if I can remember all that I'm growing this year......

2 different kinds of green zebra
heirloom
beefmaster
grape
black pearl
mr. stripey
pink love apple
cassidy's folly
yellow pear
wyches yellow
tasty evergreen
egg yolk
pink icicle
pantano romanesco

I think I'm missing one or two.....I find that some are more prone to something than the other. The ones labeled "heirloom" I got from a garden store and I've had a couple BER on those. But nothing on anyone else.

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ReptileAddiction
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I grew yellow pear a few years ago and loved it. I am thinking I am going to include it again next year (yes I am already planning next year's varieties)

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RogueRose
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ReptileAddiction wrote:I grew yellow pear a few years ago and loved it. I am thinking I am going to include it again next year (yes I am already planning next year's varieties)
Yellow Pear is one of my favorites They are pretty and packed with powerful taste!

When I was trying to remember my list I was already thinking of what I could grow next year too!

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ReptileAddiction
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In my opinion this is the easiest time of the year to pick next years tomatoes. My fall I am sick of them because the plants are so ugly and in the winter I tend to remember the best version of each variety so I grow bad varieties year after year...



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