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Gary350
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Rutgers Tomato problems?

I grew Rutgers Tomatoes this summer about 90% of the tomatoes rotted before they were ripe. We had a bad year with early blight & late blight. About the time I realized I should pick green tomatoes then let them get ripe in the kitchen all 4 plants were dead.

Maybe this is why I stopped growing Rutgers Tomatoes 40 years ago?

Is anyone having good luck growing Rutgers Tomatoes?

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TomatoNut95
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Rutgers probably just isn't suited for your area. I've seen it offered around here, and if I remember correctly (which most of the time I don't) I thought I grew it once years ago. Don't remember how it handled. It helps to grow a wide variety and pick and choose the ones that handle good. Bradley did pretty good for me: no rotting, no splitting.
Thats why I started a tomato 'scrapbook'. Which each new varieties I grow, I record the issues I encounter with it. I can refer to it and remember which varieties were good or bad. Probably the worst I've come across so far are my mystery variety and Micro Tom.

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Gary350
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I read all the information I can find online then watched several YouTube videos about Rutgers Tomato. I learned Rutgers are determinant tomatoes & each plant makes about 20 tomatoes then plants die. When Rutgers Tomatoes are ripe you have about 24 to 48 hours to eat them before they go bad. Rutgers are the preferred tomato by HUNTS TOMATO Company. Rutgers are very soft thin skin tomatoes.

I think I guessed right. I will need to keep a close watch on Rutgers when they are close to ripe picked them early. Rutgers will be a hard crop to deal with I'm not sure its worth the extra trouble. If I decide to plant Rutgers I will have 12 plants plus the 12 plants that I usually plant as back up Plan B.
Last edited by Gary350 on Wed Dec 16, 2020 3:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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TomatoNut95
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I had no idea Rutgers was the choice of Hunts tomato sauce.
I wonder if Red Gold sauce uses the same kind of tomatoes, their sauces taste exactly the same.
I kinda assumed that tomato companies would use some GMO hybrid type instead of a normal heirloom.
I don't really care for the tomatoes that come in Rotel tomatoes they're kinda hard and tasteless. Must have been picked green.
The Heinz Classic Ketchup tomato I have was supposed to have been used by Heinz, but I wonder if they still use it. I need to research that. HCK is a determinate type that has proven to be highly fragile. I've never seen such a breakable plant.

Vanisle_BC
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TomatoNut95 wrote:
Wed Dec 16, 2020 1:58 pm
I kinda assumed that tomato companies would use some GMO hybrid type instead of a normal heirloom.
Could be that patented GMO types are more expensive to produce because of seed cost?

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TomatoNut95
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I do know that hybrid seed are expensive. That's because they know you cannot save seed from a hybrid and get the same variety.
Give me heirlooms anytime.
And, GMO seed might be expensive to because they've been treated with chemical garbage. When you read about geneticly modified crops, it turns your stomach. Thankfullly I only source my seed from companies that say NON-GMO. And Bonnie plants, as expensive as they are, are non-GMO.

Vanisle_BC
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GMO seed is expensive at least partly because the manufacturers hold patents and therefor have a monopoly. They can charge whatever the market will bear.

Thank goodness seed-saving gardeners are preserving our options by carrying on the open-pollinated & heritage seed lines.



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