PaulF
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Location: Brownville, Ne

annual tomato review

Even with the 2 week slow start to the season, tomatoes in my garden produced not only a large crop but a very tasty one as well.

Total weight of harvested tomatoes was at 351 pounds. For eighteen plants that comes to about 19 1/2 pounds per plant. We had a total of 658 tomatoes for an average per plant of 36.6/plant.

Top producers were: Heatherington Pink, almost 41 pounds; Joe's Pink Oxheart at almost 36 lbs. and Canadian Heart at just over 31 lbs.

A Big Beef plant gave 91 tomatoes but other growers say this was not a real BB with the average size only 3 ounces. So it was a large salad sized and I don't count or weigh cherries or salads. Heatherington Pink grew 79 fruits, Joe's Pink Oxheart 60 and G's Yellow Belgian (aka No Name Belgian) 47 tomatoes on a single plant.

The largest single tomato winnow was Homer's German at 27.1 ounces harvested on the last day before frost. There were many large tomatoes on the vines late in the year which for me is unusual. Next largest was a Canadian Heart at 26.8 oz. and Rebel Yell at 23.9 ounces.

As for average size tomatoes, Rebel Yell came in at 14.8 oz. average, Canadian Heart, 12.3 and Homer's German, 11.7 ounces. Maybe you can tell I like large tomatoes rather than small and hearts.

The most important metric for me is flavor. This was the most outstanding year for me ever so far as flavor is concerned. Of the 18 varieties grown (not counting the four cherries and salads for my wife) sixteen varieties were in the 5/5 category. Not making the 5/5 rating was the Big Beef at 3/5, (I am told to get the real not fake news BB next year) and Homer's German goes to 4/5 only because the last several tomatoes of the year were 4/5. The early HG was a 5/5.

The varieties rated exceptional by the judges, me and my wife, were Willow's Bulgarian (aka Unknown Bulgarian from the USDA purchased many years ago and renamed by me for my granddaughter for growing in my garden only), G's Yellow Belgian (similar story ), Heatherington Pink, Joe's Pink Oxheart, Marianna's Peace (smooth skinned) and Canadian Heart.

Too many reds, pinks and hearts this year. More blacks and bi-colors next. Peppers did better than ever now that I have been planting early and mid season sweet peppers so maybe next year I will do my completely anal counting and measuring like I have for the past 20 years on tomatoes. At least I don't weigh and measure the green beans. By the way, pumpkins are a success: two orange beauties on several hills...that is a first.

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lakngulf
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Joined: Mon May 10, 2010 4:34 pm
Location: Lake Martin, AL

I think this was my best year ever. I grew only Cherokee Purple and Gary O' Sena.
Bunches of maters, very tasty, sold some and made a lot of friends happy!

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TomatoNut95
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Joined: Sun May 26, 2019 11:11 am
Location: Texas Zone 8

I had a lot of trouble with my tomatoes this year. The plants just didn't seem to be willing to live, no matter how much love I gave them. They produced what little they could, and just kinda gave up. I blame the poor weather I had- being hot, humid and dry then all of a sudden, rain. :x
However, all was not too bad. Beefsteak was probably my best producer. Large tomatoes, but sadly, I was a dummy and didn't EVEN think about weighing them. :oops: This year was very interesting for me because I got to work with a completely unknow variety which was supposed to be a Micro Tom, but turned out to be the complete opposite; the plant grew to a towering size. :eek: It's small fruits simply BURST with flavor...marvelously out-tasting my last best-taster: Heinz Classic Ketchup tomato! This one was definitely a keeper, despite it's quirks. I'm hoping the seeds I saved from it will come true to type. I also had the pleasure of working with another brand-new heirloom called Bradley. I was well pleased with this type because while all my other tomatoes were splitting after the rains, Bradley remained perfect. It's interior was meaty, perfect for sandwiches!

The yuckiest thing I grew this year was White Cherry. The fruits looked like pale yellow grapes, but the taste was just plain...well, icky. :?

I had so many sweet peppers this year, despite some early production problems due to poor weather. I found myself freezing, giving away, and...thanks to @Gary and @pepperhead... :wink: making paprika from all those bells and sweet bananas. I did have some Nadapeno Jalapenos, but because the plants got mushed by the Beefsteak, they were short-lived. :(

imafan26
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Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I was very limited with what I could plant. I have had issues with TYLCV for the last couple of years and all of the tomatoes had to be destroyed because of it. I can't grow non resistant ones anymore.

I grew Champion II which does have resistance. Forget that. It was not worth it.

This year I finally got Charger seeds. It was sold out before. Charger is highly resistant to TYLCV and it was resistant to powdery and downy mildew and moderate resistance to other fungal diseases. It is a determinate so it was not a large plant. The tomatoes were typical market tomatoes, red, round and not much on the flavor front. It has a thick membrane. It is meaty, low acid and firm. The tomatoes were about 8-10 oz. It is not heat tolerant so it did get some BER and fruit drop when the temperature > 90. It is still going 8 months later. I am pleased with this tomato and will grow it again.

Red currant. It was a volunteer in my yard and I had planted it before. I was surprised to find it was naturally resistant to TYLCV. The fruit are tiny, the size of small pearls, but very sweet. It also is resistant to a lot of the fungal diseases and was growing in my rose pot without any special attention so it is also a keeper. It is open pollinated so unlike the hybrid Charger, I kept the seeds of these to grow more.

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Gary350
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Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

Most of my tomatoes are about 12 ounces. I have never counted every tomato from each plant. I have weighed tomatoes on each plant to compare year after year. It has been 40 years sense I planted Rutger & Early Girl I did not know they are both heirlooms. I use to have good luck with Beef steak, Beef master & Jet Start but the last 4 years were terrible waste of time and garden space so I stopped planting them. The past 4 years my best producer has been Big Beef and 2nd best was Big Boy I can usually get about 25 lbs of tomatoes from Big Beef plants. This year I planted Amish Paste & Roma all the plants made about 20 tomatoes each then died, tag said determinate. Determinate is a waste of garden space for only 20 tomatoes per plant I will remember never plant determinate again. I planted Beef Master again all the tomatoes were deformed & rotted I won't be planting this again. Last time I planted Brandywine was 20 years ago so I tried them again this year plants produced few tomatoes 95% were rotten, not planting these again either. I planted 4 cherry tomato plants from seeds plants did very good as usual I wish I had written down the name of these cherry tomatoes no one sells these 1" diameter tomatoes anymore.

This year I will plant Big Beef & four 1" cherry I have very good luck with these. I will look for Charger if the garden store has them I will buy 4 plants..

What is TYLCV?

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TomatoNut95
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Joined: Sun May 26, 2019 11:11 am
Location: Texas Zone 8

Early Girl is a hybrid, I believe. I even though Big Beef was one, to. I know Big Boy is one, I used to grow it. But I have switched to growing mainly heirlooms.

On those cherries, Tommy Toe is a 1" one I believe. A new 1" cherry variety I will test this year is Velvet Red. The foliage is supposed to be soft, fuzzy and silvery like Dusty Miller. However, it must not be a completely stable heirloom because according to the packet, a non-fuzzy foliage plant will be sported. If I do get a sport, I'll be sure to never save seed from it.

TYLCV stands for: Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus.



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