Season starting in earnest

[clara]

Mark, by your wonderful pics you already give me the idea what I want to grow NEXT season and I have only picked 7 ripe fruits THIS season. Our lousy weather... clara

[Randall]

Those are some cool looking tomatoes, Mark. Great pictures, too! Thanks for taking the time to show them to us. Keep us updated on these blue guys!

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Originally Posted by Baizanator

Mark,

Which blue has been the highest yielding for ya?

The majority of the varieties tend to bear in trusses of 8 or more fruits, and all have set well even through our heat wave. They are all very productive, but the majority are small, in the 2oz average. A nice salad size.

The few larger fruited varieties I have don't have that truss flower/fruit pattern like the rest, but are still very productive. Here is a picture of Muddy Waters with slightly larger fruits on this particular plant. I'm going to guess there are at least 30 tomatoes on this 3 1/2 foot plant trained to two stems (two large fruit clusters are behind the foilage at the bottom of the plant, the light wasn't right to take a picture from that side though) , and a guess at the final fruit size is going to be 4-6 oz. Some of the varieties with smaller fruit sizes that set in trusses probably have 50 plus fruit on now.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Originally Posted by clara

Mark, by your wonderful pics you already give me the idea what I want to grow NEXT season and I have only picked 7 ripe fruits THIS season. Our lousy weather... clara

The last two years that was me, cool and wet with late and limited harvest, but I still keep trying! I've had my 2013 list started for a while, nothing wrong with looking to the future... One problem for me is with our exceedingly strange weather I can't really count this year as one to decide to regrow anything unless it's just flat out awful.

BTW, Lehrertomate hasn't ripened any yet, but has a half dozen fruit on the largest plant that look to top 1 pound. I'm really excited to try that one.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

During a break in the rain I started cataloging some of the Caribbean tomato varieties in my test grow out from that region today. These are all in grow bags, but seem to be producing about what they should in terms of size so I'm reasonably happy there. I've found a few that I'll grow again next year in the ground to get a comparison.

Magnitlo tente - L04022 - Obtained from the AVRDC in Taiwan. Collected in Trinidad and Tobago, added to the AVRDC collection 23-Jan-1976. Seed last generated in 1982, this one was a complete unknown that interested me solely because of where it was collected.


105 A - PI 263718 - Obtained from the USDA collection. Donated 29-Feb-1960 by Puerto Rico Agricultural Experiment Station - University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras.


Plate de Haiti


Tomate Criollo - LYC 3467 - Collected in Cuba in 1990, Obtained from Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research


Rinon - PI 98097 - Obtained from the USDA collection. Collected 08-Mar-1932 in Cuba by T. Fennell and J. Jack.


290 - PI 208761 - Obtained from the USDA collection. Collected 28-Apr-1953 near Havana, Cuba


Tomate Botellita - LYC 3383 - Obtained from Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, collected in Cuba in 1988



Tomate Cimarron Legendario - LYC 3468 - Obtained from Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, collected in Cuba in 1990


242 - PI 263724 - Obtained from the USDA collection. Donated 29-Feb-1960 by Puerto Rico Agricultural Experiment Station - University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras.


Plamar Caribe - PI 644772 - Obtained from the USDA collection. Donated 1961 by Puerto Rico Agricultural Experiment Station - University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez.


Olirose de St. Dominque

[Mashman]

You are on a tear Mark.....Whoa!

[Boutique Tomatoes]

This definately seems to be my 'dream season' for tomatoes. I think I have good examples of another 15-20 varieties ripe now, but the drizzle kept up all day.

Tomorrow I should have better light for pictures, I'm hoping I don't find most of them cracked from the sudden change in moisture levels.

I'm very tickled today, the first Téton de Venus Blanc fruit was fully ripe and it is a pale ivory color. This was a trade and something I hadn't ever seen before; the plant is the most productive white variety I have growing this year. Unfortunately the first fruit doesn't show the distinctive tip so it's not a great picture example...

[Boutique Tomatoes]

A portion of those that produced nice fruit today...

Costoluto Genovese


Beijing Yellow


White Queen


Cherokee Purple


Palmira's Northern Italian Beefsteak


Potato Leaf White


Black Krim



Indian Stripe


Arbunzyi


Opalka


Tarasenko 6


Giant Green Zebra


Fantome Du Laos


JD's Special C-Tex


Purple Russian


Fish Lake Oxheart


Indigo Rose


Sheboygan

[clara]

Everything is looking absolutely gorgeous, Mark! You must have the perfect tomato weather this year! Can't you send a bit of this to Germany...? clara

[RobinB]

Nice! The tomatoes are absolutely beautiful! How many different varieties are you growing? How many plants do you have? Sorry if you already answered this somewhere else.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

I'm doing my best to enjoy it this year as I know it will be a while before I get another year like this. I wish I could send it around.

I believe with the plants Granite26 sent me a while back I ended up with 201 varieties, somewhere around 300 plants I believe if you include the Caribbean variety grow out.

Some 4-5 varieties have not been true to type so far, and a number of the varieties are early generations of breeding lines that I have multiple plants of (mostly the blues) so I likely will isolate a few more varieties from those. I've started saving seed already, as that is going to be quite a chore this year.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Well, here are a few more from today. I've got to start my first run of sauce and salsa this coming weekend.

Marmande Verte


Gregori's Altai


Greenbush Italian


Téton de Venus Blanc


Russian Cossack


Muddy Waters


Blue Streak


Solar Flare


Tim's Black Ruffles


These next three appear to be different segregating types from Tom Wagner's Green Lantern Lights line.

Green Lantern Lights - Yellow Stripes


Green Lantern Lights - Green & Red


Green Lantern Lights - Green & Gold with Red Streaks

[remy]

You're killing me, all so beautiful!
Remy

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Thanks! I definately have a pretty mix of tomatoes this year.

I took my sister in law to lunch yesterday and the person who sat us and our server both were growing some of my tomato plants. I showed one of the owners some pictures of some of the blues as we were leaving because they were curious what those would look like.

I'm going to drop some of the blues off there today for them to taste test, as they thought they could have a lot of fun with them in specials.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

The big rains we had last week caused lots of splits, so finding pretty tomatoes is more difficult now. Here are a few more varieties from today's harvest.

Sierra Leone



Granny's Heart



Brad's Black Heart



Cow's Tit



Moldovan Green



Wisconsin 55 Gold



Grandma Oliver's Green




Gary'O Sena



Spear's Tennessee Green