Early, Cool Climate Yellow

[Catherine+two]

I'll admit it, I have been a lazy tomato grower. Years ago I found red (Glacier), pink (Maritime Pink), and yellow (Amber-colored) tomatoes that would reliably ripen a crop in my cool, short-season, mountain-side climate, and I stopped looking. But what these three have in common is that they are all small tomatoes, although certainly not cherries. When I was looking for tomatoes for my new yard, 20-25 years ago (oh, man, I'm OLD!!!), and failing to get ripe tomatoes year after year, these were just the ones that eventually worked out for me. But now I'm starting to look around some more, and I WANT BIG TOMATOES!

Of course, since I am starting from 2-4 oz toms, my first criteria was tomatoes at least 6-8 oz (but bigger is better), ripens in less than 70 days from transplant (earlier is better), preferably indeterminate or semi-indeterminate (what is the difference between semi-ind and dwarf?), OP of course, and I do like potato leaf. So, going through the Sand Hill Preservation Center list, I easily found red and pink tomatoes to try next year that should meet my requirements. But no yellows, blacks or greens. No problem, just check the next catalog. Marianna's Heirloom seeds: nope. Tomato Growers supply: nope. I'm beginning to feel like the fairy godmother in Shrek, no, no, NO, no happy ending.

All right, you folks have more experience than I do, can you point me to some early, large, colored toms to try next year?

Thanks,
Catherine

[ddsack]

I usually grow just one Azoychka plant in a large pot to assure me of some early season larger sized tomatoes. It has a tart citrusy flavor that may not appeal to you if you like only sweet tomatoes. It's an indet, but of medium height, and together with Stupice are my dependable earlies.

[Catherine+two]

Ah, Azoychka wasn't on my list because the SSE listing has it ripening 70-75 days, and even 80 days on about half of the entries. That puts it way late in the season here. Cool nights all summer long means a listed 70-80 days to maturity is really 90-100, and then I'm lucky to get a single ripe tomato before frost.

I so plan to grow Siletz, though. That looks great.

Catherine

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Catherine+two

Ah, Az wasn't on my list because the SSE listing has it ripening 70-75 days, and even 80 days on about half of the entries. That puts it way late in the season here. Cool nights all summer long means a listed 70-80 days to maturity is really 90-100, and then I'm lucky to get a single ripe tomato before frost.

I so plan to grow Siletz, though. That looks great.

Catherine

Catherine, you just can't go with DTM's b'c they are sheer guesstimates. Sandhill or Gleckler's or Victory Seed, or Marianne, etc., may grow a variety in the summer of X, record the data and it stands for that season alone.

And the seed companies that don't produce their own seed usually subcontract out and they often get their DTM's from some of the listings in the SSE YEarbooks, which can vary a lot.

So take those DTM's with the proverbial grain of salt, although they do give you a general idea of ripening time.

Have you looked at the early variety list from Tania's T base website or the one from Jeff Casey's website? Both are great lists and you might well find your non-red, non-pink varieties there if you can't find them elsewhere, so you know where to go to get them commercially. I should say that for Tania's list you look for variety names with perhaps a specific color as part of the name, then click on those which takes you to a page about the variety with pictures and seed sources. And Tania listsabout 600 varieties for sale herself.

For Jeff's list it would be ones that he's listing for sale at his website.

[nctomatoman]

Another vote for Azoychka. And I will throw in another - Anna Banana Russian - relatively early, good sized and delicious!

[akgardengirl]

"Native Sun" does real well here in Anchorage, AK. It is usually one of my first ones to ripen. I had one on a salad tonight. They are larger than Azoychka.
Sue B

[rxkeith]

another vote for azoychka here. it grows well in the U.P.

taxi is another early producing yellow, but doesn't have much flavor.
dr wyche yellow is a later variety that i have been able to grow in the past. it would never be a main cropper for me, but worth a try for taste.
try jaune flamme, a smallish orange one. it was the first ripe tomato for me this year. tastes pretty good.

zolotoe serdtse is a medium size orange variety that also does well.



keith

I don't think most people consider it an early tomato, but Black Krim was one of the earliest tomatoes in my Garden this year. Since this was my first year to grow it, I have no idea what is normal for the variety. I also don't how it would react to your summer long cold nights. My nights are pretty warm after late May. It performed well, early for me.

Another member on this forum grows at about 5000 ft. in New Mexico. He has had good success with Arbuznyi which is a nice dark tomato of moderate size.

Since early plant out and earliest blooming possible is important for my climate, I'm going to try starting some seedlings in December this year for plant out in early March. I want some really large seedlings which either have some blooms at plant out or will start blooming quickly. Other seedlings will be started in January to see which plants do the best.

Ted

[mdvpc]

Catherine

I am in El Paso. You might want to think about some of Andrey's short season varieties. Andrey is a poster here from Belarus, and has introduced a lot of us to Eastern Europeon short season ones.

[oc tony]

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Morden_Yellow

[dice]

I have Morden Yellow growing this year. The first one has blushed but
is not quite ripe yet. It is a small plant, about 2' high and 3' across, with
somewhere between 12 and 15 fruit on it. (We had a cool summer, May
was useless, and I would normally expect it to ripen in early August.)

I have seeds of but have not yet grown one called Golden Bison. Victory
Seeds describes it as "59 days" (maybe 59 days where summers get
hot, even if they are short):
http://www.victoryseeds.com/tomato_golden-bison.html

[Tania]

more info for Golden Bison: http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Golden_Bison
It is a small tomato.

As Sue already mentioned, you can try Native Sun (http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Native_Sun).

Another one to look at is Limmony (http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Limmony), with larger fruit.

[Sherry_AK]

I like Golden Bison. It gives a high yield of these nice yellow tomatoes. I've grown it several times, including this year.

[hill60]

I second Tania's recomendation for Limmony.Tried it for the first time this year. In a very tough growing year for me this one has produced well with good flavour.

[dice]

Morden's Yellow is not bland, slightly more tart than sweet.