JD’s Special C-Tex

[tam91]

This is one I am considering - what have your experiences been?

I love Black Krim and Cherokee Purple, but I haven't gotten great production from CP. Always looking for another good black tomato.

[Heritage]

tam91,

For me JD's is fairly early, a heavy producer, and has a fantastic flavor. Although, for each of the two years I've grown it I've had one plant (in ten) produce pink beefsteaks (with lousy flavor). This makes me think it may not be completely stable. Otherwise, it is a near perfect tomato for my growing conditions.

Steve

[b54red]

Like you I am a real fan of the black tomatoes and I have grown a lot of them. Most of them taste good but many are not very productive for me.

Jd's is a great tasting tomato. I have grown it several times and it can be very productive but then again sometimes it is not. It doesn't seem to split quite as bad as Black Krim and sometimes the tomatoes are a good bit larger. Like most of the blacks and other dark tomatoes the flavor is really enhanced by hot weather that isn't too wet.

If you want production then you really need to grow Indian Stripe. It usually out produces all of the other dark tomatoes in my garden. This year Spudakee, Big Cheef and Dana's Dusky Rose were also very productive but Cherokee Purple was less so. Another that can be very productive and also produce large fruit is Gary O' Sena; but make sure to keep it at least moderately pruned or it will get out of control.

I had a volunteer black come up this year and make the darkest and richest tasting tomatoes I have ever grown. It was by far the best tasting tomato in my garden this year so I plan on growing a few next year and see if it repeats itself. It was much darker than any black I have grown so I'm assuming it was some kind of cross between two blacks or a mutation of some kind.

[semi_lucid]

Originally Posted by b54red

I had a volunteer black come up this year and make the darkest and richest tasting tomatoes I have ever grown. It was by far the best tasting tomato in my garden this year so I plan on growing a few next year and see if it repeats itself. It was much darker than any black I have grown so I'm assuming it was some kind of cross between two blacks or a mutation of some kind.

Is the plant still alive?

Have you considered taking some cuttings and carrying them through the winter under some florescent lights?

[greyghost]

Generally speaking, I've found Indian Stripe and Dana's Dusky Rose to be
similiar in taste except DDR has a bit of a "wine" follow-up taste. I think my
Indian Stripe might be more productive and for a longer period-maybe the
fruits are larger than DDR-need to grow both a couple more seasons to be sure.

Kath, I had been getting white spots on toms also-started last year.
My good tomato buddy told me they were from STINK BUGS. This year I
paid more attention and I swear he's correct about this. I noticed light-
colored halos on the surface of toms after fruits were covered by SB's-
on both tomatoes and peppers as well. I've noticed the whitish areas in
the wall under the halos on both. Taste didn't seem to be affected but
the fruits are terribly unappetising given that SB's inject a solution to dissolve
the pulp in order to "suck it up". What do you think?? I don't think I had any
stink bugs at all in '09, also no halos or white spots. Some SB's in '10 (I actually thought they might be beneficial at first until bigdaddyj told me
otherwise!) when I first started seeing the white spots. In '11, we had an
absolutely heavy infestation and no mistaking the white areas/halos. cry:

[hardwaterbob]

I grew a few this year. cp ...amazon choc...spudakee...black cherry. I liked amazon choc the best and black cherry was very good. I will grow these two again.

These were also my top 4 tomatoes 4 2011
BOX CAR WILLIE
SIBERIAN PINK
PEACEVINE CHERRY
PRIZE OF THE TRIALS



Bob

[hardwaterbob]

ok looks good

[kath]

Originally Posted by greyghost

Generally speaking, I've found Indian Stripe and Dana's Dusky Rose to be
similiar in taste except DDR has a bit of a "wine" follow-up taste. I think my
Indian Stripe might be more productive and for a longer period-maybe the
fruits are larger than DDR-need to grow both a couple more seasons to be sure.

Kath, I had been getting white spots on toms also-started last year.
My good tomato buddy told me they were from STINK BUGS. This year I
paid more attention and I swear he's correct about this. I noticed light-
colored halos on the surface of toms after fruits were covered by SB's-
on both tomatoes and peppers as well. I've noticed the whitish areas in
the wall under the halos on both. Taste didn't seem to be affected but
the fruits are terribly unappetising given that SB's inject a solution to dissolve
the pulp in order to "suck it up". What do you think?? I don't think I had any
stink bugs at all in '09, also no halos or white spots. Some SB's in '10 (I actually thought they might be beneficial at first until bigdaddyj told me
otherwise!) when I first started seeing the white spots. In '11, we had an
absolutely heavy infestation and no mistaking the white areas/halos. cry:

Sadly, I think you're right, greysghost- tomatoes are gone and the remaining stinkbugs flocked to the pepper plants. The latest peppers are just a mess! The thought has crossed my mind but I didn't even want to think it let alone investigate. They definitely seemed to have preferred certain varieties. Maybe there's hope for planting trap crops of their favorite tomatoes and peppers. Definitely NOT good news.

[greyghost]

My corn certainly was a trapcrop...for a while! Then a heavy infestation on
tomatoes and peppers. Bigdaddyj said he had fairly good luck repelling
them with Pyola. It's a pyrethin/canola mixture; I just purchased some
from Garden's Alive for next year. I think there are similiar, probably less
expensive, products available locally, though.

Heater service was out this morning. He said spraying soapy water on them
(on his house) killed them. I assume he meant dish detergent-hubby didn't ask. I'll try that too-hard to believe anything kills them. When they've landed
on screens, I've shot them with Clorox/Cleaner, Kaboom cleaner to no avail.
Ended up swatting them-what a mess! Also, they're extremely juicey-what a mess. Fortunately, our house is brick-think we'll still power wash it! One day,
I counted the number swatted and killed, over 500 on the house/barn.

The U of D is working on predator wasps that control them in China; hopefully,
they'll find they can be used here (other universities are also working on traps/predators) without upsetting the ecosystem. We use predators to kill
housefly larva in horse manure with great success.

That said, deer ate my J.D.'s this year!

[tam91]

Interesting re. the possible instability - it will be interesting to see if anyone else is experienceing that.

I am considering most of those other varieties also, depending upon space. Indian Stripe for sure, hopefully I have the right variety this time (last year was a wrong variety). Haven't looked into Big Cheef - I'll have to go read up on that one.

Wow, your volunteer sounds really interesting - I hope you can stabalize it - sounds like one I would love to try one day.

I think the blacks are my absolute favorite - pinks close behind. Except for Captain Lucky, which I just love.

Another one I grow - not the best taste of the blacks, but pretty good, is Nyagous. For me, it just pumps them out, where the other blacks are a bit stingy. So while not my total favorite, it is "old reliable" - if I'm looking to eat a black tomato, I can usually find one there.

[tam91]

Wow, that Big Cheef potato leaf mahogany tomato looks amazingly good! No sources for seed listed on Tania's site though.

[kath]

Black Krim was my favorite dark for taste for a couple of years until JD's, which I've grown for the past three years. JD's is also early for me and very productive. I've tried dozens of darks so far and JD's still #1 for me, although Amazon Chocolate PL and "Chocolate Beefsteak" from casino were as good this year, I think- all three of those will be back to compete again in 2012. The fruits were the largest on this year's JD's and the seeds were from a different source than my original seeds for this variety- the plant habits were the same for both sources. It seems to want a cage- not easy to prune it to a single vine but that's ok with me- it also doesn't get more than about 6' tall.

[tam91]

I've become a Florida Weave convert - so they can go wild if they like - if they get over the top, they can just come back down. I'm too lazy to prune I'm afraid.

[cottonpicker]

KATH..... I'm just wondering IF you've grown Indian Stripe & Dana's Dusky Rose???
If so, your opinion..........?

LarryD

[kath]

Originally Posted by cottonpicker

KATH..... I'm just wondering IF you've grown Indian Stripe & Dana's Dusky Rose???
If so, your opinion..........?

LarryD

I grew 2 plants of Indian Stripe last year and found that the fruits were even smaller than JD's, they had about the same productivity and growth habit, but had more catfacing and misshapen fruits and I didn't like the flavor as much as JD's. I'm not a fan of Cherokee Purple though, preferring Black Krim the years that I grew both of them.

Grew Dana's Dusky Rose this year- first fruits were in the second week of Aug. from a 6/13 plant out and none reached 7 oz. Productivity was much less than JD's. They had too acidic a taste for me and had lots of white spots in the outer walls of the fruits. BER was also an issue for this one.