The early tomato thread

[Eirik]

Hey all!

I am a Solanum fan from Norway, growing tomatoes outside in my garden, no greenhouse and no chemicals either!
As you can imagine, the season is often very short, most years we can plant tomatoes by may and harvest to october, but thats in a good year!
Its cold and wet most of the time, with high acounts of blight and other fun funguses!


I have been searching around the forum for an "early season thread", and although it sort of exists, its not really informative or easy to find. The two best ones are the one on early beefsteaks and the non red early thread.
And those two only scratched upon the topic.

So here it is, The early tomato thread
- What is your favourite early tomato?
- Are there early tomatoes that also can stand cold weather?
- Early tomatoes are often just plain red and salad sized, where are the other colours?
-Do anyone prefer determinate or indeterminate earlies?

My little early list is:
-stupice
-glacier
-sub arctic plenty
- alaska


Now dont be shy, tell me all about the early tomatoes


thanks
Eirik

[Douglas14]

I grew Miravsky Div one year, and thought it had quite good flavor for an early ripenener. The fruits were about golf ball sized to slightly larger.
Another to consider is Bloody Butcher. Last year I had a good early production from it. I thought the flavor was good, and the fruit seemed larger than Miravsky Div. I grew both these varieties in different seasons.

[Longlake]

Hi Eirik! I do most of my gardening in zone 3, so it'll be interesting to keep an eye on this thread. My favorite early (so far) is Jaune Flamme. It' got great taste, is prolific, not prone to disease, and last year it kept going all summer long. Silvery Fir Tree was also early, prolific and disease-free. Not nearly as good, but waaaayyyy better than anything in the supermarket.

[bughunter99]

Matina. Golf ball size fruits. Flavor similar to Stupice. For me it is more productive than Stupice.

Anna Russian: (65 days) Bigger fruits, delicious and doesn't freak out with cold and hot temp swings.

Sungold: Small cherry. Like candy. Typically the first to fruit in the garden.

-Stacy

[PNW_D]

Kimberley and Galina are two earlies for me ....

[Sun City Linda]

Moskvich is a real early trooper for me. My brother is able to get ripe fruit in the Pacific North West from it and I dont think he plants out until late May or even early June. Good size, sweet rich flavor and doesnt have much of a problem with wet weather and cool temps.

I often grow Glacier as an early but I find it usually gets Early Blight or something that looks like that. I agree that Bloody Butcher is also a good choice.

[tomatoguy]

My favorites are Clear Pink Early, Gregori's Altai and Early Large Red. CPE is determinate. The others are ind. CPE produces well for me. The first fruit set is usually 20-30 tomatoes on a 3-4 foot tall plant. I usually get three fruit sets but it would be worth planting, just for one. Gregoir's Altai is great, too. It might be more suited to your climate. CPE and GA generally come in around 50-60 days here. GA has a great tangy taste. The downside is that it is very thin-skinned and will often split after a heavy rain. I grew ELR for several years, then had a problem finding more seed. I'm not much of a seed-saver, myself. It isn't really large (more like medium) and it isn't really red (orange/red would be more accurate) but it is very early for me. I think the best year I had was when they started coming in at 45 days. I highly recommend all three. I have tried quite a few early varieties and these have been the only ones to impress me, so far.

mater

[TightenUp]

kimberly is nice and early. i'm trying stupice this year for the first time. plant out date is in early may if weather cooperates

[Eirik]

Great suggestions!
Ive read lots about Gregori's Altai, but isnt it a very big ind. beefsteak?

And over the years ive heard much about bloody butcher, but ive rarely seen it grown in europe, is this a us variety?

[nathan125]

best bet in my amateur opinion is to talk with other interested gardeners and develop a land race of tomatoes and go from there. bulk plant the earliest, best disease resistent types you can and start selecting. stories and histories are irrelevant when doing this but that's the breaks.

[GunnarSK]

Originally Posted by Eirik

And over the years ive heard much about bloody butcher, but ive rarely seen it grown in europe, is this a us variety?

Bloody Butcher is said to be the earliest in Denmark. It was developed in the Netherlands, but I have seeds from Baker Creek.

[Melissa569]

Thank you for starting this thread. I live in the mountains of Northern California. We are at about 3,000 feet. So winter and spring are VERY cold, with snow and all. We can't plant outside until June.

[b54red]

The earliest and best tasting full sized tomato I have grown to date is Fish Lake Oxheart. Most of the early tomato varieties that I have grown are not the tastiest so Fish Lake is an exception. It is not only fairly large but one of the best tasting hearts I have ever grown. Kosovo is an even larger heart that is very early and quite tasty and productive but it lacks the depth of flavor of Fish Lake Oxheart.

Gregori's Altia is a fairly nice sized beefsteak and it is very early for that kind of tomato; but I find it bland tasting. Many of the black tomatoes are early but they don't have too much flavor either til the weather heats up and that sounds like a real problem in your local.

Jetsetter is a hybrid tomato that thrives in cooler weather and has decent flavor. It ripens good in the colder weather but has the odd behavior of ripening very slowly once the temperatures get really hot.

[GunnarSK]

Svalli in Vaasa (about the same latitude as Trondheim) successfully grew Ola Polka. Her pictures are somewhere, probably in the Photo Gallery. Ola Polka is a dwarf and grows well without support in a pot/container, which can be moved inside if harsh weather (especially frost in May or September/October) is threatening. Betalux is also very early, and can be grown in a container with a short stake. You can also take an interest in the dwarfs (from the Dwarf Project and others) sold by Carol Knapp (WI-sunflower).

[Eirik]

Gunnar: ive looked it up and Ola polka gets on the list.

Im loving how everyone has a different favourites, and you are all so good at describing them.

So bloody butcher is dutch? my bad, better get that one on the list as well.

Ive also seen kimberly two times over, and a friend of mine are always telling me that i should grow them. So i think i should.

Fish lake oxheart, that one i saw on victory seeds, is this one quite new?

And of course, dont thank me, post more