Very early determinante tomatoes

[RJGlew]

Although this post is about a couple of indeterminates, I think most of the folks who are reading this thread will be interested. This past season I grew the CZ hybrid Start S F1 (from Semo) against a couple of my regular US earlies, Fourth of July F1 and Early Treat F1. Start S F1 had caught my eye last year when Vladomir posted a picture of his plant here in TV - & I have included that same picture here. It’s an early, and the plant and fruit struck me as being very similar to FoJ, so I decided to grow them both and do a comparison. The two pictures of fruit are mine, taken about 6 weeks ago with Fourth of July F1 on the left, and Start S F1 on the right. The Start fruit is a bit larger than FoJ, and in general, I would say this is typically the case. The 2 marks on Start are hail damage, and interestingly, the damaged fruit didn't rot - typically not the case.

I was very impressed with the taste of Start, and for me, I would rank it as being much better than FoJ. It is definitely sweeter, and as I ate them side by side, slice by slice, the FoJ began to taste more and more acidic, which I do not like. The skin of FoJ was typically thick, and that is much thicker than Start's. In a different taste test, I found Start was much better tasting than the Saraev varieties too, all of which I find a bit acidic.

In my opinion, Start S F1 is a much better tomato than both Fourth of July F1 and Early Treat F1 and all the Saraevs. This year I grew 2 x FoJ, 2 x ET and 1 x Start, but for next summer I am planning 3 x Start, 1 x FoJ and 1 x ET. I am also looking forward to trying a few more early CZ hybrids in 2017, and will be thrilled if any of them are as good as Start S F1. Highly recommended, and thanks Vlad.