Best hearts out there?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by tgplp

What is a heart that gets big fast? Because I would like to grow a sizeable heart, but it would have to ripen fast here in Seattle!!!

Taryn

Knowing that the weather in the Seattle area can be a challenge I think you're asking which hearts might normally be referred to as midseason rather than late season.

There are two that have done so for me, one is Anna Russian and the other one is Danko. I just checked the guesstimates, DTM-wise, that others who list both varieties in the SSE YEarbooks mention, and I'll stick with those two and perhaps throw in Kosovo as well.

But it really does depend on primarily the weather in any given season, in my opinion, rather then a specific variety, and again, I can see this when I look at the listings for a specific variety in the SSE Yearbooks where listers from almost every part of the US and elsewhere show quite a range or ripening times for a single variety.

Summary? I think I'd try Anna Russian and Danko and see how those do for you.

[cloz]

This year I grew several hearts in my garden. The earliest was Granny's Heart followed by Anna Russian. Danko was a couple of weeks later, but it was also planted in a less desirable spot as well as being planted a few days later so not a fair comparison. All 3 produced well with Granny's Heart being the best producer.

[Tania]

Anna Russian is the best of my 'earliest' hearts, and Donskoi is the best out of my largest red hearts. [Actually I probably should not have been teasing anyone with Donskoi, as I now only have one packet left for sale before I mark it 'sold out'. I am hoping some other vendors would pick it up to fill the gap...]

There are many other hearts that I also love, but it probably be a long list if I put it here.

[dice]

Because I would like to grow a sizeable heart, but it would have to ripen fast here in Seattle!!!

Kosovo was the earliest in this year's weather for me, and Reif's Red
Heart was the most productive. Both had good flavor.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by tgplp

What is a heart that gets big fast? Because I would like to grow a sizeable heart, but it would have to ripen fast here in Seattle!!!

Taryn

The earliest heart for me was Fish Lake Oxheart giving me the first ripe tomato in 55 days followed by Kosovo which took only 61 days. Fish Lake was actually the earliest of over 100 varieties that I tried this year. I am sure if it had not gotten so hot in early May they would have taken a few days longer.

[kath]

I've grown quite a few hearts in the last 2 seasons- Kosovo was my fave in 2010 but I also liked Orange Russian 117 and Anna Russian that year and so did my neighbors- I didn't regrow them for myself this year, but they were neighbor requests. Kosovo will be back in 2012. This year was tough on my tomato plants so I'll be trying Prue, Orange Strawberry and Brandywine Heart-Shaped again and maybe Nicky Crain; but I definitely loved Fish Lake Oxheart and it was the earliest by nearly a week- it ranged from 2.3 to 14 oz. I also really liked Hays', Giannini, Granny's Heart and Oleyar's German and they'll all be back again in 2012. Brad's Black Heart tasted good, but I had lots of splitting and disease problems with it this year.

[b54red]

Kath, I also had a terrible time with Brad's Black Heart. I tried growing 5 plants and all but one died before producing fruits and that one only produced two. Of course down here diseases are a common problem when growing tomatoes of all varieties. I'm going to mainly concentrate on varieties of exceptional flavor and varieties that show some durability down here. That takes most varieties off the table so after a couple of years of massive experimentation I have now found enough different varieties to give me a nice balance of tastes, colors, and types that have some chance of producing down here.

[lakelady]

Originally Posted by kath

I've grown quite a few hearts in the last 2 seasons- Kosovo was my fave in 2010 but I also liked Orange Russian 117 and Anna Russian that year and so did my neighbors- I didn't regrow them for myself this year, but they were neighbor requests. Kosovo will be back in 2012. This year was tough on my tomato plants so I'll be trying Prue, Orange Strawberry and Brandywine Heart-Shaped again and maybe Nicky Crain; but I definitely loved Fish Lake Oxheart and it was the earliest by nearly a week- it ranged from 2.3 to 14 oz. I also really liked Hays', Giannini, Granny's Heart and Oleyar's German and they'll all be back again in 2012. Brad's Black Heart tasted good, but I had lots of splitting and disease problems with it this year.

This was the worst tomato year overall for me that I can remember. Actually, this was the first year my hybrids were much worse off than the heirlooms, which is one of the reasons I'm going to have mostly heirlooms next year to see how they do overall. Not that anything is perfect, but it will be interesting. They all got leaf diseases because of so much rain and humidity, but the heirlooms hung on much longer and kept producing fruits. Well, I only had Pineapple and San Marzanos for heirlooms, but I had 10 San Marzano plants and they hung on like brave little soldiers

[kath]

Originally Posted by b54red

Kath, I also had a terrible time with Brad's Black Heart. I tried growing 5 plants and all but one died before producing fruits and that one only produced two. Of course down here diseases are a common problem when growing tomatoes of all varieties. I'm going to mainly concentrate on varieties of exceptional flavor and varieties that show some durability down here. That takes most varieties off the table so after a couple of years of massive experimentation I have now found enough different varieties to give me a nice balance of tastes, colors, and types that have some chance of producing down here.

I really wanted to like this one- it got 2 spots and even a cage, which is the royal treatment in my garden! It seems we aren't the only ones to have had some problems with Brad's Black Heart, but then others have said it's a favorite. Like you, I'm looking for an assortment of personal favorites that do well in my soil regardless of what the weather throws at them. I don't like to be hasty about not regrowing a variety, but I'm not really interested in wasting space on a variety that only produces good tomatoes in some years.

[kath]

Originally Posted by lakelady

This was the worst tomato year overall for me that I can remember. Actually, this was the first year my hybrids were much worse off than the heirlooms, which is one of the reasons I'm going to have mostly heirlooms next year to see how they do overall. Not that anything is perfect, but it will be interesting. They all got leaf diseases because of so much rain and humidity, but the heirlooms hung on much longer and kept producing fruits. Well, I only had Pineapple and San Marzanos for heirlooms, but I had 10 San Marzano plants and they hung on like brave little soldiers

Being so close geographically, our weather woes were pretty much the same this year. Despite so many not doing well and dying early, I was able to taste some amazingly good fruits from a few- and those are the ones that I'm giving another try. With the exception of Sungold F1, all my plants were open-pollinated varieties- quite a few were heirlooms. In years past I tried nearly all the hybrid varieties that were sold in any kind of garden center around here and in catalogs like Pinetree and Johnny's, and I grew them along with open-pollinated varieties from the same sources, but I never found a favorite that I couldn't live without or that did amazingly well compared to everything else that was planted that year. The leaf diseases that are our common tomato problem are likely going to affect most hybrids, too, I think. I just love trying all the heirlooms and newer o.p. creations, though- I don't have any attraction to the hybrids anymore.

[goodwin]

Anna Russia has been the best early heart for me, but I haven't tried Fish Lake Oxheart - it will definitely go on my list of seed to find. Brad's Black Heart has not done well here, but I want it to, so I continue to save seed. Sometimes you have to give a variety a second or even third chance.
Kosovo is one I'm going to try again along with Donskoi - because Tatiana likes it.
Wes is the best heart I've grown. It's a huge plant with loads of big, solid tomatoes. I got the seed from Carolyn in her annual offer, and hope she will have others this year.
Lee

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by goodwin

Anna Russia has been the best early heart for me, but I haven't tried Fish Lake Oxheart - it will definitely go on my list of seed to find. Brad's Black Heart has not done well here, but I want it to, so I continue to save seed. Sometimes you have to give a variety a second or even third chance.
Kosovo is one I'm going to try again along with Donskoi - because Tatiana likes it.
Wes is the best heart I've grown. It's a huge plant with loads of big, solid tomatoes. I got the seed from Carolyn in her annual offer, and hope she will have others this year.
Lee

For sure I'll have some new hearts this year and some of them will be new to all.

New seeds for Fish Lake Oxheart since those distributed last year didn't germinate very well.

And some of the same hearts I have been offering in previous years as well.

There's at least one new heart variety that I have very few seeds of and it's terrific, so anyone who requests that one will have to send me back some seeds as well perhaps offering seeds here at Tville next year. I haven't made up my mind on that last idea yet, as to reoffering seed here. And I'll copy down the user name of anyone who does request that new heart so I can harrass them if they don't do what theyr're supposed to do.

My biggest disappointments?

Not enough seeds of Orange Minsk Heart to be able to offer, will have to be regrown.

Cuore del Drago, aka Dragon Heart, turned out NOT to be a heart and I rechecked and confirmed that with my seed source. Not a heart, but an interesting shape that, as I've said before, probably came from a dragon with a congentical heart malformation.

[GunnarSK]

Too bad about Dragon Heart not being a heart, Carolyn.
The Polish Bawole Serce, Serdtse Buivola in Russian, is also characterised as semi-early, probably the same as early mid season, and some may have gotten seeds from Carolyn or Andrey.
I also hope something interesting will come from Bluelytes' Indian Stripe heart from Bill's seeds.