NAR for Dr. C

[TomatoDon]

Hi again C! (Yes, I've seen you back for a while...but I meant seeing you with my posts...I'm jealous that way.

First, below are today's pics of two NAR's that were delicious. Again, I took them to lunch at Cracker Barrel restaurant. Great people.

I made notes again today. My grading so far as been based on overall thriving health of plants, size, and fruit production, both in numbers and in size. For a while that's all I could base it on. Below I mention taste separately. Grades here are based on plant appearance and production.

Brandywine Sudduths. Again my All Stars. 11-12 made it, and those 11 are healthy and thriving and have produced more large fruit than any other variety. Who woulda thunk it? They get morning shade. Flavor is excellent.

Big Beef. I gave this an A- or B+ on production. Excellent flavor on lots of nice size fruits.

Better Boy. B+ Great flavor, tons of medium size tomatoes. Not as big as I like. It's still a winner here.

NAR. Low production on all five plants, but the fruit that has made is excellent.

Paul Robeson. Low production, but my favorite of the darks for flavor.

Daniel. Very low production. Plants did OK early, but are in decline with little production. Not worth the effort this year.

Carbon. An overall C- based on production. Not many fruit, and the flavor has sort of a tangy taste, almost like a hint of vinegar. OK, but not my favorite.

Mortgage Lifter. An overall A. Nice producer, great flavor. A keeper. Planted two, only one made it, but it's a dandy.

Black Crim. I gave it a D for low production. Only one plant.

Cherokee Purple. Again, low production, but good flavor.

Aunt Ruby GG, nice fruit, good production. Still don't know if they are ripe! Those greens! I gave these two plants a B each.

Chapman. I checked it again and this variety did OK. I had three and gave one a B+, D, and C. Again, not a top producer.

Red Rose. THIS is the one that I planted three of, and only one made it and it was a runt. A wash-out basically. (I had this and Chapman backwards last posting. They are side by side in the same bed and that's why I double checked today.)

Marianna's Peace. One grouping rated low, three other in a different bed have come on and got a B+, D, and B+ today. Nice fruit. Two did fine. Wish the others had.

Stump came on and is doing OK now. It has jumped up to about a B- or C now. Sure came on slow however.

Earl's. B, C, and B. Doing fine. Good taste. Reasonable production. I just like this variety.

Porterhouse. Another I gave up on a month ago. It's redeemed itself somewhat. Not much ready to pick yet, but it moved up from a "bust" to a C, D, and D. Doubt I'll try this one again.

Box Car Willie. Still dismal. Off the list now.

As to flavor, I've eaten a lot of them and given lots more away. Haven't eaten a bad one yet, but of course I pick the choice fruit. I have mostly beefsteak types, so actually the flavors of all these aren't too dramatically different. Not to me or friends here anyway. Blindfolded, I doubt any one here could pick them apart in a taste test. Sorry, but that's just the way it's turned out, but I like the basic consistency. Not a spitter in the crowd so far. No question that I like the larger, tart, beefsteaks. I just don't care for the soft sweeter taste with the larger varieties. The cherries are fine being sweet, but I just like the big ones to be meaty and full flavored with some tart.

When I say "low production" that can mean 0-7 or 8 fruit as a guess. Some of those may be stunted.

This is not a scientific test or rating. Lots of wiggle room on my personal preferences, which is all that counts to me anyway. I just walked through, jotted some notes, and that's about it.

Here is part of lunch today. NAR.

Don

[carolyn137]

Don, there are many varieties that you note as having low production that surprise me b'c I know I, and quite a few others, have had no problems with decent production ( much greater than you note).

What do you think is happening?

[TomatoDon]

All I can figure is that there just aren't enough large tomatoes on some plants to suit me.

Remember, a lot of people also note what low production of Brandywine's they have. Yet, those are my best overall (number, size, and quality), which is not exactly common in my area. They are slacking off some now, but they've been the overall winners this year and all 11 of the 12 originals that "made it" have produced beyond my highest expectations.

The most prolific producers of sheer numbers of good fruit, on per plant average, right now, are the Better Boy and Big Beef. These aren't exactly the most popular varieties with heirloom growers, but they do well here and suit me and all the ones I give them to. And remember that Better Boy is about all I knew until I started with heirlooms 2-3 years ago. Maybe I wrongly judge all plants by the ones I'm familiar with, and as far as numbers nothing has beat the Better Boys on the average, plant for plant, since I started with heirlooms. They just have a lot of fruit.

Also, sometimes I see people here that will count each fruit produced on each plant and sometimes feel successful if they get only a few of a difficult variety they especially like. They are happy with that, and that's all that counts, and relatively speaking the plant may have produced great for the variety it is. On the other hand, I might see how it compares to something else and give it a "low production" rating because I really don't know how many good fruit a (for example) Cherokee Purple or NAR is supposed to average on a good year. I've seen some here delighted with maybe 3-5 good fruit on a Brandywine in a hard-to-grow area, whereas I'd rate that mighty low for that variety or any other one. Regardless of variety or individual plant, if they happen to have a lot of fruit on the day I rate it then it rates high, if it doesn't, then it doesnt' rate high. I'm about as unscientific as it gets at this point in my heirloom rating career.

Again, nothing scientific or important about how I do it. Some ratings have come up in the last month and they change from time to time. A lot depends on what's going on in the patch that week. As I said, there is nothing scientific about my ratings, and there's lots of wiggle room and updates. I just don't document them the way some people do, which accounts for some of the inconsistency. I even got the Chapman's and Red Rose's mixed up on here the other day, just going from memory! That's why I re-checked and corrected it here. I still have to take my chart to the patch to really know what is what...I don't have enough experience with all these different varieties to identify them by sight yet. But I'm learning a little.

If it is a growing thing I suspect, as I've mentioned here many times, the large amount of foliage. The plants have gotten mighty big, and maybe 6 plants per 4 X 12 is just not enough room for mature plants. I have four feet between beds and can barely walk between some now. I just have this feeling I need to prune them back more and more. And I think next time I will have three plants of one variety, planted down the center, of each bed, instead of two rows of three. There's just no direct sun low in the center anymore.

On the whole, this patch has produced more tomatoes than I can eat and give away. All have tasted good. For some reason some individual plants of the same variety just seemed to do better than others, and some varieties did better than others...in producing mid and large size tomatoes in large numbers, which is my favorite as you know. Maybe I'm expecting too much? Or unfairly comparing all plants to the very best producers? And not knowing exactly how many fruit some of the varieties are supposed to produce.

I weighed the largest Marianna's Peace today and it went 21 ounces I believe. I picked some (different varieties) before full ripeness as Suze recommended and will try to get more pictures tomorrow. We're almost into August now and the patch is slowing down. But on the whole I've been very happy with it this year.

Don