Top 3 Tomato Producers

[shelleybean]

1. Stump of the World
2. Elfie
3. German Head

And all very tasty!

[mtbigfish]

Carolyn
It's a good thing you ignored the food scares - otherwise you may have been 7' 11" ha ha!!
Dennis

[habitat_gardener]

A big producer for me in 2006 was Siberia. I remember one day I picked 48 tomatoes, and the next day, 24. For the whole season it was almost 300.

In 2007, it was Heidi -- 753 tomatoes.

Originally Posted by riceke

I stand corrected...it was either Salmonella or E. coli from Mexico grown tomatoes.

Yeah, tomatoes were recalled, but it took weeks to find the source, and iirc it turned out to be peppers, and it was from E. coli. The E. coli could have been from workers pooping in the fields, but it could also have been from livestock in the next field.

[riceke]

I believe the story was that near by pig farm had some escapees that wandered into the fields and did their thing on the plants. Sounds strange since I can remember as a kid working on a farm and spreading manure around plants. I guess they don't wash the fruits anymore.

Habitat Gardener..was that 48 and 24 tomatoes from Siberia in two days from one plant??? Did any of the plants get any diseases toward mid production???

[Blueaussi]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

I was 5'10 inches when I was 11 and had to take ID to get in movies for those under 12.

Oh, me too! I was only 5'8.5, though.

I was disabled by an entero virus in Mexico and same in Morocco, and my best experience was my first trip to Greece and Israel.

I got hit by bad oysters at Myrtle Beach many years ago. I was working my way home, dashing from gas station to gas station, when I hit a stretch of I20 between Florence and Camden where there was nothing. I mean, nothing for miles and miles. So I was flying along, desperately hoping for even an exit so I could find some bushes when the cops pulled up behind me. I had my father's car, and there was a CB radio in it. I got the cops on the radio and whined, "I need a bathroom, I had bad oysters last night!" They pulled around me, lights a flashing, and led me to the nearest gas station. When I emerged from the bathroom, embarrassed and dehydrated, I started to plead with them not to give me a ticket. One of them doubled over laughing, and the other gave me a gentle lecture on safety before letting me go.

[mtbigfish]

Blue and Carolyn
I was a little twirp myself and only 5'6" when I graduated from high school (had surgery and radiation treatment as a freshman and it shut down my growth)
Luckily I grew 4" over the next 2 years
Dennis

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by riceke

Habitat Gardener..was that 48 and 24 tomatoes from Siberia in two days from one plant??? Did any of the plants get any diseases toward mid production???

oops...So much for memory! Stories get better the more they're retold. But I found my 2006 garden journal: I picked 48 on Aug. 18, then 24 more a week later, on Aug. 25. IIRC, I was trying to hold off on picking them because I had more than I could handle already, and they kept well on the bush. So at its peak, in August, I picked
aug 1 -- 4
aug 2 -- 5
aug 4 -- 9
aug 7 -- 22 (aug 1-7 total: 40)
aug 9 -- 7
aug 11 -- 12
aug 13 -- 2
aug 14 -- 12 (aug 8-14 total: 33)
aug 17 -- 12
aug 18 -- 48 (aug 15-21 total: 60)
aug 25 -- 24
aug 28 -- 2
aug 30 -- 6 (aug 22-30 total: 32)
Production fell off in Sept., then picked up a bit in Oct.

According to my notes. on Aug. 11 it was a dense, lush plant, about 3 ft. high. No diseases (no summer rain here). Compared to other tomatoes I'd grown, it was fairly bland raw and I ended up giving away a lot of them. I don't think I tried it cooked.

[b54red]

Although I like to try a lot of different varieties, year in and year out the best to meet the criteria you laid out is Big Beef. It will outproduce Celebrity and the fruit are larger and tastier. When the tomato blights down here are killing one after another, Big Beef usually will keep on producing. 1st Prize is another that does good especially during the hottest part of the summer and fall.
I had good luck with Marianna's Peace last year but found it very susceptible to early blight if planted too soon.
I don't think anything can outproduce Juliette but that is one cherry that I can't stand; so I found a hybrid called Small Fry which produces a huge amount yet still tastes good.

[riceke]

B54red...I gotta agree with ya'. Until I discovered Big Beef I thought no tomato would get thru the summer. Big Beef is #1 on my list followed by Celebrity. Never tried 1st Prize but I will. But this year I'm gonna try some suggestions from this web. I got Jet Star, Homestead, Red Alert (free seeds), Rutgers, Abe Lincoln and Arkansas Traveler seeded. By the way I agree your quote on Juliette. It puts out mucho for a long time but not my favorite. I tried Gardener's Delight last year in a tub and I thought it produced a good bit of cherry sized good tastin' maters with very little disease. I'd plant it again.

[mtbigfish]

yeah Gardener's Delight, akaSugar Lump does good and tastes OK

Still haven't heard on post about Abe Lincoln vs Abraham Lincoln or anyone having grown Big Beef OP


Dennis

[riceke]

Abe vs Abraham...I'm thinking it's one of the same. Maybe it's just the way different folks say the name.

[jenn_sc]

I got hit by bad oysters at Myrtle Beach many years ago. I was working my way home, dashing from gas station to gas station, when I hit a stretch of I20 between Florence and Camden where there was nothing. I mean, nothing for miles and miles. So I was flying along, desperately hoping for even an exit so I could find some bushes when the cops pulled up behind me. I had my father's car, and there was a CB radio in it. I got the cops on the radio and whined, "I need a bathroom, I had bad oysters last night!" They pulled around me, lights a flashing, and led me to the nearest gas station. When I emerged from the bathroom, embarrassed and dehydrated, I started to plead with them not to give me a ticket. One of them doubled over laughing, and the other gave me a gentle lecture on safety before letting me go.

Wow! A police escort to a bathroom!!!! That tickled me for some reason.

[maggie c]

Isn't it funny how some plants produce heavily in some places and not in others? I've sworn off planting early girl tomatoes becuase for the last two seasons it was the absolute LAST tomato to produce and it produced maybe 5 tomatoes. Boxcar willie was the same for me. Slow on growing, slow on production and just a handful of toms!

[OmahaJB]

Even though I haven't grown alot of different varieties yet, I did have good luck with growing Czech's Bush indoors 4 or 5 years ago. The lighting was bad but it was the most productive of all varieties grown indoors.

I wouldn't comment on it if it wasn't for the fact a guy from southern Texas responded to a thread I had on Gardenweb back then regarding Czech's Bush. He raved about how well it produced in his hot humid weather when other plants were not producing.

It's a smaller plant with smaller tomatoes, and more of an acidic taste as I recall. Still, decent flavor in my opinion. If you want to grow a productive variety in a small space, and aren't worried about getting a well-balanced flavor or big tomatoes, Czech's Bush should suit your needs.

I grew the hybrid Big Beef a couple of years ago and had alot of tomatoes even though it was grown in a spot where the soil had been way overused without proper replenishing. Taste was very bland and decided I would not grow it again. Also had alot of problems with BER, but that was due to my faulty watering practices.

[riceke]

Ya'll from S.C. (blueaussie, maggie or others) being close to Park Seed and home of the "Whopper" tomato, have you ever tried that variety? I imagine that if it was developed in SC that it ought to be a good variety for the South.