Spitters

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

A twofer post; Tracy info for you at the end of this post.

Speaking just to spitters now, Sandpoint was close to the top and I was so embarrased b'c I didn't know that Glenn Drowns went to Sandpoint HS in Idaho and ever since then it's been a joke between us with me asking if Linda could enrobe some in chocolate, well, you get the picture.

Second one is Noire des Cosebeauf, one of THE most beautiful varieties I've ever grown, with wonderful scalloped shoulders, but no way for me with the taste.

Third one would possibly be Purple Calabash. Yes, I know some like the taste, but it's a taste that is too darn aggresive for me.

Tracy, forget it with Purple Smudge, a genetic oddity if you look at the background, as well as Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge. I grew the former and as a result had absolutely NO interest in the latter one.

I think you'd need to read some of the listings for both in the SSE YEarbooks to see what others thought as well, as in mainly genetic oddity novelty varieties.

Thanks Carolyn-the reviews are why I'm steering clea. But they are so beautiful. Why is it that those beautiful, genetic oddities so often lack taste?

[muck4doo]

Last year I ended up cutting down my Yellow Pear, because they were just so bland. It was very productive though. My Black Krim plant I also ended up cutting down. The fruit were golf ball sized, and looked nothing like I expected them to. They also tasted very bland. I had given Black Krim plants to some friends, and all of theirs ended up awesome, so I think I just got a bad plant. Looks like it got crossed with something else.

Arkansas Traveler kept producing like a champ through the Austin heat, but the flavor was only OKAY. Early Annie had a very nice flavor(sweet, but slightly tart), and is the only variety I grew last year that is returning again(I just like to try new things). EA was also very productive for being such a short plant. Ferris Wheel by far had the best flavor out of all the varieties I grew last year. They also got quite large. You want old fashioned tomato flavor, you can't go wrong with Ferris Wheel. Unfortunately, once the heat got into the 100's, it stopped producing. Marmande was another that had decent flavor, but didn't shine until autumn. That's when it took over as the best of my plants, until the toms it produced all started to cat face. Black Prince wasn't very productive, and i found it kind of bland. The others I grew didn't give enough fruit to make a good judgment on them, or were nothing outstanding, good or bad.

[Deborah]

Doug, sorry ! But LOL about crossing to at least be getting a green frog ! Er, tomato....