Early red tomatoes

[Farmer Matt]

What is the best early tomato for the market, hybrid or heirloom.

Thank's Matt

[matertoo]

Last year, I had very good luck with Sophie's choice and Mountain Princess.

Happy Matering,

Paul

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Farmer Matt

What is the best early tomato for the market, hybrid or heirloom.

Thank's Matt

I don't think it matters if the varieties are OP or F1 hybrids and I don't know what size fruits you want but here are some that are OP that have been early for me, and with varying size fruits for each variety. With few esceptions I don't bother with so called early varieties anymore b'c with just a week or two more one can have varieties that really do have some taste to them/ The following do have pretty good taste at least as grown by me in zone 5 area.

Moravsky Div
Kimberly
Sophie's Choice
Matina

... to name a few.

And if you go to Tania's site or Jeff Casey's site you can click on a special listing of early varieties and some of them are very interesting.

[Suze]

Originally Posted by Farmer Matt

What is the best early tomato for the market, hybrid or heirloom.

You don't mention any size preference, so here goes for early reds I like:

Mexico Midget - usually extremely early (can even be 56 days or less in a good year), one of the earliest I've ever grown along with Sungold and Bloody Butcher. Of course, the fruit is rather small. Intense flavor, vigorous/tall plant, productive.

Bloody Butcher - 1-2 oz fruits, very good flavor on a compact PL indet plant, very early. I slightly prefer it to Kimberly, although Kimberly is also a good smaller red early which is somewhat similar.

Moskvich - very frequently misspelled a couple of different ways. Anyway, it is one of the very best medium sized reds I have ever grown that is around 60 DTM.

506 Dwarf Bush - Tiny det plant under 3 ft with extreme production of med red fruits that are usually about the size of a flattened tennis ball or slightly smaller. 60-65 days in my garden.

Hanky Red - On the compact side, probably semi-det if I had to guess, good production of tomatoes that are med-small (usually halfway between golf and tennis ball sized globes), very good flavor. 65-70 dtm in my garden.

Mountain Princess is another good one that someone else mentioned. I'd consider it more early-mid than early, at least in my garden anyway.

Jet Star F1 - good early-mid season red that is medium sized.

[b54red]

Since you are open to hybrids I would say that Jetsetter is an awesome producing red tomato with good flavor and it is about a half pound in size. It is two weeks later than Stupice but nearly 3 times as large and even more productive. It is not a good mid season tomato because it doesn't produce as well in the heat as say something like Big Beef. Below is a picture of a Jetsetter a few days before the fruit ripening.

[camochef]

I'm not a lover of Cherry, Currant or small little tomatoes, and surely not fond of most "early" tomatoes, so I would recommend Tarasenko6 as my Favorite tasting red tomato, followed by Gigantesque, Preacher Joe, and Box-car Willie. Would add Wes as a heart-shaped and Red Brandywine as a good producer of red tomatoes.
If you consider pinks, I recommend Barlow Jap, Liz Birt, Mrs Benson, Earl's Faux, Sandul Moldovan, and any of the pink Brandywines like Cowlick's, Glicks or Sudduth's.
If you have a market for Black/purple tomatoes try Bear Creek, Dana's Dusky Rose, Amazon Chocolate, Blackmaster, or Gary O'Sena. Your customers that try them will be glad you offered them. Good Luck!
Camo

[gourmetgardener]

You might want to try Manitoba, or early girl.

Never having grown "Early" tomatoes as a class before, this year I am trying Early Wonder, Siberian, Siberian Bushy, Harnas, Al-Kuffa, Matina, Victoria, and a few others. I tried Stupice last year and was under impressed. I thought a better early variety must exist so I am giving some a try this year. I'll accept moderate to small size as a trade off for early, if I can get good production and good taste.

Ted

[gourmetgardener]

You will find that all early tomatoes will lack some of the desirable traits that full season tomatoes have.

Originally Posted by gourmetgardener

You will find that all early tomatoes will lack some of the desirable traits that full season tomatoes have.

Yep, thats why I am trying so many in the same year. I want to find out which varieties give up the fewest desirable traits to achieve the status of an "Early Variety".

Ted

[Karla]

I grew sophies choice last year.Good flavor.

[b54red]

I just had a Jetsetter tonight that was grown on my porch this winter and it was very good. Better than the Stupice I had yesterday and bigger. Give it a try and I think you will be surprised because I sure was. It seems to taste better early and it is certainly more productive before the true heat of summer arrives. It was better than all of my early heirlooms except Red Siberian and it was in another league as far as production is concerned. It is also a fantastic fall tomato because of it's tendency to ripen in cooler weather. It behaves a lot like a determinate tomato in that it produces most of it's fruit within a couple of weeks. The one plant I set out in the garden produced 62 tomatoes and about 50 of them came off in a two week period.

[AZRuss]

I am growing lots of Jetsetter this year because our season will be even shorter due to the February deep freezes we had. tedIn: agree with you on Stupice, except they become amazing when cooked. A cup of hot Stupice juice, lightly salted, is awesome.

Originally Posted by AZRuss

I am growing lots of Jetsetter this year because our season will be even shorter due to the February deep freezes we had. tedIn: agree with you on Stupice, except they become amazing when cooked. A cup of hot Stupice juice, lightly salted, is awesome.

Russ,

I think it probably is a better tomato than I give it credit for. I believe the reason it didn't perform well for me is my fault. I didn't get it planted early enough for an early tomato. I had two plants and got three or four ping pong ball sized fruits. I thought they had died in the summer heat, but suddenly they put out some new growth in late August, (hot, hot weather) bloomed and set a few more small fruit in my fall garden. A few were large enough to eat, but most ripened when tiny like peanuts.

Ted

[sfmathews]

Ted, my stupice a few years ago produced through the spring like gangbustsers, got some production in summer, then again, went gangbusters when it cooled off. I thought the taste improved quite a bit after the first few fruits.
susan