Sophie's Choice

[Tomstrees]

Hey everyone hope all is well.

I got Sophie's Choice as a gift from a relative,
and wanted to know what everyones experience was with it?

Thanks, ~ Tom

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Tomstrees

Hey everyone hope all is well.

I got Sophie's Choice as a gift from a relative,
and wanted to know what everyones experience was with it?

Thanks, ~ Tom

Call me biased, call me what you want b/c I'm the one who first listed it in the SSE Yearbook, seeds from Barry Comdon in CA although the variety is from Edmonton, Canada, but I wouldn't have included it in a certain book if I didn't think it was a great early season variety with large fruits, which is not all that typical of most early varieties.

How's that for a one paragraph response.

[creister]

I grew it in a 5 gallon bucket, and HEBs last year. Very productive and resilliant plant. I liked the flavor as well. Very compact plant as well. Mine never grew to 24 inches.

I didn't grow it this year, as I wanted to try some other varieties. I'm sure it will be missed.

[creister]

Forgot to say, as Carolyn already did, nice sized fruits and early.

[ddsack]

I can't say that it was very early for me, given that it doesn't have to put on much size before fruiting. Seems like the tomatoes stayed green for a very long time and it was more like mid-season for me. But maybe my soil was too cool and it would have done better in pots. It sure is a cute plant though.

[nctomatoman]

I grew it in a pot - it isn't a dwarf but a very compact determinate - loads up with fruit, good size for an early variety - the flavor didn't do much for me...I put it in the category as Taxi - good for a first reasonable sized tomato. A few pics for you from 2006.

[grungy]

Rates about 7.5 out of 10 in our growing conditions.

[cottonpicker]

I grew it once..... compact, yes... flavorful, so-so; productve, not in my experience. Never tried it again....

[Grub]

All of the above. I loved it for several seasons, but flavour is down. About a 6/10 on that score. But then you can cook 'em on the pan with bacon and backyard eggs for breakfast in spring and they are great. So there.

[barkeater]

Nice size early fruit on a very small plant. I grew 5 in the ground on black plastic a couple years ago. They were susceptible to sunburn and the later fruit were very small. However, the next year I grew one in a pot and it did much better, putting out larger fruit through In neither year was the flavor great, but it was decent, about a 6. Of course in NJ, it should taste better than anywhere else. ;-)

[gwnorth]

I agree with most above - quite early and productive for me though, - enough to make the tiny plant look quite overloaded. And, as Carolyn points out, it is from Edmonton, where I live, so how could I not grow it? (Even if I never heard of it from outside these tomato circles, and even if I got my original seeds from Australia - thanks again, Grub).

[Tomstrees]

Thanks for everyones responses.

Well I'm glad to hear that its an "early variety"
(for some reason I forgot to plant an "early").

As far as taste is concerned, I usually don't ask much -
"ANY THING" is better than what they have at Pathmark !

Will report back later ...

~ Tom

ps. Bark - Dearborns had organic bagged topsoil on sale:
$0.99 for a 25lb bag! 5 was the limit; and the limit I took

[remy]

It grew great for me, and as an early tomato the taste is wonderful. No, it can't compete with later maturing varieties, but I'll take it over a lot of other early tomatoes.
Remy