Anyone have experience with two varieties: Supersonic and Kellog yellow?

[Elliot]

[quote=carolyn137;214825]I'm with tomakers on Supersonic.

There are three hybrids bred by Harris and they are some of the earliest ones bred and they are:

Moreton Hybrid
Supersonic F1
Jet Star F1

I've grown all three many times, my favorite is Jet Star F1, and I think the taste is great compared to not just other F1 varieties but lots of OP varieties as well.

And I grow tomatoes for taste.



My favorite tomato for taste is Miracle sweet. Hands down, this the sweetest tomato I have worked with and I won a blue ribbon with it at our local county/state fair. Have you tried it?

Elliot

LI, New York

[camochef]

Originally Posted by Elliot

My Mouth is open in awe. How many plants do you plant in a year? I have also never heard of any of the above. Which are the sweetest tomatoes.

Elliot,
I've cut back drasticly this year, (I'm not getting any younger), and only have about 75 tomato plants out there. In the past I've started between 400 and 800, but would wind-up planting out 350 or so. the last couple years I keep cutting back more and more. I set a goal this season to only have 25-26 plants but obviously that didn't work out.
All on my list are Heirlooms or open pollinated as I've worked out the few Hybrids I used to grow. I would say they are well balanced tomatoes as I don't care for overly sweet tomatoes. I favor the Brandywines and Brandywine types which have a thin skin, smaller than average sized core and a great tomato taste. I like decent sized slicers where a slice covers the entire piece of bread.
If you prefer sweet tomatoes try those like Black from Tula, which I found too sweet for my tastes but stay away from the likes of Dr Wyches Yellow and don't believe those that say yellow tomatoes are less acidic...its just not true in this case.
Many hearts are on the sweet side also but the area where they're grown and the ph of the soil can have an effect on that to some degree also.
Just keep trying different varieties till you find those that suit your tastes in your area. Enjoy!
Camo

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Elliot

My Mouth is open in awe. How many plants do you plant in a year? I have also never heard of any of the above. Which are the sweetest tomatoes.

Elliot, I've grown most of the varieties on Camo's list and so have a lot of other folks here.

To give you an idea of what some of the growout lists are for this season I went back and found the major grow out thread where folks posted what they're growing this summer:

http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=17135

There are several here at Tville who have grown out thousands of different varieties and I'm one of them at plus 2500. You asked if I'd grown Miracle Sweet and no, I haven't. Sweetness is not what I'm primarily looking for in a tomato variety. If it's backed up by a more complex taste, then yes, I might like it.

Over 400 organic compounds have been IDed as being associated with tomato taste and it's the specific combination of those compounds that impart taste to any one variety. So the primary determinant of taste with any tomato variety are the genes it has that make those organic compounds.

THe more varieties you grow, the more threads you read here the more familiar you'll be with many varieties that you perhaps you didn't know about before.

It's a great hobby for many of us and in some cases it's a business for those here who have their own websites where they sell seeds or plants, or grow for commercial reasons to restaurants or farmer's markets, or whatever.

So read, enjoy, and look at all the possibilites to grow lots of new varieties. There are about maybe 6-7000 varieties now available commercially and more in the annual SSE Yearbook for those who are SSE members.

For sure, it's one of the more healthy obsessions to have.

[Elliot]

[quote=camochef;214865]Elliot,
I've cut back drasticly this year, (I'm not getting any younger), and only have about 75 tomato plants out there. In the past I've started between 400 and 800, but would wind-up planting out 350 or so. the last couple years


With all of those tomato plants, what do you do with the tomatoes? We normally do 18 plants to 20 and give away a lot of them. Actually I really enjoy giving away tomatoes. Why? Unlike most other veges, a person received my tomatoes cannot go into a store and buy the same. A home grown tomato is a home grown tomato and people are delighted when I stop by their homes with a bag of tomatoes.

As for heirlooms, my area is a hard area for heirlooms. Unless the plant is VNF resistant, I am playing games. Every year I try a new heirloom but get mixed results

Elliot

LI, NY

[carolyn137]

[quote=Elliot;215020]

Originally Posted by camochef

Elliot,
I've cut back drasticly this year, (I'm not getting any younger), and only have about 75 tomato plants out there. In the past I've started between 400 and 800, but would wind-up planting out 350 or so. the last couple years


With all of those tomato plants, what do you do with the tomatoes? We normally do 18 plants to 20 and give away a lot of them. Actually I really enjoy giving away tomatoes. Why? Unlike most other veges, a person received my tomatoes cannot go into a store and buy the same. A home grown tomato is a home grown tomato and people are delighted when I stop by their homes with a bag of tomatoes.

As for heirlooms, my area is a hard area for heirlooms. Unless the plant is VNF resistant, I am playing games. Every year I try a new heirloom but get mixed results

Elliot

LI, NY

Elliot, there are several good nurseries on LI that carry lots of heriloom tomato plants. The only one I can think of right now is Hicks. Are you anywhere's near them? Just for future reference b'c I'd assume this late in the season they wouldn't have many plants left but I don't know that as fact. There's also a good place that you can buy plants from and the owner posts here at Tville and the feedback has been excellent and he lists a huge number of heirloom varieties.

I don't know if you're close to the city where there are lots of plants sold at the Green Market or farther out on the island where Hicks and others are.

Hope that helps.

[Elliot]

[quote=carolyn137;215025][quote=Elliot;215020]

Elliot, there are several good nurseries on LI that carry lots of heriloom tomato plants. The only one I can think of right now is Hicks.

Funny that you mentioned it. I am a "hicksaholic." Most people are when they go to Hicks. Its an amazing place to buy anything. They are a bit on the pricey side but they have good quality and they have tremendous variety.

My problem with non VNF varieties is that there is something in the soil that "bites me" have way through the season if I don't use a resistant variety. This limits me. What I do is grow my plants in large HD buckets. This way I can buy soil and not worry about it but the heirlooms don't in general thrive in those buckets. Hmmmm, Anyway this year I am trying two heirlooms in addition to my VNF resistant strains. Lets see what happens.

As for growing season. I am a bit late but not that late. Long Island has a funny tomato planting season. The rule of thumb as always been "Mothers day." but last year we had some cold nights after MD and i nearly lost half of my tomato plants. So this year I am not gambling. I got five my plants bought from Hicks in the ground and the rest are coming this week from a nursery in New Jersey.

Elliot

[carolyn137]

My problem with non VNF varieties is that there is something in the soil that "bites me" have way through the season if I don't use a resistant variety. This limits me. What I do is grow my plants in large HD buckets. This way I can buy soil and not worry about it but the heirlooms don't in general thrive in those buckets. Hmmmm, Anyway this year I am trying two heirlooms in addition to my VNF resistant strains. Lets see what happens.


*****

Can I assume that you're talking about hybrid varieties here? Although there are some OP's that have similar tolerances.

Many hybrids have VFNT kind of tolerances bred in, just tolerance b'c no variety is completely resistant to anything.

But on LI you wouldn't have N, Root Knot Nematodes, nor T, tobacco mosaic virus, possiubly ocassional V, Verticillium, and I doubt F, FUsarium whih can't over winter where the ground freezes deeply. All the of those aresoil borne systemic diseases.

have you ever tried to make a definitive diagnosis of what the problem(s) with your tomatoes is/are so you know how to confront the enemies, as it were? The above are what's called systemic diseases and are soil borne, but the most common tomato diseases are the foliage diseases of which there are four major ones and everyone has to fight those b'c there are no tolerant varieties with a few exceptions that are of no practical use to the home gardener/

[Elliot]

Yes, I have tried to get professional help and have brought the dead plants to experts and was told that it was I believe V Wilt. The history is that the plants survives until it starts to produce fruit and then the entire plant yellow and dies. The advice given to me was to stick with VNF resistant strains of tomato plants.

[dice]

I suggest trying Brandy Boy in your verticillium infested garden.
It is big, tasty for a hybrid, and holds up to verticillium as well
as anything that I have grown. They can be difficult to ripen out
here in our short summers, so it is not a main cropper for me,
but it may do better for you with a little more mid-summer heat.
No later than Supersonic, anyway, for me.

[Elliot]

I tried Brandy Boy last year. Good tomatoes but low yield. My yard is funny. things grow and things don't grow depending on the lighting.

[barkeater]

I grew Brandy Boy last year and it was absolutely nothing like Brandywine, soft, a light almost a faded bubblegum pink and very fluted. I did have a heavy very late yield that did make a very thick sauce when run through my Victorio strainer.

Supersonic was good in its day but was quickly eclipsed by Ramapo in NJ when I farmed. I tried SS up here in VT when I moved up and it was a very soft and not juicy tomato that was great for sauce but not for fresh eating.