Not so early Early Girl

[z_willus_d]

You can see my half-ripe Early Girl pic (2 yr old, still unproductive asparagus green in the background), which was the first of 20+ (non-cherry) plants to ripen this season for me. I planted way back in the first week of May, so it's taken this not so early EG over 80-days to blush a Tom! That's a record for me.

The fruit is a seemingly perfect, near baseball sized, unblemished specimen with no holes cracks or damage. But here's the rub. It's lite, and I mean really lite as in it's mass is inappropriately low for it's volume -- I'd say by a factor of about 2 or maybe 1.5. What gives? Now, I haven't sliced yet as I'm still waiting for the fruit to completely ripen, but I know this mater's going to stink and have that mush/mealy white sponge flesh with no juiciness.

So what gives? Did it hang too long on the vine? Speaking of which, the vines seem healthy otherwise. Too much/little water? Don't think so. What can cause a tomato to ripen 30-40% low on (what I assume is mainly) water mass? Maybe the 2nd, 3rd or Nth fruits will do better.

I appreciate any thoughts on how I can improve my produce in this regard.
--naysen

[cloz]

I grew Early Girl once many years ago. The tomatoes it produced were squarish looking and had a hollow cavity in the center. Needless to say, I never grew them again.

[z_willus_d]

Well, that's not promising. I've read good and bad things about the EG variety. Some have suggested it would make a good State fruit for California. I'm surprised so many would waste their time and space on a dud of a plant, but then maybe I shouldn't be given I'm one of 'em. Perhaps, results vary widely. Thanks for the reply.

[Sun City Linda]

I have always thought EG was a pretty good, early tomato. LInda

[b54red]

One thing I have noticed about early varieties over the past few years is that they seem to be very slow when planted late or when the weather has already turned hot. I tried some of them for fall plants and found that many of the very early varieties actually took longer to develop ripe fruit than the late types. Applause is a tomato that I grew for a few years that was the earliest of any full size tomato I have ever grown making ripe fruit in under 50 days in the spring; but when I tried them in the fall they took over 95 days. Some of the late types when set out in July or August actually make much faster than when set out in the early spring but the fruit is usually smaller.

[cornbreadlouie]

I planted an early girl on April 1st. We had a bout of 85 degree weather so I jumped the gun and went out and bought a bunch of plants. It didn't end up getting too cold at night, but the weather dropped down to the high 60s during the day & maybe mid-40s at night for a couple weeks before heating up again.

This picture of the first ripe one was taken July 17th.... http://i54.tinypic.com/34oo8i0.jpg I don't even want to count how many days.... Right now it's blushing a fruit on average every 3 days and even though it didn't set well in the heatwave earlier in the season, it's still got a couple dozen+ fruits that need to ripen plus a ton of blossoms.

It seems like they do weigh a little less than a tomato should weigh, and the taste is definitely just average for a homegrown tomato. My black (even though it has red fruits) krim produced a ripe fruit almost 2 full weeks before the early girl, and they are much more massive, and way tastier.

[WVTomatoMan]

I am a firm believer that different varieties grow, produce, and taste differently depending on the area/environmental conditions. It could be that Early Girl does not perform well in your area.

I planted an EG on May 13th. I have picked around 8 or 9 so far (my notes are at home). The first one was ready in a little under 60 days. It is a firm but sweet tomato. I have to grow it every year because it is one of my mother's favorites. Obviously I have very different results in my garden.

Good luck.

Randy

[habitat_gardener]

I grew Early Girl one year because I'd heard locals praise it. It was not early for me, but it produced until frost hit, so it was a pretty good (that is, better than grocery-store) late tomato. On its own the flavor was ok, but compared to any OPs I grew that year, the flavor was flat.

I think it needs severe water restriction for optimal flavor. At least one of the local farmers market vendors sells dry-farmed EGs.

[z_willus_d]

I finally cut open that first EG mater and found it looked something like a bell pepper inside -- hollow cavities with sections of seeds and firm flesh bulkheads throughout. Taste wise, it was like a plain Jane store bought tomato, but of the upper 1st percentile. I plucked a 2nd fruit from the same vine/truss and it feels a bit heavier (same size). As an aside, I really need to get a kitchen scale.

Louie, your EG pic shows a flatter fruit with more shouldering. I bet it tastes about the same as mine though. As my EG plant is the first non-cherry to blush, I suppose I shouldn't be complaining. BTW, it's looking like a Paul Robeson black will be 2nd to the finish line, and I can't wait to for something with that real tomato flavor I crave.

Trying to Dry Farm my solitary early girl vine in a raised bed shared with 10 other tomato plants, not to mention the tarragon, basil, asparagus and Thai pepper... well, that could be difficult to manage. I think I'll just omit this variety in lieu of the next earliest, and presumably better tasting, next year.

[Mike Maurer]

I am also growing an Early Girl this year, and it too was not early, almost 80 days from set out. However the fruits are good sized (up to 6.5oz.) and tasted okay, a little mild but good flavor. I was asking myself the same question, why so long? I was begining to think the seed may have been mislabled, (larger than average fruit for an Early Girl and definitly not early). Any one else have this experience?
Mike

[beefsteak]

I planted early girl on may 5th and just started ripening a couple of days ago, whereas I planted a supersteak on the same day and had my 1st tomato on jul 4th. One big difference the early girl was only about 3 or 4 in high when I planted it while the supersteak had about 11/2 ft of it buried underground and had flowered already.

[Mike Maurer]

I set out my Early Girl on May 6th, and got the first tomatoes on July 21st. That's actually 75/76 days. I would like to find a tomato that was great tasting, decent size (5oz.+) and 55 or so days from set out in early May. I guess we are all on that quest! I tried Sophie's Choice to this year. It has yet to ripen a tomato although it has a lot of green ones starting to turn. I am going to try some of the Dwarf projects prodigy and see if they have some early ones they have released.

[coloken]

To me, early girl is way over rated. The last two years that I grew it I picked a big beef a day or two before the early girl. Not the full run of big beef you understand, but the first tomato. The early girl left much to be desired for growth and taste. I no longer grow them.
More and more, I am getting very suspicions of varieties from seed companies, Wrong labels n stores etc.They could be so many variations in seed, plus the difference in growing conditions.

[KevinCT]

My first ripe tomato was a big red brandywine, came out of nowhere. Beat my Earlygirls which there are plenty of but nowhere near ripe. Beside that one fluke ripe mater in my garden all my maters are kinda lagging, I thought I would be eating cherrys, earlys and jetstars by now.

My Paul Robeson for some reason just shriveled up and died, it's a shame cause I was really looking forward to trying it for the first time.

[Mike Maurer]

Originally Posted by KevinCT

My first ripe tomato was a big red brandywine, came out of nowhere. Beat my Earlygirls which there are plenty of but nowhere near ripe. Beside that one fluke ripe mater in my garden all my maters are kinda lagging, I thought I would be eating cherrys, earlys and jetstars by now.

My Paul Robeson for some reason just shriveled up and died, it's a shame cause I was really looking forward to trying it for the first time.

I had a Golden Queen and Heidi that did the same thing, however the Matina's are going really strong now, and the others are begining to ripen. We have had such hot dry weather that 'm sure thay wish they were somewhere else! I had a little shower the other night, we are now up to a grand total of 1" of rain since last October.
Mike