New big dwarf

[mdvpc]

Am growing this one, like I always do in the winter, in the greenhouse now. It doesnt produce as much in the winter as the summer, but here is my first fruit. Its 10 oz and a beauty! Thanks to Craig for the seed and for getting this out of the USDA. It needs a couple of days to ripen fully.

[nctomatoman]

Really, thanks to those seedsmen who decided to cross Ponderosa with Dwarf Champion to end up with, after likely some years/generations of selection, New Big Dwarf (I have an early 1900's listing for it in an Isbell Seed Company catalog - that is what led me to search the USDA for it). Burpee had a variety called Dwarf Giant that was developed from the same cross...other companies had what they called Dwarf Ponderosa. I was quite surprised at how delicious it was when I first tried it.

The aim was to get large fruited varieties with the dwarf habit - since the other dwarf varieties known at the time (Golden Dward Champion, Dwarf Champion and Dwarf Stone) had small to medium fruit.

It is this type of thinking that led to the dwarf project that Patrina and I are leading (crossing, then selecting for large sized fruit of good flavor and different colors), as documented in the R&D forum. Those involved with the growouts are already finding some F2 generation with really good potential. It will take some years for this project to completely play out.

[mdvpc]

Yeah, but you were the one that did the detective work to get it out of the USDA, and I will remember that when I slice it this weekend! Funny that it didnt stay more popular through the years-especially seeing how popular it is now.

[dcarch]

Nice light fixture you have in the kitchen.

Makes you tomatoes look very good.

dcarch

[nctomatoman]

I think it was because growing tomatoes in pots didn't seem to be all that big a thing, since people had so much land, or were market farmers. Now that space is at more of a premium and people are discovering how easy it is to grow them in pots, the better behaved varieties are catching on (then again, the Husky hybrid series didn't do so well, which was pretty recent - perhaps they didn't taste very good)....

I am hoping we find a good tasting large red in our project - Dwarf Stone to me has rather tough skin and the flavor doesn't compel me to grow it all that often.

[mdvpc]

Craig-I think it is dwarf champion 15 that is the better one of all those livingston varieties to my taste. I am going to grow about 35 dwarves/compacts this spring to let them go mano a mano!

[Alfredo]

My apologies for posting in an old thread...I'm a big fan of "New Big Dwarf"...but I'm curious as to what were the results of your "Mano a Mano" Dwarf tomato growing in 2007 with those 35 varieties of Dwarfs/Compacts?

Here's to me hoping you remember which ones stood out

[mdvpc]

Alfredo- no problem resurrecting this thread. I hsve gron a lot of dwarf vrieties. i searched for a thread but have not found one.
Since that was 6 years ago I do not have specific recollection. If I had done it I would have posted a thread. Sorry!

I grew NBD last with great success, but this year it was a dud- Plants grew 6ft instead of the 3 they are supposed to be, and plants had 1 or 2 tomatoes that didn't resemble last years- BTW, the seeds were from the same pkg as last year, and grown in the same conditions- go figure!

[svalli]

I got seeds for New Big Dwarf in 2007 from Suze, but the first year of my growing it was a disaster season with cold summer and without greenhouse the tomatoes did not produce much. This year I tried again and I am glad I did it. NBD is the best tasting and best producing beefsteak tomato I have grown after moving back to this challenging gardening zone. I did collect as much seeds as I could, because this will from now on be one of my regulars.

We had the last two ripe ones on sandwiches last night and I had to fight over the slices with my DH .

Sari

[amideutch]

This is one of the first varieties I grew after joining TV. Thank you for bringing up this thread and I will grow it again next year. Here's a link and the picture tells it all. Ami

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...ighlight=Dwarf

[Medbury Gardens]

In that thread you posted a link to amideutch,Michael mentioned ( Mine usually cracks more than that since I am growing in the desert Southwest.).
Michael- what is the cause of that??,its a problem i have also.

[mdvpc]

Richard-I have always been told that some varieties are more prone to cracking and when you add in fluctuations in watering, that will do it.

Here is a link to look at:

http://www.agrisupportonline.com/Art...n_tomatoes.htm

http://organicgardening.about.com/od...toes-Split.htm

[Medbury Gardens]

3. Fruit temperature fluctuations and leaf removal. Wide fluctuations in temperature can also induce cracking. This is true especially when plants have been de-leafed too early leaving fruit without protection. The exposed fruit heats up dramatically in the sun. At night it cools relatively quickly and the differential is bigger than it would have been had the leaves covered the fruit. The expansion and contraction of the epidermis and its cells can result in cracking.

Thanks for those links Michael ,I think this explains the problem i have,the temperature differences here between day and night during summer can be as much as 30Cdeg,the same tomatoes in the tunnelhouse dont spilt, the daytime temps are only a little bit higher than outside but much warmer at night.

[mdvpc]

Richard-Glad to have supplied the links.