surprises in 2013

[eatmoreyeah]

Terhune- one of the better pinks in both taste and production

Russian Persimmion- best tasting orange cultivar amongst the spring grow out- I have it growing in the fall garden and it will be the 1st ripe out of 50 varieties.

[b54red]

Giant Belgium was a real surprise for me this year because it was my best tasting tomato. I have grown it many times and found it rather sweet and bland but this year it actually had a full rich balanced flavor with near perfect texture. The one plant that I grew was a graft onto a Tasti-Lee rootstock. My guess is the rootstock must have had some beneficial effect on the taste so I hope to try it again this season and see if it repeats. The fruits were a bit smaller than usual but that just made them the right size for slicers.

When I grew Donskoi grafted onto Tasti-Lee rootstock the plant was a production miracle. Donskoi is usually one of the stingiest tomatoes I grow; but this grafted version easily produced four times as many tomatoes as usual and plenty of big ones too. I hope I can get a graft of this combination to take so I can try it again this next year. I'm sure at least some of the increased production was due to the weekly feedings of Texas Tomato Food but I don't think it could be entirely responsible for that large of an increase in production.

Bill

[ScottinAtlanta]

The productivity and disease resistance of Chanoka, a Vietnam tomato that I trialed in Atlanta for the first time. The fruit are plum shaped, substantial and heavy, and kept on coming. Even when 90% of the leaves were diseased, fruit kept coming.

While not the best for eating fresh (they rank about 5 on a taste scale of red toms for me), they were great for drying.

[cloz]

I was surprised to find a Sungold volunteer growing in my flower bed by my driveway where it got at most an hour of sunlight per day. This is on the opposite side of my house from my tomatoes. The only way the seed could have got here is by bird "transplant" from my last years Sungolds. The tomatoes are slightly larger but taste the same (I grew Sumgold this year too so I was able to compare) and the foliage has the distinctive Sungold smell. Saved a few seeds so I will be able to try the F3 next year. It will be interesting to see what I get. It was very healthy and provided an abundance of tomatoes right up until frost. Obviously it was not well taken care of by me. It got an old golf club shaft to support it when it was little and later just sprawled all over. It didn't mind.

[NarnianGarden]

Looks very healthy! All the best with the F3 seeds next year.

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by cloz

I was surprised to find a Sungold volunteer growing in my flower bed by my driveway where it got at most an hour of sunlight per day. This is on the opposite side of my house from my tomatoes. The only way the seed could have got here is by bird "transplant" from my last years Sungolds. The tomatoes are slightly larger but taste the same (I grew Sumgold this year too so I was able to compare) and the foliage has the distinctive Sungold smell. Saved a few seeds so I will be able to try the F3 next year. It will be interesting to see what I get. It was very healthy and provided an abundance of tomatoes right up until frost. Obviously it was not well taken care of by me. It got an old golf club shaft to support it when it was little and later just sprawled all over. It didn't mind.

If I ever got something out of an F2 of SunGold, that tasted like Sungold, I'd save about 100 seed, or more.

Dr. Lve Apple

[cloz]

Originally Posted by Tormato

If I ever got something out of an F2 of SunGold, that tasted like Sungold, I'd save about 100 seed, or more.

Dr. Lve Apple

I have about 80 seeds F2. If I get anything worthwhile in F3 next year I will save seeds.