The early tomato thread

[Father'sDaughter]

I typically grow one early in order to have something to sample while waiting on the others. The last few years it was Kimberley and it never disappointed. This year I received seeds for several early varieties in the swap and opted to go with Early Wonder instead.

Seeds were started 3/23 and it was planted out in a 5 gallon grow bag before the end of May. While it has set a good number of fruit, three look like they're ready to start blushing any moment. Patiently waiting...

[bower]

I got a bit early-redded out last season..so many of them and a fairly high rate of disappointment for one reason or another. I ended up choosing ten new to me 'early-mid' slicers that had good reviews elsewhere to try this time. Only a couple of new early reds: Glacier is one that didn't come true to type last year, and Sasha's Altai, but it also isn't true to type this time. Moravsky Div is the 'clock' this year, and true to form it set early and reliably even though the temperatures were cool and not much sun. Glacier behaved like a slicer: set one fruit and grow it for dear life until conditions improve. It does have nice big clusters now and I hope they are tasty!
A horrible spring here with snow on the ground for days in May, and weeks of cold drizzle and dense fog with bitter northeasterly winds. I started late and planted a month later than last year, and it was still cold. Only three of the new slicers had set fruit by 90 days from germination: Indian Stripe PL, Amazon Chocolate, and Malachite Box. They did as well or better than the old standard Chernomor, so I am duly impressed. Also, Pervaya Lyubov and Oaxacan Jewel PL both flowered and set fruit earlier than before, which is amazing.

I'm also growing a bunch of F1 crosses from last year, which are (mostly) doing quite well. Best and earliest of all is a Kimberley X Zolotye Kupola F1 - which has set and grown a ton of fruit in the cold, no problem. I should get to taste these in a week or two.

I forgot to post my last year's results here, attached pdf. Can't wait to hear how everybody's pans out this time.