Cool climate Cold fruitset OP Heirlooms

[BlackBear]

For what it's worth I am wondering what are growers experience with the

Cool Climate , Cold temp. fruit set varieties ...what is the earliest for you to excel in cool Temps?

(The earliest to give you fruit and yet still be a OP heirloom in cool temps.)

What is the most consistent and dependable in the cool before the main crop hybrids even get going?

I seem to have good luck with :


Stupice

Kimberly

Sasha's Altai

Cosmonaut Volkov

Silvery Fir




* Siberia (dwarf rugose) will keep going till the cool cool fall ...but not first fruit set.

also Latah.


I am trying more this year but I am interested in what peoples best experience is in this cool climate/ cold fruit set pursuit and the varieties they use .

[NarnianGarden]

Earliest: Azoychka, Mohamed, SunGold (not a heirloom though)... also Dwarf Jade beauty was very early, in July on a sunny balcony, but that was because it was planted very early - too early, in fact.

Most 'early' varieties, as Sub arctic Plenty, were the last ones to ripen... but the location probably was to blame.

[BlackBear]

I will have to give Azoychka and Mohamed a retry .

I totally bombed on those ones ......who knows ...probably my poor gardening culture practise.

I have tried Sub Arctic plenty before .....but I preferred ...my normal list

I am going to try ( late start in season )

Extreme Bush (from Victory seeds this year ...says 50 days ).

If in container and is vigorous ... It could be a good candidate to move from outside to inside to extend the Tomato season .

[AlittleSalt]

I can offer what I read about "Siberian" It's 45-55 DTM and continues to produce with temperature as low as 37F.

[BlackBear]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

I can offer what I read about "Siberian" It's 45-55 DTM and continues to produce with temperature as low as 37F.

I have tried before a Siberian and " Siberia " . Both were good for me.


Ya ! you sure gotta be careful with the various nomenclature

I have tried "SiberiaN " if you mean the one that is regular leaf and the fruit is slightly oblong .

It was good taste but larger plant than the One I use now .... " Siberia " which is a dwarf rugose leaf ...round fruit .


geese I am also trying that one Sibirskiy Skorspelyi some avoid the spelling difficulty and call it "Early Siberian ".

I even think I saw a Red Siberian ....I think there has been a problem with the cluster of names around "Siberian " in various seedhouses meaning different things.

I think there is something wonderful about " Siberia " When it is showing rugose vegetative growth advancement in marginal cool temps....where other regular season varieties are geared to not grow much at all at those cool temps.

I had an interesting phenomena happen about 2011 I had about 80 containers outside extra early and really noticed a few varieties advance in foliage where the others were "waiting for regular Tomato temps" . 2 times the urban deer got over 2 layers of fence and both times they only chomped on the "Siberia" foliage with the various plants in different locations in the
80 container formation . They totally left the others alone to get over to the Siberia foliage . Kind of like when fussy deer only go for strawberry foliage and lily heads/buds.
I have no idea what is going on with this ...but the deer must be telling us something .

[KarenO]

I'm in Zone 3 and don't really grow many early tomatoes as I prefer the midseason varieties in general but a couple you might like are Bloody butcher and Moravski div.

There is a lot more variety in colour, form and flavour in the earlier midseason types and the difference is not very much in DTM if you start them early yourself. Should be easy to do on the Island. Look at some of the Ukrainian and Russian tomatoes for example.
KarenO


KarenO

[BlackBear]

thanks karenO ,
those are good suggestions ,

I possibly have I think 2 strains of bloody butcher maybe

One that I have already set fruit this year ,

and one that sets a bit later ....I just had to collect seed as the Fruit was

non stop /loaded like Bloody butcher expected but...The Fruit was Much larger

than expected .........I suspect inadvertent hybridization .

Both are Potato leaf and round dark red fruit (Looks like Bloody Butcher !..only bigger fruit )

The seeds I collected I specially marked as "Mutant Bloody Butcher".

I know enough to know this plant is not Stupice, Matina, Kimberly or Kotlas .


People are often surprised that if a coastal area gets +220 frost free days and horticultural area 7B...it must be easy to grow tomatoes .


....but what if I told you that that we (Normally) get 50 % of the bright hours of sunshine as Alberta and about 50 % of the Heat degree Growing days as southern Alberta here on this part of the island ....Ah ha ! You might see it a bit differently .

That makes a different growing season indeed even if you are rated as a Zone 3 . you may have twice as much heat degree growing days and twice as much Bright sunshine as here.

That's sort of why a strategy for me here is to start as early as possible with early ,cool set and try to gain what you can from the low temps and spread it out ..longer at cooler temps.(if possible ) .

I think those Ukrainian , Russia and area Tomatoes for me are just what the Dr. ordered and I am in the process of trying a few different ones every year .