Looking for a Great Tomato

EricaR · January 20, 2017

Hi, this is my first post here. I have a small soil analysis business, and participate in around 2000 recommendations per year. Mainly, it's gardeners and small scale organic farmers. I am co-author (with Steve Solomon) of "The Intelligent Gardener - Growing Nutrient Dense Food".

I am here because I'm looking for a good tomato for my purposes. I vastly prefer the disease resistant hybrids as my night temperature gets into the 50's F just about every night of the year, so blight is a problem. I also have lots of nematodes. My go-to tomato is Johnnie's New Girl - after extensive trials I have replaced the Early girls. BTW, I am located in Arroyo Grande, CA, 4 miles inland from the Pacific. That's about halfway between SF & LA, 90 miles N of Santa Barbara.

This year I tried Johnnie's Big Beef hybrid. I really liked the production and disease resistance, but the flavor was not great. Brix of about 5 compared to the New Girls at about 9. What I really liked about the Big Beef was the size. It made processing so much easier! I generally grow two 30 foot beds full of tomatoes, and most of them go into jars for use later in the year.

I have located one tomato I want to try this year. The Murray Smith OP variety won our local taste test. Seeds are not available, but plants can be purchased, so I can save seeds if the variety works out.

Anybody have suggestions for a nematode resistant, large, blight resistant tomato that tastes great?

Thanks,

Erica

January 20, 2017	#1
EricaR Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2017 Location: Arroyo Grande, CA, USA Posts: 3	Looking for a Great Tomato Hi, this is my first post here. I have a small soil analysis business, and participate in around 2000 recommendations per year. Mainly, it's gardeners and small scale organic farmers. I am co-author (with Steve Solomon) of "The Intelligent Gardener - Growing Nutrient Dense Food". I am here because I'm looking for a good tomato for my purposes. I vastly prefer the disease resistant hybrids as my night temperature gets into the 50's F just about every night of the year, so blight is a problem. I also have lots of nematodes. My go-to tomato is Johnnie's New Girl - after extensive trials I have replaced the Early girls. BTW, I am located in Arroyo Grande, CA, 4 miles inland from the Pacific. That's about halfway between SF & LA, 90 miles N of Santa Barbara. This year I tried Johnnie's Big Beef hybrid. I really liked the production and disease resistance, but the flavor was not great. Brix of about 5 compared to the New Girls at about 9. What I really liked about the Big Beef was the size. It made processing so much easier! I generally grow two 30 foot beds full of tomatoes, and most of them go into jars for use later in the year. I have located one tomato I want to try this year. The Murray Smith OP variety won our local taste test. Seeds are not available, but plants can be purchased, so I can save seeds if the variety works out. Anybody have suggestions for a nematode resistant, large, blight resistant tomato that tastes great? Thanks, Erica