Heirlooms NOT to grow!

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by tedln

. . . This thread seems to have evolved from heirlooms not to grow too heirlooms to grow. . . .

Perhaps 'heirlooms not to grow' and 'heirlooms not to not grow' ?

[AlittleSalt]

JLJ, I agree. But putting a little different spin on it - grow what has proven to grow for you.

[nancyruhl]

Originally Posted by tedln

I've been trying to remember the name of a tomato that I really liked that I believe had a name that meant watermelon in Russian. It was probably the most beautiful tomato I've ever grown and tasted as good as it looked. While I never saw it listed as a black tomato, it had such a dark maroon color with lite green vertical striping, it looked like many of the "black" varieties. If I'm ringing any bells on the name, let me know please.

Ted

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Arbuznyi

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by nancyruhl

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Arbuznyi

You beat me to it Nancy.I already had the links saved,but got diverted this AM reading the news online.

here's the two I saved

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Watermelon

And the one you put up

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Arbuznyi

Now I can go back and delete both of them which is good since for a long time now when I want to save a link I'm told no more room,delete more,and I do.

Limit is 2400 items saved in my faves and some of those go back to, well,way back.

Carolyn

[korney19]

Sounds like someone's Arbuznyi seeds got crossed--differemt colors & way different sizes!

Originally Posted by korney19

Sounds like someone's Arbuznyi seeds got crossed--differemt colors & way different sizes!

Nope, that's it. I spent two or three days trying to remember the name. My color description of Maroon and Tatiana's description of mahogany are pretty close. My mind couldn't come up with mahogany when I was trying to define a color description but it is probably closer to accurate than maroon. I liked them well enough to plan growing them again next year after a one or two year absence from my garden.

Thanks Nancy and Carolyn!

Ted

[korney19]

Originally Posted by tedln

Nope, that's it. I spent two or three days trying to remember the name. My color description of Maroon and Tatiana's description of mahogany are pretty close. My mind couldn't come up with mahogany when I was trying to define a color description but it is probably closer to accurate than maroon. I liked them well enough to plan growing them again next year after a one or two year absence from my garden.

Thanks Nancy and Carolyn!

Ted

Hey, I'd love to grow it too, I wasn't saying that that wasn't what you grew, I commented because there was also "2-4oz red fruit...", another person said 8oz average... Andrey listed it as 5-6oz, and I know many things can affect fruit size. So including some well-respected growers, it looks like something red, dark raspberry, mahogany, or black fruit, sizes 2-8oz. or more.

Originally Posted by korney19

Hey, I'd love to grow it too, I wasn't saying that that wasn't what you grew, I commented because there was also "2-4oz red fruit...", another person said 8oz average... Andrey listed it as 5-6oz, and I know many things can affect fruit size. So including some well-respected growers, it looks like something red, dark raspberry, mahogany, or black fruit, sizes 2-8oz. or more.

I don't remember weighing any of them, but I would guess mine to weigh 4 or 5 ounces. They were pretty early in my garden and my early/semi early varieties don't usually get very large. I could never get over how beautiful they were hanging on the vines. The vines also didn't seem to get as large as some of the other indeterminate varieties. That's always a nice attribute in my garden.

Ted

[mtbigfish]

I agree with your list except over the years Black Brandywine I have grown was great - I just found your book at Menards and bought it - then told a friend on my street about it - he was excited to hear about is as he is getting hooked on everything Heirlooms, organic, drip watering etc and has been working with me in my garden - I have been sharing my knowledge and a plot for him and he has shared his labor - so I bought a copy at Lowes - yeah they both stock it now. I am glad my friends around to help so I can still grow!!!

I have been loving it - I also have Carolyn's book from back when it first came out and Amy Goldman's also - I thought in moving to Ohio in 2010 people would be more informed about gardening and heirlooms , however they have fooled me - also found Ohio grows a lot of HMO's and the politicians here are sold on them. Anyway I has some of your Cherokee Green seeds but hadn't used them yet and ran into a small nursery on the old 104 going south to Portsmouth that has Cherokee Green plant. I have to tell you it tasted better to me than Evergreen, Aunt Rubys and equal to or a little better than Green Giant it's a winner -


I have a question as to where to buy some of your seeds and recommended dwarfs or compact plants as I have about 75 large pots that I always plant early because of poor drainage and standing rain and I am wondering about using them for that instead of large Indeterminants. I plant my big garden later with the normal plants- yes Little Lucky and Lucky Cross will go in with Cherokee Purple and more - I have about 500 varieties of seeds and have tried about twice that - not close to your 1200++++ but what the heck!! I only plant about 75-100 varieties per year- well I'am going through seeds now trying to get ready soon to go to the basement, prep trays etc and check the growing lights - can't wait

I have trouble now because I was given an anti-biotic that put me in the hospital - also damaged my vestibular nerves so my balance was destroyed - at least I can use a walker and garden- gave my raft to my son in Montana to sell and gave him all my guns, backpack, camping gear etc
I wont be able to use it - now I'm selling what he didn't want - he a flyfishing outfitter and has a fyshop so he didn't need that stuff


Later Dennis

[Keen101]

Originally Posted by tedln

Speaking only for myself, I sometimes wonder if it would be helpful to be color blind when judging the taste quality of various tomatoes. I wonder if my prejudice for red tomatoes ("it ain't a tomato if it ain't red") causes me to lower my estimation of the flavors of orange, yellow, GWR, black and other color varieties.

Interesting. I'm at the point where i am pretty much of the opposite. If it's a red tomato it automatically gets pre-judged as tasting awful and inferior. This is purely just because through my own experience with store tomatoes over the years that red tomatoes have been getting worse and worse. Especially if they are a pale red. So naturally i distrust red tomatoes by learned instinct now. That's not to say that i don't find reds that taste decent, but from a pre-judging perspective that's what i think of first.

I'm still new to world of tomatoes in general though, and i have little experience with all the different colors and flavors. But i'm working on my own tomato trials again this year which probably will turn into some sort of breeding effort to find and/or breed the kind of tomato i end up enjoying the most. From a color perspective i tend to like bold bright colors with maybe a hint of darkness. I'm investigating some oranges and some "black" varieties as well as some with wild heritage. It will be interesting to see which ones i eliminate and which ones i end up selecting over time.

[carolyn137]

Dennis, I'll get back to your post when I can,just noting that I don't sell seeds but can give you some links to a couple of vendors who do sell seeds from my book.

An alternative is asking for a few here at Tville in the Wanted Forum, but maybe not the best choice. But if you are looking for seeds for LOTS of them, then definitely go the vendor route.

Carolyn

[mtbigfish]

The reply was supposed to be to Craig - do you have links to sales of seeds from the dwarf project - and info ?? I have most of the varieties from your book I bought over 15-20 yrs ago plus another 350 varieties

just wanted to try dwarfs in my big pots instead of big indeterminate and compact plants

[mtbigfish]

I love black & purple tomatoes - most of them anyway and many reds pinks & some greens all mostly heirlooms and a few gold, yellow and orange

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by mtbigfish

The reply was supposed to be to Craig - do you have links to sales of seeds from the dwarf project - and info ?? I have most of the varieties from your book I bought over 15-20 yrs ago plus another 350 varieties

just wanted to try dwarfs in my big pots instead of big indeterminate and compact plants

I don't think Craig ever sold seeds, yes,plants at the Market in Raleigh,but Tania sells most of them and if you click on any of them it tells you who originally had seeds for them and hopefully still does.

http://tatianastomatobase.com/w/inde...+Leaf#mw-pages

Tania's home page is

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Main_Page

I'm not sure which book of Craig's you are refering to but it wouldn't be his Epic Tomato book since that was much more recent than 20 years ago.

In my orginal answer to you I also suggested that another option you have, and still do,is to post in the Wanted seed subforum here and ask for the ones you want to try.

Hope the above helps,

Carolyn

[mtbigfish]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

I don't think Craig ever sold seeds, yes,plants at the Market in Raleigh,but Tania sells most of them and if you click on any of them it tells you who originally had seeds for them and hopefully still does.

http://tatianastomatobase.com/w/inde...+Leaf#mw-pages

Tania's home page is

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Main_Page

I'm not sure which book of Craig's you are refering to but it wouldn't be his Epic Tomato book since that was much more recent than 20 years ago.

In my orginal answer to you I also suggested that another option you have, and still do,is to post in the Wanted seed subforum here and ask for the ones you want to try.

Hope the above helps,

Carolyn

Your book was about 20 yrs ago I just bought Craigs in Dec-Jan and saw all the dwarfs