growing tomatoes in the PNW

[jwr6404]

heather
In my area of the PNW we are cooler,more cloudy and a lot wetter than what you have in New England.

[DoubleJ]

Thanks for the input and insight. Please critique my selections for this year. What varieties should I probably not bother with?

Black Cherry
Galina's Yellow Cherry
Pearly Pink
White Currant
Riesentraube
Andrew Rahart Jumbo Red
Anna Russian
Aunt Gerie's Gold
Aunt Ginny's Purple
Aunt Ruby's German Green
Bear Claw
Berkeley Tie Dye
Brandywine Sudduth
Corneu des Andes(andes horn)
DeBarao Black
Dr. Lyle
Dr. Neal
German Red Strawberry
Giannini
Japanese Oxheart
KBX
Lillian's Yellow Heirloom
Lucky Cross
Maiden's Kiss
Matt d'Imperio
Mazarini
Neves Azorean Red
Nicky Crain
Omar's Lebanese
Orange Russian 117
Paul Robeson
Pruden's Purple
Prue
Purple Dog Creek
Russian 117
Slankard's
Soldacki
Striped Red Boar
Tidwell German
Yellow Brandywine (Platfoot)
Cherokee Purple
Hugh's
Orange Minsk
Stump of the World
Black Seaman
New Big Dwarf
Sophie's Choice
Rutgers
Sioux
Black from Tula
Clear Pink Early
Aker's West Virginia
Ashleigh
Believe it or not
Big Ben
Blaby
Black Krim
Box car Willie
Buckeye Yellow
Bull's Heart
Carbon
Cherokee Green
Cosmonaut Volkov
Crimson Delight
Crven
Druzba
Earl's Faux
Early Kus Ali
Eli
Emerald Evergreen
Gogoshari Striped
Goji Faranji
Gold Medal
Granny Cantrell's
Green Giant
Grub's Mystery Green
Indian Stripe
Jaune Flammee
Kalman's Hungarian Pink
Kellogg's Breakfast
Large Pink Bulgarian
Lenny & Gracie's Kentucky
Levino
Marianna's Peace
Marizol Bratka
Marizol Gold
Millionaire
Mortgage Lifter
Mule Team
Palmira's Northern Itallian
Peiping Chieh
Persimmon
Pineapple
Pink Berkeley Tie Dye
Polish (Ellis)
Red Barn
Slavic Masterpiece
Sorrento
Sylvan Gaume
Tarasenko 6
West Virginia Sweetmeat
1884

[dice]

There are so many in that list that I consider high risk
(for getting a tiny or no harvest from outdoors in our weather)
that I would turn it around and pick out the most likely to
bring in a harvest.

These should get you some fruit most years:

Black Cherry
Galina's
Paul Robeson
Pruden's Purple (I got fruit but they were bland at our temps.)
Cherokee Purple
Sophie's Choice
Sioux
Clear Pink Early
Black Krim
Cherokee Green
Grub's Mystery Green

I consider Galina's, Clear Pink Early, and Black Krim
the closest in that list to a sure thing. The others
there are likely to do well in an at least average summer
up here.

A lot of the others on your list I have not tried. I would
probably at least give Earl's Faux, Bear Claw, Pink Berkely
Tie-Dye, and Brandywine Sudduth a chance, prune them
to just a few stems, top them the first of September,
and not feel too bad if the weather fails to cooperate
and I only get a few fruit from them, because the taste
is worth it. (Kind of like steelhead fishing.) And you never
know when we are going to get lucky and get a summer
like 2006, when everything brings in a nice crop.

You are on your own with the rest of those. They all tasted
great for somebody somewhere, many are good producers
in other climates, but there is little or no evidence that they
will duplicate that performance outdoors in Western
Washington.

[DoubleJ]

Thanks. I'm going to try most and see what happens.

[Tania]

Brandywine Sudduth always performs well for me here.
Indian Stripe, Grub's Mystery Green, Emerald Evergreen, Cherokee Green, DeBarao Black, Jaune Flammee, Prue, Russian #117, and Mortgage Lifter did well here in the 'bad' years (2007, 2008)

Pineapple, Ashleigh, 1884 and Red Barn - I am retrying these this year, as they did not perform well.

Anna Russian, Clear Pink Early have been great.

[jwr6404]

I will be starting the following seeds tomorrow.
Anna Russian
Black from Tula
Brandywine Red(landis)
Mortgage Lifter(estlers)
Break O' day
Cherokee Chocolate
Crynkovich Yugoslavian
Druzba
German Red Strawberry
Soldacki
VB Russian
Eva Purple Ball
Marianna's Peace
KBX

As for Hybrids

Big Zac
Porterhouse

[DoubleJ]

Originally Posted by jwr6404

I will be starting the following seeds tomorrow.
Anna Russian
Black from Tula
Brandywine Red(landis)
Mortgage Lifter(estlers)
Break O' day
Cherokee Chocolate
Crynkovich Yugoslavian
Druzba
German Red Strawberry
Soldacki
VB Russian
Eva Purple Ball
Marianna's Peace
KBX

As for Hybrids

Big Zac
Porterhouse

We'll need to get together in the late summer and swap our extra tomatoes.

[jwr6404]

jj
We certainly live close enough to do that.

[dice]

Early Kus Ali looks early enough in Trudi's pictures in Tania's
TOMATObase that it is probably a good bet that it will ripen
fruit here before the fall rains.

What I do to get around the finickiness and lateness of many
fabled heirlooms is plant way more plants than I need.
The bulk of the production usually ends up coming from a few
cultivars that turn out to do well here, and the ones that do not
produce are not a big tragedy. At least I usually get to taste
them and have saved seeds to trade or give away, even if they
did not produce enough fruit to justify growing them again.

(It is actually not as sparse as steelhead fishing. I remember
going steelhead fishing several times each winter for 6 years
when I was a kid without having had so much as a bite from
one fish.)

[tache]

I figure I still have a little bit of time to play with my list. So I am still very open to suggestion.
Stupice
Black Prince
Green zebra
Earl's Faux
Kimberly
Cherokee
Celebrity
Sun Gold
Sweet 100
Black Cherry
Paul Robeson
The ones I am tending toward still
Marianna's Peace
Mong
Bloody Butcher

I am thinking about some of the hibreds from Oregon State. I haven't been very taken with them so far. They haven't ever been bad but they haven't been to my taste but territorial has some they are calling Beaverlodge Slicer. Corvallis is 35 miles north of us and territorial is 15 miles south so I figure I am in the right zone. Don't let the logic put you off.
I really agree with Tania on the DTM. What is suggested has almost no connection with my experience.

[dice]

I put Bloody Butcher in the sure thing category (very early, not
especially disease-prone). The flavor is not as sweet as Stupice
(same size fruit), but it is a steady producer of round red
tomatoes that actually taste like tomatoes (not bland).

I have not grown Marianna's Peace or Mong, but I expect them
both to be late enough ripening by local standards to be a
no-fruit risk. You probably have a little more heat over a summer
on average where you are than we have up here around Puget
Sound.

[Tania]

I am growing Marianna's Peace this year. Tache, let's compare our notes at the end of the season if you end up planting it. I agree that it may be a bit too late for us, but I have an advantage of growing it in a greenhouse, so we'll see

We are building 1 new greenhouse this spring, 6'x16'

Tania

[jwr6404]

tania
I'm growing Marianna's Peace as well

[Tania]

Originally Posted by jwr6404

tania
I'm growing Marianna's Peace as well

Excellent. That'll be a good PNW trial!
I will be growing MP from 4 different seed sources, and I plan to have ~12 plants total.

We will see if it is a good as it was claimed to be

Tania

[Tania]

Originally Posted by jwr6404

I will be starting the following seeds tomorrow.
Anna Russian
Black from Tula
Brandywine Red(landis)
Mortgage Lifter(estlers)
Break O' day
Cherokee Chocolate
Crynkovich Yugoslavian
Druzba
German Red Strawberry
Soldacki
VB Russian
Eva Purple Ball
Marianna's Peace
KBX

Jim,

German Red Strawberry, Cherokee Chocolate, Crnkovic Yugoslavian, Druzba, MP, and Eva Purple Ball seeds are started here as well, along with quite a few others This is a 2nd batch, and these will go into the greenhouses hopefully at the end of April. We had a heavy snow here today in Anmore, luckily it melted right away on the road, as the temperatures were above freezing.

My last batch of seed will be started 1st or 2nd week of March.

Tania