2011 grow list!

Carolyn,

I live in zone 7b with a small micro climate which normally provides soil temps and air temps conducive to growing garden plants by March 15. We have a 50/50 random chance of a hard frost between March 15 and April 1. Last year, I germinated in early February and planted after April 1. Next spring, I will germinate in Mid January and plant in mid March and hold back some seedlings in case the 50/50 frost chance gets me. This year, I only had six weeks between possible last frost of April 1 and mid 90's heat which arrived in mid may with 105 reached and sustained from early July thorough most of August.

Since I decided to grow from seed kinda late last year, my germination setup wasn't as good as it should have been. That will be corrected for the coming spring season. I should have large, healthy plants ready to bloom and fruit when their feet hit the ground next spring.

Ted

[doublehelix]

We might have the same growing conditions so I thought I would respond. Looks like a good list. I've never been a fan of tiny little tomatoes but like just about everyone that has tried Sungold, I have become a convert so you might want to add that one. I don't care for Celebrity or just about any other determinate. Determinates just never seem to have the flavor. Better Boy does well for me but I don't like that leathery thick skin. I have also tried Goliath and even Sunny Goliath. Both were mealy and Sunny Goliath was almost flavorless. I personally have never had a variety do poorly in one season to come back and do well another time. I owned a nursery for years and I can't think of a single bad variety that became a good one by repeated tries. Out of the Hybrids that I have grown in hot humid weather, Jet star and Park's Whopper, and Supersonic stand out. Jet Star is actually very good for a hybrid. It does well here in the heat/humidity, produces a lot and it has a great flavor. Whopper isn't the best tasting and I didn't grow it this year but I will always take an OK tomato over no tomato at all. I try to grow a mixture of open pollinated and F1 hybrids just to insure that I get my season stretching out as long as possible and as a hedge against catastrophe. Our days are not as long and we mostly have night temps in the 80's and even into the 90's for overnight lows so the folks north of here just can't even imagine the difficulty of growing tomatoes in the South.

Next year I am trying the F1 Solar Set that I got from Tomato Growers Supply. You can read about it there. I have extra seed if you would like to try it.

Of the blacks, Carbon and Black from Tula have done better than about a dozen others I could name so you might want to try those. Arkansas Traveler is a staple in my garden. It starts early and never quits and I love the way it tastes. Unfortunately I think I need fresh seed stock for that one. I didn't save any this year and hope to find a new source or I would send you some.

Best of luck.

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by tedln

...You probably are correct about the Black Krim. I understand it quickly becomes mushy after ripening....

I grew Black Krim a couple years, and it didn't get mealy for me. But it has a very thin skin and needs to be eaten within a day or two after it's picked. It was a good tomato fresh, but since I had a lot at once I cooked some, and it was a spectacular tomato cooked. Not all tomatoes taste good cooked -- I've been adding a few tomatoes to the baking sheet when I roast other vegetables this season to try them out.

[FILMNET]

I have 2 Sweet Carneros Pink plants and there are till have small fruit. Nice plants

Originally Posted by FILMNET

I have 2 Sweet Carneros Pink plants and there are till have small fruit. Nice plants

I have three or four SCP plants growing in my fall garden. A couple of them have a few small fruit. I planted them because I was intrigued by what appears to be gold colored frosting on the fruit as pictured at Wild Boar Farms web site. See the following link.

http://www.wildboarfarms.com/images/100_0288.jpg

Did you get any photos of the fruit you grew?

Ted

Original,

Thanks for the offer on the Sungold seed, but my dance card for next year is pretty much full. If you are looking for some Arkansas Traveler seed, I saw this (see link) when I was looking for some Wild Boar Farm seed the other day. Local Harvest seems to carry the WBF seed as well as some others. I haven't done any business with them so I can't recommend or warn against.

http://www.localharvest.org/arkansas...to-seed-C15010

Ted

[FILMNET]

Tennis ball size or a little bigger, now they are smaller, they do ripen fast also, full of juice, so i picked them early, I have roasted 12 of these with herbs and onions, 400 degrees for 1 hr, the skin is so soft i left it on. Very sweet roasted tomato sauce a real winner. i am growing them next year. i tied the center stem to a 7 ft pole, good thing as you can see very heavy in June, new fruit in July. now new small fruit in October.

Very pretty tomatoes filmnet. Looks like they develop the coloring which becomes the "gold frosting" early. I wasn't expecting tennis ball size on a cluster. I will probably get golf ball size in the fall garden with larger in the spring garden. Thanks!

Ted

[FILMNET]

Beautiful Filmnet. Thanks! They look to be pretty much the standard pink color inside with none of the skin color variation carrying through to the flesh like most of the WBF varieties.

It looks like your camera may have some difficulty with the color red as does my Canon G9. I can get very high resolution on anything with very fine detail unless it is something totally red. Red seems to disperse, blurring fine detail. It just so happens that my favorite garden photos are of red ripe tomatoes. It can get frustrating trying to get a good photo of a beautiful tomato cut open showing the seed and gel detail. The gel is highly reflective. About the only way I can do it is with light dispersal or natural light only.

Ted

[FILMNET]

Fuji has there own chips on there cameras, just like fuji film was very warm slide film.
Cannon and Nikon had terrible time with color on their cameras chips until just lately.
Reds on my cameras are wonderful, i do not touch them, the colors in phohoshop. You should will get a ton of fruit from each plant, cook maybe .

[FILMNET]

There are only red inside, pink and yellow ouside

[Tania]

Ted,

You are so right about different growing conditions leading to different performance results!

I have seen the same tomato varieties from the same seed stock performing differently for me in different years. The difference was quite drastic in some cases - i.e., mealy and yucky in one year and meaty and firm in another, or taste varied from acidic to sweet...

Plus, as Carolyn likes to point out, we all have very different tastes (Carolyn, I actually liked the Sandpoint tomato )

Tania

[FILMNET]

Those Berkeley Tie dye i the shots are from my beauty plant, picked 3-4 days ago.They are beauties and are maybe the 15th fruit for this plant.

[AZRuss]

I can vouch for Moreton Hybrid--tasty and reasonably early. I can also vouch for Celebrity, IF you like fried and/or pickled green tomatoes. I'd rather have a store bought Roma for eating ripe. My Big Beef this year was productive but rather tasteless--a big disappointment.

We don't get much off-the-truck produce here in southern AZ during the summer and early fall. I was in Santa Monica, CA the other day and picked up some Brandywines at their wonderful farmers' market. I thought I had died and gone to heaven! Talk about wonderful...!