JD’s Special C-Tex

[hardwaterbob]

I grew a few this year. cp ...amazon choc...spudakee...black cherry. I liked amazon choc the best and black cherry was very good. I will grow these two again.

These were also my top 4 tomatoes 4 2011
BOX CAR WILLIE
SIBERIAN PINK
PEACEVINE CHERRY
PRIZE OF THE TRIALS



Bob

[beefyboy]

JD's has been my favorite black for some time now. Indian stripe just cannot match the flavor for me here in Florida. Dana's has yielded well but the flavor in my opinion cannot match J.D. J.D is like the black version of Earls Faux to me! both complex sweetness with richness beyond compare!!.

[Iva]

Originally Posted by gdaddybill

JD's was a good producer for me this year and very tasty. Like most heirlooms it cracked so badly late in the season I couldn't harvest many. Had good production from Cherokee Purple and it was so sweet it almost overwhelmed a BLT. Nyagous has been a very productive and long lasting variety in past gardens and the year before last I had Black Sea Man (on hybrid rootstock) and Black from Tula (this one growing in a large pot). Liked them both-juicy flesh, just enough acid,sweet with melting flesh and complex tomato flavors but thought the Black from Tula was a little better. Grafted Black Sea Man was very vigorous and produced late into the season but stress-cracked so bad they would rot before they ripened even when brought indoors with a bit of color showing.

I really hope you saved some seeds from your Cherokee Purple, I've been looking for a good 'strain' of it and yours sounds like a winner. Would you like to trade for it? Please, check out my trading list. Many thanks!!

[kath]

Originally Posted by greyghost

Generally speaking, I've found Indian Stripe and Dana's Dusky Rose to be
similiar in taste except DDR has a bit of a "wine" follow-up taste. I think my
Indian Stripe might be more productive and for a longer period-maybe the
fruits are larger than DDR-need to grow both a couple more seasons to be sure.

Kath, I had been getting white spots on toms also-started last year.
My good tomato buddy told me they were from STINK BUGS. This year I
paid more attention and I swear he's correct about this. I noticed light-
colored halos on the surface of toms after fruits were covered by SB's-
on both tomatoes and peppers as well. I've noticed the whitish areas in
the wall under the halos on both. Taste didn't seem to be affected but
the fruits are terribly unappetising given that SB's inject a solution to dissolve
the pulp in order to "suck it up". What do you think?? I don't think I had any
stink bugs at all in '09, also no halos or white spots. Some SB's in '10 (I actually thought they might be beneficial at first until bigdaddyj told me
otherwise!) when I first started seeing the white spots. In '11, we had an
absolutely heavy infestation and no mistaking the white areas/halos. cry:

Sadly, I think you're right, greysghost- tomatoes are gone and the remaining stinkbugs flocked to the pepper plants. The latest peppers are just a mess! The thought has crossed my mind but I didn't even want to think it let alone investigate. They definitely seemed to have preferred certain varieties. Maybe there's hope for planting trap crops of their favorite tomatoes and peppers. Definitely NOT good news.

[greyghost]

My corn certainly was a trapcrop...for a while! Then a heavy infestation on
tomatoes and peppers. Bigdaddyj said he had fairly good luck repelling
them with Pyola. It's a pyrethin/canola mixture; I just purchased some
from Garden's Alive for next year. I think there are similiar, probably less
expensive, products available locally, though.

Heater service was out this morning. He said spraying soapy water on them
(on his house) killed them. I assume he meant dish detergent-hubby didn't ask. I'll try that too-hard to believe anything kills them. When they've landed
on screens, I've shot them with Clorox/Cleaner, Kaboom cleaner to no avail.
Ended up swatting them-what a mess! Also, they're extremely juicey-what a mess. Fortunately, our house is brick-think we'll still power wash it! One day,
I counted the number swatted and killed, over 500 on the house/barn.

The U of D is working on predator wasps that control them in China; hopefully,
they'll find they can be used here (other universities are also working on traps/predators) without upsetting the ecosystem. We use predators to kill
housefly larva in horse manure with great success.

That said, deer ate my J.D.'s this year!

[kath]

Originally Posted by greyghost

My corn certainly was a trapcrop...for a while! Then a heavy infestation on
tomatoes and peppers. Bigdaddyj said he had fairly good luck repelling
them with Pyola. It's a pyrethin/canola mixture; I just purchased some
from Garden's Alive for next year. I think there are similiar, probably less
expensive, products available locally, though.

Heater service was out this morning. He said spraying soapy water on them
(on his house) killed them. I assume he meant dish detergent-hubby didn't ask. I'll try that too-hard to believe anything kills them. When they've landed
on screens, I've shot them with Clorox/Cleaner, Kaboom cleaner to no avail.
Ended up swatting them-what a mess! Also, they're extremely juicey-what a mess. Fortunately, our house is brick-think we'll still power wash it! One day,
I counted the number swatted and killed, over 500 on the house/barn.

The U of D is working on predator wasps that control them in China; hopefully,
they'll find they can be used here (other universities are also working on traps/predators) without upsetting the ecosystem. We use predators to kill
housefly larva in horse manure with great success.

That said, deer ate my J.D.'s this year!

Didn't notice them on the corn at all. I sprayed with soap (I read about heavy concentrations of the original blue Dawn), then tried vinegar, then alcohol, then some organic product we had around, but as you said, nothing but a mess resulted. Stopped smacking them with a flyswatter on the house last year after I read that the residue attracts more. I knock them into a container of soapy water & they drown- I've killed well over 1000 in a day. Hopefully, we'll see an impact in next year's population, but I won't be surprised if they're just as bad...we've seen great increases in numbers in the past few years.

The pyola mixture is definitely on my list of things to try for the garden next year- thanks for the tip.

[Pyrrho]

I grew JD's for the first time this year. I had serious catfacing problems throughout the season (same with my Indian Stripe) and the flavor wasn't all that great. The Indian Stripes had the best flavor for me.

I also grew Gary'O Sena, which produced a bunch of large, blemish free tomatoes early on (see avatar), but they weren't as good as other blacks I've tried.

I've had the best results with CP so far, so next year I'm going to compare it with Spudakee.

I'm going down to just two black varieties next year -- I'd rather have more pinks (and there are so many to try!).

[semi_lucid]

Kath

In the other thread, "My Hero", when I asked how bad Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs are, you said:

Originally Posted by kath

John, in my garden the damage is minimal but they are terribly annoying pests indoors

Squash bugs are much more destructive imo,

I hope others can give you more info about the damage they've experienced.

Are you changing your mind about them? I hate "true bugs". The whole 'injecting saliva' thing is gross.

I've been getting a few of these on tomatoes:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/260694/bgpage

John

[SEAMSFASTER]

Cherokee purple has been one of my favorite tomatoes for several years, but I have yet to get good production from it.


I raised 17 black varieties this season. Black Sea Man was one of the earliest and most productive, but as noted by gdaddybill, mine were also somewhat prone to cracking. The flavor was excellent, especially early in the season when few other varieties were producing.


I got even better production from Carbon, which also has an excellent, rich flavor. Most fruits were in the 10-12 oz. range for me, but I had a few near 1 lb.


Vorlon is another decent-sized, quick producing black variety that puts out very good tasting fruits.


JD's certainly sounds worth trying!

[b54red]

I love JDs but it isn't as good in resisting the fusarium as is Indian Stripe in my garden so like most tomatoes I grow it doesn't get to produce for nearly as long as I would like. It seems that a few varieties seem to have better resistance and so they usually out produce the varieties that are more susceptible.

I've only grown two plants of Big Cheef but it was as large and as tasty as JDs for me this year. It really pumps out the large tasty tomatoes and they keep fairly good for a black tomato.

I found Spudakee to be really productive but the taste is not as good as a couple of the other blacks; but it really out produced Cherokee Purple this year.

I have found for the last two years that Gary O' Sena was fairly mild early in the season but changed dramatically once the really hot weather gets here. I am not planning on setting out any black tomatoes early next year but rather save them for my second and third planting when they will have the advantage of ripening in really hot dry weather when they taste so much better. By doing that I will be sacrificing numbers and size for flavor. Besides it will allow me to set out more pinks early and they seem to need the early planting much more than the blacks.

[gdaddybill]

Unfortunately I didn't save any Cherokee Purple seeds and I know how different heirlooms can be from one source to another. I got my plant from Arbor Gate Nursery in Tomball, TX so I'll try them again next year in hopes their grower is using the same seed source.

[kath]

Originally Posted by semi_lucid

Kath

In the other thread, "My Hero", when I asked how bad Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs are, you said:



Are you changing your mind about them? I hate "true bugs". The whole 'injecting saliva' thing is gross.

I've been getting a few of these on tomatoes:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/260694/bgpage

John

Good question, John! I had posted a question thread about these white spots in the walls of my tomatoes a while back but got no responses that led to me believe that the stinkbugs were the culprits. In researching a bit about these spots the various possibilities posed involved water, temperature and other nebulous factors. It seemed that some varieties had the problem to an extreme degree and others weren't affected at all. So for me, trying to find the best tomatoes of the year, it was just another check in the negative column for some.

Given the increase in the problem with my peppers (see pics below) after removing my tomato plants this season and the information shared by greyghost, I'd definitely say they're doing lots of damage to these two vegetables in my garden and I'll be forced to take some kind of action in the garden next year because of them.

I'll be posting a note about this on that thread- thanks for the reminder. And yes, I've seen some of those other bugs, too.

The pictures below show badly some of the peppers are now affected inside and out. Yuck!

Kath

[Iva]

Originally Posted by gdaddybill

Unfortunately I didn't save any Cherokee Purple seeds and I know how different heirlooms can be from one source to another. I got my plant from Arbor Gate Nursery in Tomball, TX so I'll try them again next year in hopes their grower is using the same seed source.

Too bad, I was really hoping you'd have some

[ScreminFlea]

Thought I'd revive this thread. I've got the C-Tex in my garden for the first time this year. Thus far, nothing has ripened yet, but this plant is out producing every other tomato in my garden by a long shot. Most have 1 to 4 tomatoes waiting to ripen. This one probably has a dozen fruit hanging on it.

Has anyone had any new experiences with it? Has it been established that there's any instability in this variety? Inquiring minds want to know!

[kath]

Originally Posted by ScreminFlea

Thought I'd revive this thread. I've got the C-Tex in my garden for the first time this year. Thus far, nothing has ripened yet, but this plant is out producing every other tomato in my garden by a long shot. Most have 1 to 4 tomatoes waiting to ripen. This one probably has a dozen fruit hanging on it.

Has anyone had any new experiences with it? Has it been established that there's any instability in this variety? Inquiring minds want to know!

I haven't given up on JD's yet but last year it didn't stack up as well against the competition because the fruits, though plentiful, were smaller than the ones others seem to get and the taste wasn't as good as a couple of other varieties I grew that are similar in color. So this year I'm growing plants from seeds I got from Gleckler's as well as from 2 members here to see if I can get better results.