Name your favorite Early Tomatoes non-cherry type

[kath]

My husband has a small greenhouse filled with cacti but I take over a corner in late winter/early spring and have experimented with some "early" tomatoes over the past few years. So far I haven't liked any of them well enough to bring it back for a 2nd season.

This year I sowed Pozhar and Ranniy Dubinina on 3/11- as soon as they arrived in the mail. Pozhar ripened on 7/4; RD on 7/12. Taste was ok; size 3-5 oz. Two of my favorites beefsteaks, Blackberry and Indian Zebra, were sown on 4/9 but ripened on 7/22 and 7/23. They have been my 1st ripening non-cherry types for a few years. Next year I'm just going to sow some of my earliest ripening favorites a month earlier. No more early variety experiments for me.

[BigVanVader]

Originally Posted by rhoder551

I get the impression a lot of people think this one is nasty but Juliet is the best early tomato in my garden. Very productive without any disease issues and the first plant to produce and the last tomato harvested in November or so. Gigantic plant though, and has a tendency to sprawl all over the place, which I kinda like. The tomatoes need to be well ripened to taste sweet....

I like Juliet for the same reasons. It makes great salsa and they are easy to roast and de-skin. I dont think they taste that bad but I use them mostly for cooking/salsa.

[AlittleSalt]

A couple that are in the early season section of the Tomato Growers catalog are:

Gregori's Altai -67 days
New Big Dwarf - 60 days

I've read a lot of good things about both of those.

There are a lot of the others at TG mentioned above this post as well.

[Spartanburg123]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

Early Girl is pretty good.

Yes, Early Girl is a winner- very tart, productive, and early...

[EPawlick]

Planted Early Girl Indeterminate May 9 . First tomato July 19.
Planted Better Boy May 9. First tomato July 22.
Planted Mortgage Lifter May 24. First tomato July 19.
Planted Healthy and Roma May 9. Healthy ripened July 25 and Roma is showing one ready to pick on July 27.

I believe only the Early Girl Indeterminate is a true early tomato and it really wasn't that early compared to my other tomatoes. Could be because of the frost warning May 15 even though I covered all my seedlings.

[AlittleSalt]

Early Girl has a PL parent and a RL parent. It can produce either leaf type. I'm watching the two grow side-by-side 3' apart and the RL version is growing much faster. These were planted out around July 1.

I am very interested in finding out if they can grow and produce in our Texas Summer/Fall garden.

[maxjohnson]

Silvery Fir Tree.

[Not Perfect]

Fourth of July is my favorite, followed by Stupice.

[oakley]

Scocia is a new one to me this year that looks promising. Hoping for a good salsa tom from it.

Stupice and Matina are way lagging behind GirlGirl's, GermanRedStberry, and Cherokee's...chocolate and purple. I'll know more this weekend. Lots of bulk green.
Exciting!

[EPawlick]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

Early Girl has a PL parent and a RL parent. It can produce either leaf type. I'm watching the two grow side-by-side 3' apart and the RL version is growing much faster. These were planted out around July 1.

I am very interested in finding out if they can grow and produce in our Texas Summer/Fall garden.

Interesting, please share your results when they are in. I have 2 indeterminate early girls and 2 determinate early girl bush types--I think I'll take a closer look at them to see what the leaves look like.

[Cole_Robbie]

Early Girl's dtm is 10-14 days shorter than Big Beef for me.

[remy]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

A couple that are in the early season section of the Tomato Growers catalog are:

Gregori's Altai -67 days
New Big Dwarf - 60 days

I've read a lot of good things about both of those.

There are a lot of the others at TG mentioned above this post as well.

I wouldn't trust that NBD 60 days. It was not early for me. Victory lists it at 90 days. Tatiana list is at mid season.
.
Sophie's Choice is a favorite for me. Very early.
Silvery Fir Tree is great if you like strong er flavored tomatoes.
I do not like Early Girl, but it is early. I've heard in other areas it tastes better than here.
As far as big beefsteaks go. I've found Pruden's Purple to be on the early side, not super early as they would be near impossible with the size, but 70 days is normal.

[b54red]

The two earliest tomatoes to set fruit and have ripe fruit are usually Indian Stripe PL and Pruden's Purple. I consider them medium size tomatoes though you can get a large one now and then especially if you cull the fruit. They set a ton of fruit compared to most varieties and they will both set in extreme heat. There are a lot of other varieties that produce early sometimes but those two are consistent in doing so.

Bill

[GrowingCoastal]

Siletz was my first ripe one July 1st with Sasha's Altai ripening 7 days later. Sasha's is sweeter and more prolific BUT did pick up a case of mold or powdery mildew while none of the others did. I will probably grow Sasha's again but in its own location.

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by remy

I wouldn't trust that NBD 60 days. It was not early for me. Victory lists it at 90 days. Tatiana list is at mid season.
.
Sophie's Choice is a favorite for me. Very early.
Silvery Fir Tree is great if you like strong er flavored tomatoes.
I do not like Early Girl, but it is early. I've heard in other areas it tastes better than here.
As far as big beefsteaks go. I've found Pruden's Purple to be on the early side, not super early as they would be near impossible with the size, but 70 days is normal.

Pruden's Purple comes in consistently at 68 days for me, the earliest superb tasting tomato in my garden. With one of those 60 day tomatoes, I just hope its flavor has worn off my tastebuds in less than 8 days, knowing what's coming.