Italian Heirloom - a heart tomato?

I was separating my seed this evening for those varieties I will grow next year and those I will not grow next year. I came across my Italian Heirloom seed which I grew last year. I didn't think they impressed me much in production or taste last year. I had written on the envelope "great producer" "very good taste". Now I can't remember if the envelope comments were copied from an internet description or if they were my thoughts after growing the variety.

While this has been one of my best years ever in production of large, tasty tomatoes, I have also seen some first time varieties basically fall way below expectations. I can't make up my mind if it will have a future in next years garden or not. The only things I look for in my garden next year are production, size; and taste. I plan on reducing my total varieties planted to about fifteen from thirty this year. I will be doubling up proven varieties in the same number of spaces I have this year. I have eight or ten varieties that are on my "grow every year" list. I have two or three varieties which have done well for a couple of years and may make my every year list. That leaves me a couple of spaces to experiment with. Should I try Italian Heirloom again? It's going against some pretty strong competition for the slot.

Ted

Ted

[SharonRossy]

Just out of curiosity. Is IH a ribbed tomato? Like I said, I started seed for it for the first time and my son lost the name tag and has a plant that looks like it has deep ribbing.

[jonathanpassey]

Look what I picked and ate today:





Italian Heirloom was my first tomato to get ripe in only 60 days. I suppose it liked the extra heat in my poly tunnel... or it was beginners luck.

As you can see, this one is very heart-shaped but some of the others on the plant seem more like an oblong beefsteak. I suppose we will see. I didn't expect it to be a heart.

ps. I got my seed from the SSE online store.

-JP

[SharonRossy]

Looks great! How's the taste? I gave all my plants away so I'm not growing it. I'm always amazed when some one lives in zone 5 and has tomatoes already!

[SharonRossy]

Looks delicious! How's the taste? Wish I had kept one of my seedlings instead of giving them all away. I'm amazed when people in zone 5 have tomatoes already! Maybe I should start using tunnels.

[jonathanpassey]

It was pretty tasty. I don't have a wide tomato experience so it was 'just' a good tomato. I'll be growing lots of variety over the next few years so I can discover what kind of tomatoes I like. I have a black krim coming on soon so that'll be another point of reference. later this year i'll know better how IH tastes compared to several varieties.

Utah has warm and dry spring weather with occasional cold snaps. last frost usually about may 10th in my town (this year on may 14th).

i love/hated the tunnels but they were an experiment and i was figuring them out. I will definitely use them again next spring. I should post a thread on the season extension forum about my process. but as a teaser, it ended up costing about 80 dollars to cover a 4x16 foot area and should last for years.

JP.

[SharonRossy]

Soon your last frost date is about two to three weeks earlier than ours. We had a late spring and some very cool temps but now we are having extremely hot weather and little rain. Typical Montreal weather going from one extreme to the next in minutes. So who knows? I grew black Krim last year but wasn't impressed but it wasn't the best year. I love black from tula which I grew out but accidentally gave away all my seedlings. I'm growing cherokee purple this year and indian stripe among many other varieties. My hearts are Anna Russian and Ukrainian heart.