The early tomato thread

[bower]

Eirik,
I'm growing Alaska for the first time and didn't find much information about it - could you tell me how it performs for you?

[Eirik]

Originally Posted by bower

Eirik,
I'm growing Alaska for the first time and didn't find much information about it - could you tell me how it performs for you?

Ive always grown the russian det. type, originally named Aljaska.
Its not the smallest of the cold tolerant ones, but a great producer!
The taste is for me better than stupice, but still pretty tart.
About medium sized.
Have no recollection of it getting any disease, but in a different grow than mine I saw that it was getting the full bug monty.
Im not gonna grow it this year, Im more thinking of it as a great mother for some crosses for another year. Alaska x wild fred, now that has a ring to it

[Eirik]

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

While there are quite a few early varieties in this thread, you haven't even scratched the surface yet.

DarJones

Oh Darjones, You werent kidding!
I just found the thread on cold weather breeding!
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=25599

That breeding project would be amazing, and there were also listed alot of early lines ive never heard about!

I will try to find Stepnyak, О-33, I-3 or Iyunskiy-3, Gruntovyi, Limonchik, Sibiryak, Orenburzhets, Kemerovets and Spiridonovskiy!

[tomatoguy]

Clear Pink Early.

mater

[pdxwindjammer]

I have misplaced my notebook that in which I kept records of when the first tomato showed and also the first ripe date. I know it will turn up at some point but for now it is a mystery.

As for a large fruited variety, Malakhitovaya Shkatulka produces BIG fruit early! I was very impressed with this tomato last year. I had to make room for some new ones this year but I will definitely grow this again next year!

[Eirik]

Tomatoguy: Hows the taste of the clear pink early? Its been mentioned alot and seems like a great variety!

Pdxwindjammer: Notebooks are known to take vacations, then come back later
Malakhitovaya Shkatulka looks like a great early green, and I havent found too many of them, so I got to find this one!

[dice]

Golden Bison ripened an early crop in a pretty bad year here
(started off the summer with 10 weeks at not over 60F/16C
daytime temperatures):
http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Golden_Bison
Sweet flavor, not extreme, but that is the first descriptive
word that comes to mind for the flavor. Fruit was a bit
soft and mushy, but that could have been the growing
conditions that year.

Native Sun was bland for me, though with bigger fruit and about
as early as Golden Bison. Taxi has better flavor:
http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Taxi

Clear Pink Early also had very mild flavor, a little more than
Native Sun, but not as much as Taxi or Golden Bison. It does
yield an early crop, though, with tomatoes big enough for
sandwiches.

A couple of strong-flavored early tomatoes are Odessa and Aurora:
http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Odessa
http://sev.lternet.edu/~jnekola/Heir...sNO.htm#odessa
http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/A...b=General_Info
(Aurora is fairly seedy.)

These are all very similar fruits:
Stupice
Moravsky Div
Kimberley
Kotlas
Frühe Liebe
Imur Prior Beta
Matina

Stupice stands out as a more vigorous, more rangy plant
than the others.

Csikös Bötermö produces the same size fruit as those,
is about a week later to first fruit. Flavor is sweet and
very mild, but plant is particularly productive.

[Eirik]

Originally Posted by dice

Csikös Bötermö produces the same size fruit as those,
is about a week later to first fruit. Flavor is sweet and
very mild, but plant is particularly productive.

Alot of new tomatoes for me, alot of these sound great!

[camochef]

Some of the earliest tomatoes I've grown are Stupice, Sun-gold, and one simply called Patio.
A few years back I decided to eliminate cherry tomatoes and medium sized or small tomatoes from my gardens, concentrating on tasty slicers instead. Of those the earliest ripeners have been:
Liz Birt (the past few years now)
Lancaster County Pink
Large Pink Bulgarian
Barlow Jap
Cowlick's Brandywine
Enjoy!
Camo

[Tracydr]

I'm trying the dwarf, Sleeping Lady. Also, Iditarod Red. I'm also growing Stupice. First time for all. The dwarfs are really doing well!

[tomatoguy]

Eirik: The taste is great. Very rich and tart. I would grow them, even if they weren't early.

mater

[tomatoguy]

I just noticed dice's post. Here is a classic example of "your mileage may vary".

"Clear Pink Early also had very mild flavor, a little more than
Native Sun, but not as much as Taxi or Golden Bison. It does
yield an early crop, though, with tomatoes big enough for
sandwiches."

They have always been very tasty, here. I would rate them a 9. Mine have between ping-pong ball and tennis ball size, though. Due to our relatively long growing season, I often get three fruit sets from them, since they seem to be fairly disease tolerant. Apparently, the radical difference between the climate of the Pacific Northwest and Middle Tennessee, where we have less rain (I presume. 44 inches per year here.) and much hotter summers, has quite an impact.

mater

[artis]

Originally Posted by tomatoguy

I just noticed dice's post. Here is a classic example of "your mileage may vary".

"Clear Pink Early also had very mild flavor, a little more than
Native Sun, but not as much as Taxi or Golden Bison. It does
yield an early crop, though, with tomatoes big enough for
sandwiches."

They have always been very tasty, here. I would rate them a 9. Mine have between ping-pong ball and tennis ball size, though. Due to our relatively long growing season, I often get three fruit sets from them, since they seem to be fairly disease tolerant. Apparently, the radical difference between the climate of the Pacific Northwest and Middle Tennessee, where we have less rain (I presume. 44 inches per year here.) and much hotter summers, has quite an impact.

mater

I agree with Tomatoguy that Clear Pink Early has really good taste for an early variety. I grow it every year now. It seems to taste best early in the season before the temperatures get excessively hot. For me, it has the same type of complex taste that Brandywine Sudduth and some other pinks have. I have only grown it in containers and I got the seed from Gleckler's (perhaps there are inferior strains around).

The earliest tomato I have ever grown is Bloody Butcher. Same type of decent taste as Stupice, Glacier, and Moravski Div but significantly earlier, at least in my experience.

Danko is somewhat early as well and tastes great (like many heart-shaped varieties do except Danko is less sweet).

All three are great for medium size container growing as they stay relatively compact.

[Eirik]

There might be a conclusion that Clear Pink Early tastes good in cooler weather, sounds perfect to me!

And when it comes to Native Sun, isnt this a "desert" plant, wich will create alot of foliage to protect itself from the sun, now is that a bad or a good thing in a wet and cold climate?
Are any other early in this category?

Camo: Thanks so much for these new suggestions, the number of names piling up suggest Ill be trying new tomatoes every year for at least five years straight!

Tracy: Ive ordered some dwarf seeds, I think alot of the varieties from the project will do very nicely for alot of people in many different garden settings.

[dice]

[Clear Pink Early]
It could have been a comparison artifact, too, like "what else was
I growing that year." I remember it as a very mild pink, with fruit
about the same size as Native Sun and Taxi. Flavor would also
depend on how rainy it is when fruit are ripening. Relatively
more water, less flavor, usually. I do remember it as a good
producer. I got the seeds in a trade some years ago.

Most years, our summer temperatures are well below summer
in Tennessee, and our growing season is shorter.