The early tomato thread

[bower]

Siletz is a second parthenocarpic variety grown this year for comparison with Cold Set. It was later to flower and to set fruit, but set very quickly once it started. Blushing fruit at 137 days from germination and fully ripe 141 days. The first fruit (and overall) are smaller than Cold Set ( 3 oz or less), with a tart tomato flavour. Unlike Cold Set which produced lots of seeds, the first fruit shown below is completely parthenocarpic; what appear to be seeds in the photo turned out to be simply mush. The second fruit contained only half a dozen very tiny seeds. There is one larger tomato on the bush so I hope there are seeds in it!
Growth habit and susceptibility was very similar to Cold Set, quite small and bushy and a bit cranky in the cold.

[Eirik]

So we have had a couple of really nice summer weeks in Norway, alot of the little green peas on my tomato plants have grown alot!

I really have to give a shoutout to the Norwegian heirloom Norderås busk, this is one productive tomato, its been fruiting and flowering like crazy! Cant wait for it to blush!

The only colour I have on any tomatoes is the blue ones, but as Ive read, they will take a while to ripen.

Hope you all are tasting your homegrown tomatoes, and that the bugs and critters havent invaded your gardens!

Clackamas Blueberry.jpg

fahrenheit blues.jpg

[AKmark]

N.L was not all that early for me, but once it started producing it popped out quite a few pretty large beefsteaks, many about a pound or so. I really enjoy using them to mix into a soup base, they are so juicy.
My only real complaint has been that they seem to go from almost ripe, to juice with skin holding it in. They are pretty though.

[Moshou]

I am very impressed also by Northern lights
http://www.rosiidingradina.ro/?attachment_id=1307
They are productive, with good taste and few seeds (I really have problems to collect seeds)

I also have in my garden
Stupice
Bloody Butcher
Matina
Konigin der Fruhen
Early of Tiganesti (a Romanian tomato)
http://www.rosiidingradina.ro/romanesti/timpurie-de-tiganesti

[Eirik]

Hey folks!

I tought it was time to summarize my early project in my new garden.

It`s way more colder than my last garden, and I really have to concentrate on getting bigger and more mature plants out earlier. A lot of my stuff was way to small when i put them out, and began to set fruit later than usual. But still it was by far my best tomato year the last 5 years!

Next year i might be giving up some of the bigger toms, since my location is colder than my last garden i really have to rethink my whole early list. Its a bummer because we never get beefsteaks or even large toms at all in stores here in this country so its so exotic to eat them


So, this years winner are:

Norderås Busk: Really nice, great little compact determinate salad tomato. Showed no stress and no disease all the way to the first frost. Will grow for seeds and crosses next year.

Early Annie: Loved this one. Abundance of different sized toms with a hint of sweetness! Really early determinate tomato with very little disease.

Clackamas Blueberry: One plant showed pretty early blushing, and I kept that one, really nice flavour. And extreme blue stems and toms!

Tigerella: Been growing this for a couple of years, its not the most productive plant but a striped tomato that tasted that good and gives matured fruit outside in Norway is a blessing

Azoychka: This one really suprised me, the flavour is really good!

Silvery fir tree: Been longing to try this out for years, really decorative and early. Not the best tasting tomato but it was very good in salsas and canning.

Alot of the others did not mature (too little when planted out) or got sick too fast.

So thats it! Im back to planning what kind of stuff Im putting out for winter stratification and what seeds to buy this winter. Thinking bloody butcher and alot more tps potatoes, that really was a winner this year!

[parah]

Originally Posted by bower

A couple more have ripened here:

Oaxacan Jewel PL, first fruit is pretty small at < 3 oz this year but much earlier than last year, blushed at 135 days from germination and fully ripe at 140.

Glad to hear about Oaxacan Jewel PL because I have the seeds and plan on trying it. I really appreciate your precise numbers. You might want to try Iditarod Red, the dwarf tomato. I know it is hard to believe... but... 50 days from planting the seed to eating the first ripe tomato. I was stunned. Just normal growing conditions, 8 hours of sun per day.

[parah]

Originally Posted by RobinB

Iditarod Red was extremely early for me this year. Planted in a pot on April 14, ripe fruit on May 31st... that's 47 days! Utyonok was three days earlier, but not as tasty.

That is the one, Iditarod Red, from the Dwarf Project, the fruit were about Ping Pong ball sized. Isn't it one of the earliest of all tomatoes?

[bower]

Originally Posted by parah

Glad to hear about Oaxacan Jewel PL because I have the seeds and plan on trying it. I really appreciate your precise numbers. You might want to try Iditarod Red, the dwarf tomato. I know it is hard to believe... but... 50 days from planting the seed to eating the first ripe tomato. I was stunned. Just normal growing conditions, 8 hours of sun per day.

Parah, OJ PL is a very nice tomato, let me know how it does for you.
I am really interested in Iditarod Red. I grew Al Kuffa this year - first time ever growing a dwarf - and the plant is just beautiful, the foliage very resistant to pests, disease and cold as well. I love the compact dwarf habit.
Over the season, the early trial plants in grow bags that got too diseased or pesty or were not productive got moved outdoors. The early ones still in my greenhouse today are : Al Kuffa, Kimberley, Stupice, Danko and Zolotoe Serdtse. All of them have set a second crop of fruit after the summer heat passed and are starting to ripen them. Black Early which was a very early slicer is also still standing with some late fruit coming on - I have to watch this one carefully because the leaves are botrytis susceptible (like most blacks, I'm told). The others have been pretty much care-free, a few bad lower leaves if anything and that's it, since April.
I will post some more numbers soon, all the fruiting data from this summer. It was only one plant of each variety but I kept records for whatever they're worth.

[RJGlew]

Originally Posted by SharonRossy

Hi just saw a site from Northern Quebec, and Sub Arctic was one of her varieties 42 days. I know Erik mentioned it in the first post, I think. Anyone have any experience with it.

I have done both Sub Arctic Maxi (42 days) and Sub Arctic Plenty (45 days) but will not grow either again. They were both much slower than claimed, easily being beaten by Stupice, Siberian and Fourth of July in both years. In 2012, Early Girl even beat Sub Arctic Plenty. I found their taste to be average and both had dry textures.

This year I tried an interesting tomato from "Alberta Nurseries and Bow Seed" named Arctic Fire (Type: Det, Height: 36"). It delivered closely on what they claim - "Arctic Fire is the largest extremely early Tomato we know of. Almost seedless. Solid red flesh with the finest of flavour. They do not need pollination and therefore can set fruit in cold weather. Fruit 8-10cm (3-4") in diameter weighing up to 400 g (14oz)" - although [imho] the comment about finest of flavour is a bit of a stretch. I will grow these again.

This year we had a very cold first 5 weeks and only Stupice, Siberian, Moskvich and Arctic Fire reliably set fruit during that period. Sub Arctic Maxi just sat and didn't do much at all. Next year I'll add Kalinka, Moravski Div, Glacier, Lyana and Sanka to my earlies & see how they do.

rg

[IronPete]

Hi folks;

I'm fairly new to the forum so I am not sure if this is the right place to post this question so if its not please let me know.

I am growing Siletz this year and am not sure if I am supposed to remove the suckers on this one. I don't sucker my dwarves or my regular determinates but I do the indeterminates as getting them taller gets them more light (a small fence issue). Not sure if Siletz is likely to get very tall even with the suckers are removed so looking for input. Thanks in advance, Pete
PS: I am also growing Gregori's Altai which I did sucker but not sure if that was the best plan either!

[bower]

Iron Pete,

I grew Siletz last year and it is a very small, determinate bush, so no suckering is advised.

Welcome to the forum.

[spuriousmonkey]

Last year Stupice, Anna Russian, and Siberian were the earliest OP varieties outside. (Helsinki, Finland)

Anna Russian tasted the best last year.

This year Zaryanka flowered first and set fruit first (way before anything else). But the whole of june was so cold it set everything back. I had various varieties out in the open in the field but nothing died actually during the long cold spell. They continued to grow and set fruit although night temperatures were as low as 37 fahrenheit.

But no ripe tomatoes yet, except for 2 fruits that dropped off a Zaryanka plant after I handled it a bit too roughly, and which were kept inside for ripening.

Weather is picking up now though so I hope to have some proper ripe fruit soon.

[Tormato]

I'm experimenting with late starts of early tomato varieties, this year. My seed starting of about a dozen varieties was on June 2nd. Latah was large enough to be transplanted on June 27th (25 days). Most of the rest were ready for transplanting on June 31st, but severe weather forecasts have delayed that a few days.

Ildi is the one slowpoke. Oddly, its entire plant stem (down to ground level) is pure green. I've never seen that before in all my years of gardening. All of my plants have always had a very light purple/brown overcast on the stem near the soil line.

Gary

[NarnianGarden]

Originally Posted by Tormato

Ildi is the one slowpoke. Oddly, its entire plant stem (down to ground level) is pure green. I've never seen that before in all my years of gardening. All of my plants have always had a very light purple/brown overcast on the stem near the soil line.

Gary

That's interesting - my Ildi plant behaved exactly the same way. I assumed it's simply something in the soil, but all my seedlings had the same soil mix, and they produced the various colors of tomato stems / leaves.
Ildi seems to be an anomaly in the way it is very green and youthful looking, no matter how much fertilizer is used.

Currently there are plenty of flowers and ten fruits on the plant, and it's growing happily.

[zero244]

This year I am growing 15 plants 5 indeterminate and 10 determinates. Here in Oregon this June has not been a good tomato summer so far. All of my plants are just now starting to set fruit.

Indeterminates

Tye Dye- Monsanto version- This tomato is doing the worst overall
Brandywine Red
Mexico
Nerves
Golden Queen

Determinates
506 Bush- One of my favs
Extreme Dwarf Bush
New Big Dwarf
Bush Beefsteak
Red Rocket
Mountain Gold
I am growing some of these in duplicates

I prefer the Det over Ind just for the earliness and compactness
I like to grow a few Indeterminates for size and flavor.
By the way except for 506 Bush I am growing all of these varieties for the first time.