What should I plant?

[Oscgrr]

First, please forgive me but this is kind of a long question. I've grown tomatoes before but this is the first year I've had any success but it's limited. This past Spring I planted several varieties and most of them were great. I grew yellow heirlooms, some kind of large red tomato and a lot of grapes. I also planted romas and they grew like wild fire but were too mealy for what I intended (salsa) and something of a dissapointment. Right now, I have entirely too many green tomatoes in my garden and I'm certain they will stay that way and I don't know what kind they are since I didn't label and don't remember when I bought them. A little while ago someone posted that they would like grow a particular tomato but their growing season is too short. Apparently, my growing season is too short also. What can I grow to maturity here on the south coast of Massachusetts?

My wife can't eat tomato seeds, or any other seeds or nuts for that matter, so I make and can our own salsa, seedles of course. I liked the fact that the romas have two seed chambers and were easy to clean but I didn't like that they were mealy and dry. Is there a tomato that I can grow that might suit this purpose?

I'm also interested in tomatoes that look interesting when sliced and served. I grew some Mr. Stripeys and got a lot of comments but unfortunately only three tomatoes from the one plant. What else might taste good, look good and grow to size? Will purple tomatoes do well here?

[ireilly]

You might try tip and/or root pruning to see if they will hasten your maturities on your greenies.

The other question was about Romas as paste and how you could not use them in salsa. Someone else here observed that good-tasting slicers make good salsa.

But, approaching it from the paste angle, you might try Amish Paste or Opalka for flavor. Tatiana's says Amish paste is not really a paste tomato. Others have remarked on its taste, productivity, etc. Many like Opalka and it is a paste but many like it as an eating tomato as well.

Both are not early at 75-85 days though.

So I think you have several avenues to approach from.

Heck, grow them all, says someone with little growing space....

Maybe others have more experience with your conundrum. I know there are several folks here in your neck of the... er, Cape who could comment about DTM issues.

Walter

[dice]

I do not know about days to maturity and the typical growing
season on the south Massachusetts coast, but some of the
earlier hearts might suit you. They tend to be meaty without
necessarily being dry like a roma.

Kardinal was that way this year for me. It was about a 3'
plant, with nowhere near the number of fruit that a roma
plant would produce, but they were 2-3 times the size per
fruit. Very meaty, yet juicy enough to eat fresh. Mild, sweet
flavor when eaten fresh. Not particularly late to set or ripen
fruit, even in an overall cold summer. Danko was similar, with
somewhat smaller fruit. Also Bichiy Glaz, not quite as sweet
flavored in my experience, but a decent tomato.

Redskin is a good early one but hard to find (Sandhill
Preservation was out at last check).

Some bigger, later ripening ones: Brad's Black Heart, Kosovo,
Reif Red Heart.

There are scads of varieties along this line out there, but
"early enough ripening for the coast of Massachusetts,"
I would not bet my hat on it with most of them.

Here is a page from Tania's TOMATObase with a list (links
to descriptions, user experience, seed sources where they
are known):
http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/H...atoes_by_Color

You can search the general WWW from this link:
http://www.google.com/custom?num=50&...%3Aad-kgp1hr6o

(I usually supply "tomato name_of_Variety" for search terms
on the latter page, which you may want to bookmark for
future reference, ditto for the TOMATObase home page.)

[Tom C zone 4/5]

Heart shaped toms will be a late crop for you. Still worth a try (if I can get 'em ripe, you can too). Also one of the cows-horn shaped pastes-like Opalka, Gilbertie, Cows Tit.

[Oscgrr]

Thanks, this is exactly the information I'm looking for. A garden is a huge investment of time and effort and I'd hate for my ignorance to lead me down the wrong path, again. I asked my question this early because it's fresh on my mind and I'm actually planning next years garden now (crazy?). Next years garden is going to be VERY tomato heavy.

[Tom C zone 4/5]

For Opalka at least I'm promoting you buy from a seed-house. Every time I swaped for this cultivar I got mixed up seeds.