How many plants to "know" a variety?

[Ispahan]

I have been wondering how many plants or seasons it takes to get to know a variety well. Many people seem to only plant one of a given variety per year, and yet they can still make claims like "X tomato is a dud" or "Y tomato is incredibly productive."

I am not saying this is bad. I entirely understand space constraints and need for variety. But can 1-2 plants of a variety at a time be enough to overcome seasonal weather quirks, open-pollinated variation, different soil compositions, available sunlight, etc.?

I have been growing some of my favorite plants for years and they perform slightly differently every season. And for those of us who are seed savers, wouldn't it be easier or better to grow several plants of any given variety to select for desirable traits?

Not sure if I have a point here, but I am just hoping to stimulate discussion :-)

Cheers,
Ispahan

[Tania]

I' d say at least 3 plants and at least three seasons would work for the Pacific North West climate where I garden.

I also wish I had a luxury of doing that. Best case I have is to trial a variety with multiple plants over two seasons. I guess eventually I will hit the '3 seasons' mark, it is just a matter of time, but I wish I could have grown them 3 consecutive seasons, as it seems we have a 3-year cycle here (good-bad-worse).

I agree the performance can vary (sometimes drastically) from one season to another.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

I'd also say at least 2-3 years and multiple plants if you have space.

There is a caveat, in that sometimes one plant for one year is enough to tell me if a variety is something I will like. For example, after reading some raves about the peach types in various articles I grew a number of them this year and just found them not to my liking, so much so that after saving seeds from them I was going to pull the plants this weekend.

However, today a friend forwarded me a link to this article http://www.jsonline.com/features/food/129330158.html and asked if I had any of the peach tomatoes the chef really liked.
Just goes to show you that everyone has different tastes.

Now I'm wondering if I should save lots more seeds, print a copy of the article and put it out with plants at the church plant sale in the spring.

[Sherry_AK]

For new (to me) tomatoes I've never grown before, I usually try to grow 2 copies ... one in each of the greenhouses. If neither performs well the first year, I usually give them one more chance in another year.

[PaulF]

Three years and a dud doesn't get grown again unless it gets more rave reviews and then one more shot. Too many more to try than to waste time on a maybe.

[Worth1]

3 plants 3 distinct different seasons.
I have many of those old time winners on my dud list.

Worth

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by Ispahan

I have been wondering how many plants or seasons it takes to get to know a variety well....

I agree that a few plants a year for 3 seasons would be great, but I usually grow one of each, unless they're dwarf or small determinate varieties.

I have grown the same cherries several seasons, mostly because they tend to be earlier and more predictable than other varieties, and no matter what the weather does, usually the cherries produce something. But it's interesting that when a cherry does not perform as expected, I usually assume the plant was mislabeled or a dud, not that the variety is having an "off" year! But if I try a new-to-me cherry and it doesn't do well but has a great flavor, I give it one more chance.

Subjectively speaking, I feel as if I know a variety if it's been one of my favorites for at least one season, which means it had a good flavor and was reasonably productive. Maybe I'm using "number of fruits eaten" as my metric!

I usually have different favorites each year, so the ones that really stick in my memory are the ones that I kept looking forward to for a whole season. And usually, it's just a few. For that reason, productivity matters as much as taste. Last year, Tobolsk and Purple Brandy (Marizol Bratka) were the ones I ate first, with George O'Brien a close third. The year before that, Marianna's Peace, Druzba, Opalka...

This year, however, most of the ones I'm growing are really good. So the one I like best is Pruden's Purple, but Joanna Croatia is just as good for tomato sandwiches, and among the smaller ones, Babywine and Sicilian are great. But Cour di Albegnia (aka Cuor d'Albenga?) is wonderful, too, its main "demerit" being that in the past week or two it's been producing more than I could handle (and I've been giving away lots!). In any other year, for taste alone, it would've been my favorite. I've grown Sun Sugar F1 several times, but this year, although I still like them, I'm giving most of them away because I like other varieties better! Aunt Ruby's German Green was a favorite for 1 or 2 seasons, but this year my main plant died, and my replacement plant (in a shadier location) looks like it will produce only 2 tomatoes. Tommy Toe was a favorite for 2 or 3 seasons, and I still like it and eat a pint at a time, but usually the cherries are overshadowed by larger varieties. And I've left out Black Pear, which slowed down this week, and Maska's Favorite, which produced heavily from mid-July to mid-August and is mostly done.

[Mudman]

I start off with growing one of a variety that is new to me, and then if I really like it as far as taste and production, I will grow 2 or 3 the next year. This way I can try a lot more different varieties per year. And if the plant fails- I will give it another year to prove itself. It sort of amazes me when I often read of folks growing one of a variety, losing it to disease, and then writing it off as a bad tomato. There are too many factors involved in growing tomatoes to judge a variety after one failed season.

[travis]

I'm limited for space, but after having widely different results growing one or two plants per variety year after year, I switched to growing a least 4 plants in a blocked area, sometimes 6 in a rectangular block, and found there are definitely different degrees of vigor and plant health in open pollinated varieties.

This has narrowed down the number of varieties I can try out each year, but it has led to my selecting the best examples of each variety from which to save seeds each season. Some people will say I am bottlenecking the genes, but I prefer to think I am building on the better expressions of common attributes.

[lakelady]

I don't have as much experience with heirlooms as many others do, but gardening experience always tells me it could be a bad year, or some other factor could be detrimental to my harvest. I would think several years with a variety would give a better indicator of true experience as well. Since I have limited sunny spaces (a lot of trees and boulders), next year I will have 3 separate gardening areas for tomatoes. The varieities I am especially interested in knowing better, will be planted in more than one location to see if there is a difference in tomato outcome that way. Reason simply being I don't want to refer to anything as a "spitter" if it simply doesn't like the environment I put it in. I could be wrong, but just my thoughts .... and two cents ....

[Tormato]

One plant per year, in two types of years (wet and dry), for two plants total.
Many other varieties must be trialed those same two years to see which ones do well or poor.

Tormato