Italian Themed Tomato Garden

[lakelady]

I have a lot of shady areas in my yard, so most likely I will have 3 tomato gardening areas around the house. In trying to narrow down choices (there are SO many), I've been considering what can fit where, and came up with the idea that since I want to try several Italian varieities, I'd keep them together and thus eliminate one worry about who's going where.

That being said, this is my proposed list of varieties to put in the main garden, which is not huge, but these should all fit with some other veggies too. Any and all suggestions or recommendations would be great. Many will go into sauce, and some will be eaten fresh. If anything here looks like a poor choice, I'd welcome any suggestions. I have grown San Marzano's for years, and I'm ready to try new varieities, and most of my experience has been with hybrids, so be gentle with me

By the way, this is the short list, and my other grow areas have much larger lists I'll need to shorten way down. At least getting one out of the way will ease my anxiety over it all lol...

Canestrino
Costuluto Genovese
DaChilo
Franchi Red Pear
Gianini
Gildo Pietroboni
Goldmans Italian American
Ignegoli Gigante
Panto Romanesco
Provezano
Russo Togetta
Cuneo Giant Pear
S Marzano Redorta or Martinos Roma ?
Belmonte
Chianti Rose

[salix]

Few more from the top of my head:

Cirio 49
Classica
other Costolutos
Cuor di Bue
Cuostralee
Ernesto
Fidelio
Giannini
Grappoli di Inverno
Guido
La Rossa
Pantano
Red Pear Abruzzese
Rinaldo
Romeo

[lakelady]

uh oh...more? ha! I cant fit more in that space than this. Rinaldo...that's a paste, right? I think I have seeds from Tania for that one, wondering who I can replace for it.

I've read hearts are good for sauce too, are pears? They just look so pretty!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by lakelady

uh oh...more? ha! I cant fit more in that space than this. Rinaldo...that's a paste, right? I think I have seeds from Tania for that one, wondering who I can replace for it.

I've read hearts are good for sauce too, are pears? They just look so pretty!

You want Italian ones, OK, here's Tania's list of Italian ones:

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/w...alian_Tomatoes

And as for ones for sauce there already is a current thread here on the first page, very long, with ones for sauce and drying, with lots of input.

Some noted above in this thread, are not from Italy such as Cuostralee which I got from a Frenchman in 1992 and is French in origin, and Chianti Rose is not Italian either, it's the result of a cross between Brandywine and an unknown Italian heirloom that was found by Bill Minkey in Wisconsin.

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Chianti_Rose


You asked about pear shaped ones, the same could be said about almost all of the Italian ones on Tania's list or those noted above, and as I mentioned, do take a look at the current thread on sauce ones.

For fresh eating ones I really like Gianinni, well, here I go again, and I'm not going to make a long list of fresh eating ones so as to not, maybe, confuse the picture, I guess, but it would have some heart varieties on it and I'll shut up now.

OK, I really like this new one from Italy called Cuore del Drago, aka Dragon Heart, which isn't a heart, but tastes pretty darn good to me, but probably best used for sauce.

Most sauce makers I know don't use just paste varieties alone, since most paste varieties are not known for excellent taste, so they mix in some non-pastes that have great taste.

Belmonte is good too.

Just pick a few for sauce from your thread as well as some from the other thread, and same with ones for fresh eating, all sourced from Italy, b'c what you're going to get here in your own thread is just more and more suggestions, and that's not bad at all, but is going to put you in a quandry as to what you might grow.

You could grow Italian themed tomato gardens for many years and still have new varieties to grow as the link from Tania's website indicates that I posted above.

[FILMNET]

Cant go wrong with Franchi Red Pear, a real keeper for me .

[lakelady]

Nice pics of the Franchi Red Pear!

Carolyn, Renee's had Chianti Rose listed as an Italian Heirloom, which is why I added it to my list. I remembered a few of your posts about the hearts and other posts from members here who liked particular varieties for sauce. Tania's listing is extensive, I cannot fit that many tomato plants in my garden unfortunately, but next year I'm sure I'll be switching some in or out if I don't care for them. Besides, I have lots of other heirlooms I'll be listing in a separate thread for the other gardens, and that list is much bigger. I did recall you gave notable mention to Gianinni, so that is definately on the list. I guess what I was really curious about is if any of my list up above are not good at all. I tried to stick with reviews by other growers who had tried them, and then Tania's gorgeous photos of a few varieties had me hooked!

In researching varieties for this particular garden, I tried to have a few hearts, pears, beefsteak, and plum/paste; sauce types, and eating types. This way my mom ("she who must be obeyed," for those fans of British television!) can go to this garden when she visits and just pick what she likes without a sour face asking me "what kind of tomato is THIS?".

[sicily]

You have a wonderful list of Italian tomatoes. The majority of my garden is planted with Italian varieties. I grew Gildo Pietroboni this year and was so impressed by it. One could make a pot of sauce from 2 tomatoes, the fruit is huge and the plant was very healthy and productive. Make sure and stake and cage it well. I've grown Rinaldo and it's also a great one, large tasty,lots of fruit per plant. Some others I've grown and really loved are Pera Tipo Cosentino, more of an oxheart, fabulous flavor and production, Ernesto, also more of an oxheart, delicious tomato. Pavlick Italian is a workhorse of a tomato, tons of large plums, few seeds, fabulous! I grew another variety I'm very excited about. I was standing in line for a library booksale, and started a conversation with the gentleman in front of me. The topic turned to tomatoes and he mentioned his neighbor was Italian and grew a family heirloom that was pretty special. I met the neighbor, got the tomato and grew it this summer. It was indeed very special. If you would like to try it pm me, send me a SASE and I'll be happy to send you some seeds. He's calling it the Nudi family heirloom. It's from the Calabria region in Italy. His uncle brought it to this country 60 years ago. It is also a large very tasty, very disease resistant, very prolific red plum. Good luck with your garden!

[FILMNET]

Last year crop after summer Franchi Red Pear, personnel favorite for me

[lakelady]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

OK, I really like this new one from Italy called Cuore del Drago, aka Dragon Heart, which isn't a heart, but tastes pretty darn good to me, but probably best used for sauce.

Okay, now you really have my interest piqued, and I cannot find seeds for Cuore del Drago anywhere. Not even at Tanias! With a name like that, and the fact you have tasted it and liked it, I really must have it for this particular garden now.

[lakelady]

Filmnet, those tomatoes look beautiful!! Now I need to go make dinner because I'm hungry!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by lakelady

Okay, now you really have my interest piqued, and I cannot find seeds for Cuore del Drago anywhere. Not even at Tanias! With a name like that, and the fact you have tasted it and liked it, I really must have it for this particular garden now.

No, you won't find it at Tania's, by Googling or any other way. I've mentioned it several times here at Tville starting with my growout list last Spring. THe only persons who have seeds are the person who gave me the seeds and one person who grew it out for seed production for me.

I think I have enough seeds to both SSE list it as well as offer it here in my seed offer.

And there are many new ones I grow each year that no one else has b'c after I fell in 2004 and became chained to this walker I made the decision to grow only varieties that would be new to all or most since I'm now limited to only about 40 plants in the backyard and someone else tends to them, as opposed to the many hundreds of plants and varieties I used to grow each year.

INbetween working on my SSE listings I've been giving some thought to indicating in my next seed offer which varieties I'll notate as being those that MUST be grown and seeds offered in the Seed exchange here to others, there are only a few where I have few seeds and I want to make sure that they WILL be ones where folks who request those varieties will refooer them, and I'll write down their names in my data book, actually DO reoffer them.

I know that may sound harsh or strict, but there are varieties listed in the SSE YEarbook that are MUST reoffer in the Yearbook ones as well, so it isn't a new concept with me, but just an idea of doing it when I have few seeds of a good new one.

[lakelady]

You know, after I posted earlier I even did look through the SSE listings for it, but I can wait until it is listed since I won't be growing it anyway until next year. I don't usually save enough seeds of anything much, but have been wondering what I can save and offer up next year. If all goes well, I'll have lots and lots of seeds to share instead of just my usual Pineapples and San Marzanos.

Carolyn, 40 plants is not a lot for you, but oh boy, I'm "hoping" to be able to grow about 25-30 next year and for me, that is way more tomatoes than I ever dreamed of planting. There are just too many heirlooms I'm dying to try and I've been reading and reading and trying to learn all I can so I'm prepared next season for them. As you suggested in one thread, growing several of the same variety is good for comparison purposes, so I definately have to have 3 different brandywines, 2 cherokees, that sort of thing. Everyone here on TV is so great about sharing their favorites that it makes it really difficult to start at the beginning and have too many great choices available.

I am just going to have to keep whittling my lists down...my other list is at about 35 lol...

[Douglas14]

I grew Giannini this year. It did quite well for me. Very good flavor IMO.
One I plan on trying next year is Italian Heirloom. The SSE Public Catalog carried it last season.

[lakelady]

Can you order from previous year's SSE? I thought you could only order from what is currently posted...

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by lakelady

Can you order from previous year's SSE? I thought you could only order from what is currently posted...

No, you can only request seeds from listed members for the current year, in this case the 2011 YEarbook and each member states when they will and won't accept requests.

Some members accept requests year round, others don't and state their deadlines, and if a member forgets to state that kind of timing last I knew the default deadline for requesting seeds is June 1 of any specific year.

Edited to add that I thought you were referring to the YEarbook but about the same applies to the Public catalog, as in ordering seeds for the date shown on the front of the catalog or at the website. So you can order seeds from the PUBLIC catalog until the next one comes out for 2012.

The reason being that varieties in both the Public catalog as well as the YEarbook change often and usually do change from year to year.