Best Tomato varieties for the tropics?

[Gato Moteado]

Hi All

New member here.

I live in Costa Rica and would like to know what the very best tomato varieties are for the tropics, specifically the southern pacific coast of Costa Rica where it's always warm and it's very wet during the rainy season.

Thanks!

[OtterJon]

Hi, Nice to meet you and welcome to Tomatoville! Be sure to stop by the Town Hall section to say hi and introduce yourself to everyone. There are tons of friendly and informative people here to help. As far as your question goes, Good tomato varieties I know are good in hot and humid areas like yours are:

Atkinson: A red globe type 8oz to 1lb
Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter: 1-3lbs and red/pink

Those are my two suggestions. There will be lots more coming your way from more experienced people I'm sure. Have a great night and again, Welcome!

Jon

[dice]

There is a cherry tomato cultivar called Costa Rica:
http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Costa_Rica
Sweet, excellent flavor. I do not know where in Costa Rica
it may been grown before it was donated to the USDA
(on the coast, up in the mountains, or both).

I would probably suggest Rio Grande, a sweet, productive, thick
walled paste tomato that has done well in some of the warmer,
more humid regions of the US:
http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Rio_Grande

How hot do your summers get? Tomatoes in general have trouble
setting fruit above 90F. The temperature affects the pollen some way.
High humidity is a problem, too (the pollen clumps together). In many
parts of the US where mid-summer temperatures get to 95F+, people
often grow spring and fall tomato crops, with mid-summer turned over
to more heat-tolerant crops like okra. If you are close to the ocean, you
may get off-shore breezes that moderate your summer temperatures.

[Gato Moteado]

Thanks, Jon. I will try to acquire seeds for those varieties.

[Gato Moteado]

Thanks, Dice, I'll try to get those varieties also.

It's not that hot where my property is, compared to hot place I've lived in the US (Austin, TX for example), but it is rainy during the rainy season. Maybe a hoop house to keep the rain off the plants would help.

[travis]

The first thing I would do is identify the disease pressure you might encounter with tomatoes grown outdoors. While obtaining this info, I'd also ask the locals what tomatoes they have success with, and how they time their tomato crop with regard to rainy season and heat, which should be the two big issues. I am assuming you are going to need heat set capability as well as disease resistance.

I've had leaf disease problems with Rio Grande during rainy spring weather, but you may not have the same pressures there. Health Kick did better that Rio Grande. Plum Regal also did better as a Roma type, and both of those are much more disease resistant and high lycopene types than Rio Grande. I've also sent seeds for both those to the West Indies where friends had good results.

For just a standard, red, salad tomato, Neptune did well for an open pollinated determinate in dry and wet hot weather. Florida 7514 is a hybrid with Neptune as one parent, and it did even better. It's also very popular currently in Louisiana.

Both those varieties are bred by University of Florida specifically for the tropics and are Bacterial Wilt resistant, if you have that particular pressure where you grow. Florida 7514 also is resistant to Bacterial Speck and Grey Leaf Mold. Both are determinate, with Florida 7514 a bit more aggressive than Neptune.

Tropic is an indeterminate, open pollinated, red salad tomato that is very productive and also bred for tropical and subtropical conditions. Tropic and Neptune are available from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, and Florida 7514 is a bit harder to find. I have plenty of seeds for Neptune and 7514, but very few left for Tropic.

[LuvsToPlant]

Originally Posted by Gato Moteado

Thanks, Dice, I'll try to get those varieties also.

It's not that hot where my property is, compared to hot place I've lived in the US (Austin, TX for example), but it is rainy during the rainy season. Maybe a hoop house to keep the rain off the plants would help.

May I suggest a mesh for shelter over the hoops instead of plastic...
It is more breathable and cooler for the plants....and keeps the pounding rain off the plants....I have a friend down in Panama from the US that says it works well during the rainy seasons.
....and welcome!

[Wi-sunflower]

If you can find some of the older Mittleider gardening books, I know he shows growing tomatoes in wet tropical areas with a frame with just the top on it. That way it gets air but not all the rain. Sometimes the books are on Amazon or Half.com. The books are also for sale on his foundation web site here, tho a bit pricey. http://www.growfood.com/

As for varieties that seem to do better in hot weather, Atkinson was mentioned. Creole is another variety developed for the Louisiana area. Personally I've had good luck with Heatwave when we have a scorching summer.

Carol

[dice]

I had no foliage disease problems with Rio Grande this year, but
different climates have different disease and pest issues. It is an
old open-pollenated variety and any genetic disease tolerances it
may have are undocumented. It was cool and rainy the first half
of the summer and dry for the second half of the summer this year
here. It did have good enough flavor to eat fresh as well as use in
sauce, etc, and it was rewardingly productive.

We do not have bacterial wilt in the soil here, typically, but that is an
endemic problem in a lot of hot, humid climates around the world.
In SE Asia, for example, they do a lot of grafting to rootstocks that
have bacterial wilt resistance to avoid losing their entire crop to it.
(They sometimes use eggplant roots for that, which can stand being
under water for a week at a time during the rainy season.)

[Fusion_power]

Most Caribbean tropical areas have problems with Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl virus. There are several available hybrids that have good tolerance. Charger and Tribute are two that have been released recently. They are available at http://www.seedway.com/

DarJones