The long and the short of it. (input please)

[JohnWayne]

I am looking at trying a few different things this year. The first being I am looking at a couple of "tree tomatoes" The Climbing triple crop/Italian Tree and "Giant Tree". Both listed in the Totally Tomatoes 2013 catalog.

I am looking at those because they can climb on top of my bean trellis and the trellis I plan to use for my main crop of KB and KBX. One main cable with strings down to each plant.

Have any of you tried either of those ? I'd be grateful for your input.


Next is dwarf plants. I would like to try a row or two of dwarf plants and see how well they do with "minimal staking" as the ads say.

Looking for input here even more so than with the "Trees" as these will hopefully make up the bulk of my canning tomatoes. Decent tomato flavor and good production are prime requisites. Tennis ball size and up is fine.

Thanks in advance.

[MikeInCypress]

Don't have any experience with the Tree Tomato or Climbing Triple Crop but do have a good bit of experience with Dwarfs. There are dwarfs and then there are dwarfs. Extreme Dwarf, Victorian Dwarf & LUCKY Leprechaun represent the dwarfs that need minimal or no staking but they do not yield
tennis ball sized fruit. Dwarf Champion, Golden Dwarf Champion and New Big Dwarf are representative of heirloom dwarf varieties that yield tennis ball sized fruit but need staking. The new Dwarfs from the Dwarf Project yield a variety of fruit sizes but need regular staking as some grow almost 5' high.

For canning purposes I would grow Heidi and Wuhib and Eva Purple Ball. These can be left to sprawl and have a great yield. Last year from one Heidi Plant I filled 5- 1 quart bags of fruit that I froze. And there were still many fruit that i used fresh.

MikeInCypress

[SEAMSFASTER]

I've grown both Climbing Trip-L-Crop (Italian Tree) and Giant Tree. The vines were indeed long and gangly. Fruit production on both was decent, but not as much as I had expected. Giant Tree had some minor foliage disease problems for me. I rated the flavor of Italian Tree an 8.0 (of 10): very good initially, then fading to average. Giant Tree tomatoes were mild flavored, which doesn't do a lot for me, 6.5.

I did not grow either on a tall trellis, so I can't say how tall they might have grown. However, Behemoth King, Cuostralée, Hoy and Church are all varieties which I have grown on a tall trellis. All have no trouble hitting 15' or more and producing loads of tomatoes. Of these, Cuostralée (in my opinion) has the best tasting and best formed fruits. Himmelsstürmer is another very gangly variety which would do well on a large trellis.

I grew Dwarf Stone last year and got decent production. Fruits were in the 3-7 oz. range.

Bison, though not a dwarf, is a small determinate variety that can stand up well with minimal staking. Though I have not had the level of production reported by others, it has been reasonably productive. Tennis ball size (0.51 lb. largest) is about what I got with Bison.

[WVTomatoMan]

Is that Little Leprechaun or Lucky Leprechaun?

You can grow tall tomato plants, but be careful. When it rains garden dirt can get soft and when you use the ladder to pick the tomatoes it can be a bit tricky. I triple stacked one of my cages (see attached pic) and almost fell off the ladder a few times and vowed never to do that again. I just let them flop.

Good luck.

Randy

[MikeInCypress]

WVTomatoMan,

My error - Lucky Leprechaun it is. (Correction made)

MikeInCypress

[MikeInCypress]

WVTomatoMan,

My error - Lucky Leprechaun it is. (Correction made)

MikeInCypress

[Wi-sunflower]

The reason Giant Tree is "milder" in flavor is because it's a pink rather than a red.

I agree tho that almost any indeterminate will do just about the same thing. Especially if you give it good growing conditions.

For dwarves, I plant a lot and just let them sprawl like I do all my tomatoes. They just make a smaller pile than the big plants. But when I put them in pots, like a 5 gal bucket, I put a small cage in the pot to keep the plant centered above the pot so it doesn't fall over when it has fruit on it.

Some varieties that have medium or larger sized fruit are -
Czech Bush, smallest fruit , about 4 oz, but productive as all get out.
Husky Red or Pink or Gold - all about 6 oz +- and decent production.
Stakeless - about 6-8 oz red
Already mentioned are New Big Dwarf, a pink and Golden Dwarf Champion

3 I really like that have smaller roma type fruit but are very productive.
Roza Vetrov - not really a roma but a pink "saladette" as it's too juicy to be a roma.
Roughwood Golden Plum - an orange roma
Italian Gold - a golden orange roma.

In the interest of "full disclosure", I offer all of those varieties on my web site, but I also grow them all and they do well for me.

Carol

I grew Triple L Crop four or five years ago. The same year I grew it, they had one of those infomercials on television touting "The Tree Tomato" that grew as tall as a tree and produced hundreds of pounds of luscious tomatoes. Someone later told me the supposed tree tomato and my TLC tomato were the same variety.

I had a tall fence I wanted to cover with tomatoes just for the fun of it. When I posted my grow list for the year, someone asked me why I was including "those things" in my list and I replied that I just wanted to see if I could cover an entire tall fence with tomatoes. I thought about the comment a lot and finally planted the seedlings I germinated with very low expectations. They met my expectations. I had a fairly disappointing season in my main garden and on the fence. Nothing wanted to grow in the spring and into the summer season. As fall approached, my entire garden acted like it had been sprayed with adrenalin and started growing and producing like crazy. I think a few of the TLC plants reached twelve to fifteen feet in total length and produced a few tomatoes. The tomatoes were surprisingly good. I've never tried to grow them again. I really think they are better tomatoes than I allowed them to be. Good luck!

Ted

[ScottinAtlanta]

The reason Giant Tree is "milder" in flavor is because it's a pink rather than a red.

Is this generally true? I thought that Destor, Purple Dog Creek, Bradley, Brandywine Sudduths, Prudens Purple, and other pinks had strong tomato flavors.

[b54red]

The largest vine I have ever had was a Gary O' Sena. It covered a 7 ft trellis for 10 feet in each direction from the center and grew an additional 3 ft above the trellis. I have had similar luck with a Marianna's Peace, First Prize F1, Neves Azorean Red, Stump of the World, and others. I think you should pick an indeterminate tomato that you like the taste of and prune it and train it to your trellis.

[Wi-sunflower]

I probably didn't explain myself well.

Those pinks you mention may have a strong flavor, but they will not have the acidy after bite that most reds have.

As with all "generalizations", of course there will be exceptions.

Carol

[GunnarSK]

Originally Posted by Wi-sunflower

Those pinks you mention may have a strong flavor, but they will not have the acidy after bite that most reds have. Carol

Along those lines it's also my experience, that most pinks are sweeter than red.