German Queen ~

[Tomstrees]

Pro's / Con's -
Any input on this one ?
My family sent a fruit down for my "testing" ~
Worth growing ??? ~

Tom

[spudleafwillie]

Tom,
I last grew German Queen in 2004. It is one of the many PL pinks from Germany. I would rate it with slightly above average taste, but way below Grandpa's Charlie and Willie in taste, average production of fruit. Indeterminate and prone to folar diseases. About 80-85 DTM. Its worth a try growing since it is a PL!!!

A bit picky with the hot weather here in sw NM with blossom drop and setting fruit in the heat, but starts to set fruit in the cooler weather as do most of the PLs from northern Europe. It may do well for you on the Jersey coast.

Regards,
Bill

[Tomstrees]

Thanks Spud !!!

~ Tom

[travis]

Tom,

I grew two in 2005. One in a large container at home, and I sent one home with a friend in a large container for her patio. Neither one made a single fruit.

She babied hers. I ended up rippin' mine out. Both were really beautiful plants with huge potato leaves and big daisy flowers. It was really hot in 2005 and dry as a bone.

I never had the pleasure of tasting a German Queen, so I'm no help to you there. Set aside a big, deep, fertile spot and don't try it in a container if you expect a hot, dry summer ... just my experience

PV

[carolyn137]

Tom,

I grew German Queen many years ago and while the plant is lovely and the fruits more blemish free than many beefsteaks I thought the taste was nothing special.

Let's put it this way, I could list lots and lots of large pink varieties, both PL and RL, that I much prefer to GQ for taste. No, you didn'/t ask for that list and no, I'm not going to do it.

Taste is the main reason I grew/grow tomatoes.

[bugsy]

I tried growing German Queen this year for the first time and I was pleasantly surprised. Fruits were thin-skinned, mild and sweet, blemish free as mentioned earlier. I wouldn't say the fruit has a full tomato taste but for someone who likes mild, sweet tomatoes for fresh eating, I don't think this is a terrible choice. A couple of tomatoes had a little radial cracking but otherwise, a beautiful tomato. No BER which got the Brandy Boy this year due to extreme heat and somewhat crappy watering. I was reluctant to try German Queen due to carolyn's remarks which usually correlate with my experience. However, my parents bought this plant so i had to grow it and it exceeded my rather low expectations.

Yield was not huge, about 2-3 tomatoes a week for the last month. Possums ate the earlier tomatoes and I don't remember how many there were back then as I was out of town.

my parents have requested that I grow this one again so yes I will grow it next year as well. However, I will also be growing Brandywine Sudduth so they might change their mind (yet again) about what tomato they favor. :-)

--Oh yeah, this plant has grown well in really hot SoCal weather and also survived my parents watering technique (indescribable). I mulched it with some grass clippings and fertilized it before I left town with some alfalfa meal but that was it.

[Grub]

Hi Tom,
I gave it a prime spot a few years back and got some nice fruits. I thought the taste was great, but Polish surpasses it in every way. Thus, there are indeed better PL pinks including about a half dozen I've tried since. No expert but I did like it.

[Tomstrees]

After letting it sit
on my counter for a couple days,
I have to agree with the above that
the flavor is just "ok" ~
I'd give it a 5 on my scale of 1 - 10 ...
Nothing to write home to Mom about ...

I also got in my "care-package" (sent from N. NJ)
a Cherokee Chocolate tomato
from my Aunts garden ...
Now that had some real flavor !!!
My plant for some reason "cashed out" early ...

~ Tom

[Grub]

It's an anomaly, this one, in so far as the consensus of opinion is that it's pretty average for a pink but that mine, in the top berth, were better than average. The same year I grew Dr Neal, Heatherington Pink, Soldacki , Gregori's Altai, et al and it wasn't like miles behind them. Way better than the routine red. One of those rare ones where I differ from the popular opinion. More like a 7/10 than a 5/10 for me that year.

[cecilsgarden1958]

I grew it this year, too. It was fairly healthy and large plant, but fruit was scarce and unreliable in size. The flavor was so mild, it brdered on bland, with lots of cracking.

CECIL

[Grub]

Variable size is very true Cecil.

Hey, hope you are well and already thinking about next-year's list.

I want you to find THAT tomato that brings and ear-to-ear grin to our favorite Unc' Cess's noggin.

It's out there somewhere.

[spyfferoni]

There were some German Queen entries at our State fair. They were the biggest pink tomatoes there---actually about the biggest of any tomatoes there. They looked lighter than the Polish I grew last year---very pretty fruits. I was looking them up after seeing them last night and happened on this thread. I'm kind of bummed that flavor wise they aren't great, because my mouth was watering looking at them.

Tyffanie

[cecilsgarden1958]

Originally Posted by spyfferoni

They looked lighter than the Polish I grew last year---
Tyffanie

Tyffanie: How was Polish's flavor last year. I was thinking of trying it, because it is supposed to produced in cooler weather.

CECIL

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by cecilsgarden

Tyffanie: How was Polish's flavor last year. I was thinking of trying it, because it is supposed to produced in cooler weather.

CECIL

There is no ONE variety named Polish, for there are several.

One can disctinguish them in the SSE Yearbooks by looking at the lineage.

There's the Polish introduced by Bill Ellis in PA, there's the Polish listed at heirloomseeds where it's said that the seeds were under a stamp, and there's Polish C. And there are more.

I've grown all three of the above and like all of them, but unless you know which Polish you have, if folks are comparing Polishes, as it were, it might be hard to do since they are not all the same.

[cecilsgarden1958]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

I've grown all three of the above and like all of them, but unless you know which Polish you have, if folks are comparing Polishes, as it were, it might be hard to do since they are not all the same.

How about Polish from TGS, my usual choice for seeds?

CECIL