Varieties that like extra water?

[Stowaway]

Several of my tomato plants this year are going to be squeezed in among the landscaping -- mostly rose bushes, hostas and the like. There are places in the yard with plenty of room and sun exposure for even very large tomato plants, but they all get different amounts of attention from the sprinkler system. I'm curious if there are varieties that are extra thirsty, and varieties that like a little neglect as far as water is concerned.

Of the seedlings I've got going, candidates for these spots are: Bloodly Butcher, Brandywine Sudduth, Brandywine OTV, Amish Gold, Bulgarian Triumph, Opalka, Black Krim, Anna Russian, Jaune Flammee.

Summers here are dry and fairly hot, so nothing is in danger of getting drowned to death. I'm just hoping to put thirsty plants in optimal spots!

[barkeater]

Stowaway,

Seeing you are in Salt Lake City I would say all your tomatoes will be extra thirsty.
Most important is consistency in watering. Big fluctuations in soil moisture will lead to cracking and splitting, and blossom end rot.

[Stvrob]

I saw that in the Philippines they were grafting tomatoes onto eggplant which I gather are more tolerant of wet soil. Not sure that would be applicable to you in Salt Lake

[Stowaway]

Thanks barkeater, it is indeed dry here! Consistency won't be a problem because these areas are watered by the automatic sprinklers. But there are two spots in particular that get more water than some tomatoes might like (they get hit by both the lawn and the flower bed sprinklers). Again, not so much that it would danger the plant. But I'v heard that some varieties loose intensity of flavor if they get too much water. . .

[Tormato]

In my garden, ~95% of tomato varieties lose most of their flavor with too much water. This would be deep watering about every 2 1/2 to 3 days.

Dr. Lve Apple

[bughunter99]

Put the ones that get bigger ones in the more damp spots.

If you have spots that get some much water they are still glistening wet 12 hours after sprinkling, don't plant tomatoes there.

I'm assuming that this is overhead sprinkling. Make sure that the plants have plenty of spacing to allow for rapid drying of leaves after watering.

-Stacy

[b54red]

From my experience all tomato varieties lose flavor with excess watering; but the black tomatoes seem to lose more flavor than most others. Black Krim reacts worse to excess water than any I have grown. Besides getting mushy and bland, they split terribly. Whatever you do, don't plant a Black Krim where it will get too much water.

[bower]

In my grow last year, Anna Russian was especially prone to foliage disease all season (whether cold or hot). Since wet leaves would contribute to that, I'd keep Anna out of the wetter spots.

[Stowaway]

If you have spots that get some much water they are still glistening wet 12 hours after sprinkling, don't plant tomatoes there.

There's zero danger of that. Climate wise, we're nowhere near as hot as Arizona, but we are basically a desert. Plus, I'm up on a mountain a bit where we can get insane winds during the prime fruiting months.

Put the ones that get bigger ones in the more damp spots.

Black Krim reacts worse to excess water than any I have grown.

In my grow last year, Anna Russian was especially prone to foliage disease all season (whether cold or hot).

Exactly the kind of advice I was looking for! Thanks so much you guys. I'm planning on having two Brandywine Sudduth plants, so I think I'll put one in the "wettest" spot as an experiment. But like barkeater said, I'm probably being overly cautious given how dry it is here.

[b54red]

I wouldn't put a Brandywine Suddiuth in one of the wetter spots either. It is a very large fruit but they tended to split some on the bottom of the fruits. I have not noticed this happening as much with other similar tasting tomatoes like Brandy Boy, Cowlicks Brandywine, Stump of the World, Limbaugh's Legacy, or Terhune unless they got a really excessive amount of water. If I remember correctly Terhune showed less splitting than most of the other large pink beefsteaks I have grown. Neves Azorean Red is a very large red beefsteak that doesn't split too much and it does well in the heat of mid summer.