Oops, I think I have the wrong tomato plant

[dpurdy]

My wife, who loves tomatoes of all kinds, picked out a couple of cherry tomato plants this Spring. She wanted another cherry tomato growing besides the Black Pearls in the garden. While we were at Lowe's this Spring she picked up a couple of Sweet 100's plants and asked me to grow them for her. Normally, I only grow a few cherry tomato plants because they grow so large and produce a lot of tomatoes. I planted them at the end of a row and didn't pay too much attention to them. A week or so ago, I noticed that the tomatoes on the Sweet 100's were getting larger than normal and their shape was different than I remembered Sweet 100's to be. The tomatoes on the plant are now starting to ripen but the plants are only 4 to 5 feet high (determinate???). The last time I grew this variety, they grew to be almost 9 feet in height and had a spread of about 4 feet. The so-called Sweet 100's that I'm growing look almost like a Marglobe. Also, the tomatoes on the vine range from golf ball size to baseball size. Not normal for this variety, and they're not growing in the normal clusters like most cherry types. I've enclosed a few pictures and maybe someone can give a guess to what variety of tomato these might be. Each plant has more than a hundred tomatoes on the vine. Definitely a high producing plant. I think someone at Bonnie Plants made a labeling mistake when they potted these tomato plants.
dpurdy

[FaithHopeLove]

I have no idea, but it looks like you ended up with a great producing plant!

[FaithHopeLove]

http://bonnieplants.com/products/veg...eirloom-tomato

Here's the info from Bonnie on Marglobe.

[FaithHopeLove]

Yours kinda look like Heatmaster from Bonnie here's the link:

http://bonnieplants.com/products/veg...tmaster-tomato

[Ed of Somis]

It seems like I hear a lot about Marglobe on this site. Perhaps I should put it on my grow list for next year. Is it that good?

I no longer buy many plants from retail outlets. I've found some people have created a new game called "switch the tag". I bought a couple of homestead plants this past spring. One turned out to be something similar to Fourth Of July. I didn't really care because I also grow FOJ, but I grow it from seed. Next year, I will grow Homestead from seed also. I have experienced similar "wrong tomatoes" in the past and I used to automatically blame Bonnie or some other grower for the mistake. In recent years, I've noticed many people take their kids to the big box stores and turn them loose to play in the toy areas or play tag in the garden areas. I've also seen adults remove the little tags from plant containers in order to read them and then stick the tag back into any random container. If I buy a plant, I usually choose one at the back of the display and hope every previous shopper was too lazy to reach to the back of the display. In some ways, its kinda fun because it makes every purchased tomato plant a mystery plant. I think it did in your case also.

Ted

[Deborah]

Ted, I always take the shampoo or whatever from the back of the shelf-it bugs me to see people open caps, smell, and put the bottle back.
I recently bought what I thought was fennel but was either dill or chamomile. Next time I'll have to do a smell test of my own !

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Ed of Somis

It seems like I hear a lot about Marglobe on this site. Perhaps I should put it on my grow list for next year. Is it that good?

Speaking for myself I don't think it's that good. It's one of many commercial varieties that were grown in the late 30's thru the 40's to the 50's, along with Bonn Best, New Yorker, Rutgers, Manalucie and som eothers.

Reliable it is, as are the others, and used primarily for canning, but IMO there are much better varieties around,not so much for canning, but just darn good tasting reds and pinks, etc.

If you look at the grow lists others put up, you won't see many growing these older commercial varieties.

If there's one that I do suggest it's Break O Day.

Carolyn

[dpurdy]

FaithHopeLove,
After looking at the link you provided, I kind of agree with you. It resembles the Heatmaster. I was no fan of the Sweet 100's and will take these over them anyday. We picked a couple the other day and they taste pretty good. They're definitely worth the space I used to plant them. Each plant should yield over 25 lbs..

tedln,
When I first realized that the plants I was growing weren't what they were supposed to be, I thought the same as you. It happens all the time in the stores where people switch tags. These two mystery plants turned out to be high producers and tasted good. No harm, no foul. FaithHopeLove posted a link to a page on Bonnie Plants website. The Heatmaster looks very similar to what I'm growing. I may have to buy a packet of seeds to find out.

Ed of Somis,
My grandfather used to grow Marglobe tomatoes on the farm. He always had good success with them. Later in life, he grew more Rutgers than Marglobe. I grow the Marglobe tomatoes each year for my wife, who likes them, and just because my grandfather always did. You should give them a try. Tomato taste is a personal thing. You may grow it and really like the taste, or you may not think it's worth the garden space. Marglobe is a determinate plant and will sprawl nicely in fields. If you decide to try Marglobes, I'd be happy to send some seeds.
dpurdy

[FaithHopeLove]

I'm happy to help, I've kind of become master of internet searching. lol
I don't know if you looked at all the varieties that Bonnie has. There are also other varieties that looked similar, so I could very well be wrong.

[COMPOSTER]

Couldn't even guess what it is but with that level of production I hope they are tasty.

Glenn

After trying to grow tomatoes in the high heat and high humidity of southern Louisiana many years ago, I searched out and planted every variety I could find that had heat (Heatmaster, Heatwave, and a few others) or sun in it's name. I included every commercial variety I could find that had a Florida link. Most of them were total flops by not holding up any better in the heat than other varieties. Most that seemed to survive the heat and humidity produced tomatoes that tasted like wet cardboard. I was in the Army and ate a lot of field rations, so yes; I do know what wet cardboard tastes like. The only variety that would consistently provide tomatoes with a reasonably good taste was Better Boy and it made no claims to being heat resistant.

Ted

[Salsacharley]

I'm growing Marglobe this year as well as Livingston's Paragon. I'm doing it mainly because after reading Livingston's book I just want to find out what the leading edge was like "back in the day". My fruit is still green but both plants have nice looking fruit.