surprises in 2013

[habitat_gardener]

Although most of these weren't my favorites this year, a few tomato plants I hadn't been planning to grow (from neighborhood/garden swaps and other local sources) exceeded my expectations.

Ace -- solid red with few seeds, surprisingly good as a large fall tomato (rescued it from a local nursery's compost dumpster late in the season; labeled as Ace heirloom tomato)

Purple Calabash -- a work of art and good for drying: just cut in half and scoop out the seeds and gel

Dona -- super productive; a good basic round red to donate to the food bank and also great for drying (slice bottom off, then cut the rest in 3 parts; thick walls, minimal seeds/gel)

Carmello -- another super productive round red perfect for donating to the food bank (though it's started to split in the past few weeks)

Ananas Noire -- lots of big tomatoes, fairly consistent production, pretty good flavor

What were your surprises this year?

[Father'sDaughter]

I would have to say Heidi. Overall production was way down this year due to weather challenges and disease. Some plants only produced a couple of tomatoes, and those that hung on provided a steady stream, but not enough for processing or sharing with friends and family. Heidi was the exception this year.

I had started the seeds, but did not have room for it in the raised bed when all was said and done. After doing some research on it here, I decided to stick it in a five gallon grow bag and see what it would do. The single plant sat in the corner of my garden area, in its grow bag, never getting more than three feet tall, constantly loaded with tomatoes, and healthy as could be right to the end. It produced ten pounds of perfectly formed small plum shaped fruit, just the right size for cutting in half and drying, and they keep for a long time after picking. I'm planning on at least two plants for next year to use for drying, and that way whatever pastes my bed plants manage to produce can be used for canning.

[green_go]

I wonder if "Ace" is the same as "Ace 55"? I have seeds for Ace 55, but haven't grown them yet.

My biggest surprise was Rebel Yell F5. I think I found a perfect pink beefsteak now. Extremely productive, vigorous and produces multitude of beautiful and tasty pink beefsteak tomatoes.
And all this considering we had rainier and colder summer than usual.

Second surprise is Druzba tomato. Continuously produced tons of tennis ball sized, perfect red tomatoes.

I am definitely planting more next year of both Rebel Yell and Druzba.

[RobinB]

Margaret Curtain! I got a few seeds last year as a bonus in a trade with Dice here on Tomatoville. They were absolutely amazing, each with a cute little "belly button" on the bottom. The best black tomato I've ever tasted. Knee-buckling-ly good. I plan to try it next to Paul Robeson in 2014, which was my previous "best black."

Ananas Noir: I usually try a few late season tomatoes in Walls O Water just to see if I can "fool" that particular variety into thinking that the season starts in April (when lows are still in the mid-20s). It worked! Ananas Noir gave me wonderfully flavorful, gorgeous fruit starting mid-July and continued pumping then out until frost.

Amethyst Cream: I bought a plant of this variety at a local nursery back in April and had nothing to go from but the tag with a short description. Oh MY! This was a standout cherry in the garden. Huge plant, very prolific, and the only tomato I've ever been able to say is as sweet as candy. They did have enough acid to keep it interesting, though. I've noticed that Wild Boar Farms added this to their seed list just this week.

Pink Champagne: I got seeds last year for this original variety from Casino here on Tomatoville. It's another variety that I only had a written description to go from. I'm so glad I tried them! These large oblate cherries were so pretty with what looked like little dots or "bubbles" on the shoulders of each sweet, tasty fruit, and the plant was huge and prolific.

Robin

[NarnianGarden]

The biggest surprise was that I actually succeeded in my growing experiments and got so much fruit - some of my container plants are now inside and they still have tomatoes on them. Not bad at all, for a beginning gardener...

Another surprise - among the supposed Black Krim seeds, there was either a stray seed or a result from cross pollination. One plant produced large red beefsteaks - they were tasty and juicy, just like the Black Krimeans, so I did not mind at all.
At first I thought I had given them too little fuel - but in the end it turned out they had no intention to be black, no matter what they were fed

Looking forward to next year and more 'surprises'..

[PaulF]

Good surprise: Planted Dora in deference to my grandchildren who all love Dora the Explorer. Tomato Dora is a 9/10 at least.

Another good surprise: Absolutely no diseased plants the whole year. Some BER, but that is not a disease, just a bother.

Surprise of the not quite so good: For the second straight year Purple Dog Creek came up something else. Last year it was a bland smallish something. This year it was a salad/cherry called Randy's Cherry Bomb. In another thread someone else also had a wrong seed problem with PDC and it was decided someone put wrong seeds in another package and I got some of those. Not a bad cherry, but I don't care for cherries much.

[amideutch]

Margaret Curtain

She be the new top dog as far as blacks go. Want to thank Dice for turning me on to this variety and one of our New Zealand members who was able to get seeds for me.

[Salsacharley]

Last year I saved seeds from a Green Velvet. The grow out this year resulted in a large cherry sized black type tomato with green gel. They taste very much like Black Cherry. I saved seeds again and I will grow out this unknown cross again next year. I'm calling it Chocolate Velvet for now.

[OmahaJB]

These two varieties wont surprise anyone here, at least not the first one, but every year since 2008 I've started mainly tomato and pepper seeds for my mother's garden, and this was the first year she really showed much enthusiasm for how they tasted. Black Cherry and Italian Heirloom were the two she mentioned. I've grown Black Cherry before but she wasn't as impressed as she was this year.

Unfortunately, it was the last year for gardening for her. She said she's past tbe gardening stage. She'll be 75 and just can't keep up with taking care of it. And I can't get over there often enough to take care of it properly.

So only indoor gardening ahead for me for awhile.

[Tormato]

Elgin Pink was the one big suprise. After trialing several hundred pinks over the years, I didn't think any pink could be this sweet. This one tastes like a
bi-color at its best.

[weinerm]

Originally Posted by Tormato

Elgin Pink was the one big suprise. After trialing several hundred pinks over the years, I didn't think any pink could be this sweet. This one tastes like a
bi-color at its best.

Is there a source to get seeds for Elgin Pink? I tried searching and could not find a source for it. This sounds like one I would love to try.

[greyghost]

OK I found it. Google elgin pink tomato seed and click on the
site that starts out with Papa Vic...... and you'll find it for sale.

[weinerm]

Originally Posted by greyghost

OK I found it. Google elgin pink tomato seed and click on the
site that starts out with Papa Vic...... and you'll find it for sale.

Great - thanks so much!

[Douglas14]

I'd say Emmy was my surprise tomato of 2013. It held on the vine well, with no cracking noticed. It was a smallish orange tomato, that was very meaty for a globe-shaped tomato. It had a nice flavor, with a decent amount of acidity to it's taste. I definitely plan to grow it next year. My seed source was the SSE public catalog.

[Tom A To]

I was surprised that the hornworms didn't show up this year. Love it when that happens.