Early season favorites

[AKmark]

I have grown a few tomato varieties outside up here in AK with ok results, but this year I think I am going to try several varieties. I am looking for golf ball to standard size tomatoes that are reddish, and taste good. I would like some suggestions on some that you may have had good luck with, they must be early though.
Thanks,
Mark

[Fiishergurl]

I can't remember if you already tried Stupice or Bloody Butcher. I grew both of those and both were early and good. I liked Stupice better than Bloody Butcher but that might have been because Bloody Butcher was grown during our worst possible season (July/August) when nothing should grow here.

Ginny

[Father'sDaughter]

My early variety last year was Early Wonder Pink grown in a five gallon grow bag. They averaged about 3 oz. and first fruit was 58 days from plant out--not super early, but still several weeks ahead of most others. Flavor was very good and it was fairly productive.

[Sun City Linda]

Moskvich is the best tasting early I have ever grown. It handles cold wet weather well also.

[RobinB]

You might want to try Iditarod Red. It was very early for me and tasted really good. It's one of the released varieties from the Dwarf Tomato Project. It's not salad sized, but I just love Maya & Sion's Airdrie Classic. It's usually about 60 dtm in my garden and usually the first that tastes really great, not just "good for an early tomato."

[daninpd]

2014 my earliest (decent size) was Pink Berkeley Tie Dye. It was also the winner for taste among 25 candidates for the whole season. 2013 Clear Pink Early got there first and is a great, productive, good tasting tomato.

You kind of have to search for the "reddish" in PBTD, but it is there (along with every other color you ever saw in a tomato). So, Mark, don't stick to red for early and tasty, in my experience.

But in my time growing tomatoes, the best you can do for taste are Kellogg's Breakfast, PBTD and Cherokee Green. Sorry about the "red" part of the whole discussion because I cook and you included "tastes good" in your requirement. Taste trumps all the other BS going on in the vegetable or tomato world for me.

[AlittleSalt]

A red variety that is 65-72 DTM is Celebrity. It tastes good, grows fast, IND plant...it is a hybrid, but seeds can be saved - IMHO, should be classified as an OP.

[AKmark]

Thanks for the replies so far, I should have stated I have grown a couple hundred varieties of all colors in my greenhouse, this is an outdoors thingy I am pursuing here. I have not tried a few of suggested varieties, keep them coming, I am writing down those of interest.
Thanks,
Mark

[Cole_Robbie]

Northern Delight from Territorial will grow about 2-3' tall and profusely set saladette-sized fruit. It's very fast, productive and hardy. Fruit have green shoulders but taste good. It is a very true determinate and does not continue to set fruit at all.

[FarmerShawn]

Here in northern Vermont, Pink Honey has been a tasty good-sized heart early in the season, and keeps producing, and this year we loved Belyi Naliv, an early small roundish one. Stupice has also become a permanent one in my garden.

[KarenO]

How about some Canadian bred Determinates like Beaver Lodge slicer, Manitoba, Scotia,, salt spring sunrise etc. Determinates might be easier outdoors with no staking required.

Matina certainly meets your description as well if you want an indeterminate.

It can get a bad rap for being tart but one of the earliest tomatoes I have ever grown here was silvery fir tree.

So many tomatoes, so little time... If you want to take a chance on an unknown one, PM me, I have seed for a very early red determinate that meets your criteria but it's not a known variety.

Karen

[greenthumbomaha]

Beaver Lodge Slicer from Gary's swap was trialed last summer. It was early but not nearly as tasty as Stupice. It succumbed to disease as well. I grow the earlies in containers in case of late frost. I eventually plant Stupice in any available ground spot and it produces like mad all season.

- Lisa

[creister]

Morovsky Div, Kimberly, Maya & Sions Airdrie Classic, and I'll give a second vote for Clear Pink Early. Sioux and Break O' Day are two that are fairly early and seem to do well.

[bower]

Alaska and Kimberley were the winners in our outdoor trial here a couple years ago, for taste and production. We used black plastic mulch to warm the soil, otherwise they were mostly unprotected.

Moravsky Div and Stupice are great for early cool conditions in the greenhouse, although for some reason I haven't actually grown these outdoors, I would expect them to do well.

In the 'reddish' category, I know a pink slicer that is almost as early as Stupice: Pervaya Lyubov is really early, but for me has been a smallish plant and not a huge producer. Nice sweet pink. I didn't think she was really cold tolerant, all the same - somewhat miserable I think in the worst of the spring.
Also quite early and more tolerant of cool temps afaict was Yaponskiy Krab. Very beautiful, uniform shaped pink beefsteaks, set well in cool weather, ripened about a week later than Stupice, which is still quite early. This is a big plant, RL, seemed very stress tolerant but like everything else, can't set when it gets overheated in the greenhouse. I will try this one again.

[b54red]

Berkley Tie Dyed Pink gets a nod from me also. When I plant it in the spring it is always one of the earliest to ripen even when the weather stays cool. For that reason it is also one of my favorites for fall because of its ability to ripen on the vine in lower temps better than most others. It also has much better flavor than most early varieties which is the most important characteristic of a tomato for me.

Bill