Good tomatoes in a bad year

[Lindalana]

Here is some of my report. Year was bad for varied reasons, including soil problems at community gardens, very cold and rainy weather, blossom drops, stunted growth... so am unable to evaluate all my new varieties but some did really well. Am thinking it counts.
Tomato Pravda, seed from Doublehelix farms. Small plant up to 2 ft, det, oval red, early, saladette size. Very productive and not fussy. Taste sharp on acidic side but still sweet enough to count. Juicy.
Black plum- from Casey's. Should be in everyone's garden. Sweet, dark, lots.
Guido- workhorse. Loaded, large red beefs. Did very well with disease pressure. More acidic than sweet, juicy beef. Keeper.

Seed from Ukraine, only description I got " Yellow clusters" There are no clusters. Large big yellow orange beefs. Plants stood well all the weather/ soil troubles, Taste is middle ground- not too this or that but it is first yellow I decidedly like and can eat a lot. Not too juicy. Plant still standing almost pristine amid all fungal trouble.

Pink- same story. Early, large on a sweet side. First ones cracked badly but then we had tons of rain. Still producing well, no more cracks.

Pastes
Shedra Slivka Tarasenka from Tania- loaded paste. Probably just a bit on juicy side but tasty. Plant does very well with trusses of tasty plums. Keeper. Even in shady place it still trying to do its job.
Idaho hillibilly- loaded paste midseason firm, dry.
Pirkstine Orange- another loaded paste/ elongated plum with sweetish taste. Good enough to eat but does wonders with the sauce. I got seed from Canada but original seed from Latvia.
Khirkiv- looks like paste- small oval barrels but is too juicy to go that route. YUMMY! Loaded trusses and one of the few plants that still setting new flowers.
Serbian oxheart- bigger than golfball sized and there are tons of it. Juicy. Midseason.
Dagestanskiy- read above. Loaded.
Terhune- keeper for the taste alone but production is great considering all blossom drops issues I had. Got from MMM swap. Pink

Shirley S- from Tania- see above. Even my daughter who likes only darks, ate it and loved it. I got PL correct variant.

Birjinesekutsky- mouthful of the name, from city in Siberia. Large red. Excellent taste. Great production. Just right size and taste for a slicer.

Dana Dusky Rose- from Heritage. Keeper. Dark, productive, midseason. Plant did well.

George Detsikas- Newer not yet well known. Large red with green shoulders. EARLY for such size and production. Taste more on acidic side, productive.

Hearts

GLORIA- OMG, this is one heck of a hearts although more fruits are rather round. Large, early and taste great and there are PLENTY. Seed from Tania.

Sensay- early, large and taste great. Seed from MMM swap. Probably first heart together with

Mama Alla- seed from Tania, named after Tania's mom- early, large and taste wonderful.


Gloria and Yellow clusters

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Khirkiv


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Black plum

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Shedra Sliva Tarasenka

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Pirkstine Orange

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Idaho Hillibilly

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Idaho hillibilly, Khirkiv, Pirkstine Orange and Shedra Sliva

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Black Magic

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Adamovo Yabloko, which is not Adamovo Yabloko but is tasty and very pretty

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Yellow Clusters, which is pretty uniform in size

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Mama Alla

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Pink, the very early ones, later ones no cracking at all. Sweet.

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[bower]

Those look great, Lindalana. Glad to see you got a good harvest in spite of the bad year.

We've also had a really bad summer, but I have some good tomatoes too.

My Yellow Clusters is just blushing yellow so I haven't tasted yet - the ripe ones look a beautiful orange! The flowers on Yellow Clusters are 'tangerine' type, I'm really glad to have it because the Earl of Edgecombe is much later and looks like it may not even set a fruit here this year.

Yellow Clusters is a healthy plant, sturdy growth habit, and production and fruit size the same as two other 'early midseason' slicers - Biskaya Roza and Indian Stripe - all have about a dozen fruit in the circumstances. For comparison of maturity time, IS and BR blushed 140 days from germination and Yellow Clusters 142 days, so it's right in the ballpark for a slicer that I can grow here in our short season. Thanks for sending this to me! Can't wait for a taste.

[Lindalana]

I had to google it and found previous thread on coloring of flowers including tangerine type. Live and learn!

[ddsack]

Nice report, Linda! Thanks for posting. Did you find the flavor of Idaho Hillbilly to be more bland than Opalka or similar long pointy pastes?

[Lindalana]

Flavor for IH is full and very good for me. Probably too dry to eat though. Since I did not grow it next to opalka not sure if I can correctly compare. But IH def AAA keeper.

[AlittleSalt]

I'm glad to read that you got some that did well. It has been an odd year for growing. We've gone from record rainfall in May and June - to the 7th most days without rain in our area - with no rain in the forecast. On top of that, there are still lakes basically closed because of over-flooding here. A very odd year indeed.

I remember looking at the national weather radars and it seemed like it rained every day in the Chicago area for a long time. I'm glad you have tomatoes.

[Lindalana]

Yes, weather has been extra special this year seems for many areas. Thus indeed it is a great pleasure to have some tomatoes that toughened it out and grown well
Here is Kiss the sky, Burztyn and Muddy Mamba. Not sure if Kiss the Sky is better than Black Cherry but it is bigger in size and great taste. Grew somewhat in the shade so colors might be off.

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[Lindalana]

Recent yield of "Pink" looks pretty.
I kinda was under impression that most of those Slavic oxhearts were just about the same but Serbian oxheart from Tania is def different- full of new greenies again- sheesh, one of the most productive plants this year. As Tania says impressive yields indeed for heart shaped variety.
Shedra Slivka Tarasenka- translation- Generous plum from Tarasenko is indeed generous- plenty of new ones pumping and blooming.
Also happy to see Black plum pumping new ones as any cherry tomato.
Have not tasted yet- late planting but Budenovka Red from Tania doing very well in very shady corner. Loaded with greenies. Next year prime spot for sure.
Here is new " Pink"

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[bower]

Really enjoying this 'Yellow Clusters' fruit. It is very meaty, smooth textured, and very juicy for me- but not from gel, there is very little of that - the juice is just running out of the meat... I can't compare the taste to anything, it is not a "typical red" taste, very pleasant.. and I admit, after saving seeds from the fruit in the pic below, I sliced and ate what was left, plain as is.

[Barryblushes]

Awesome tomato pics! Barry

[PaulF]

Don't know how I missed this thread. Thanks for the report. This is what I like to see; it helps make decisions for next year's tomato garden.

[Lindalana]

Bower, many thanks for report. Glad you like Yellow clusters. I am very interested to grow them next year to see if they still retain decent resistance to septoria- much better than many other plants in my community garden.
Finally got to taste Muddy Mamba from Tania- yum! Reminds me Malachitovaya schatulka.

here is Black Magic and Muddy Mamba.

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[NarnianGarden]

Great pics. My most productive has been Chernomor - Black Seaman - after Noire de crimee. those blacks seem not to mind any type of weather, rain or sunshine they just produce... What a blessing.
I think I will concentrate on those true and tested varieties than ever try to grow a Brandywine or Kellogg's Breakfast, PL or no PL... life is too short to fret over non-productive tomatoes.

[Gardeneer]

I have the opposit experience:

BAD TOMATOES IN A GOOD YEAR.

2015 has been the warmest rain free, sunny weather on record here in PNW. Yet my tomatoes have been late, and too few compared to last year.
I have yet to pick a single ripe fruit from my:
CP, RUTGERS, ANANAS NOIRE, BIG RAINBOW, BEAR CLAW, KB, ARBUZNYI, JBT and DRUZA.
Hey! it is almost September. Geeeez !
Of course I have been harvesting other varieties from mid July on.

Gardeneer

[bower]

Originally Posted by NarnianGarden

Great pics. My most productive has been Chernomor - Black Seaman - after Noire de crimee. those blacks seem not to mind any type of weather, rain or sunshine they just produce... What a blessing.
I think I will concentrate on those true and tested varieties than ever try to grow a Brandywine or Kellogg's Breakfast, PL or no PL... life is too short to fret over non-productive tomatoes.

Yep... I keep trying new varieties, but I don't have space for anything "late" - if the DTM is over 80 days in southern areas, it wouldn't have much chance of producing here. Haven't tried Noir de Crimee so that is on my list now.

This was a good year for testing! as only the worthy could manage such rotten weather. The ones below will have their seeds saved and put into our "seed bank" of varieties that can be grown here... Anything up to approx 130 days on this scale can be grown outdoors here and set some fruit. The 140 day group are "late" for us, and suited for the greenhouse only.