Hybrid Paste tomato or best paste overall

[MendozaMark]

I know there is a ton of info here on heirloom and OP paste types but I was wondering if anyone had any hybrid pastes recommendations.

I am currently growing out 200 plus seedlings for my neighbour in Mendoza, Argentina of Rio Grande , a determinate OP paste. He grows paste type every year and his family is dependant on the crop for both food and extra income. I really want to make sure he has the best paste, in terms of production, tolerance to BER and disease. Flavour is important too, and it must be easy to can. The paste must be a determinate and be able to handle hot dry weather conditions as well.

I know I asked about hybrids above , but if anyone has a great OP, please share too. The ultimate goal is the best paste.

Thanks,

Mark

[MendozaMark]

Ohhh, one last bit of info, he doesn't use stakes/support his tomatoes.

[ContainerTed]

For flavor, Casino Paste comes to mind. For being a determinate, VB Russian comes to mind. Both are heavy producers with VB Russian being the smaller of the two. Both should do well in a drier climate and will also do pretty well with minimum or no staking. Yield will be higher on both with minimum staking - say two feet - 60 centimeters.

Most of us here stake everything, so it will be somewhat difficult to recommend different varieties.

Hope this helps a bit.

[Hellmanns]

Pony Express F1 is hard to beat in terms of productivity, size and eye appeal.

[MendozaMark]

Originally Posted by ContainerTed

For flavor, Casino Paste comes to mind. For bering a determinate, VB Russian comes to mind. Both are heavy producers with VB Russian being the smaller of the two. Both should do well in a drier climate and will also do pretty well with minimum or no staking. Yield will be higher on both with minimum staking - say two feet - 60 centimeters.

Most of us here stake everything, so it will be somewhat difficult to recommend different varieties.

Hope this helps a bit.

Thanks Ted, it helps a lot. I will add them to my list and trial them out next year. I have a fair bit of pastes I am trialling this year but they are almost all indeterminate. I do have a few determinate canners like Rutgers and Heinz classic processor but they really love their Roma types. My neighbour looked at me like I had 2 heads when i told him that I had "black" tomatoes. I am giving him some of my OPs/heirlooms and he is getting one black type for sure.

Thanks again ! Mark

[MendozaMark]

I am going to show my neighbour how to stake when he gets some of my indeterminate tomatoes. He was very intrigued about my tomatoes that grew and produced till frost. That being said, I won't burden him with 200 plus plants to learn on. So compact (2 feet) should fit the bill.

[MendozaMark]

Pony F1 looks like another good prospect. Thanks !

[ContainerTed]

Mark, look at the Dwarf Project. Arctic Rose is a determinate that gives a bunch of pink toms with excellent taste. Being a small plant to begin with, it will require only the least amount of staking if at all. It is a true determinate and will die quickly after the harvest. This variety can be planted every 18"to 24" with 24 inches between rows. Something to consider.

I can think of several other varieties, mostly indeterminate that will give lots of fruits, and do so while sprawling, but your neighbor would have to choose to try something new. Angora Orange and a couple of others will produce well when sprawling, but they also take up a little more space in the garden to do so.

Let me know if you have something specific in mind and I'll try to match up varieties that could fill the bill.

[bower]

For dry climate pastes, you may want to check out posts by Sicilianu, who has made some really interesting seed offers of the Italian heirlooms he collected specifically for dry cultivation.

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=37602

[MendozaMark]

Originally Posted by ContainerTed

Mark, look at the Dwarf Project. Arctic Rose is a determinate that gives a bunch of pink toms with excellent taste. Being a small plant to begin with, it will require only the least amount of staking if at all. It is a true determinate and will die quickly after the harvest. This variety can be planted every 18"to 24" with 24 inches between rows. Something to consider.

I can think of several other varieties, mostly indeterminate that will give lots of fruits, and do so while sprawling, but your neighbor would have to choose to try something new. Angora Orange and a couple of others will produce well when sprawling, but they also take up a little more space in the garden to do so.

Let me know if you have something specific in mind and I'll try to match up varieties that could fill the bill.

The whole trying something new is really the tricky part here. I am trialling over 70 types of tomato varieties that I brought from my original home in Canada. Here in Argentina, they have four types of tomatoes, Tomate perita(roma paste) ,Tomate redondo (round), basic red cherry, and a grape type. The round tomatoes are the big Agro horrible grocery store type. I am trying to introduce Mendoza to the great world of heirlooms and OPs. I plan on having lots of reds and pinks as my main croppers. I am concentrating on using cherry tomatoes to introduce the concept of different colours. I have lots of other types as well but will just grow a couple each for trial and market testing purposes. I do have two dwarfs, pink passion and purple heart, and my 2016 list is full of dwarfs. I would have selected different dwarfs to start out with but when I decided to do this most places had sold out of the most popular ones. Keep in mind, everything is in seedling stage, and I have not grown them before so I am not knocking either Pink passion or purple heart.

Back to my neighbour, he is the caretaker of the lot next to me and has previously gone 50/50 with the owner of the property. This year he got sandbagged with the owner saying he wasn't interested in doing it at the last moment. The caretaker has no extra money for seedlings or seeds even. He asked me for help, and I ran out got Rio Grande seed and now have 220 small seedlings for him. We are going 50/50 on the crop, but I won't accept that much in return. (He kept insisting 50/50) I am also giving him a bunch of OPs to try, and lots of different peppers too. I am hoping in a few years he could switch off the roma type to more productive types. The market he sells to really wants the roma and since the income is so important, i don't want to risk it.

Me on the other hand wants to challenge the market, I am willing to assume the risk. I make sauces and sun dried tomatoes as well, so not many of my fresh tomatoes should end up compost.

Build it and they will come. Perhaps I will look out and see Alexander W. Livingston walking through my tomato garden ...lol.

[MendozaMark]

The other thing I am attempting is the spring/fall 2 crops, as we have a very long season here. In Mendoza, I only see them doing the one crop like my neighbour. I have a few short season types like Stupice, 0-33, clear pink early that I hope to get a Fall crop. I was able to grow/overwinter an unknown cherry and mid size slicers. The cherry never quit, setting fruit all winter, although not a ton. I kept it in an unheated greenhouse, covered it up with layers of fabric row cover and it survived many nights of 0 degrees Celsius temps inside the greenhouse. So I think a fall crop should be very doable. Also had unknown Jalopenos that did amazing well, and other peppers that overwintered really well too.

[MendozaMark]

Originally Posted by bower

For dry climate pastes, you may want to check out posts by Sicilianu, who has made some really interesting seed offers of the Italian heirlooms he collected specifically for dry cultivation.

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=37602

I have the Russo Sicilian off his list but would love to try the rest. I am not a huge fresh tomato fan, but I LOVE sauce and sun dried tomatoes. Thats why i was so interested in Snickers/Deep Space tomato you so generously offered.

[Gardadore]

How do hearts do in your part of the world? I have been completely converted to making sauce from them as opposed to the pastes. My sauces this summer have been sweet but full flavored. I use the oven roasting method and I also oven dry tomatoes.

One of the most prolific was Fish Lake Oxheart, large robust red. Others that are delicious are Anna Maria's Heart, Anna Russian, Joe's Pink Oxheart, Kosovo and Amish Paste (actually a heart). A good paste for me has been Ernie's Plump, a double pear and quite prolific. These are,of course, larger than the pastes, but then you need less tomatoes to make the same amount of sauce.

Tanya has a wonderful list of oxhearts to consider at http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/w...haped_Tomatoes

I wish you luck in your project. Your friend should be amazed at the difference in flavor between the regular pastes and the hearts, especially after they are cooked down.

[MendozaMark]

Originally Posted by ContainerTed

Mark, look at the Dwarf Project. Arctic Rose is a determinate that gives a bunch of pink toms with excellent taste. Being a small plant to begin with, it will require only the least amount of staking if at all. It is a true determinate and will die quickly after the harvest. This variety can be planted every 18"to 24" with 24 inches between rows. Something to consider.

I can think of several other varieties, mostly indeterminate that will give lots of fruits, and do so while sprawling, but your neighbor would have to choose to try something new. Angora Orange and a couple of others will produce well when sprawling, but they also take up a little more space in the garden to do so.

Let me know if you have something specific in mind and I'll try to match up varieties that could fill the bill.

I wonder what the best dwarf for sauces would be, with meatiness being one of the criteria, so it didn't have to reduce too much. I really think dwarfs have great potential in a mixed planting. One of the reasons i want to try them out is to see if I can figure out how to use them as the first tier or alternate them with larger tomatoes to increase planting density. 3d planting with the goal of increasing sun exposure to the plants but reduce spacing and reduce soil exposure.

[ABlindHog]

Chico III was developed by Paul Leeper to grow in the hot dry Rio Grande Vally in Texas. It is a determinate OP 3-4 oz paste tomato with well balanced flavor that cans very well. I generally get two flushes of ripe tomatoes, first a large flush at about 65 days and a smaller one at about 80 days. I recommend Chico III very highly. Leeper later developed a larger version called Chico Grande. It produces 6-8 oz fruit and is otherwise similar to Chico III. I have not grown Chico Grande so I can not recommend it but if you need the larger size it would be worth investigating.