Early and Good

[AlittleSalt]

Tonight, we ate our first three garden tomatoes this year. One wasn't all the way ripe, but I knocked it off the plant. It was an Indigo Cherry Drops. It was good, and we can tell it will taste even better when fully ripe.

The other two were Sungolds. They were in the middle stage of ripeness...I had forgotten how good home grown garden tomatoes really are.

What are some of your favorite early tomatoes?

[jmsieglaff]

I'm with you on the Sungold, a great tomato and so far every year it is also the earliest in my garden. I enjoyed Stupice quite a bit last year.

[ginger2778]

Opal's Homestead was the earliest 3 years ago. Very good.

[Cole_Robbie]

Early for me has a lot to do with cold tolerance and timing the weather right.

Cole was my favorite early variety last year. I am trying several more this year.

I ate a Bosky Chabarovsky yesterday, from a bucket in the greenhouse. It was tiny, not as good as summer soil-grown Bosky, but it was still the best tomato I have had in 2016, because it was the first.

[Douglas14]

Even though I live in a relatively short growing season area, the last few years I haven't made it point to grow any early varieties. In the past I've tried some early sorts. Even though it was nice to get a few extra days of fresh tomatoes, I found that once the mid-season varieties ripened, I pretty much neglected the earlier varieties; preferring the later ripeners. I do grow some cherry varieties each year, and some of these can be quite early. I am interested in following this thread though.

[Dark Rumor]

This is Beaver Lodge Slicer, they are small flavor bombs. They are very early, these were picked on April 30th. The plants are sparse but they are producing good numbers and larger tomatoes as the plant matures.

[Gardeneer]

Come July and I'll show you what early is

[Mushimi]

Strangely my first ripe tomato this year was a Black Krim, even beat my Stupice and Sun Gold. So it's now not only my favorite tomato, but my favorite early tomato.

[kath]

My favorite early tomato is always Sungold, too. I had my first ripe tomato last night- a Pearly Pink Orange. Really pretty and I thought I waited long enough to be sure it was really ripe but it was mushy and lost the taste test to organic grape tomatoes from BJ's...bummer.

kath

[NarnianGarden]

Originally Posted by kath

My favorite early tomato is always Sungold, too. I had my first ripe tomato last night- a Pearly Pink Orange. Really pretty and I thought I waited long enough to be sure it was really ripe but it was mushy and lost the taste test to organic grape tomatoes from BJ's...bummer.

kath

Awww, that's a bummer indeed, but the first ones aren't always the best ones.. just wait for a few more days or weeks and hopefully they improve in taste. My PPO already has green fruits and I am sure it's be my first ripe one... hopefully not as tepid as yours was.

[kayrobbins]

I am growing the Indigo Cherry Drop too and it is early, beautiful, delicious and productive.
I can tell that it will be through soon but that is ok because I have Painted Pink that I like just as much starting to ripen and it always holds up well in the heat. Both are on my permanent grow list.

I have tried so many yellow cherry plants trying to find one that will go on my permanent planting list. I finally found it this year and all of my friends that I gave plants to have said this is now their go to yellow cherry. Gold Nugget was the first tomato to ripen. The plant only gets about 4 feet tall which is a nice change for a cherry. I did not need to use one of my heavy duty cages for this but it was hard for me believe it would stay that small.

I almost wish it would slow down because I am chasing people down to give them more tomatoes. I am so glad I only planted one plant. I wish I could find a red cherry that had such a compact height.

[NarnianGarden]

Gold Nugget was early for me too, and the taste was good. Didn't stay very little though - some staking was needed, although it was a bush.
I loved the leaf form.. very ornamental. Growing it again in my mom's patio space.

[Kazedwards]

Siletz was early for me last year. It is a determinate but didn't stop producing for me. It had two big sets of fruit with a few stragglers in between and after. The taste of the first fruits were decent but once the weather warmed up the taste improved a lot.


-Zach

[Sun City Linda]

First time growning Gregorys Altai and I'm really impressed. Tons of ripening fruit I counted almost 25 large greenies on one plant. First fruits were very good.

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by Kazedwards

Siletz was early for me last year. It is a determinate but didn't stop producing for me. It had two big sets of fruit with a few stragglers in between and after. The taste of the first fruits were decent but once the weather warmed up the taste improved a lot.


-Zach

This is the 3rd year I am growing Siletz. It does well in our PNW.
It is det but I let all the branching stay on. So when one branch/stem is finished producing others kick in. So that is why it fruits all season long.
However, it is not super early, for me though. Mine are just flowering right now. I should expect to pick some ripe ones early July.

Gardeneer