Need a bit of info?

[b54red]

I have grown hundreds of varieties of tomatoes over the last couple of decades but due to the soil problems and diseases a huge amount of the varieties I tried never made any fruit so only the ones that survived year after year were considered worth trying to grow in my garden. Then I narrowed them down to only the best tasting ones that also continued to produce in our hot humid climate with all the accompanying diseases and pests. Gradually the fusarium wilt problems became too much for me to deal with and I started grafting and that renewed the joy I got from growing and eating tomatoes. For the past ten years I have further narrowed down the varieties that I really enjoy both growing and eating. My taste in tomatoes runs toward the juicy, well balanced tomatoes with what is frequently called old fashioned tomato taste and I really don't care for bland mild tomatoes or super sweet tomatoes.

I have added some varieties to experiment with and some to try again with hopes of better results due to the grafting. Some of the varieties are ones I have seen spoken of favorably on this site and others I just decided to try from the description given on Gary Ibsen's TomatoFest site where I purchased the seeds.

What I would like to know is what your experiences and opinions on some of the ones I am trying this year and probably next year as well. I got started late in my grafting due to some problems with seedlings dying during the bad rainy dark weather we had this winter and I had to start many of the varieties again and so I only have some of the varieties grafted and in the garden now and plan to set out as many of the others as I can this year even though some may not fair so well in the heat. I have completed all the grafting for this year and am waiting on some to finish healing and then hardened off to go outside.

The first group are the ones that are in the garden and producing green fruit right now and the second group are the ones I hope to get in the garden in the next few weeks if they all survived the grafting and hardening off stage.

In the ground and growing well:
St. Teresa
German Queen
Earl's Faux
Italian Tree
St. Lucie
Cuostralee
Mexican

Waiting to set out:
African Queen
Brandywine OTV
Brunette
Aussie
Cindy's West Virginia
Giant Doochov
Good Old Fashioned Red
Mortgage Lifter Radiator Charlie's

I would really appreciate any help you can give me and any tips or experiences you have had with these varieties.

Thanks

Bill

[taboule]

Hello Bill,

My experience here.

German Queen: discovered it ages ago when i started growing tomatoes, and have grown it every year since." old fashioned tomato taste" as you say, and fairly prolific. A regular.

Cuostralee: Only reason I'm not growing it this year is I ran out of seeds. Big, beautiful and tasty fruit, and very productive. This one from 2018.
cuostralee.jpg

Mortgage Lifter: Have tried it twice, but never got the production that people talk about. Must have been my environment and will try it again for sure.

Brandywine: Have grown a few different varieties and never had a miss. Always a regular, including this year.

Take care.
Charles

[biscuitridge]

African Queen was very productive for me last year, large tomatoes as well, it’s back again this year.

[wildcat62]

Hey Bill,
German Queen is a yearly favorite in our garden. Big pink & delicious for us year after year. I tried Brandywine OTV a few years ago with limited success. It was stingy with fruit for us. Should probably give it another chance though.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by taboule

Hello Bill,

My experience here.

German Queen: discovered it ages ago when i started growing tomatoes, and have grown it every year since." old fashioned tomato taste" as you say, and fairly prolific. A regular.

Cuostralee: Only reason I'm not growing it this year is I ran out of seeds. Big, beautiful and tasty fruit, and very productive. This one from 2018.
Attachment 91507

Mortgage Lifter: Have tried it twice, but never got the production that people talk about. Must have been my environment and will try it again for sure.

Brandywine: Have grown a few different varieties and never had a miss. Always a regular, including this year.

Take care.
Charles

Thanks Charles. Both German Queen and Cuostralee were two of the ones that survived and were grafted and planted early. The GQ is about 4 feet tall and has a fair fruit set and looks like they may be fairly large tomatoes. The two Cuostralee plants are about 3 ft tall with the lower fruit cluster on each with between 9 and 10 fruits so I don't think I will get any large fruits from those unless my upper clusters have fewer tomatoes. I didn't know what kind of tomato they made and assumed it was small to medium since the clusters were so large. If I had known they would make large tomatoes I would have culled them when they were small.

Bill

[b54red]

Originally Posted by biscuitridge

African Queen was very productive for me last year, large tomatoes as well, it’s back again this year.

I just set out my first African Queen yesterday so it will be a while before I see much from it.

Bill

[Lee]

Bill,


You know my opinion of Cuostralee.... best thing on sliced bread.


Charles' description match my experience except for the productivity. Looks like he gets much more fruit set than I do in hot/humid NC.
I'll be interested to hear your results.
By the way, I did a test of 6-7 different seed sources for Cuostralee a few years ago.... They all tasted/performed different, and none matched my original source of Chuck Wyatt (2002). I figure since he got his seed direct from Carolyn, it was the closest to the "real thing" as one could get.


If you ever need seed again for this, let me know... 18 years of saved seed and counting!


Earl's Faux is similar in growth habit to Cuostralee, large pink juicy beefsteak fruit. Good balanced flavor. Interestingly enough I had one
direct from Earl that he brought down to Tomatopalooza[tm] and it was a very sweet tasting fruit. Next year someone from Charlotte NC brought one to Tomatopalooza[tm] grown from seed from Earl that tasted very different. It was more tart, but I loved them both.... just goes to show soil can have a big impact on flavor.


Anyway, good luck with both of those this season!


Lee

[b54red]

Thanks Lee. I happen to have Cuostralee and Earl's Faux across from each other in the same bed planted the same day. When they were set out they were approximately the same size plants but now both the Earl's Faux are considerably taller plants. I can't wait to see how they taste. I hope to have some more of both out in my staggered planting so I will really get to test how they perform in the heat down here. Of course I am expecting a rash of TSWV infections soon and am surprised that I haven't noticed any so far. Usually by May I have already lost a half dozen to TSWV. I am keeping my fingers crossed because other than some worms, this season is starting out amazingly pest free. Of course down here that just means when they do show up it will probably be a slew of both diseases and pests at the same time.

Bill

[b54red]

Originally Posted by wildcat62

Hey Bill,
German Queen is a yearly favorite in our garden. Big pink & delicious for us year after year. I tried Brandywine OTV a few years ago with limited success. It was stingy with fruit for us. Should probably give it another chance though.

I don't know if I did something wrong or what with OTV but I had poor germination from the seed and the seedlings took forever to get large enough to graft with my smallest tomato clips. I set out two of them yesterday and they were by far the smallest plants I set out. I am hoping they will start growing faster now that they are in the ground otherwise they will get swallowed by the other plants. I have one or two more that were grafted a bit later and are still not ready to set out but they will probably go out in my last planting later this month.

I have read OTV is good in the heat so it will sure get the chance to prove it down here. Brandywine Cowlicks certainly is one of the better pink beefsteaks when the weather gets really hot and I love the taste of all the Brandywines I have tried so far but that isn't many, just Sudduth's, Cowlick's, and Brandy Boy.

Bill

[luke]

I'm planting African Queen and Brandywine OTV for the first time this year. My African Queen plants are starting to have the droopy look about them tells me they might have to be pulled pretty soon. Seven fruits on one, 1 fruit on another (not a lot of sun on these plants.)

The Brandywine OTV are some of the tallest plants in my garden, and look pretty healthy. I have one with 5 fruits and one with 3 fruits. Not the most fruits in the garden, but if they'll stand the heat and poor soil for a part of the summer and let me share a few Brandywines with friends who have commented that they enjoyed them in the past, I'll call it a victory and plant more next year.

I've planted Aussie in the past because it sounded like a tomato that would like my growing conditions. Never got a single tomato from it...most likely a result of lack of sun and poor soil.

Interesting to see your comments about grafting due to fusarium. I will probably look into that going forward, although I don't know if I have the setup for it.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by luke

I'm planting African Queen and Brandywine OTV for the first time this year. My African Queen plants are starting to have the droopy look about them tells me they might have to be pulled pretty soon. Seven fruits on one, 1 fruit on another (not a lot of sun on these plants.)

The Brandywine OTV are some of the tallest plants in my garden, and look pretty healthy. I have one with 5 fruits and one with 3 fruits. Not the most fruits in the garden, but if they'll stand the heat and poor soil for a part of the summer and let me share a few Brandywines with friends who have commented that they enjoyed them in the past, I'll call it a victory and plant more next year.

I've planted Aussie in the past because it sounded like a tomato that would like my growing conditions. Never got a single tomato from it...most likely a result of lack of sun and poor soil.

Interesting to see your comments about grafting due to fusarium. I will probably look into that going forward, although I don't know if I have the setup for it.

You don't have to have a great set up for grafting but it can be a bit messy the way I do it. I always take the root stock seedling out of it's original flat and remove some of the roots if it has a good root system before grafting. After cutting the scion and root stock stems simultaneously with a very sharp razor I join them with a clip and then put them in new DE before setting them in a healing chamber. It seems that the most important thing is to have somewhere to keep the healing chamber for the next 6 to 7 days where there is an even fairly cool temperature out of any direct sunlight. I have found through numerous trials and errors that grafting in hot conditions under bright sunlight will give poor results so I usually graft very early in the morning when it is cool and finish before it gets too bright and sunny.

Despite the learning curve and the frustrations of grafting it is far less trouble and far more rewarding than trying to grow heirlooms in soil teeming with fusarium and RKN without grafting. The first year I successfully grafted some plants and set them out I was amazed at how healthy they were in midsummer when plants would usually be dying or dead. It is not unheard of for some plants to live in my fusarium rich soil from March through November; but just to have healthy plants usually for at least 5 months in the garden is a wonderful thing down here. I don't know how many times I heard "my tomato season is over by late June or early July" and for years I thought that was the way it had to be. Learning grafting and a few techniques that help tomatoes keep producing in the steaming heat down here has made that usually a thing of the past. Of course disease and pest problems along with some weather conditions can certainly shorten the season.

Do some research on grafting and think about how you can get set up to do it and if you need some pointers or suggestions there are several besides me on this site that are grafting.

Bill

[ScottinAtlanta]

Bill, I am surprised that Black Krim is not on your list since all of the local farmers here in Atlanta seem to do well with it. Have you had a negative experience?

[b54red]

Originally Posted by ScottinAtlanta

Bill, I am surprised that Black Krim is not on your list since all of the local farmers here in Atlanta seem to do well with it. Have you had a negative experience?

Hey Scott, I'll give you a long winded explanation of my experience with Black Krim.
I grew Black Krim for quite a while and really liked it when the weather cooperated. By cooperating I mean not raining when the fruit were near ripe. I have grown hundreds of tomatoes and never seen anything that will go from great to awful as fast as BK with just a bit of rain at the wrong time. It was one of my favorites for flavor until we had a normal summer when a long term drought ended and most of the fruit from the plants were ruined by splitting terribly almost with every rain. One year I didn't even get one edible fruit from three plants besides the plants also getting covered with gray mold. Black Krim has another fault in my eyes and that is the very short shelf life. It can go from great to a mushy mess in no time. As I was cutting back on the number of varieties I just decided it was more trouble than it was worth since there are others that are just as tasty but with better ability to withstand splitting and that held up better. Most of the black tomatoes don't do very well in rainy weather but none were as susceptible to the problems as Black Krim. I grew it year before last to see if I was too hasty in dropping it and it produced just okay and taste wise wasn't as good as several others that I grow regularly and even though we had little rain it was difficult to keep it watered without ruining some fruits when the weather got hot so I doubt it will be back. I have tried a lot of black tomatoes and found that I liked the taste of most of them but found a couple that I prefer for one reason or another and now only grow three or four black varieties a year though I will grow multiples of most of them each year. My favorites are ISPL and Spudakee but I also grow Gary O' Sena, Beg Cheef, JD's Special C Tex and occasionally Berkley Tie Dye Pink as a fall tomato.

Bill

[taboule]

All true what you said Bill about BK. Too fragile and "unstable". Still I love the taste, and planning to grow one or two plants under black plastic, so i can control water intake.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by taboule

All true what you said Bill about BK. Too fragile and "unstable". Still I love the taste, and planning to grow one or two plants under black plastic, so i can control water intake.

I love the taste also and one year during our long drought actually got a few with that smoky taste and they were incredible.

Bill