Have You Ever Just Given Up?

[obispo45]

Sometimes things regardless of how hard we try, maybe even how much we know or maybe even how much we hope, things just don't work out. I'm not a quitter....other than being the only guy/boy in 7th grade chorus way back when....sad story for a gray very slow day in February, I seldom if ever quit. On second thought I quit or gave up on that rag-tag ER show two seasons ago too. Give me a few moments and I'm sure I could think of a few others....thats besides the point though.

OK. I give up. I quit!! For 4 years now I've had such high expectations for Black Krim. Yes, its still very early in the season here and my "high expectations" have been tempered and lowered each successive season. First year I grew it, it was moderately productive IMO but undoubtedly my tastiest tomato. So it secured a semi-permanent spot so to speak. Since then to make a long story short, things just haven't worked out. I've heaped all kinds of attention on it, taken the hands off approach, grown it in distant and varied plots, tried seeds from a variety of sources, etc, etc.... Appears it just wasn't meant to be. This seasons plants are shall we say rather unimpressive. Granted 4 seasons in the grand scheme of things is a narrow window of time but I think I quit!!

Has anyone just hoped and hoped, tried and tried but been continuely suckered in by a particular cultivar? Same thing has happened to me on a lesser extent with Aunt Ruby's German Green but I cut my losses earlier. I'm probably more experienced with peppers, particularly the hot ones, and the pepper Charleston Hot and Black Krim tell a similar story of the not ment to be ilk. Just curious.

[Lee]

I'm close on Grandfather Ashlock..... Had to pull it this year due to TSWV.
Last year the one or two fruit got hit by BER before the plant kicked it due to
Fusarium.
The year before was something else.........

So, why do I keep trying. The plants I give my dad do great and produce some of
the best flavored maters around....

Here's hoping the spare plant I replaced the pulled one with will come through.

Lee

[bully]

for two or three years i grew Omar's and never got a tomato.

A friend sent me a few seeds after I had bemoaned my luck and things have improved.
So if you do decide to give it another go...get the seeds from another source.

A couple years back I gorged myself on Aunt gerties Gold at CHOPTAG ...Earl brought them and they were the winner.
I got seeds from him but if they don't produce this year..I'm throwing in the towel.

Good luck on whatever you decide.

bully

[lumierefrere]

I think 3 years ago one Black Krim was the most delicious tomato I've ever tasted. Never to be repeated. But I'm not as emotionally invested in the "failure" as you are! ;-) I'm not growing it this year. I'm sure I'll have delicious tomatoes from one variety or another--probably a surprise. I'm thinking Little Lucky Heart and it'll wind up being Magnus or something.

I do love the Grandfather Ashlock. My most trouble free and productive variety. When I had one spot left over and about 10 varieties to choose from I put the most reliable one in there--GA. Sorry Lee.

It could all be completely different this year.

Barb

[Tomstrees]

I've only ever given up on plants when they are so diseased its just easier to put them out of their misery ...

Tom

[nctomatoman]

Yep - I do know the feeling. There are certain varieties that just seem to invite trouble - though I certainly does seem to have a geographic component. I have very mixed success these days with Aunt Ruby's German Green, Anna Russian, any of the Russian black determinates (Southern Night, Black Sea Man, Blue Fruit) - they wilt very quickly, often with no fruit produced at all.

Good thing that there are so many to choose from! My list of old reliables is quite large, so there is always a way forward.

[celticman]

I like the taste of Green Zebra, in three attempts to grow it from verious seed sorces I have just given up (One or two toms and the death by deases) and decided to try nine other green tomatoes. I have the same result Craig get on the Russian Blacks (which are so so in flavor anyway) so I grow CP instead.
Give up growing tomatoes Never, move on to other tomatoes are try to breed better versions of the ones I line Yes.
Celtic

[hasshoes]

Crazy. . . I threw out a bunch of overzealous Aunt Rubys German Green seedling because they were growing too fast, and my Aunt Ruby is my best (and only beautifly perfect ) looking plant in the garden. It's only been in the ground three weeks, but is huge and has/had (it was 95 out yesterday) at least 35 flowers. And it's not even one that I'm that interested in! On the other hand, my plants that I've babied and am dying to taste, look like they're bareley surviving, might have disease, and in some cases after three weeks still look like seedlings.

Oh, the irony!!!!!! The pathos!!! I think the tomato gods like to torment us ;0)

I've given up on Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red. Two $6 seed packets later I got one pathetic little seedling that is now one very pathetic little plant that is soon to be pulled because it looks like it has any number of diseases. Sigh. . . glad to hear I'm not alone, though now at least I can feel hopeful about my ARGG. Never had a green tomato before (besides fried). . . I was just putting it out to keep the mater theifs away

[dcarch]

One BW is about 9' tall, very healthy but no blossoms.

As I was about to pull it thinking that this might be one of those "male" plants everyone is talking about, I discovered two big ones well hidden behind lots of leaves.

I guess I'll have to let it stay for a while longer.

dcarch

[akgardengirl]

I see that you are in Minnesota. Why not try "Black from Tula"? You may like the results better. Our season is so short that if they don't produce after giving it a go for 2 years, out they go.
Sue

[Mischka]

I've given up Kellogg's Breakfast. The majority of the seedlings either died from damp-off or crud. The few that managed to survive were stingy on yield.

[montanamato]

It used to be Cherokee Purple eluded me...Then after 3 failed attempts last year it came in huge...
My current failure is 10 Fingers of Naples...Last year the seedling was given away by accident...This year I snapped it off a few days ago at ground level while getting ready for a storm...It had blossoms and looked great...I have decided to grow fewer varieties next year , and have 3 or 4 backups of the ones I really want to taste...

Jeanne

The north is hard to get good black tomato production from it seems...I think Heather had good luck with Black Star last year in Butte....I have only had a few Paul Robeson in the past and this year I am growing Slovenian Black and Black Seaman, neither of which are doing outstanding...

[carolyn137]

I seldom gave up, especially when a variety came to me highly recommended by someone who I know has roughly the same tastes ( plant habit, fruit shape and color, and yes, actual taste) that I do in tomatoes.

Or if I grow something out and really liked it and I think it could do better.

So most of the time when I was growing hundreds of varieties each year I just recorded all data and saved seeds. If some of them really appealed to me then i'd grow them a second and third time and even more to maintain seed stock.

The problem was that b'c I grew so many there were some now, that I look back on, and regret that i didn't say more about them, or grow them more.

But with very few exceptions I listed everything I grew in the SSE Yearbook so that all SSE members would have access. And for a long time now I've sent out what I like the best to Linda at TGS and Glenn at Sandhill, and before that to Pinetree and Shepherds, but no longer the last two.

But I can't think of any varieties that I've given up on, at least that i can remember right now.

[tomatoguy]

I have given up on every growing a Cherokee Purple that is as productive or tasty as others in this forum have. On the other hand, Black Krim has done very well here. The last time I grew it, production was high and the tomatoes were much larger than expected, averaging close to a pound.

mater

[Ruth_10]

Cherokee Purple. When everything else in the tomato plot is healthy, those plants get disease so fast it scares me. Seed from TGS. Maybe I'll try again some day with seed from a different source.