I think I had some of that Bonide spray one year. Believe it was rebottled Cueva—or at least it was the same thing (Copper Octoanate). I mixed my own Bordeaux for a few years with copper sulfate and lime, but got tired of doing that and starting using LiquiCop. (EDIT: Got some Kocide for fruit trees this year, so may try that instead.) I usually aim for every two weeks, perhaps weekly in very wet weather. I’d rather not use so much copper, but the blight eats everything otherwise. I did, as mentioned, experiment with potassium bicarb last year, which helped with early blight—not so much the septoria spot. Might try neem oil on a couple of plants this year to see what happens.
EDIT: Forgot to answer your weed barrier question! I’ve been using white plastic for the past few years. I run a strip along both sides of my 'maters to fight weeds, cut down on soil splash. Usually mulch around the plants proper with straw, pine straw, or leaves.
I try to keep a single main stalk and keep suckers under control—but I’ll admit that, as the season goes on and I get distracted by other stuff, the plants tend to get a little woolly! We’ve always used the big concrete wire cages here—helps when the woolliness sets in!
I use tobacco sticks, which are fine, but once the plant gets higher than 4-5ft, they tend to droop over. And just about all my plants grow quite higher than that.
I really need to turn my plots but the current weather isn’t cooperating, much too wet to get the tractor out right now.
BTW, I’m starting my tomatoes today, got 20 varieties, probably do two of each at least.
Mainly comparing Phytophthora-resistant varieties with each other and with a number of OP varieties.
In the greenhouse:
Black krim
Brandywine Sudduth
Brandywine Yellow
Brandywine Black
Brandywine Red
Brandywine Landis Vally Strain
Brandywine Cowlicks
Black Beauty
Glacial Zebra
Xanadu green goddess
Sungreen 4029 (extreem sweet)
Dwarf Sweet Sue (seeds still on the way)
Cherokee Purple (seeds still on the way and actually no more space in the greenhouse)
The Brandywine varieties are said to be one of the tastiest beeftomatoes from the USA.
Outdoor cultivation without a shelter:
Purple Zebra F1 (h2 en ph3 heterozygous)
Celano F1 (Blight tolerant?)
West Virginia 17A (ph2 en ph3 homozygous)
Own cross F1 Sungreen 4029 x WV 17A
Koralik (ph2 homozygous)
Various crossings from koralik with blight resistant varieties
Sunviva (ph3 homozygous)
Various crossings from Sunviva with blight resistant varieties
A few more own crossings from 2021.
Galahad F3 (50+25 stuks) (ph2 en ph3 homozygous)
Skyreacher (test for outdoor cultivation)
There are a total of 130 plants.
According to the developer/breeder Skyreacher is homozygous for both ph2 and ph3. However, Dutch test results show that his parent Skykomish probably does not have ph3 (while the developer also claims that this variety is homozygous for ph2 and ph3). Therefore, Skyreacher probably did not inherit this ph3 gene. We’re going to see how well he can cope with outdoor cultivation.
I will not grow the strong blight resistant varieties this year because I cannot place more plants:
I live in the Los Angeles area and grow most of my tomatoes in 5-gallon SIPs so I don’t have to fight nematodes and disease very much.
Cherry
Sungold (Very happily. Missed them last year!)
Black Cherry (First time. A friend raved about them and I traded a Sungold for it. We’ll see who “wins” the best taste contest.)
Midsize
Clint Eastwood’s Rowdy Red (AKA “Rowdy Red”). Grew this one last year and it over-wintered, even though it was in the ground. Had arugula growing right by it; maybe that helped fight nematodes? A little on the small side, but productive and good flavor.
Chef’s Choice Pink (First time. The “Chef’s Choice” line is supposed to have good flavor and keep the tomato’s original color even after cooking. We’ll see.)
25 Amelia 800. They do really well around here and taste great. Disease resistant also.
5 Early girl.
And 5 grape type tomatoes.
Can’t remember the name.
I’m going with Better Boy, 2nd year in a row. At one time this variety set the world record for largest tomato and most pounds off of one plant. Most of mine were about the size of an orange, nice skin, not too thick or thin. Great color and flavor, very productive. Northern Illinois.
Pork Chop- local grower raves
Crnkovic Yugoslavian- best of '21 class per friends
Aunt Ruby’s- split less than Green Giant??
Carbon- local grower says delish/low production
Kelloggs Breakfast- yum!
Hambone, that is a very good list. Here are a few to consider next year.
J.D.'s Special C-Tex is arguably a better flavored and more productive black variety than Carbon.
KBX is a potato leaf version of Kelloggs Breakfast with more consistently large fruit and better production. Kelloggs is good, but KBX is just that tiny bit better.
I have not grown Pork Chop so no comments.
Crnkovic Yugoslavian is consistently one of the best tasting tomatoes I’ve grown. I grow it just about every year. You might look at Omar’s Lebanese as another good large pink.
@Fusion_power Thanks for comments. Last year on your recommendation I gave JD’s seed to a friend to trial- she lost ID but thinks it was “the really good one.”
I tried Omar’s L. here and it did not impress, just my soil/climate.
Wish there were more plants vs seeds available online. May be forced to grow KBX, JD’s next year from seed.
@scottfsmith Scott- do you continue to like JD’s Special C-Tex for taste, production, disease resistance? I recall it was one of your FAVs a few years ago.
It was not very productive the last few times I grew it, not sure it was the variety of location or what but I decided to go back to Cherokee Purple for this year.
I tried KBX one year and had low production. In general low production is my main problem, the tomatoes are in a very hot spot and most varieties don’t produce well there.
What’s the climate in Oaxaca? I gave Oaxacan Jewel to a friend last year who said it trucked right through the heat and was a pretty good tasting tomato.
German Pink
Moskvitch - anyone grow this one and agree with the 60 days to maturity?
Big Beef
Sungold
I grew German Pink (potato leaf) last year and got huge fruit, very vigorous plant and am growing it again just because I still have some seeds. I think next year I will look for a variety with a more intense/acid-y taste. KBX sounds promising!
black krim, yellow pear, early cherry, old man of the sea (?), marglobe, and some odd long multicolored ones I was given starts for, not sure the name.
I may put out some extras if I come across any nice starts in the next few weeks.
I don’t get as many as I’d like, I’m never sure how to feed them or when.
Do any of you grow heat resistant varieties? If you do, what is your opinion about them as to taste and ease of growing? Our very hot season is coming on strong.
The most heat tolerant open pollinated varieties I’ve grown were Tropic and Creole. Both are second tier in terms of flavor. Tropic arguably is the better of the two overall. There are several heat tolerant hybrids with names like “heatwave”, “sunleaper”, etc. I’ve grown several and found them all seriously lacking. Burgundy Traveler is worth tracking down if you want a decent tomato with some disease tolerance and some heat tolerance. There are a couple of lines from the Philippines that have significant heat tolerance, but when I’ve grown them, they disappointed in both flavor and yield.
Heat tolerance is not really about heat tolerance. It is about the ability of a tomato flower to set fruit at temperatures above 92 degrees. I routinely take seedling tomatoes up to 120F in my greenhouse which does nothing but cause them to grow faster caveat that they must have adequate water. Pollen on tomato flowers tends to clump at higher temperatures which prevents pollination. Without pollen, most varieties abort the fruit ovule. There are some parthenocarpic varieties that can set fruit under adverse conditions. They are generally flavorless or have other flaws that make them unreliable in the southeast.
