We have Dr. Oved Schifriss to thank for hybrid tomatoes. Back in the 1930’s, he started making crosses to see which would consistently produce productive, disease resistant, and good flavored fruit. He got seed of an old heirloom tomato known as “Teddy Jones” from the man who had grown it for several years. He crossed Teddy Jones with a disease resistant breeding line and found what he was after. He named it the “Big Boy” tomato which was sold by Burpees.
I failed to grow a Sun Gold from a sucker, people said not to dip the sucker in root hormone, I didn’t, but I have no plant now.
However I have one Black Cherry and one Black Krim from suckers. I hope I get tomatoes from them eventually, right now they look healthy. I also have 3 new variety of tomatoes, not sure what they are, I didn’t label them, but they are potato leaf varieties.
I do like the smaller tomatoes because for me they produce well. I always grow sungold, one small red cherry, a yellow pear and a small oval black. The combination looks so nice on a plate. What I have noticed is the yellow pear tomatoes (mine) are never sweet and really have little flavor. I decided to grow them for their unusual shape. Sometimes its just pretty! This is the first year I have not grown green zebra (I love green tomatoes) because mine, grown in pots are just too small.
Everyone enjoys the yellow pear around here. My guess is like pears we get more sun and fruit naturally is sweeter here. When we taste a store bought red delicious they are really flat reminds me of cardboard but here red delicious lives up to its name. That’s not true of every apple honeycrisp is not nearly as good here as what it can be from the store. Pears are typically very delicious here across the board. With fruit like wine grapes its about as they say location location location. That same sun that makes tomatoes so delicious can make their skins like paper. The best tomatoes ive ever eaten came from here , texas, and arkansas. The watermelons are second to none in those hot climates. Georgia and Colorado peaches are exceptional in those locations they grow. Vidalia onions are really only vidalia in one region. Even honey is regionally good or bad and it’s excellent here. If not everyone can grow those little pear tomatoes good then maybe other varities do better for them. Cherokee purple hardly produce for us here but some people say they do fine for them. Sungold seems good for everyone everywhere so thats likely the big winner in cherry tomatoes for ease of growing. Maybe hibor would do even better here worth a try for sure. Not a variety im familiar with.
Yellow pears or most yellow tomatoes I grew are tasteless, the black tomatoes are my favorites. Not only that the yellow tomatoes rotted very quickly, so last year a lot went into my compost.
Hey am I the only one that has a bug nightmare on my tomatoes around this time of year? Some of the tomatoes crack and I get hordes of fruit flies on them. Also lots of stink bugs. I am thinking I need to grow them a different way next year so they get more air circulation. I did put lots of compost on top to try to level out the wet-dry cycles.
I guess there is at least some good news in that all my plants are grafted and they have not started to die back yet. Without grafting all my heirlooms are fading or gone by now.
Fruit flies - and white flies - are regional pests meaning some areas have a huge problem with them. Fruit cracking is another story. It is variety dependent which means you can get varieties with low tendency to crack. Some that crack very badly are Black From Tula, Marianna’s Peace, Black Sea Man, and others that have thin skin. Evening out the watering can help, but it won’t stop it entirely. Burgess Crack Proof is just what the name says, darn near crack proof. It also has very thick skin. Varieties I grow that have few problems with cracking and taste decent include Eva Purple Ball, Lynnwood, Bloody Butcher, Nebraska Wedding (yellow), and Jaune Flammee (orange).
Good yellow tomatoes abound, just have to get the right varieties. Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom, Yoder’s German Yellow, Nebraska Wedding, Yellow Brandywine Platfoot, and Yellow Submarine are a few suggestions. Yellow Submarine is a potato leaf yellow pear shaped tomato. It is my “go to” replacement for yellow pear if someone insists on a yellow salad tomato. Check with Carol if you want seed! She also has a ton of other good tomatoes.
I picked a baby tomato hornworm this morning. The other day I saw a baby stink bug near my trash can, I killed it. Yesterday, I grabbed a huge grasshopper with my barehand, actually I had gloves on. So I do have bugs, but not in abundance.
Boy Scott thats too bad. My tomatoes just limp along this year. No bugs. A few bird pecks, only because the birds see my cherry tomatoes as cherries! I’m the only one growing stonefruit, pommes and tomatoes on a terrace. Sorry about your tomato sitch. Ugh!
Are you strictly organic? If your not some 8 dust will eliminate a lot of those bug problems. We are fighting for everything we get in Kansas. Wave after wave of different pests are arriving. The heat has been intense this year and we have about 30% of our stored water remaining. We have plans if we use that it’s fine.
My tomato’s had a lot of disease this year. They’ve produced pretty well but the plants look terrible. Red and yellow Rainbow has been hit hard. Aunt Rubys German Green and German Johnson also seem particularly bad. Overall terrible growing season for me.
@Fusion_power here’s our first Cherokee Jumbo. It had split some because we’ve had a bit of rain lately. But, it’s still a nice specimen, maybe 10oz. I sliced it up, it had a bit of pith in the top, but had good body to it.
Taste was typical of dark tomatoes, that is, not really tart, a bit sweet, lightly smoky, but a bit washed out, maybe because of the excess rain. Plant’s not as big as the others, but seems to have decent disease resistance.
@Fusion_power (Darrel), I also have two Daniels plants that have some fruit on them, but nothing ripe yet. They seem to be getting a bit more disease than my other plants, but our extremely humid and warm environment is not conducive for healthy tomato plants. I have one Cuostralee plant, but it’s a monster, lots of growth, and fruit, but nothing ripe either yet. Thanks again for the seeds.
More 'maters. Big round ones are Big Beef, medium sized is Celebration, small red is Frembgens. The multi hued variety is Brad’s Atomic Grape.
I really like the Frembgens, the other red ones were okay. The AG is very tasty, has an acidic, but spicy flavor. Looks like a jalapeno when it’s cut up.
Orange Kentucky beefsteak. Just picked this beast, 22oz of sweet, tangy goodness. Meaty, hardly any seeds. We’ve grown this every year, and for good reason.
Great White. 4/10. Underwhelming tomato for flavor. Watery, with a faint melony taste. Pretty good looking, but that’s where it ends. This will be the first and last season I will be growing this variety.
