Dar, did you and Joseph ever make any progress with that frost tolerant tomato project??
Any progress breeding with the wild lines you requested that had frost tolerance genetics?
We are talking about it on the OSSI forum.
Here is the original Alan bishop thread for reference:
Yes, but have to clarify that tomatoes are NOT frost tolerant meaning that they are susceptible to frost forming on the leaves and that is true for all wild species. It is possible to select for cold tolerance which really breaks down to a group of genes that code for improved transport in the stem of the plant at low temperatures. These genes mostly come from S. Habrochaites which is arguably the most cold tolerant of the wild species. LA3969 has most of the required genes. Cultivar Earlinorth has the ft gene which permits flowers to set fruit down to 40 degrees F. Of the varieties you can easily find that exhibit excellent cold tolerance, several are from Russia such as O-33. Siberian is one of the easiest to find. Tastiheart is a variety that I accidentally selected for cold tolerance back in 2007. Tastiheart can handle temps down to 22 degrees F if you drop a cloth over the plant to prevent frost forming on the leaves. LA2175 is the best of the pure S. Habrochaites lines I grew for cold tolerance and has excellent foliage disease resistance.
Invaluable information. I am a tomato collector also. I am going to pick your brain soon on some of this. Thank you for sharing such detailed information.
I just got some more seeds from a trade and am wondering if anyone has grown any of these and have any thoughts on them:
Divine Maltese
Jutland
Carol Chyko’s Big Paste
Rio Grande
T.C. Jones
Carol Chyko’s Big Paste was a huge beefsteak when I grew it a few years ago. It had been crossed with something else giving seedlings that were large red, large orange, and small red. None of them were actually paste tomatoes.
Rio Grande is a well known paste tomato that does reasonably well in our climate. It has some genes from a wild species that cause it to form a line down the side of the tomato. I grow it occasionally as a canner.
Thanks @Fusion_power
I’m doing a bit of trial of paste varieties this year, trying both determinate and indeterminate. The person I got them from also highly recommended Divine Maltese, so I think from the seeds I now have I’ll grow:
Heidi (determinate)
Limbo (determinate)
Rio Grande (determinate)
San Marzano Redorta (determinate)
Striped Roman (indeterminate)
Divine Maltese (indeterminate)
Marzano Fire (indeterminate)
It will be interesting to see how all these compare when they start coming in. I still need to reduce my overall list, but I seem to have this problem every year.
I grew Limbo last year, in a pot, on my porch. It might have been a little smaller than expected because of the pot, but I really liked it. I’m doing it again and also putting a couple of plants in the garden/ground.
Even though it is a determinate, it kept producing all summer.
Thanks for that report! Do you have any opinion on how they taste compared to other basic paste tomatoes like Roma?
I don’t grow Romas or many pastes, but Limbo is much better than the store ones. Tangy, but not sour, not super sweet. Nice flavor and skin is not tough.
Described as suitable for a basket, but I would suggest a BIG basket/container. I’m going to use something larger this year. And I think I pinched the center out and let all the side stems grow and flower.
@Fusion_power Druzba- do you know how it holds up in summer heat? A commercial grower here in coastal Md 7B says to start it early since it likes cool weather and stops bearing during hottest period. She stopped growing it.
It gets pretty hot in N Texas (Dallas), and this’ll be my first year growing tomatoes. Are there varieties that can handle the heat?
Hambone, Druzba is like most other tomatoes that can’t pollinate when temps are over 92 degrees F. There are a few tomatoes that can take up to 100 degrees while still setting fruit. Tropic, Creole, and Heidi are three that I recommend. Hybrids such as Heatwave, Solarset, and others with similar genetic background also can take higher temps, but usually have poor flavor.
LR, If you dig around, there is a list of recommended varieties for your climate. You can set out just about any variety very early and get a reasonably good crop. Others such as Tropic, Creole, and Heidi that I mentioned above can take a bit more heat. However, all tomatoes I have grown have pollination problems above 100 degrees. Please note that temps up to 130 degrees really don’t bother the plants so long as they have plenty of water, however, pollination is impacted and that means the fruit does not set and does not develop.
Have a friend in Eaton Rapids MI who swears by Stupice. Its his standard workhorse tomato.
I planted out my Paul Robeson and Brandywise 2 days ago (I pity those I know who jumped the gun prior to hard frost last week).
I’m not impressed so far with the Brandywise. 2 suddenly wilted and the others are chlorotic and sickly. Same handling as the Robeson, which look fabulous.
Do you mulch right at planting or wait a couple weeks for soil to warm up in sun? If you wait then rain can splash soil up on tomato leaves, not good.
Not sure if that was to me…the plants i was referencing were all indoors under grow light, in pots. No overhead watering.
But i do see your point about mulching and agree that I generally try to keep water and dirt off leaves as much as possible.
I made a big mistake this year starting tomatoes too early. Then I made it worse by planting six plants outside early with Wall’o’Water for protection, which overheated and baked the plants. Most of those look bad - burnt yellowish leaves. I have others which I just planted outside now too. I wonder if it is still too early. The weather is hard to predict. I usually wait until mid May.
Soil temp is in the 60s. Yesterday soil was 68F. Night temps down into 50s, days 60s to 70s and near 80s.
I still have some indoors waiting to plant in the ground, mainly dwarf varieties. I started those early - mid April. Some of those will be in containers.
So far it’s not the best start.
Better Boy, Goliath, Lemon Boy, Classic Beefsteak, Muscovic main varieties.
Dwarf types, Extreme Bush, Dwarf Champion Improved, Brandyfred, Dwarf CC McGee, Pink Tanunda, Dwarf Johnson’s Cherry, Clare Valley Pink, Dwarf Tanunda Red.
This is WAY more than I meant to grow. My goal is to save seeds from the ones that I like best and that do best, for next year, and forget the others.
I also just set out Romas. Roma hybrid, open pollinated Roma, and Tiren hybrid. Also Amish paste. It’s another experiment and hoping for something to save seeds this fall for an open pollinated type if they do ok.
Dar, it seems i am doing an unexpected frost tolerance trial with my Solanum peruvianum hybrids today! most of my peruvianum seedlings are up but it is currently snowing and will get down to 34 F tonight! Fingers crossed despite S. peruvianum supposedly being the least frost tolerant species. Whatever. Tis the joy of farming on the edge!
When you farm on the edge, you get things like a hail storm on May 5th last year. I lost a lot of plants. Fortunately, almost all were easily replaced.
I made the mistake of starting my tomatoes a little too late this year so I went looking for tomatoes plants today locally. $15.99 for one 12 inch tomato plant no 6 packs, and singles at $5.00 each . I’ll take my chances with my little ones.
