I thought I saw something red but wasn’t sure, hidden tomatoes that I picked this evening.
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Came back from a trip to a nice haul. A few of these were new varieties for me, and I have another dozen cultivars or so at my other plot but those are a bit ugly in the poorly draining first-year soil. A few thoughts:
→ Anne is a totally acceptable saucer, but admittedly a bit underwhelming.
→ Azoychka is really good – quite tart and punchy, not unlike Green Zebra in that but I think it’s a touch fruitier.
→ Black from Tula is rich, complex, and earthy as advertised…but I find it even more prone to splitting/rotting than Cherokee Purple, with a mealier texture and less consistent ripening
→ Cherokee Purple is famous for a reason, but not exactly a prolific producer for me
→ Green Zebra is really bright and tart, and more productive than I recall
→ Lucky Cross is also outstanding, and seems a somewhat more consistent producer than either Pink or Yellow Brandywine
→ Wapsipinicon Peach is a mild, sweet, and somewhere between gelatinous (can be good) and mealy (bad); I probably wouldn’t grow it if it weren’t for the novelty
→ White Tomesol likewise wouldn’t have a place in my garden if it weren’t for the color
I had an overabundance of Brandywine (Sudduth), Black from Tula, and Azoychka before I left for a week, so I decided to lacto-ferment them following the Noma Guide to Fermentation. Just chunked them up, salted 2.5% by weight, and left in mason jars with a water-filled ziplock to limit oxygen for about 10 days at 65’F. The Brandywine and Azoychka are both very good – punches up the tartness and solanum umami-factor on both by a couple levels, but their fruitiness is a really nice foil. I probably wouldn’t ever use Brandywines for this unless I needed to preserve them since they’re just too precious, but I can really see the potential as an ingredient. Black from Tula also disappointed me here – I had high hopes, but without the fruitiness of the others it tasted like tomatoes gone bad rather than tomatoes gone kraut-y.
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I’m stuck on whether I should let the white flies take down my tomatoes or keep on fighting so that they can fruit one last time for a harvest in September. The August heat has just increased the pest pessure; a couple of fruits were scald. However, these past couple of days I’ve harvested about 58 pounds of tomatoes.
It looks great. Neighbors can be more accepting if given some extra fruit/veggies. And when things really start coming it, I often have extras.
This year, I planted tomatoes in 5 different beds (3 at home, 2 at a rental). 4 of them were pretty disappointing, but 1 of the ones from the rental is producing more than everything else combined.
Here’s what I picked yesterday at the rental:
The bed that is producing very well is my favorite since I can stand in the driveway and pull weeds without bending over.
I’m not even sure why this bed is so productive. I did mostly the same thing at all 5 spots. Basically, I prepped the soil, planted the tomatoes, put down a thick layer of straw to suppress weeds, and then came back to pick them. Aside from pulling a few weeds every few weeks (if that), I didn’t do much. When I planted them I put in stakes, but never really used them, so they are just sprawling on the ground.
Most of the locations have good sun exposure, but the one that is out-producing everything else has a bit more. If that is the main difference maker, it is surprising how much an hour or two more of sun can do.
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My son bought raised beds from Costco. Added a few yards of topsoil he bought. Added tomato plants, squash, cucumbers and a few peppers. No fertilizer, insecticide or fungicide added. No tomato cages. It’s a mess but doesn’t know what to do with all the tomatoes, cucumbers and squash. Even got some peppers.
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Yep, you might need to have a good-looking garden in some neighborhoods…but great looking and great producing are often at odds. Nice looking tomato plants, b.t.w.
I think my most productive tomato patch was in high school days…couldn’t even get to some of them to pick them when they got ripe.
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if that isn’t the breakfast of champions…
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We planted about 12 varieties of tomatoes this year. Unfortunately our record keeping was poor and the tags I put in ground became illegible. I only remember a few.
The best producer and the healthiest plant is Fourth of July. The fruit is a medium size, tastes reasonably good (meaty, too).
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The best tasting one is the variety called Sweet 100. It lives up to its name. It is sweet and prolific. It tastes so good we keep them all to ourselves and put them in a separate bowl.
We shared other varieties with neighbors !!!
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One my favorites but I’ve stopped growing them because of splitting in my wet summers.
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Our summer this year is very wet, rain about 2-3 times a week.
Surprisingly, very little splitting.
I grow it on a tall raised bed. This tall bed helps keep my tomato plants a lot happier than the ones in a short (1 ft tall) bed. Picture taken today.
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Wish I could say that. Perhaps your soil drains better than mine.
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Mine is soil-less. That bed is 17” tall.
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I finally found out the small tasteless tomato that I grew was Arkansas Traveler, I think that’s the last batch of that variety, no more.
But the dark tomatoes were very tasty and sweet, delicious in a fresh salsa.
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i picked the champ of the season today- a golden king of siberia. a great tomato in my book. you can slice it nearly any way and turn it upside down and get nary a dribble. almost no seedy glurp, pure flesh. some cat facing, not too bad.
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Here’s a comparison of the three main seed packs I got from EFN for this year.
Wild Everglades and the yellow-orange one from the Wildling Panamorous mix are the best tasting, but the Puerto Cortes is definitely the most vigorous and productive. Both that and the red one from the mix are more thick-skinned than I like.
Here are a couple of the yellow-orange ones cut:
One distinguishing characteristic of Puerto Cortes is it has green seeds even after it’s pretty fully ripe, though the three plants are pretty variable in most other traits:
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I’m surprised a tomato of that size and weight can be supported by a tomato stem. Do the fruit baring stems require extra support?
we have them trained up a string using plastic clips, nothing extra on the fruiting stems
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I’ve harvested 68 pounds of tomatoes. This is the best tomato year yet.
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Well, I can say that I have always gone against the book in this regard. I have always canned salsa in quarts. Oh, usually I’ve got at least one pint jar included in the batch. Please explain to me why it’s not healthy. Same recipe otherwise.
Folks have been canning tomatoes in quart jars for eons.