At the risk of derailing the tomato thread into peppers, can you tell me how your production on Beaver Dam has been. I’ve got two plants and the flavor, size, etc. is great, but it has been a rather low producing plant. They basically stopped producing in the middle of summer after putting out a few peppers per plant in the spring, so I’m wondering if it just needs lower temps. I’m seeing a few more forming, but definitely overall lower production than I hoped for.
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I have low production on Beaver Dam too, great pepper though!
I’ve grown them for the last 3 years. The first couple years, they were quick to produce, almost too early for the plant’s good. Maybe that’s why I didn’t get a lot of production from them. They also weren’t in the best soil.
This year, in better soil, they’re bigger plants, maybe about 2ft tall, but have only set a few pods. We set the peppers out in late June, so we’ll be behind on harvest times. But, I’ll give you an update at the end of the season.
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I hate when that happens! 
I like the pepper, it fits most of my needs. I find the hot peppers better for flavoring a dish. Often with super hots it’s too easy to use too much. I can control the heat level better with the normal hot peppers. It’s harder to screw up your dish,
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Not about a specific tomato variety, but a friend asked me to look at his tomatoes that are dying. Looks like there are several things going on in terms of foliage issues and possibly some fusarium wilt, but I was wondering if I was seeing spider mite activity as well. Does it look like he has mites attacking these leaves or maybe thrips or something else?
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Wow! Gorgeous color!
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I picked another batch of tomatoes today, there are so many that needed to be picked, quite a few have already rotted on the vine. I picked mostly Boxcar Willie, Chocolate Cherry, Jaune Flamme and Omar’s Lebanese. The basket was only one-third full, but, was quite heavy hauling it up the hill. I weighed myself with and without the basket and it looks like I picked about 27lb. I already canned 11 quarts on Wed, looks like I’ll be canning a few more tomorrow or Monday.
My plants are really looking blighted out, even though the weather’s been ideal, warm and dry. Maybe it’s been too dry. There’s still quite a few green tom’s on the vines, but don’t know if they’ll ripen properly with the plants the shape they’re in.
Based on production this year, I think the first three varieties I mentioned above will get a spot in the garden next year. That’s in addition to German Strawberry, Black Brandywine, Better Boy and Watermelon.
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Looks like some kind of insect to me, maybe mites?
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Boxcar Willie, San Marzano, German Johnson, Brandywine Pink,
Ace 55, Mortgage Lifter, Black Cherry, Homestead, Large Red Cherry,
Roma, Delicious, Amish Paste, Siberian Pink, Miracle of Siberian Land
Giant Belgium and some more.
So far my favorite is Black Cherry and Boxcar Willie. If you like real sweet tomatoes grow Siberian Pink. I have harvested over 80 pounds of tomatoes so far and still going.
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Fabulous and delicious!
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Very nice.
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Maybe I am nuts 
, but I am trying to get my tomato seed choices ready for next year. I need to do this in the fall as it always seems that when I order in the winter or the new year no one seems to ship up here until April and for me that is too late. Maybe they do that because of the cold zone I am in? I don’t know.
Anyway, I am looking for an acidic slicing tomato, I don’t like the sweet, does anyone have a suggestion?
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An old ‘standby’ variety for slicing or for canning with good acidity is “Rutgers” tomato variety.
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I?tried this one this year from justpeach. The leaves look like Brandywine, very tender, low acidity , and thin skin . Good disease resistant
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Tomato report! I am inundated. It is all we’ve eaten the last few week… so much gazpacho, salmorejo, and caprese. My tomatoes were late this year. We had a a cold rainy spring and I had some BER for the first time in California (had a ton of it when lived in Atlanta). I didn’t get my act together in time to start seeds (I will next year I swear!), so I bought most of my tomatoes from a local heirloom tomato grower/breeder. I wrote up my assessment of each of the varieties:
Matt’s Wild Cherry (small red tomato) - I read rave reviews of these online, but they really weren’t very good for me. They are so tiny! Deep flavor but almost bitter. Very vigorous and the tomatoes hang forever.
Chocolate Cherry (brown tomato) - This is a new keeper I found from this thread. Great complex, large cherry tomatoes. Very vigorous plant.
Brandywine Sudduth- Once again our favorite large tomato. Sweet and complex… the true gourmet heirloom taste that you can’t get without growing tomatoes. I should really plant 2 of these and less new varieties. The plant is very large. It is as tall and vigorous as a cherry, but produces dozens of giant tomatoes… some are a few pounds each! It is very late. Only got my first ripe one last week, but it should produce a ton thorough early November.
Berkeley Tie-Dye - Lovely medium size striped tomatoes. Very good, but more watery than the last time I grew it. The plant grew out more than up and not as heavy a producer as I would like.
Mr. Stripey? - I should known not to buy tomatoes from HD… What I got was not a Mr. Stripey (a tomato I’ve grown many times before), but some solid yellow tomato. It is watery and not very flavorful but gives nice contrast on a plate. I put the plant is between a Sungold and the Sudduth, so it got devoured. I can barely find it, and the few tomatoes it produced I found by crawling under the Sudduth.
Sungold - I planted two of these as alway as they are our favorite: one from HD and one from the Tomato farm. They were both the same. Candy like sweetness and giant tomato plants that try to take over everything. More tomatoes that I can ever pick. They are the best most reliable tomato.
Rojita - This is a grape tomato that I tried for the first time. I am torn about it. When I first picked it, it was not very good, but now it is way better. Sweet thumb size tomatoes that last on the vine. It is not as productive as I would like.
Love Apple - This is a medium size purple tomato named after the tomato farm I bought the plants from. I really expected better flavor from a tomato that carries the name of such well reputed tomato growers/experts. It is very productive with dozens of large and beautiful tomatoes. If I was growing tomatoes for a farmer’s market, I would grow a lot of these; however the flavor is bland… it is watery and doesn’t really give that rich heirloom taste but looks like it should. However it is so early!! I may grow it again just because it was so nice having some large tomatoes in July and while not as good as other heirlooms, it is still better flavor wise than Early Girl.
Cherokee Purple - A reliable producer of decent tasty purple tomatoes. They look similar to the Love Apple, but have a bit more flavor, but not as much as previous years. Not as productive as Love Apple and way later. Got my first one mid August.
I got lucky with pests this year… there are no squirrels around for some reason and every night a local cat guards my property. I have security videos of it stalking something (rats likely) in the tomatoes at 3am! I love that cat!
To my friends and neighbors delight, we are about to go on our annual vacation. They can’t wait to have their pick of the tomatoes while we are gone for a few weeks. I worry about my plants and trees while we are gone… hope the drip holds steady.
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Any chance you could do another pic of what they look at this time of the year? Mine reached the top of my 5’ rebar mesh tomato cage and have spilled down 4’ almost to the ground. Most of the foliage inside the cage is dead but the growth that spilled over top is still going with decent tomato production. Not bad for doing absolutely no pinching this year.
I did see a halt in tomato production in the middle of summer when the highs got into the 90’s and above.
ZenDog – I bought a bunch of your your small sprouted tomatoes last year on a Saturday after one of my kids’ soccer game at Wakefield HS for the PTA fund raiser and they turned out to be the best I’ve grown in years. I know this year has been crazy with school, stay at home, etc… but was wondering if you had any more tomato plants available?
FYI: I think the one KBX plant I got from you produced 30+ lbs of fruit. Unfortunately, the Wakefield Warrior died soon after planting. Oh well. My kids said it had to do with them going to W-L. Just funny. Also, the crushed heart turned out a ton of fruit, too.
Looking forward to hearing from you. Please let me know.