What tomatoes will you grow this year?

[northwoodswis4]

I planted about 25 plants of about six varieties in a new area on our rural acreage with wonderful soil this year. When we left for a vacation in mid-August, there were about a bushel or more of wonderful green tomatoes. I told a friend they could pick any getting ripe while we were gone. Well, the whole bed suddenly got late blight. When I returned two weeks later the vines were all dead! The tomatoes got big rotten spots before they would ripen. My friend and I were able to salvage parts of tomatoes, but there wasn’t ONE good whole tomato. My question is, next year I expect there will be a lot of volunteers coming up in that area. Is there any point in letting any of them grow?
A number of longtime-gardening friends had the very same problem with their tomatoes, but a couple people I know did not. Next year I will try putting straw around the plants to prevent backsplash. Since I have never gotten late blight that bad before I am not sure I want to just routinely use chemical sprays. Was it mostly the humid weather (though drier than usual August and September) or is there another cause? It was sure disappointing to lose them all after such a promising start. Or should I plant two different areas, one with sprays and one without, then give away all the sprayed ones if the unsprayed ones do fine?

[Drew51]

Some tough questions I’m not sure I have the answers for? It sounds like multiple problems because the blight didn’t damage my fruit. Spots is bacterial spot. Or possibly BER? I’m still getting tomatoes. The plants are dead except for the tops. I’m almost done though.
Chemicals offer little help only if sprayed all season every 7-10 days. Agri-fos can be used for late blight, it is Mono and dipotassium salts of Phosphorous Acid. It is systemic. I have no worries about this chemical.
I was gone for the weekend. I came back and picked anything that started to turn. I like to ripen inside when night temps get low, as tomatoes will not ripen in these cold temps, or at least slows them down.

[northwoodswis4]

My friends who had blight said someone took a sample in to have it analyzed, and the result was late blight. Their fruits did the same, get a glassy patch on them that then rotted and spread through the fruit. Picking them early didn’t seem to help much. I don’t think I want to use a systemic chemical.

[northwoodswis4]

I am familiar with blossom end rot, but it wasn’t that.

[Drew51]

I may not have late blight, it looked like it. I use Phosphorous Acid (OMRI listed organic) as it is not considered toxic Organicside is one organic product. Although I do like to look at organic products the same as chemical products, as they are one in the same as far as I’m concerned. I don’t get why one chemical is organic and another is not? Even if both occur in nature.

[tonyOmahaz5]

This is my last harvest of veggies for the year.

Tony

[RobThomas]

Not bad for your final haul, Tony. We’ve had some light frosts, but still getting a few tomatoes. Probably done after this next cold front, though.

[Drew51]

Yeah I have a few to pick and time is almost up here too.

[tonyOmahaz5]

Just harvested these tomatoes today.

Tony

[SMC_zone6]

Has anyone else grown King of Siberia? For me, it has a unique dough-like taste to it. I’ve never tasted that in another tomato. It was fairly surprising the first time I tasted it, but it seems to be consistent in all the KoS’s I’ve had this year.

[subdood_ky_z6b]

I think King of Siberia translates to Korol Sibiri, which I did grow a couple years ago. I believe it was a yellow oxheart variety?

Anyway, what i remember is that the plant was kinda weepy looking, but quite productive. I don’t remember it having a dough like flavor though. To me it was OK, just a mild yellow variety, not real flavorful. But, I didn’t get to try too many of them as the plant got hit with disease and didn’t ripen enough of them.

[northwoodswis4]

As a follow-up to my earlier post. This year I planted the tomatoes in a new area. We have tomatoes coming out of our ears. There are also some volunteers that came up where the blighted ones grew last year. They are also fine. I didn’t do anything any differently than I did last year, and the weather was similar. Go figure!

[Joe]

Looks good. This site says it’s “disease resistant”. How is it for you in that regard? I’m most worried about early and late blight.

[subdood_ky_z6b]

Not to answer for Maria, but I grew Romeo tomatoes this year for the first time. Just about all my heirloom varieties get blight due to our growing conditions- warm, rainy and humid. But Romeo seemed to have better disease resistance than most of the varieties I have tried.

The fruit was huge Roma-type tomatoes. The plants had very dense foliage, usually not good to have in these conditions, but seemed to do pretty well. The two plants were on average about 4ft tall, and somewhat productive. We will probably try them again next year.

We tried another Roma type variety, San Marzano, and it had a similar form to Romeo, short and dense, but was always was a blight magnet, seemed like it got disease sooner than other varieties. Hence we haven’t grown it anymore after 3 years of trying.

[nik_umesh]

Some standout tomatoes for me this year included: Big Cheef, Not Purple Strawberry, Mocha Splash, Marmande Garnier Rouge, Chris’ Greek Mama, Blue Pear, Russian Queen, Rebel Alliance (F7), Komnatny Surprise.

Big Cheef, Not Purple Strawberry, and Mocha Splash: excellent dark tomatoes, far outproducing Cherokee Purple, which I grew the year before. And taste was better in my opinion! Big Cheef might be the best tomato we grew this past season.

Marmande Garnier Rouge and Chris’ Greek Mama: produced some very large red beefsteaks with ribbing, and the taste was great. Marmande Garnier Rouge produced the highest quantity of huge tomatoes in our garden, many 1lb plus.

Blue Pear and Russian Queen were tomato machines, producing until first frost and outproducing plants that were in-ground. These were in five gallon pots but we still had plenty. Blue pear has a particularly good taste, very rich.

Rebel Alliance is a multiflora heart-shaped cherry tomato with dark flesh that produces in mega-trusses. The trusses have 50-100+ flowers, and the flowers open and get pollinated as the season progresses. One plant can probably produce hundreds and hundreds in a season if given a large growing area and well taken care of.

Komnatny Surprise is a determinate paste type that kept cranking them out all season long. Taste was great and they seem like an excellent alternative to Roma or San Marzano, outproducing both of them for me.

Many of these varieties are available through small sellers online, but I hope to do a better job collecting seeds to send out to anyone who wants them next year. Here in humid zone 7 NC there is a lot of disease pressure, so it was nice to see how well these varieties did.

[RobThomas]

I’m putting together my tomato seed list now.

For those looking for a good seed supplier, I highly recommend http://www.sampleseeds.com/ . Incredible selection, great prices, and excellent customer service. It’s just a single woman operation, and the website is pretty basic, but it’s my go to place for seed.

Also, great reviews on garden watchdog (one of which is mine!) https://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/c/7277/0/#b

[RobThomas]

So, here is my seed list from my order placed yesterday:

Gary O’Sena
Golden Queen
Grosse Cotelee
Hillbilly
Northern Lights
Plan 9 From Outerspace
Remy Rouge
Black Mountain Pink
Purple Dog Creek
Goose Creek
Fantome Du Laos

Most of these are new for me, and I just wanted to try them out. My decisions were largely made based on the descriptions on the site.

I grew Fantome Du Laos two years ago and it was by far my most productive. Started early and kept producing all season. Lots and lots of tomatoes, too.

[nik_umesh]

Sample Seed Shop is great, and they have a great selection of vegetables in addition to tomatoes, too. Here are some seed sources that I have had great luck with or have heard wonderful things about:

Heritage Seed Market: https://heritageseedmarket.com
-they have an excellent selection of tomatoes and peppers. I will be trialing some of the disease resistant black tomatoes developed by Ellie of Bunny Hop Seeds this coming year (Prime Rib and Daifuku). I am very excited to grow Giant Sweet Devil’s Horn sweet pepper, which she says is the best she has trialed.

Renaissance Farms: https://www.renaissancefarms.org
-huge selection of tomatoes! I am excited to try Giant Italian Beefsteak this upcoming season, which is Curtis’ most productive beefsteak-type that he grows.

Sandhill Preservation: https://www.sandhillpreservation.com
-best selection of heirloom vegetable seeds I have seen on the internet! I will be putting in an order with them this season. They are running a truly impressive project it seems.

[joleneakamama]

Thanks for the review!
I ordered some Komnatney Surprise. I tried San Marzano and Opalka and they set very few. It could be environmental or soil, but I like the sound of productive determinate plants.

[mrsg47]

I have a great climate for San Mariano (sp?). I hade the same problem. Set very few. I had only three plants and each plant only set five fruits. Ugh.