What tomatoes will you grow this year (2017)?

The regular haul of tomatoes. I started to get tied of them although they are very good this year. I dried and canned many. I may downsize to eight plants next year. :slight_smile:

3 Likes

Mary you have been my tomato inspiration! My vines have never had more tomatoes. They are all still green, large small and babies! We usually do not get to eat any until mid August. New soil worked miracles! And food! Now I just need rain! Thanks!!!

5 Likes

Your tomatoes look great!

1 Like

The toms are picking up here. We’ve been picking some for awhile now but this is what I brought in over the last two days.

I’m learning my way around the bigger ones…, for example I now know it’s better to use pruners to take the NAR’s off because pulling on the ripe one can split the stem and the remaining 3 large green toms are left hanging by a thread…

The San Marzano’s are behind most everything else in terms of ripe fruit per bush.

I lean toward heirloom, but I have to say the Big Beef hybrid is a very nice tomato.

6 Likes

Time for pasta!

1 Like

Yikes, look at that bright red color. Our tomatoes in RI never have the taste of mid-west tomatoes. Melons either. Not enough dry heat. I miss tomatoes and honey-rocks!

1 Like

Picked my first Cherokee purple today …very good…everything is taking its time ripening.

1 Like

I’m at last getting ripe tomatoes. About time! I need to get a jump next year. One of the first was Black From Tula. Not a bad tomato at all. Very early here, and tastes like the traditional dark tomatoes, a good balance of sugar and acid, more sugar than most slicers as is common for the black tomatoes.



Very pretty interior with a striking red through the center. The photo doesn’t do it justice.

A lot more are ripe, more photos later.

8 Likes

Looks nice. The GGWT and Indian Stripe plants that I got from you have set some decent sized fruit that the deer haven’t messed with yet. They are both definitely showing the striping aspect now, even tho they’re still green.

My wife showed me a greenish-brown IS that she picked off a plant that looked like it was nibbled on. But, it doesn’t seem to be a deer, it was almost down on the ground, and she thinks it may have been a terrapin (“tarr-pin” as they say it here), but I told her it may have been a rabbit, as I’ve seen them in the patch at night during some of my night time inspections with the spotlight.

She didn’t see any other missing fruit or damaged plants, so she didn’t think deer got in there last night. If that’s true, then they haven’t made any incursions for a week since I put up that 5ft black “curtain” of weed cloth between them and the peppers.

Most plants are still setting fruit, but the blight is setting in pretty bad, and we’re running out of time for that fruit to ripen properly. Not expecting to harvest too many tom’s this year.

Russian Queen, Pink Honey, Chocolate Cherry, Barao, GGWT, Jaune Flamme, Cream Sausage seem to be the only plants that might produce some more fruit. The other varieties are either blighted out, and/or have been stripped/damaged too much by deer to matter now.

Jetsetter is a hybrid that we planted, and although they were really hit hard by the deer, they have recovered pretty well, and continue to set fruit. It doesn’t have the blight as bad as the heirlooms. So, next year we might need to try more hybrids to get some more production.

1 Like

Tim’s Black Ruffles did get some blight finally, but only a few bottom leaves. Impressive.
Fruit is not that big though still a keeper for me.

What was also cool, is many ripened at once, not all about 1/3 of the tomatoes. The plant is loaded, more than any others this year.

The biggest one so far.

Some other toms

Stump The World

Pruden’s Purple

Tim’s Black Ruffles taste like a regular old fashioned tomato to me. Not as sweet as most blacks.

The tomato is very firm, and if you remove seeds, would be excellent for salsa. The meat holds up well. I’ll be making some in a short while.I only like fresh salsa myself, all I ever make.

I grew some yellow Chinese cucumbers Wow! Big mothers!

6 Likes

Its really a watermelon!

2 Likes

The black tomatoes are very pretty.

1 Like

Yes, and blight resistant too! Firm for salsa, old fashioned taste. You can’t lose.

2 Likes

I grew a few black cherry types this year. Black Cherry and Carbon Copy. At first they looked and tasted exactly alike. As the summer became hotter, Carbon Copy became sweeter. It is slightly bigger. Of the two Carbon Copy wins, the plant is more robust, the fruit is sweeter.

3 Likes

It might be the photo, but that PP looks more like a red then the pink I expect for Pruden’s. Mine are usually closer to the color of Stump.

1 Like

When you say CC is more robust, do you mean vigor or disease resistance. I’ve been growing Black Cherry for years, but might consider giving Carbon a try if it holds up better to blights which are horrible around here.

I actually think BC is the top end of what I consider a cherry for size, unless the new cherry/plum types are changing the rules.

1 Like

It does, and it was the only one like that on the plant. I best save seed though from the others. It also has more folds than normal. Although a few others have folds, and some do not, strange. Here’s one on the plant that looks more typical.

I think though if you let them keep ripening they will turn darker. Check this one out.

1 Like

Vigor, it has blight like all of mine this year except Tim’s. Which is resistant not immune. It’s showing signs of blight now, but it is so slow it is not affecting yield or growth. I just harvested a small round and and the plant has at least 20 more tomatoes on it. I usually harvest before I water. I didn’t and I have some splitting. I left these on the plant too long. I have been so busy in the garden!

I noticed a not as ripe Black Sea Man didn’t split.

Yes CC maybe considered a salad tomato, it’s not much bigger though. Inbetween the two! I think Black Cherry is good too, and it may be that they were not as ripe, but looked ripe. It can’t hurt to try CC. I’ll have seed for sure. All those pictured will be harvested for seed. I have a bunch of stinky jars around the house right now fermenting seeds to just about everything I’m growing.

5 Likes

I ate my first Kellog’s Breakfest ever…a pig of a mater. Delicious. I’ve never ate a tomato with that color. The flesh was apricot orange…my son said it was like a mango. I will say that the plant itself got some leaf disease while the other plants around it all did fine (and it was super wet all spring/early summer). I’ll probably be growing this again.

1 Like

Yesterday I picked this tomato and it weighted excatly one pound, today it’s lighter!? it must be leaking!

When I first planted out my plants were hit by a frost. So I sowed some more seeds thinking they were history. Turns out only one died. Anyway that second planting is producing fruit now one was Striped Roman. I heard others here saying they had BER problems, mine are fine. I did also grew Federale and those did have a few with BER. the only BER I had.

I grew a lot of blacks as I like them a lot. I think the best tasting one this year is Black Sea Man. Excellent tomato! Nice size, mid season type. Also as mentioned Tim’s was notable for it’s blight resistance. Besides it being extremely beautiful. Decent taste too.
I grew the dwarf Rosella Purple. It was not very productive, but the tomatoes are top rate, and as good as Black Sea Man. So I’m on the fence about that one.

4 Likes