What tomatoes will you grow this year (2017)?

It is on our back deck and in a container that I got a fruit tree in. Seems to be happy

Has anyone ever heard Munster tomato (also sometimes spelled Monster). I met a guy while I was buying tomato plants at a local greenhouse. I could tell the man was very knowledgeable about tomatoes. Said he grows 150 plants a year and keeps track off all the varieties and their performance. We talked about a lot of varieties and he noticed some of the same issues I’ve noticed about various varieties, which further instilled my confidence in his knowledge.

Anyway, he mentioned Munster tomato is the best tomato he’s grown. He said it’s an early, heavy producer of big flavorful tomatoes, which don’t have a lot of pith. He said he’s about talked another local green house into growing the starts to sell.

I googled Monster/Munster tomatoes and didn’t come up with much. I don’t know the Monster tomato seeds which Amazon sells are the real deal or not. I thought maybe next season I would call the other local greenhouse and see if they have the starts for it, but was wondering if anyone on the forum has heard of it.

I looked on Tomatoville and nobody posted anything about it I could find. So i went to the largest tomato database I know of and that is Tatiana’s. Not there either. It’s not well known. I suggest asking the guy for some seeds, or a plant, or a fruit to harvest seed. I looked on Amazon and agree, any of the offers could be anything. I never heard of those seed companies either. I did buy some Romeo seeds on Amazon and they were the real deal. That is also a hard to find tomato.

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Update on my tomato transplants. They have all recovered from their leaf curl issue, but some still are a bit weepy looking. I’m thinking that’s just the way some varieties are. Some of the stalks are thickening up, so hope that continues, as they were pretty leggy. But, since I stopped watering them they’ve responded well.

@Drew51, the GGWT and Indian Stripe seeds you gave me germinated, and the seedlings are doing well. I’ve got two of each growing now.

I’d like to get them in the ground in a few weeks. The ground ought to be warm enough for the tomatoes and peppers by then. I’m just now getting our plots disced, and will fert and till them soon.

In response to Olpea’s post, I’ve never heard of Monster, or Muenster tomatoes. Must be a local popular variety. I’d give them a shot if an experienced grower endorses them.

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Tomatoes were planted out about two weeks ago. They are recovering from week long cold spell and transplanting. Most have flowerbuds. The first one to flower is Red pear Franchi. Also one of the grafted tomatoes survived and planted out.

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@Drew51, here are pics of your offerings. The two GGWT are on left, Indian Stripe’s on right. They are doing very well. The Indian Stripe definitely has the potato leaves going for it. Did you say it is like a more productive Cherokee Purple?

What size have you seen these plants achieve? Usually potato leaf tom’s can get quite large for me.

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I just bought a Super Sweet 100, a Brandywine, and a Cherokee Purple. Going to put them in containers with 5-1-1. I learned my lesson about leaving them in the nursery/big box soil last year.

There were other options available, but I don’t eat that many tomatoes.

Good luck with yer 'mater’s. We grew Brandywines of various colors over the last couple of years, and found that they grow into huge plants, but are pretty shy bearers. We’ve grown pink, yellow and blacks, to us, the yelllow’s tasted the best.

We’ve also grow Cherokee Purple over the last three years, and they’ve been hit or miss. When they’re good, they’re very good fruit.

Don’t know about SS100, I assume it’s a cherry variety? We’ve had very good luck with Chocolate Cherry, very tasty, and productive.

The 5-1-1 prob is good for getting a lot of green growth at first, but may not help with fruiting. You will prob eventually need a fert with more P and K as the plant gets bigger to help get those tom’s started and growing.

Yes in a way. Fruits are smaller, but taste similar. And I found it more productive here.I believe it is a cross with Cherokee Purple and a unknown. Regular leaf versions are around too.

Yes me too, but these are not super large if I remember correctly. I’m still experimenting. The podpiper sent me some seeds, and I have found many he grows are very productive for me. One he grows is Omar’s Lebanese. I think this one might be worth looking into. Yes Brandywine is fantastic but a shy bearer, I agree. Out of the purples/striped GGWT had decent production, and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye had very good production. Worth trying. The podpiper sent me Rutgers, a small pink I think? Wow, those smaller size tomatoes, slightly bigger than a golf ball. man they produce like crazy.

Isn’t Rutgers a pretty common hybrid tom? I think we tried them the first year here, but no luck, but that first year was a crap shoot, we were just getting settled in here, and planted a bunch of store bought plants. I can’t believe this will be our fourth season of growing veggies, and how much has changed here since then.

Those Berkeley Tie Dye look a lot to me like the GGWT. I wonder if they’re related. I know GG is a Green Zebra mutation, but it looks a lot like a TD.

Maybe? 7 different open pollinated forms exist.
I was growing this one.

Yes, they look a lot alike, and once harvested it would be hard to say which plant the fruit came from? GGWT forms bigger fruit, sometimes strangely shaped. I suggest trying both if you like the flavor, as they do taste the same, as do many purple types. Which as you have found out are hard to grow. So I’m trying to find the best that perform decent. These two are leading the pack so far. I have seeds of Berkeley Pink. Which is a new cultivar out of Wild Boar Farms known for it’s future heirlooms (not old enough yet).
To me the most exciting new open pollinated tomatoes were developed at Wild Boar Farms, or in the Dwarf Tomato Project. Since I grow mostly in containers, the dwarfs are appealing to me and I forgot, but would add Tennessee Suited Dwarf as another decent striped purple. I’m growing Rosella Purple this year. Thickest stalk of all the seedlings. Shortest too! Nobody told these plants they are dwarf as they produce like a regular plant.

Oh I wanted to add we didn’t have a freeze or even a frost this morning! But down to 34F, man that is going to hurt my plants. I covered them all, still covered now.

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5-1-1 is a potting soil mix. 5 parts pine bark, 1 peat moss, 1 perlite. I use it in all my potted plants for drainage.

Actual fertilizer is going to be a mix of 3 month 10-10-10 and some 9-3-6 Foliage Pro.

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OK, gotcha. Good luck with them, then. We’ve had very poor results growing in pots, can’t seem to find the right soil combo for tom’s. Will keep your mix in mind.

We put just about everything thing in the ground, but do try containers sometimes. The wife planted some onions in some long containers a couple weeks ago actually, and they’re just now sprouting.

I knew it’d get pretty cold here, they were saying about 35 or so. When I got up my weather station showed it got down to 32.9°, yikes. Glad we don’t have anything planted yet. Wonder if it’ll hurt the fruit on our old apple trees.

I’m hoping for great results in our tomato and pepper patch this year, with the liming and fertilizing. Our patch last year was very low in calcium, and the fruit suffered as a result. Lots of blossom end rot, and a lot of the fruit just tasted blah. More Ca in the soil should sweeten up tomatoes, wouldn’t you think?

Wild Boar Farms has lots of new odd varieties in this year’s Baker Creek catalog. They are certainly interesting looking. Brilliant blue and purple tom’s, and they’re selling the Black Beauty again.

Yes, and raising the pH too as it is a little low for tomatoes. I would rather grow in ground, I don’t have a very large area to work with. I grow 4 plants in ground every other year. This is the other year, none in ground this year. (growing corn there this year).
5-1-1 potting mix is way to dry a soil mix, I cannot suggest it at all for your area, or even mine. I only like it for house plants, which is was originally designed for.
Still it is a very good mix for certain things. Like you may want trees this dry, so would work very well. All gardening is local. I don’t grow trees in pots for the most part. I would use it for trees.
I use a 3-1-1 pine/pro mix potting soil/compost with added 1/3 part DE. This mix has worked awesome for me. I use the same mix for blueberries except add peat instead of potting soil. I add an extra part compost when growing potatoes in containers. Just to feed them more. I fill the pot 3/4 and then as the plant grows add compost to cover/hill the plant a bit anyway.

Thanks for posting pictures of those seedlings. Nice to see that my seed saving technique is working well and producing viable plants ( I knew this, but never get tired of seeing seeds you have saved grow).

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My earlies are D’jena Lee, shown here.

My main crop is Golden Jubilee. Both are yellow tomatoes.

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Your almost to the finish line. They look good.

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Mine were hit by frost, most still look alive, but no tomatoes till July for sure now. I usually get a few before then, not many ever, even in the best years.

Oh my Drew, so sorry to hear that. We’ve had some lows into the 40s (and highs 60s). Did you have any sense it was coming? Did you try any measures to protect the tomatoes? Were there tomatoes on the plants?

No, plants are still seedlings here, no tomatoes till July here most years. I should have waited to plant out. I have been short on time. I knew it was coming and protected them. The frost didn’t hit them, it got below freezing, and some of the leaves died. And no doubt set the plants back. A frost was out there again today, but it stayed above freezing. Still 2 days of this cold is not good. I will probably now get tomatoes mid July. Not a total loss, just slowed everything down. Next year I will wait longer to plant out. My problem is I need to move on, and all the pots with seedlings are in the way. I need to leave to work at my cottage but cannot as the seedlings need constant care in small pots. They can dry so quickly. Oh well not a total loss. The frosts should be done now, so i should be able to leave for a couple weeks.