I thought I caught them early, but I am still picking a lot of damaged fruit that are not marketable.

My first set of plants that I started for the high tunnel got sick and died from the early spring cold weather, so what's in there now is my "B-Team." And it's showing. My determinates, almost 2/3 of the high tunnel, are looking like one big flop. I should have been at market the past two weeks, but I still haven't gone. If I had planted the Taxi I originally planned on, I would be picking fruit by the bushel right now.

I had very cold, wet weather in May. I'm sure that didn't help. Sol Gold, which by the way is an extremely compact plant, like Cole, caught blight or something fungal. I never did spray them. The plants are most of the way to being dead now.

Productive from Altai has nice big plants, but fruitset is spotty. I see a lot of catfacing as well. That might be from the cold May, but it doesn't matter. Catfaced fruit are unmarketable.

My first big red tomatoes have been Agatha. Along with the saladette Aura, those two are my best reds out of the determinates, at least with the plan of early tomatoes. They both taste very good, too. Titan Red is not even close to being ripe.

There's a Buckbee's New 50 Day ripening on my counter right now. It looks more pink than red. It's a tomato that needs a new name - it's not 50 day and it's not new. Production looks decent on my one plant. Flavor test pending.

My indeterminates are my best high tunnel plants. Nothing is ripe quite yet, but I have some huge green tomatoes. Tarasenko 6 looks to be stealing the show. It grows like a modern hybrid. I think I stunted my Cosmonaut Volkov by injecting too strong of a fertilizer mix into the drip. I've quit chem salt nutes in the injector, and now I just use molasses.

I'm thinking about taking the plastic off the high tunnel this week. It's supposed to be 96 tomorrow. Plus, I would like it to rain on my whiteflies.

Hang in there for the long haul Cole. You know things will turn at some point. You got back up plants, or can you clone a bunch of your ones that are looking like winners?
May absolutely sucked here too.
18 days without direct sun almost seemed impossible, but we went through it.
Every year its something seemingly new but is probably from the same old long list of, "welcome to farming".
Not that it puts you at your market with red fruit, but just remember you are not going through it alone.
Word from some folks around here is that tomatoes are super late and are not gonna be plentiful. If it is the same for you, you should be able to sell out each week when you do get fruit, and maybe get a better price.
Plus, if nothing else, you will have picked up more experience for next year and will be that much wiser.
I am still 2 weeks later than I planned but the restaurants are not gonna get local tomatoes from anyone else either. My little tunnel is loading up with green fruit, and Lord willing, I should be able to beat just about every local grower thanks to my tunnel. Hope to harvest for sales at the beginning of July.

I ordered my 30x72 high tunnel today (got approved for the NRCS high tunnel grant) and am going to use it for a spring/summer crop next year instead of turning it into a heated greenhouse for this winter. I'm doing double plastic with the hopes that I can get started really early and get tomatoes to the restaurants way before anyone else and expand and lock in my customers. I am going with automated roll up sides and mechanical shutters at either gable end so I can be away and have it vented early on when cool mornings go on to be hot days.

Hate to hear it Cole, hang in there! So far I have been lucky this year but the weather (till now) has been about perfect for growing maters. I grew Taxi in my mini-hoop this year because of your praises and they are finally ripening. I should have enough for market this Saturday. One question I had. Did you prune your Taxi at all? several of mine have small fruit, like golf ball sized and they don't seem to be getting bigger. I never pruned mine since they are a det.

Thanks, both of you.

I never pruned Taxi. Mine grew into 7' tall hedges. Fruit size does vary a lot with Taxi. I have had some be softball-sized, and others be more like saladettes.

Good luck with the new high tunnel. I think the biggest benefit of the double-layer plastic is that you avoid radiative cooling, and the effect of it that makes a single-layer structure drop about five degrees below the outside temperature.

I may drastically change my game plan for next year. I would really like to be done with my crop by now, not just getting started. I wanted to try low tunnels this year, but all my effort went into expanding my garden space. For next year, I may try to not get any bigger, build low tunnels on all my rows, and come up with a way to heat them a little on freezing nights. I think a propane-powered job site heater would do the trick, with the right ducting. Then I'd grow an early, compact plant like the hybrid cherry Terrenzo, and I would be selling tomatoes in May, and then be done by the first week of June.

You should consider the NRCS high tunnel program.

The standard does not require it to be as "high" as you might think. It only has to be a minimum of 6' tall.

Farmtek has a kit that is 12 wide by 50 long that is 7' high at the peak. It is 1,085 bucks.

You would have to retrofit it to have roll up sides to meet the standard.

My state pays 3.50 per square foot for beginning farmers (less than 10 years reporting farm income on your tax return). Basically you can get 2,500 square feet of structure paid for ($8,750 is the cap here, every state is different).
So you could get 4 of those farmtek low tunnels paid for.
You would have some of your own money in the base and hip boards and components for the roll up sides. And shipping.

So you could do a low "high" tunnel and cover 12x200 total area. If one tunnel could cover two rows, you'd be able to cover 400' of row.

See here for the farmtek low tunnel:

[URL="https://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/prod1;ft_high_tunnels_cold_frames;pg105158f_105179FF.html"]https://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/prod1;ft_high_tunnels_cold_frames;pg105158f_105179FF.html[/URL]

This has me thinking now. 400' of dwarfs on black plastic cover by a "high" low tunnel next year with no rain on them and an early start...

I just called my local USDA office today and talked to them about the high tunnel program. Guy was really nice and said I would almost definitely meet the requirements to get approval for a high tunnel. Thanks for reminding me of this PH. I meant to call earlier in the year but got busy and forgot. If I can get new high tunnel I'm going to be ecstatic.

My mom and stepdad got a NRCS grant this year.

That's awesome Cole! It sounds pretty easy from what the guy said.

It took about eight months longer than the extension agent said it would. They thought they would have the money last calendar year.

I don't mind waiting. I just can't believe they give you free money...I figured I had to be a big grower or have so much land but nope. Just a producer of agricultural products. He even mentioned they have grants for kitchen renovations to meet "commercial kitchen"rrequirements and since I make salsa/hot sauce etc that may be the next thing I try.

Hate hearing of the hardships, but always enjoy learning about new plans and projects.

I just ordered Spinosad and a spreader agent called SM-90. That will be my next round of attack against the whiteflies, as my Met-52 is almost gone.

I've contemplated Malathion and Sevin, but I don't have a cartridge respirator or a spray suit, which would cost more than the non-chemical spray. Plus, the whitefly damage is not apparent until the fruit ripen. So I may be stuck eating my tomatoes and not selling them. But at least I will have something I want to eat.

I just took the plastic off the high tunnel. The plants are wilting from the heat.

AKMark's Brandywine Cowlick's x Big Beef were the first tomatoes to ripen in my row of high tunnel indeterminates. I picked a handful just now.


And flavor review of the Buckbee's 50 Day is that it's not bad, but it's not good enough to keep. It's a little too pink-tasting for me, with not enough acid. I like Big Beef better.

Sorry to hear the whiteflies have trained in the Jedi arts; keep at them, things will be salvageable. Plant Terrenzo now and stretch them into the fall.

[QUOTE=BigVanVader;569567]I don't mind waiting. I just can't believe they give you free money...I figured I had to be a big grower or have so much land but nope. Just a producer of agricultural products. He even mentioned they have grants for kitchen renovations to meet "commercial kitchen"rrequirements and since I make salsa/hot sauce etc that may be the next thing I try.[/QUOTE]

So cool, 2 for 1. Commercial kitchen sounds nice.

High tunnel tomatoes are improving. I have to wait until they ripen fully to make sure there is no whitefly damage, but so far it looks like only the very first fruit had damage. I have a kitchen counter full of tomatoes, and have started giving them away. I will probably be at market next week.

Agatha is the clear winner among my determinates: [url]http://i.imgur.com/I7p4t56.jpg[/url]

It was my first big red tomato. The flavor is very good. Agatha will replace Titan Red as my go-to determinate. Tania lists it as a saladette, but my fruit have been full-sized.

Despite being the most sensitive to fungal issues, and too compact for high tunnel growing, Sol Gold is really not that bad of a variety. It does yield well for its size. Flavor is not bad, but honestly only marginally better than Taxi. Sol Gold reminds me of a yellow version of Cole.

I just noticed yesterday that I had also planted a Shadow Boxing in the high tunnel: [url]http://i.imgur.com/BcXMqJv.jpg[/url]

Productive from Altai is yielding a decent quantity of nice-looking, flattened beefsteaks. I haven't eaten any yet, but it's looking to be a decent market variety. Russian Soul is very similar.

Great news. Let's hope you get them under control.

Russian Soul has been impressive production wise. 1st few trusses were loaded, flattened ribbed. I had some weather issues too and the flavor on the first to blush was almost unacceptable, they were headed to [I]dog treat[/I] category (like Patio Princess). Surprisingly, the last two I tried were quite good, very respectable flavor and texture. Thumbs up on Russian Soul.

I just ate my first 100 Pudov. I wanted to dislike that variety from the start. It is later than I had hoped, and the fruit have a weird crinkle/ribbing to the top of them. They are also pink, and I expected red. The flesh is a true pink color, looks like a Brandywine.

But the flavor really impresses me. This is not a wimpy pink. It has the sharpest acid bite of any pink I've ever had, but still sweet and well-balanced overall. 100 Pudov is a keeper for the sake of flavor alone.

I have not had any ripe Aurora yet, grown outside, but production is mega impressive and they look very marketable. Seed from Tania.

Great Warrior - [I]Velikiy Voin[/I]
[URL]http://i.imgur.com/LjZycKW.jpg[/URL]
[URL]http://i.imgur.com/GXmkXHq.jpg[/URL]

Tarasenko 6:
[URL]http://i.imgur.com/NvhGS6z.jpg[/URL]

Great Warrior wins the biggest tomato award. They are huge.


edit: I just tasted the Bloody Butcher x Brandywine Cowlick's. It's one of the best tomatoes I've ever had. Great work, Mark.

[QUOTE=Cole_Robbie;570532]I just ate my first 100 Pudov. I wanted to dislike that variety from the start. It is later than I had hoped, and the fruit have a weird crinkle/ribbing to the top of them. They are also pink, and I expected red. The flesh is a true pink color, looks like a Brandywine.

But the flavor really impresses me. This is not a wimpy pink. It has the sharpest acid bite of any pink I've ever had, but still sweet and well-balanced overall. 100 Pudov is a keeper for the sake of flavor alone.[/QUOTE]

100 pudov is on the list, thanks for info!

You're very welcome.


That Bloody Butcher x BW Cowlick's inspired me to try my first Productive from Altai and Ton of Sugar - [I]Sakharnyi Pudovichok.

[/I]Sadly, both of them are flavor flops. Maybe it was the cold May. They're not bad, but the BBxBWC was better by leaps and bounds, and it grew in the same weather. [I]Sakharnyi Pudovichok [/I]has "heirloom tomato" written all over it, with a shelf life of just a few days and rapidly softening texture. But the one I just ate wasn't that good.

Mat-Su Express is the official name of the variety I like so much, but keep slaughtering the name of.

I wanted Sol Gold to replace Taxi, but the plants are far too compact. It was also my most prone to fungal issues. But for a small plant, it yielded very well. I am getting a lot of strong compliments about the flavor of it, from friends and family to whom I have given tomatoes. I'm going to save seeds, and think about either low tunnels, or un-trellissed field production. It would be a good companion for Cole.

I just ate a Bradley last night. My plant looks to be yielding less than my Russian varieties, but not so little as to give up on it. Flavor was very good. Bradley is worth keeping around for flavor alone.

The Bloody Butcher x BW Cowlick's sounds primo, I'd love to try those next year. What size tomato?

It's a large red. It cat-faced a lot more than I would like, but my May weather was horribly cold, and I have a lot of cat-facing in many varieties. Hopefully, it was just the weather. It may be more suited to outdoor garden growing than the high tunnel, at least in my climate and unpredictable weather.

I just tried the first Tarasenko 6. I'd call it "good enough," and by that I mean good enough to be a market variety. It's leading the charge in production, and even though it's not my favorite to eat, I'm confident that it would be the best tomato available at my farmer's market right now. Almost everyone grows hybrids that remind me of red baseballs.

Shelf life is very good. I could have waited a few days longer to eat the one I just tried. I would probably like it better if a little riper, and due to weather, most of my varieties have improved flavor with later fruit.

Comparison to Cosmonaut Volkov and Russian Soul coming soon.

Sugary Pounder, SaKharny PudovichoK. Same results here. Minimal shelf life, very little flavor. Thought it was my RGGS setup and grew a few in containers, same result. Direct to the "retired" stack. Gregori's shall continue as the Altai winner.

My 1st few Tarasenko-6 were grainy. Waiting on a few others.

Thank you Cole, I don't even know if the brandywine stuff will do well in this dry heat, through default I've 5 BrandyBoys so they should give me an idea.

All my Russian varieties are blossoming and vegetating strongly even in the plus 95 heat, esp. the Cosmonaut Volkov and Moskvich. I'll have those to compare, I've spotted little maters on both.

Cole, I imagine it's the weather, mine have little to no catfacing. You should also find that the fruit will go from somewhat irregular to rather smooth as weather improves, but still carries an heirloom look. I can also get you some seed from plant B. they are called the Mat-Su Super B because of the way they set fruit. I have well over a 100 of the f5's going, so I will be able to make a good selection for f6. I also plan on sending out seed of AK Sunrise for peeps to try, they will knock your tomato socks right off, I am not even kidding. They are a very smooth fruit, was going to call the Wasilla Wonder, but a friend suggested the current name, which I liked. I will send out f7's of it.

Your Chinese varieties are growing, will let you know how they do at the 62nd.

Awesome. Thank you.