[Zone9b]

The picture is some of the large tomatoes we picked today. We are picking before completely ripe because the squirrels are busy this season. I also picked 10 Grandma Pick’s which are on the large size they aren’t in the picture and I also put 2 of each large tomato variety in the cupboard until they are totally ripe for a bit of a taste test. I didn’t keep as good of notes as I have in past seasons because I’m not doing the majority of the picking. The earliest of the large varieties were BHN1021 and Tycoon. We’ve have been picking these for some time. I never had large tomatoes to pick as early as these two.
I transplanted both varieties on 9/4/16. and I have a note on each on 11/9/16 that we had been harvesting them. That means these both started to be harvested at 60-64 days after transplant.
Given the fact that BHN 1021 has a76 dtm and Tycoon has a 80 dtm it is one heck of a season. Charger was another large tomato that was very early also. Given these varieties ability to handle the heat I see no reason not to transplant some of them in August next year.
What the tomato breeders are doing with large red round tomatoes is remarkable. For example, the 2011 High Tunnel Tomato Trials included varieties such as Big Beef, Fabulous and then new variety BHN 1021. Forward to 2014 Evaluation of Determinate Tomato Varieties in High Tunnel Production and most of the old guard is gone and one sees Red Deuce, Primo Red leading the production and BHN 1021 is still there but for the most part a new generation of varieties with greater production, said to be better taste, greater disease resistance and so forth. I hope to trial Primo Red in the Spring. It is of course a large red but has a published dtm of 68.
Larry