[b54red]

As I have said before I like to try different tomato varieties to see how they will perform in the heat of our steamy hot summers. I found two that I had never set out late that so far have done exceedingly well. By that I mean they have produced in good numbers and have had nice big tomatoes which is a rare thing in mid summer.

The first one is Gary O' Sena which has never been my favorite black tomato but the size and quality of the fruits coming off the two that I planted in mid May are amazing and like most black tomatoes they are much better tasting once it gets really hot. There are two drawbacks to this variety. One it is exceedingly vegetative and if you do not prune it you will get poor fruit production and way too much plant. The second is the same one that all black varieties have down here and that is gray mold will attack them so you have to keep an eye out for that. I'm sure this wouldn't be true every year but it beat Indian Stripe PL hands down so far this summer not in number of fruits but in pounds it wasn't even close.

The second one that really surprised me was 1884. The fruits produced in the summer heat and rain are more blemished than the ones in the spring but 1884 is pumping out surprisingly large fruits and a lot of them. It is good to have another large fruited variety that will actually produce large fruits in the summer heat.

I don't know if I have any grafted plants of those two for my fall planting but I would love to see how they do in the cooler weather of fall. Fall is one of those times when a lot of varieties will do good but many do not ripen evenly or well and the only way to find out is too try them.

Bill