largest earliest best-tasting

[Sun City Linda]

lol Carolyn! You are right about Early Girl here in CA. Its in every store, everywhere. I used to grow it once in a while, it is dependable, juicy and sweetish as I recall.

[Aubergine]

Cherokee Purple

[nancyruhl]

My earliest in 2011 was Indian Stripe which is very tasty and would fill any sandwich. In 2012 it was Amana Orange. I grow in the ground and in containers. The container tomatoes always beat out the in ground tomatoes because the growing mix warms up so much faster in the containers. Buckbees New 50 Day is also a contender, but certainly isn't ripe for me in 59 days. Love Moskovich, too.

[dice]

Vorlon. Most places probably list it as mid-season, but it is on the early
edge of mid-season for me, and it holds its flavor in cool weather.

[barkeater]

Moskvich (however it doesn't like hot whether)
Red Siberian (which is pink)
Sweetie (also pink)
Polish Ellis
Cherokee Purple (sometimes if the first flowers set)

[Cole_Robbie]

I didn't realize people had disease problems with Early Girl. I can remember it getting bacterial speck, but only very late in the season. At that point, I'm eating the other varieties anyway.

Now that I'm looking, varieties with resistance to it are hard to find. There are not any in my Siegers catalog. I am reading that varieties with resistance to bacterial speck and spot do exist, but I don't know what they are.

[FarmerShawn]

Here in northern Vermont, I have grown Early girl for years - it has been our staple canning tomato. But it doesn't seem to actually be any earlier than anything else I have grown. And it doesn't get much more than tenis ball sized.
Last year, Pink Honey was the earliest (and tastiest for its earliness) tomato I grew. And it was quite productive, as well. It's definitely back in my garden!
Shawn

[Cole_Robbie]

Thanks for the recommendation. Is this the Pink Honey you grew?

http://www.shop.ohioheirloomseeds.co...c?productId=83

[Fusion_power]

Gregori's Altai is one of the better flavored large early maturity tomatoes I've grown. Wisconsin 55 is an old commercial variety that is adapted to northern climates.

Any tomato with the precocious flowering gene will tend to produce very early maturing fruit. You can select for this gene by watching for plants that form a flower bud after the 4th to 6th true leaf.

The larger the fruit, the longer they take to mature. The best early varieties are all medium sized for this reason.

Bacterial speck resistant tomatoes are available from the Hawaii breeding program. The best I recall, Kewalo is one of them. That doesn't help much with bacterial spot for which the tomato genome does not have much resistance.

About half of the varieties named in this thread so far are actually mid-season maturity. Several of them are tolerant to cool conditions. Prudens Purple is a mid-season variety with a good bit of tolerance to cool growing conditions.

I would suggest expanding your search just a bit by looking for varieties with early maturity, notable cold tolerance, medium size, and precocious flowering.

DarJones

[FarmerShawn]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

Thanks for the recommendation. Is this the Pink Honey you grew?

http://www.shop.ohioheirloomseeds.co...c?productId=83

Yes, exactly (although mine didn't get quite that huge, or produce quite that well). This is, after all, Vermont; everything is more reserved here.

By the way, I thought Ohio Heirloom Seeds dropped the "Siberian" from the name, as a result of a discussion thread here at Tville, and it is supposed to be called just "Pink Honey."

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by FarmerShawn

Yes, exactly (although mine didn't get quite that huge, or produce quite that well). This is, after all, Vermont; everything is more reserved here.

By the way, I thought Ohio Heirloom Seeds dropped the "Siberian" from the name, as a result of a discussion thread here at Tville, and it is supposed to be called just "Pink Honey."

Yes, there was a long thread here with lots of input and it was agreed that it should be Pink Honey, not Siberain Pink Honey, for the reasons given in that thread.

Perhaps Mike meant to change the name but just hasn't had the time to do it yet. He also participated in that thread I refer to.

Carolyn

[Andrey_BY]

It was agreed that it should be Rozovyi Myod and sometimes (rare ) Pink Honey if Russian is very difficult for you

[b54red]

The very earliest tomato with decent size and great flavor for me the last two years has been Fish Lake Oxheart. Kosovo is not quite as early but is larger. If you want an early hybrid with decent taste then Jetsetter is an early heavy producer but does not do as well once the real heat of summer arrives.

[Cole_Robbie]

Jet Setter is Jet Star improved, right? Do you like it better? My grandparents have grown Jet Star for a long time and love that variety.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

Jet Setter is Jet Star improved, right? Do you like it better? My grandparents have grown Jet Star for a long time and love that variety.

I think that you or someone else asked this same question before and no, Jet Star F1 and Jetsetter F1 are not related at all.

And the Jet Star scenario puts me, alas, in the grandparent status you mentioned above, although I'm not a grandparent, b'c I've been growing it forever as in I can't tell you how many years.

I still think that the Harris bred varieties, all F1's, that were some of the earliest ones bred have perhaps the best tastes of other hybrids I've grown, and those aren't all that many.

THe ones I refer to are Jet Star, Supersonic and Moreton Hybrid.

Carolyn