How many varieties have you grown?

[dice]

[Loamy Sand at the beach]
(Warning, topic drift)

I ran across this website a couple of years ago where
these people were growing tomates in deep sand
somewhere in Alabama. The first year they just tilled
6 inches of some kind of organic matter into the tomato
bed, and they were not impressed with the results. It simply
did not hold enough water for long enough in hot weather,
despite mulching with 6 inches of straw, and nutrients leached
out of it rapidly with the heavy irrigation and occasional
tropical downpour type rainstorms.

The next year they dug it out 3' deep and filled it with a
mix of peat and manure and compost, added a little lime
to adjust pH, mulched with straw, and the plants did great
(allowing for the usual attrition from bugs, etc).

Digging out a tomato bed 3' deep may seem like a major
chore to those of us with heavy clay soils or with hardpan
a foot down, but it is not so much work in a sandy loam that
is mostly sand (a backhoe in the neighborhood doing some
utility work or whatever makes really short work of it).

Edit:
Of course any digging is a major chore with an injured knee,
so I was not suggesting doing this now, particularly, unless
an easy-going backhoe operator shows up down the block
somewhere.

[habitat_gardener]

Have been growing my own food for only the past 5-6 years, ever since I finally got a community garden plot. I usually have room for about a dozen tomato plants, but have been growing 15-20 each year, for a total of about 70 varieties, almost all OP. (Some years I find extra garden space, or I persuade other people to plant varieties I want to try.)

[newatthiskat]

This will be my 3rd year for a garden. First year killed everything with roundup. 2nd was last year. I put about 15 different varities but managed to kill off several varities before getting to try any. Some I planted 1 of and some I planted 2 or 3 of. Ironically It was the varities that I planted 2-3 of that I mostly killed off
Kat

[Wi-sunflower]

brokenbar,

You aren't alone in not eating the tomatoes, or at least not many of them. From kid on, I just have never much liked tomatoes to eat out of hand. Forget ketsup, YUCK !! Part of the reason is when I was a kid about 12 I had 3 bad summers of 3 families, that knew next to nothing, growing a 3 acre subsistance garden. We really needed the food but didn't have the know-how or equipment to do it right. Also going down to pick what looked like a great tomato to have your fingers sink into the rotten bottom isn't a good experience even for a grown up.

I will cook with my tomatoes like for spaghetti or a stew. And I have grown to love some of the good tasting milder small, cherry and grape varieties like Sun Sugar and Amish Salad. I really love Aunt Molly's ground cherry for a great nibble too.

Over the years I've grown many acres of tomatoes and I'm up to nearly 200 varieties last year. This year I will have about 100 new varieties due to all the trades I've done here.

I can tell you how many of them grow, just don't ask me how they taste. I do intend to try to keep better notes, pics and taste more of them this coming summer. This board has inspired me to try to do better.

[macmanmatty]

I too only eat tomatoes in sauces, chili, or stew. I like to think of them as a base to add flavor to. Alone they have little flavor just a nasty texture that I can't get past. I have grown about 180 varieties. This year will bring me up close to 260. With the 150 that I have planed to grow (both new and old).

[MikeInCypress]

I have been gardening since 1979-first catalog was Burpee with Sugar Snap Pea on the cover. Grew 6 plants that year. Over the years i have evolved to growing mainly in containers. In the past I grew about 80 varieties in the spring and another 50 in the fall. This year no fall tomatoes because Hurricane Ike took them away but I have started 48 for the Spring. Love my 'maters- fresh or cooked. Can't wait for my 1st BLT around April 10th (probably with a Kimberly tomato).

MikeInCypress

[ContainerTed]

Some of my best and earliest memories of my dad, whom we all called "Pappy", are of toddling along behind him trying to help him with his tomato plants. He'd only raise few, and like Brog said above, Ponderosa was BIG in the Fifties.

Also, like Brog said, I'm not sure I knew what an heirloom was. Over the years, I grew a few plants anywhere I could find a piece of dirt to stick'em in. While I was in the service, my family moved to Tennessee and my brother, who is a major gardener kept a garden. When I would come home on leave, I would work the garden. I was always encouraged to schedule my visits in the spring around planting time.

Since retiring from the Air Force in 1984, I've kept a few plants each year. I even had containers on my patio in Florida with tomatoes and peppers. I've always loved tomatoes and this past year, I have awakened to "heirloom" tomatoes.

Most of those plants over recent years were hybrids - Early Girl, Park's Whopper, etc. But for more than 20 years, I carried around some Yellow Tomato seeds (big beefsteak-sized with green shoulders - 10-14 ounces) that I grew at least every other year. I lost the last of those seeds several years ago. Only now do I realize that was an heirloom and I was too "heirloom ignorant" to know the difference.

Last year I grew 28 varieties - about half and half OP and Hybrid. This year, there will be 52 varieties and only 5 hybrids.

I have a constant "lycopene low-lite", so my situation on growing these tomatoes is totally incurable. When I die, I'm thinking of requesting that they embalm me with tomato juice.

Ted

[BigdaddyJ]

This will be my 18th season and I've grown about 100 varieties. I tend to stick to tried n true with only a few newbies each season.

[roamwhereiwant2]

I'm enjoying reading everybody's tomato memories. Thanks!

I eat tomatoes like apples. Yesterday, I bought a clamshell pack of Campari's from CostCo. They're better than the usual supermarket lumps, but don't begin to compare to a warm, juicy, fragrant, summer tomato. The family story about my Mom is that we never put salt on our food at the table - because Mom always forgot the shaker in the back yard by the tomato plants.

I started gardening in 1981 at a community garden. I'd discovered one of Steve Solomon's catalogs for Territorial Seed Company at the library and then read that thing over and over until I'd practically memorized it.

I don't know how many tomato varieties I've grown - but the max in any one year was 26 different ones.

If we had a community garden here, I'd grow lots things and donate the extras to the local food co-op.

Yvonne

[Linda10]

This is so hard to answer!

I know at least 500 different varieties that I counted for the last 5 years, but before that I tried a lot, but didn't keep records unless they were ones I wanted to grow again. A lot of the novelty ones were in that category.

I would estimate probably around another 200 to 300 from the previous 20 years (grew about 12-16 new ones per year), but can't be sure.

In the 10 years before that, I only grew 1 or 2 varieties a year and didn't keep ANY records.

[ReaverG]

Last year was my first year growing tomatoes from seed to harvest and I had 3 varieties. This year I'll be growing 25 varieties. I didn't really know much beyond the red slicer until I saw some recipes for different types of tomatoes... and then it all went downhill from there.

[gardengalrn]

I have been gardening since 1996 or 97. I started out with just two Walmart offers. The next year I ordered seed from Johnny's (under my brother's recommendation) and grew Rose, German Queen and a few others I don't recall. I didn't know or understand what heirloom meant; I had just gone through the descriptions and ordered what I thought sounded good. From there I just went nuts about gardening and found GW to discuss the interests. I didn't really care for tomatoes all that much before I started growing them, either. Now when I have to resort to a store tomato for my winter salad, I know why. I've probably grown 100 or so different varieties, maybe more. Some were great finds and others...not so great.

[duajones]

I have really enjoyed reading through this thread, I was hoping more would join in but there are probably plenty that havent even seen the post yet. Even if you have posted this info before, I would love to hear it again

[rxkeith]

i wil say i have grown between 125-150 varieties over the years. most of them over the last 15 years since i got married, bought our first computer, and discovered gardening forums. been gardening since my early teens (70s). i remember hanging on to my uncles roto tiller bouncing on our clay soil trying to break it up. years of amending with leaves, and grass clippings made it better. tomatos grown during the early years were my uncle steves from seed, a yellow variety for my dad probably sunray or lemon boy, a cherry variety, and a few larger reds from the local markets, mostly hybrids i reckon. this year the only hybrid will be sun gold. not sure how many varieties will be grown this year because i'm starting from scratch in a new location. if the ground is too wet i may have to do some raised beds.

keith

[remy]

I bought my home 1991 so my first garden was in '92 (though I grew up gardening.) I planted quite a few tomato plants right from the start. They were bought from the local nursery, and I planted out a few 6 packs. I don't remember what they all were, but I do remember the Early Girls, yuk. I was so excited to eat my own tomatoes, and then I was so disappointed.
My mother-in-law gave me some saved Organic Gardening mags(this when they were good!) There were a few tomato articles and of course sources for seeds so I mailed away for catalogs. Among the first heirloom tomato seeds I bought was Prudens Purple which is still one of my favorites. I grew other tomatoes too.
I then purchased '100 Heirloom tomatoes for the American Garden'. I bought it because the '100 Old Roses for the American Garden' was so good, and I saw the woman who wrote the book lived in upstate NY so I figured it had to be good also.That mixed with the internet really fueled my desire to find great tasting tomatoes.
Anyway, back to the original question! How many varieties have I grown? I'm not sure.
Remy