Santa Maria Tomato?

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by Labradors2

Oh dear! I read your comment as "I am not a pastor" and wondered what religion had to do with this variety.

Haha.
Just a typo. I meant paster, ie into making tomato paste ,

[lexxluthor]

Nice discussion on another paste mater. For 2016 the majority I will be growing are paste's and looks like this one more possible late addition. Hoping to grow 20 to 25 different varieties. This will be my second year of growing and last years only paste was polish linguisa which did well in spite of a crummy summer.

[Gardeneer]

Past season I grew something that was supposed to be Polish Dwarf but turned up to be Costoluto Geneves. It was the meatiest tomato that I have ever grown. It was much better than Roma.
It is the one seen in the front center in this photo

[Gerardo]

As I read the posts in this thread I laughed out loud at the mention of finding Santa Maria. Let's just say that in Latin America as a whole (or the world for that matter), there's quite a few Sta. Marias and San Joses. And if you add a third word to it, then the numbers really increase.

Disambiguation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria

This tomato sounds great. Large, productive, great tasting. Right now I have a couple of pastes growing: Zyska, Secret Sauce, Siccagno di Valledolmo. I guess I could add another one. Although my label will say "Mary Mary why you buggin." go Run!

[remy]

Hey, I didn't name. The guy from Italy called it that. She's pretty important over in Italy too.

[Gerardo]

Originally Posted by remy

Hey, I didn't name. The guy from Italy called it that. She's pretty important over in Italy too.

She seems to be a hit everywhere! Happy xmas Remy.

[hornstrider]

bump..........can anyone give me a review of Santa Maria...

[kath]

I've grown dozens of paste varieties and Santa Maria and Heidi were, without a doubt, the winners, and were the only ones completely free of BER. Santa Maria is a large plant and has big early yields of huge, meaty, delicious fruits which ripen quickly and withstand the conditions in my area all season. Yummy fresh and cooked!

[NewWestGardener]

Kath, is staking a must for Santa Maria? I took your comments to heart and wonder if I can grow it along with Heidi. I am a one person team responsible for about 400 tomato plants from start to finish, as a volunteer. There’s tons of weed in the field and limited well water supply, all hand watering. So I don’t really have the time dealing with staking. However, if the plants are short, can sprawl on laid plastic, I can still grow them. What is your opinion on that? I need to decide on that before buying seeds.

[kath]

Originally Posted by NewWestGardener

Kath, is staking a must for Santa Maria? I took your comments to heart and wonder if I can grow it along with Heidi. I am a one person team responsible for about 400 tomato plants from start to finish, as a volunteer. There’s tons of weed in the field and limited well water supply, all hand watering. So I don’t really have the time dealing with staking. However, if the plants are short, can sprawl on laid plastic, I can still grow them. What is your opinion on that? I need to decide on that before buying seeds.

I've never grown a tomato plant without support, so it's hard to have an opinion. Carolyn and others let indeterminates sprawl, so I don't know why you couldn't. All I can tell you is that they grow out of the top of a 5' cage. Maybe someone else will chime in.

[Father'sDaughter]

I agree with Kath, Santa Maria is a very tall plant needing 8' stakes when I've grown it. If sprawling is your typical method, then I don't think there would be any reason why you couldn't let it sprawl as well.

[hornstrider]

Thank you Kath.....I have always caged my tomato plants. I live in Central Texas,and I was was also curious to know how Santa Maria holds up in Texas heat. I am looking for a canning tomato that also is good salad tomato. I have learned about Heidi in an another thread. I have grown San Marzano, and Opalaka with some success, but I have had an issue with BER especially with Opalake...not so much with San Marzano. Neither was a good salad tomato.

[kath]

You're welcome- we certainly don't have your heat, but as far as being great for canning AND salad AND no BER, both Santa Maria and Heidi are winners!

[BigVanVader]

Wow I was going through my seeds and found this variety again. I can't even remember if I grew it I cant find any notes or saved seeds so I likely didn't for some reason. Going to plant some this year. Now that I don't grow tomatoes to sell I have more freedom to experiment. I keep finding seeds and notes of things I've grown and have zero memory of

[MrBig46]

How comes Santa Maria, compared with Heidi?
Vladimír