Large fruited variety with highest productivity

[Suze]

When I grew Granny Cantrell a few years ago, it was clearly pink - (no pun intended, but the ep was definitely clear!)

Might be some mixup or confusion for this variety, but in any case what I grew out that one time was not particularly noteworthy or memorable beyond just 'very good' for taste. Edit - I did sort of wonder at the time if the seed was true-to-type as I ordered it as "Granny Cantrell's German Red"

[J Peazy]

http://lubbock.tamu.edu/horticulture...007Results.pdf

You all may have seen this before but the above link points to a Texas A&M field production tomato trial. This one was relevant to me because it gets very hot here, maybe not as hot as Texas, but hot.

Bella Rosa was on there but didn't seem to fare as well as a tomato named Sun King. I ordered a few of these from Reimer yesterday. Anyone here grown them? There were few sources for the seeds, so they don't seem too popular.

Reimer's description is as follows:

75 days. Lycopersicon esculentum. (F1) Plant produces high yields of large 1 lb tomatoes. The tomatoes are meaty and sweet. Very crack resistant. Requires staking or caging. Suitable for home gardens and market growers. Disease Resistant: VFTA. Indeterminate. pk/10

[pacmanJohn]

In response to Casserole... Can't say that they were 1 pounders or that I had 100 lbs/plant, but I did pick 590 Hege German Pinks off of 7 plants last year (85 per plant) and the average size was pretty good. I've attached a pick from last year where I picked 150 off of those 7 plants in one day, and many in the wagon (I think all in the basket that is in the wagon) were Heges.

[nctomatoman]

As far as typical yield per plant, I grew many different types in Pennsylvania in great soil and great conditions and measured fruit per plant for three years.....my feeling is that a well grown plant that is staked and somewhat pruned will yield up to 30 lbs in a good season. I think that the heaviest yielding plant was Yellow Bell, an OP yellow pear tomato, at 45 lbs.

Actually, here is the article I wrote about this when we were publishing Off The Vine.

http://nctomatoman.topcities.com/Off...ig/COMPARE.htm

[camochef]

Originally Posted by casserole

I simply find 100 lbs of toms from one plant a little hard to believe ,much less all over a pound . Who else has accomplished this remarkable feat ?

That's why Cowlick Brandywine caught my attention.
According to my journals the year was 2007. I harvested the first 3 ripe tomatoes off that plant on 29 June 07. all over a lb. the heaviest that day was 1 3/8 lbs. It gave me 3-5 tomatoes/day and it produced up until 31 Oct 07. It was the best year here for tomatoes that I ever saw.
Most years we have a killing frost around the first week of October, sometimes sooner. This was an exceptional year here.
It was also an exceptional plant. It was the last plant in my gardens when I pulled it on Oct 31 and it was still loaded with green tomatoes. Nov 1st saw a hard freeze. The plant was over 10 ft high and stretched out further than you'd ever believe. It was in the very corner of my garden and sheltered by the sandmound.
It was the beginning of my sending seeds from it to many of my friends on the tomato forums, who also had good results with them. I think over the years the quality is no longer the same but many still rank it as a great tomato.
I've been growing it ever since and except for last year it hasn't let me down yet.
Camo

[Aphid]

Originally Posted by J Peazy

http://lubbock.tamu.edu/horticulture...007Results.pdf

You all may have seen this before but the above link points to a Texas A&M field production tomato trial. This one was relevant to me because it gets very hot here, maybe not as hot as Texas, but hot.

Bella Rosa was on there but didn't seem to fare as well as a tomato named Sun King. I ordered a few of these from Reimer yesterday. Anyone here grown them? There were few sources for the seeds, so they don't seem too popular.

Reimer's description is as follows:

75 days. Lycopersicon esculentum. (F1) Plant produces high yields of large 1 lb tomatoes. The tomatoes are meaty and sweet. Very crack resistant. Requires staking or caging. Suitable for home gardens and market growers. Disease Resistant: VFTA. Indeterminate. pk/10

texas is not quite like middle tennessee ,,, I can name off some varietys that have done well for me( and others) in middle tennessee ,,, I have grown close to 40 varietys so far .... I mentioned earlier this thread my best performer this season, out of 14 varietys.....

with the thousands of tomatoes available out there,it's nice to know what others in your area have success with.....yes?

[jhp]

Originally Posted by pacmanJohn

In response to Casserole... Can't say that they were 1 pounders or that I had 100 lbs/plant, but I did pick 590 Hege German Pinks off of 7 plants last year (85 per plant) and the average size was pretty good. I've attached a pick from last year where I picked 150 off of those 7 plants in one day, and many in the wagon (I think all in the basket that is in the wagon) were Heges.

So John, did you get those tomatoes from the 2 plants in one hole method? Or were those single plants? Those sound like pretty impressive numbers to me. Nice photo too.

Jen

[pacmanJohn]

Not trying to get off track from the original posters question, but I beleive this conversation still supports the intension so I'll proceed

Jen, I did 'double plant' those. Here's a picture from a couple of years ago showing some of the varieties that I planted this way. I have to say that I have had some blight/bacterial problems toward the bottom of the plants the last couple of years but I still get excellent production (last year when I picked the 590 Hege's I had pretty bad blight, but the numbers were still extremely good).

[ddsack]

What a pretty picture, John!

Does your owl work? Last week I had crows topple some 8-10" corn plants by shredding the base of the stalks trying to pull them up for the seed, I assume. Not too clever, as the plants were too big and any seed casing would have been rotted back into the dirt. Since I grow a limited amount of sweet corn in raised beds, it was a nasty loss to me. I found my old plastic guardian owl and stuck it on a post, but since the crows didn't get their tasty little treats, I doubt they'll be back for more anyway.

[pacmanJohn]

Owl seems to work for the rabbits but NOT the birds.

[creister]

John,

Would planting more plants closer together in a raised bed have the same effect? I usally plant two plants in a 4x4 raised bed. Instead of putting two of same variety in same hole, I would just crowd 4 plants into that space. My cages are about 24" in diameter.

[pacmanJohn]

Creister, first I'm definitely not an authority out here just sharing what works for me. I think you'll get conflicting info on that idea (which is fine) but the only thing I can say is that I space 5' between each in a row and 6' between rows and I plant two plants in each hole which works for me. Could I plant one plant every 2.5 feet and get the same result??? probably so, but I don't have that many tomato cages In your scenario where you only have about 2' between double planting may be too thick...

[creister]

John,

Thanks for the answer. I also agree with Camo about how every year is different. I've had a few varieties produce tomatoes in the 1.25 - 1.5 lb. range. One year, it was Box Car Willie, then Earl's Faux, Tom's Yellow Wonder, and Neves Azorean Read, Coustralee, and Aunt Ginny's Purple have all given fruit around a pound. Always different years.

I try to grow the ones, that on average have done well. Earl's Faux, Stump of the World have been pretty consistant.

[heirloomdaddy]

Agreed. Have two Paul Robeson plants in one hole this summer. They are going nuts. They seem to be trying to outdo one another. I will experiment further with this next year.

Originally Posted by pacmanJohn

No matter the variety you choose to plant I would suggest planting two plants in each hole. This will not produce as much as two separated plants but will produce more than a single plant. Hope that made sense... The tomatoes in my avatar to the left under my name are Brandywines (bought the original plant a few years ago at a local nursery that were simply named "Brandywine"). I counted my production last year for the first time. They are not all as big as the ones in the picture of course... I had two plants (four plants actually that were planted in two holes). I picked 120 Brandywines from these two (actually four) plants. I know that Brandywines aren't normally great producers but that's what I got last year. I have very good growing conditions with soil, location, light, etc and last year I got anywhere from 40 to 85 tomatoes off of each 'slicer' variety (again, these were all double-planted). The varieities that fell into this category I planted were Green Copia, KBX, Carbon, Hege and Brandywine.

[J Peazy]

Originally Posted by Aphid

texas is not quite like middle tennessee ,,, I can name off some varietys that have done well for me( and others) in middle tennessee ,,, I have grown close to 40 varietys so far .... I mentioned earlier this thread my best performer this season, out of 14 varietys.....

with the thousands of tomatoes available out there,it's nice to know what others in your area have success with.....yes?

I'm interested in Dr. Wyche's. Have you grown that one? If so what is your impression. I hear it handles heat well.