Help Wanted - Final selections of 2012 grow list

[JoeP]

TV,
I had hoped to be an expert after two years of tomato growing and not have to solicit input again this year but two summers of terrible weather does not an expert make. I would appreciate some help making my final selections. I cut my number of plants down to 19 this year. That being said, I don’t want to waste spots on varieties that are risky due to late season or not tolerant of a cooler climate.


I have my mind pretty well made up on the early and cherry. But I would appreciate any feedback/recommendations from your experience with Green, Black, Pinks, Reds, Bicolor, and Orange, especially from Pacific Northwest or Northern gardeners with shorter seasons and cool nights. Please comment (good or bad) or recommending alternatives.


My priorities are:
1. Taste
2. Will do well in a cool climate
3. Mid season or close…this is where your experience will help.

Production would be nice but it is not terribly important. I’d rather have a few great tomatoes than lots and lots of mediocre ones.


I know what I want in these:


Early:
-Stupice
-Yamal

Cherries:
-Sungold

I need help finishing off the lists below:

Green:
-Grubs Mystery Green
(Any other green as early?)

Black:
-1884 Purple (great last year! - the only one of several blacks that had any real flavor.)

Candidates -
-Gary'O Sena - earlier than other blacks


Pink: (4 spots, 3 below and 1 open spot)
-Crnkovic Yugoslavian
-Unnamed Pink variety from TV member
-Cowlicks

Candidates for the open spot:
I’d like to try either Anna Russian or Kosovo: I lean towards Anna Russian since it is earlier. Are these two similar in taste? Any reason to grow both?


Red: (5 spots, 2 below and 3 open)
-Moskvich – because it is early midseason
-Rostova (heart) - ( from TV member - not Sunset’s Red Horizon from Tomatofest or Rostova from TGS)

Red Brandywine has been the most flavorful red the last two years. I like a nice strong flavor like Red BW but hopefully a little earlier in a PNW climate. Is there such a tomato?


My list of Red candidates for the 3 open spots -
-Red Brandywine – My favorite Red so far
-Neves Azorean Red- (recommended by many last year but I doomed it by planting in a pot.)
-Jean’s Prize -
-Lyuda’s Moms Large Red Ukranian -
-Sunset’s Red Horizon (heart)-
-Wisconsin 55-
-Alice’s Egypt (heart)-


Any alternatives to these?

Orange/Gold: (1 spot,)
-Orange Minsk – is it disease prone?


Alternative Candidates:
-Mennonite Orange
-Jumbo Jim Orange
-Orlov Yellow – I grew last year in a pot with poor results. I blame weather and my planting it in a pot.
-KBX – Territorial (a PNW seed company) lists Kellogg’s Breakfast so I have to assume there is a market for such a tomato this far north. Tried KB two years ago with a few ripe fruits, and KBX last year with even less success. Neither were standouts for flavor but I never see a negative word about KBX. Must be good somewhere.

Bi-Color:
-Northern Lights
-Pineapple - late but my wife's favorite. Not negotiable.

Anyone have luck with Gold Medal? Territorial lists it at 75 DTM and Pineapple at 90 DTM. I agree with Pineapple but 75 seems....well, wishful.

I appreciate any feedback.

Thanks,
JoeP

[janezee]

Joe, are you inland, or near the coast. East or west of the Cascades? Territorial lists tomatoes for both, so I wouldn't count on getting anything listed over 80 days on the rainy side without cover.
OTOH, this should be our one in three. We usually get one good summer out of every three, and we know that the last two bit the big one. I'm pulling out my mid-lates and putting them under plastic in early, with high hopes. I'm not using all my seed, though!

I can't comment on individual plants, since I've only been growing here for 3 years, and I must say that 2006 and 2009 were great years for tomatoes here. 1994 and 1995 were really good, too, in Seattle. All the rest in between were the pits.

I can add that, in my experience, the larger the tomato, the less likely you'll love it here. If we don't get rain and clouds, which make them watery, we get cool nights, which don't let them get warm enough to develop really good flavor. But, I'm tired of going to Wenatchee to buy my big ones. And, boy, can they grow a great Momotaro there!

j

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by janezee

Joe, are you inland, or near the coast. East or west of the Cascades? j

I am on the cool, wet side of Western Washington just south of Olympia. About 15 miles from Puget Sound and about 170 feet above sea level.

[swamper]

pink:
chianti rose

red:
druzba

orange:
valencia

bicolor:
little lucky

[amideutch]

My weather is similar to yours and we have been having wet July and August weather the last 3 years. Grow most in containers but a few in a raised bed. These have all done well for me. All are listed at Glecker's Seed except for Barlow Jap.

Pink; Barlow Jap, Burgandy Traveler.

Red; Guido, Ludmilla's Red Plum, Magyar Piros Boker, Magyar Piroska, Linda's Faux

Yellow/Orange; Maylor Roths Orange, Toms Yellow Wonder, Isis Brandy

Bicolor; Rhoades Heirloom, Golden Cherokee

[gryffin]

Neves Azorean Red was the only tomato that I couldn't ripen last year. I did have two plants sharing each cage, so it may have been at a disadvantage, but all of my plants were in this situation and they all produced ripe fruit- lots of it in many cases.

I'm in Zone 5a/4b, in New England.

[bughunter99]

I'm zone 5.

Orange: Persimmon tastes great and has been highly productive for me three years running.

Crnkovic Yugoslavian: This one is a regular in my garden each year. Reliable, productive and tasty.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by bughunter99

I'm zone 5.

Orange: Persimmon tastes great and has been highly productive for me three years running.

Crnkovic Yugoslavian: This one is a regular in my garden each year. Reliable, productive and tasty.

I am hoping Crnkovic Yugoslavian will perform well for me. I tried Persimmon last year with no luck. It, along with many other varieties, did not like the cool spring and summer.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by amideutch

My weather is similar to yours and we have been having wet July and August weather the last 3 years. Grow most in containers but a few in a raised bed. These have all done well for me. All are listed at Glecker's Seed except for Barlow Jap.

Pink; Barlow Jap, Burgandy Traveler.

Red; Guido, Ludmilla's Red Plum, Magyar Piros Boker, Magyar Piroska, Linda's Faux

Yellow/Orange; Maylor Roths Orange, Toms Yellow Wonder, Isis Brandy

Bicolor; Rhoades Heirloom, Golden Cherokee

Ami,

A few of these are listed on Gleckler's as "late" (Linda's Faux, Rhoades Heirloom, Golden Chrerokee). Does your experience with these varieties confirm their season or is Gleckler's conservative in their season classificatons.

I naturally drift toward the late season varieties as those have mostly positive reviews. I grew Stump-of-the-World last year. It was very late for me but it was the best flavored pink that I grew. I am torn with these later ones as I would love to grow lots of later season ones but it would be a gamble on a good summer. I am trying to force myself to have more early, early-midseason, and midseason varieties to afford the few later ones.

I grew Barlow Jap last year. It was earlier than most pinks. In fact, the plant broke during shipping and I planted the top (stem and leaves) and the bottom (root and some stem) and both produced fruit and still earlier than some other pinks. I tried several pinks last year and all but SOTW were bland. In addition to the poor summer I am likely guilty of overwatering. For its earliness, I'd give Barlow Jap another try, Dora too.

Thanks for the recommendations. I looked at Gleckler's and will likely order some seeds. I've been looking at Indiana Red on their site since last year.

[amideutch]

Grew Indiana Red at my surrogate garden at work and was very impressed with production and flavor. Linda's Faux I grew next to Indiana Indiana Red and it to was a good producer with excellent taste. Rhoades Heirloom and Golden Cherokee were grown in containers under my balcony and neither were late and I would say most DTM's are conservative and alot depends on the weather. If you get your seedlings planted by mid May and your growing season lasts till 1 October before going to crap you should have no problems growing any late season tomato.

Two things I have found that helps when growing in a rainy/wet environment is growing in containers and putting a roof over the plants. Containers (Not SWC) have better drainage and are not as prone to overwatering. I had a wood framed green house that I took the plastic cover off the sides and extended the roof. I grow 6 indeterminate plants in it using styrofoam Ice chests. It's 4x8 feet and always get the best production from the plants grown in it.

Here's a link to my 2010 grow out in which all my plants were defoliated to some degree by a hail storm in June and the pictures were taken in mid September.

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=15933

[b54red]

I don't get to deal with cool nights and rain too much during the regular tomato season but I do frequently get a chance with my fall tomatoes. Since I grow a fair number of varieties every fall I have run across a few that do better with the cool nights than a lot of others.

1884 did very well and had great flavor despite very cool nights right through mid December this year.

Dr. Wyches Yellow has proven itself for the last 2 falls to be the best of the golds I have tried in the cooler months.

Red Siberian maintains great flavor despite cool weather. Probably one of the best beefsteaks during cool weather and ripens well in the cool weather

Jetsetter is a hybrid that ripens well in cool weather and it is very productive.

Eva Purple Ball is a tasty small tomato that seems to ripen with good flavor despite the cold.

Big Cheef is probably the best tasting of the blacks during cool weather. Indian Stripe would probably be my next choice but, like most of the blacks, it is not as flavorful during cooler weather.

Kosovo is one of the earliest tomatoes to ripen for me every spring before the warm weather arrives and it is very productive.

Fish Lake Oxheart was the earliest of all of the full size tomatoes and it is a very tasty juicy tomato with a moderate vine size. I would have to grow it if I was dealing with your cool climate and shorter growing season.

Grubs Mystery Green has been the earliest GWR tomato for me and the tastiest.

I really like Stump of the World and grow it every year; but if you want one with similar taste, size and production, then you might try Limbaugh's Legacy because it is quite a bit earlier and handles the cool weather a little better in my opinion.

[rsg2001]

As a Northern gardener, here are a few recs, and have a great time this year!
Green - I grew Cherokee Green this year, and thought it was excellent. It's not real early, but it wasn't very very late either. For something earlier, I recommend Lime Green Salad, which is "saladette" size, which is around Stupice or Kimberly size. It takes up very little room (determinate). A new variety that I tried last year for the first time and was pleasantly surprised was Green Zebra Cherry (a cherry-sized version of Green Zebra).

Black - Black Krim, and Black. Also, for a cherry, I recommend Black Cherry.

Pink - My favorite is Eva Purple Ball, which is a dark pink/purplish variety. They are WONDERFUL and a staple for me. I planted two in an Earth Box last year for the first time (I have a small garden space and started growing in containers so I could have more), and they were my most productive variety, on the earlyish side, and lasting very long into the season. My favorites overall are the pinks. For a large beefsteak pink, I have always liked Marianna's Peace and Brandywine Sudduth.

Red - I'm not the biggest Red fan, however, let me suggest that you try Kimberly, which is similar in size to Stupice. There is a Russian variety, Marovski Div, which I got from Carolyn a couple of years ago and which should be available from SSE, that is tastier than either Stupice or Kimberly (I know it's a matter of individual preference).

Good luck, Joe!

[JoeP]

I appreciate the feedback from those that have made suggestions. I placed an order with Tania, Glecklers, and Knapps. I got many of your recommendations:

Moravsky Div
Red Siberian
Limbaugh's Legacy
Indiana Red
Magyar Piros Boker
Rhoades Heirloom
Golden Cherokee
Little Lucky

Along with a few others varieties that I have been eyeing. Some of these I already have seeds for. I can get Eva Purple Ball and Black Krim seedlings from the Farmer's Market and I saw packs of Dr. Wyche's Yellow on a seed rack at a local place. I bet I'll end up with a pack of those as well. After rereading Ami's post above I wish I had ordered Linda's Faux from Gleclkers but I already have seeds for many more varieties than I have room for. I also started another thread about "trialing" lots of varieties so I think I'll end up with more spots that I originally thought.

Thanks everyone for your input.