My 2018 Tomato Season in Review

[Banadoura]

Hi All,

The 2019 season is about to start here (I sow seeds internally on March 1st) so I'd like to record my 2018 experience before anymore of it gets forgotten.

First and foremost, I would like to thank again those among you that generously shared and contributed seeds of new varieties tested last summer.

The 2018 season was challenging, by April mold had decimated most of my plants and in the heart of the summer, record heat and humidity killed flower clusters on many plants, so production was not as good as 2017.

Seeds planted in 2018 were for the following varieties (2-3 seeds per type):

Whiskey Jack (WJ)
Golden Cherokee (GC)
Silver Fir Tree (SFT)
Tasmanian Chocolate (TC)
Maglia Rosa (MR)
Bulgarian Triumph (BT)
Indian Stripe PL (ISPL)
Daniel Burson (DB)
Margaret Curtain (MR)
Omar's Lebanese Heart (OLH)
Black Krim PL (BKX)
Kumato (bought from nursery)
Lucky Tiger (bought from nursery)
Maglia Rosa (bought from nursery)
Cherokee (bought from nursery)
Yellow Pear (got it via exchange with a friend)

*those in red did not make it to the garden, MG seeds did not germinate and the rest were decimated by disease.

...and so it began, seeds germinated with tons of snow still outside of my window



and for a while I was a happy man



when out of the blue, a mysterious disease started attacking the plants via the leaf drying, it up to the main stem, from the bottom up



Come early May, this is what was left of those March seedlings...a shadow of what they should have been!



My primary suspect appears to be mold that went unnoticed until it was too late

[Banadoura]

At the end of May a rag tag collection of plants went into the ground, I couldn't just throw everything away! Here's a sample of what I planted, look at the state they were in:

Bulgarian Triumph


Tasmanian Chocolate


Golden Cherokee


Fast forward to mid-June and Bulgarian Triump seems to be in a much better shape


Tasmanian Chocolate in mid-June


in Mid July Golden Cherokee was amazingly in this state!


The garden on July 20

[Banadoura]

Maglia Rosa (plant bought from a nursery)

Best all around for production, taste, no cat facing and heat support

First fruit picked on june 23, fruity taste that everyone in the family loved, perfect fruits and kept on pumping fruits during the heat/high humidity in August.

Saved seed and will definitely be returning in 2019



Lucky Tiger (plant bought from a nursery)
Citrus taste, like eating green prunes, very special, early but not as productive as Maglia Rosa.

[Banadoura]

Silver Fir Tree

This variety was not affected by the disease, it was a champ! I planted it in a container, beautiful plant, fruits and leaves.

I know that this one is hated by MANY, in fact I only tasted one and only one fruit. It tasted like Lemon, it's like let's just make lemonade with these fruits!

My wife however thought differently, (fact: she has better taste buds than me ). She loved this variety. It's certainly coming back this year.

[Banadoura]

Bulgarian Triumph was a beautiful variety, the plants survived and thrived. Produced perfectly shaped fruit, sweet and tasty. Second best in production, held well during the heat and exhibited cat facing only at the end of September when temperatures fell.

Definitely a returnee this year!


beautiful

Nice pictures!
It must be frustrating to start so well then have the seedlings suffer an attack like that. I hope this year is better for you.
I have a friend who grows Silvery Fir Tree every year because of its dependability. Since we swap tomatoes I depend on him to have that one while I go out there with crazy stuff. It’s a decent tomato.

[Banadoura]

TC was a medium producer, the first fruits were large and then got smaller. It was definitely affected by the heat. Cat facing/cracks appeared at the end of September.
Taste however was excellent, exactly what you would expect a "black" to taste like!



Beautiful plant and mahogany red fruits! (notice a flower drying on the bottom)

[bower]

So glad to see some of your plants recovered once they got outdoors. The fruit look beautiful!

[Banadoura]

One of my WJ plants survived. The fruits were not uniform and heavily cracked at the end of September. Limited production due to flowers dying during the heat (you can see in the picture).

Taste was ok but all in all the plant was eclipsed by the performance of varieties mentioned above. Deserves another chance as the summer was unusually hot last year.

[Banadoura]

This plant was the result of an exchange with a friend, it grew tall in a container and pumped out small yellow pear shaped fruits until the very end!

Mild taste with a creamy texture. It was not a hit in the family.

[Banadoura]

This one grew into a monster! I did not expect it to survive (remember that sad lookign plant above?)

It also produced half a dozen fruits late in the season with a good taste. They are beautiful to look at as you can see below.

[Banadoura]

Nursery bought Kumato and Cherokee (purple?) did not leave any positive memories. To avoid this year.

Kumato



BKX and Margaret Curtain behind it.
BEautiful fruits, good taste but not enough production.

[Banadoura]

@PlainJane

It was VERY frustrating when the plants got hit, luckily the remnants bounced back and I got the chance to discover the artisan varieties! so all in all, a good thing

Silver Fir Tree definitely returning with 2 plants this year, dependent it is!

Hoping for a better season this year!

@Bower Thank you sir! How are you holding up this winter? I have to say putting this thread together was a joy in this very cold day

Counting the days until March 1st

[bower]

Banadoura, it sure is great to see your fine maters on a January day! What can I say, it's winter in NL, we must put up with a few months of hibernation.

[Koala Doug]

Great photos!





Just a quick question: In one of the last posts, you mention KBX. But your initial post only mentions BKX. Did you grow both or just one?