Cool Climate Tomatoes [again]

[333.okh]

I like to beat a subject to death before I get it right. I am in 8a/9a depending on whether you go by the map or the zip code look up. I am 7'ish mile from the Pacific Ocean in zip code 95547. We have low temps usually not much over 70, but an occasional temp to the high 80s [rare]. Today it is 53 degrees and nearly raining with drizzle. Our climate has been a challenge to tomatoes and myself in the past and I want to get a half dozen or so types that will make it here productively.

That being said I have a few tomatoes that are really shinning, but mainly it is Stupice. I only grew out one plant of this type and have currently 44 green tomatoes and I have picked 2 AWESOME tasting red ones so far.

Because of this and I think advise given by Carolyn137, I plan on planting these simalar types next year. How have they grown you you all?

• Bloody Butcher
• Kimberly
• Stupice
• Soldacki
• Nicholaevna Pink

and since the Abe Lincoln is such a pretty plant I will grow a few of those as well. I also have an Azoychka that is 6 feet tall with over 60 green tomatoes on it, but the other two are not doing so well.

[habitat_gardener]

My climate is a little warmer than yours (not much, but it's been at least 70F in the daytime) and I'm not close to the ocean, but I do get bay breezes in the afternoons. This year I'm trying lots of determinates and early-season tomatoes, but I planted them late, in June, so I don't have any fruit yet from any of my seed-grown tomatoes. (But I've been getting lots from the other varieties I planted in early April.)

One thing I've tried with some tomatoes is growing them in walls-o-water (wow). I lost a few of the ones I planted in June because of the cool afternoon winds, so I replanted in wow, and I know other people in the community garden who keep the wow all season -- it also protects the plants from squirrels. What has worked well for me this year is growing peppers and eggplants in bubblewrapped cages. For the first time, I'm harvesting good-size peppers and any eggplants at all.

Another thing I've tried is adding a tablespoon of humic acid to the soil when I plant, which is supposed to make the plants more cold-hardy. I use John & Bob's Soil Optimizer. I heard about it from Mr. Goto, who brings tomato plants to northern Calif. every August and goes around to nurseries selling the idea of cool season tomatoes -- doesn't work for me, but if you look up the other amendments he recommends (see below), they may also help a little in all-cool-season climates.

Anyway, here are some early and determinate varieties I'm trying this year, many in 5g containers. So far, Moravsky Div and Bloody Butcher (seed from Marko, which he says are a different strain) have grown the fastest and have the most-advanced greenies.
Clear Pink Early
Crnkovic Yugoslavian
Danko
Gold Nugget
Kimberly
Minskiy Rannij
Monomakh's Hat
Moskovich
Persey
Rozalinda
Sophie's Choice -- lovely stocky plants

My list of other early/det. varieities to try includes Dina and Grushovka.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...sn=001&sc=1000

"Amend soil with an organic planting mix or compost. Mix into planting hole 1 1/2 cups Dr. Earth Organic 5 Tomato, Vegetable and Herb Fertilizer (5-7-3) and 1/4 cup John and Bob's Soil Optimizer for a real boost. "

"The key to my success," Goto said, is to fertilize with an organic, humic acid-based product. When temperatures fell below 40 degrees in his trials, "humic acids made 100 percent of its nutrients available to plants."

This fertilizer, in turn, stimulated the plant to create more starches or sugars, what Goto compares to antifreeze coursing through the plant's vascular system. Plants left unprotected and treated with this humic acid-based fertilizer survived 36-degree temperatures and still provided fruit through the middle of March, suffering only minor mechanical damage. Untreated plants died within a week after the freeze. "

[rxkeith]

varieties that did well for me when i was living in michigans U.P. way up in the keweenaw peninsula are matina, jaune flamme, brandywine, gregoris altai, and mcclintock. sandhill preservation has a pink mcclintock listed. i don't know if that is the same as what i grew or not. if it is, i need to get more seeds.


keith

[b54red]

This spring when the weather was still very cool I only had one plant that made good sized tomatoes before the weather warmed up and that was Gregori's Altai. The Gregori's was only a week behind my Stupice in making the first ripe fruits of the season.
Others that set fruit well in the cool weather were Red Siberian, Kosovo, NAR, Moreton, Applause, Break O Day, Pruden's Purple, and Brandy Boy Hybrid.

[333.okh]

I do have seeds for Gregori's Altai as well as Rozalinda and Minskiy Rannij, but I think next year will be dedicated to the types above and a volunteer I have that has grown like a tree to 42 inches tall. small clusters of flower so far on this one.

[dice]

Bloody Butcher and Kimberly should ripen about the same
time as Stupice. Last year Kimberly had the most fruit per
truss of the 3 for me. Bloody Butcher has a more traditional
(to US palates) tomato flavor than the other two, which are
a little sweeter.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by 333.okh

I like to beat a subject to death before I get it right. I am in 8a/9a depending on whether you go by the map or the zip code look up. I am 7'ish mile from the Pacific Ocean in zip code 95547. We have low temps usually not much over 70, but an occasional temp to the high 80s [rare]. Today it is 53 degrees and nearly raining with drizzle. Our climate has been a challenge to tomatoes and myself in the past and I want to get a half dozen or so types that will make it here productively.

That being said I have a few tomatoes that are really shinning, but mainly it is Stupice. I only grew out one plant of this type and have currently 44 green tomatoes and I have picked 2 AWESOME tasting red ones so far.

Because of this and I think advise given by Carolyn137, I plan on planting these simalar types next year. How have they grown you you all?

• Bloody Butcher
• Kimberly
• Stupice
• Soldacki
• Nicholaevna Pink

and since the Abe Lincoln is such a pretty plant I will grow a few of those as well. I also have an Azoychka that is 6 feet tall with over 60 green tomatoes on it, but the other two are not doing so well.

I may have suggested the first three but not Soldacki, and I'v never grown the last one.

I may also have linked you to both Jeff Casey's website as well as Tania's, both of whom are in Canada b'c both of them have excellent separate lists for varieties tolerant of cool weather.

I don't know specifically where you garden but I do know that lots of folks near the coast in CA have major problems with fog,, aka called the June Gloom.

[maryinoregon]

WOWs work well for me, and I recommend them to you.

Do anything you can to bump some heat into your plants. Always put them in the sunniest spots you have. Plant against southern exposures. If those areas have brick walls you can plant near, so much the better. The walls absorb heat during the day and let it out at night. Your plants will benefit.

If WOWs become too much of an expense, keep in mind two liter pop bottles. Fill them with water and put them around your plants.

I like the idea about wrapping cages with bubble wrap. Will have to try it.

Grow tunnels can work very well.

I always put at least some plants in large pots.

Good luck with your plants.

[333.okh]

Thanks ALL


"June Gloom" wouldn't be so bad if we didn't also have it in April, May, July and August. Today was 62 and drizzle. On the flip side I have not watered the tomatoes even once this year trying to keep any water cool weather issues from hitting the plants. All plants have fruit on them and range from a dozen to over 60 on one plant. I have 18 total plants [wish I had more].

So that will be the list I rely on for next year. There will always be others, but I need a core list. I will also save seeds from this little girl [see attached] that volunteered this year after taking out the radishes. Currently only 3 feet tall, but growing like a maple tree when you look at it. Tall, straight as a board, and now has clusters of 3-7 fruits developing in a few spots. Now what was it I planted last year that made this one???????????

[333.okh]

P.S. What on SOLDACKI was not worth recommending?

[333.okh]

Different year and different tomatoes...This year I will try all of these except maybe the last three. Need to save some space for peppers :


Stupice
Boody Butcher
Soldacki
Nicholaevna Pink
Matina
Imur Prior Beta
Black Pear
Glacier
Victoria
Sokolades
Galina's Yellow
Olena Ukrainian
Orlov Yellow
Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe

[erlyberd]

Well, I'd add Kimberly (KB) without a doubt. I liked the taste better and it produced earlier than Stupice (SP) for me. Not that I'm knocking Stupice! A real performer for sure. Actually though, , KB was the earliest producer for me last season. I'm not 100% sure if it beat out sub-artic plenty though because SAP was a late arrival and I did'nt log the info. I even liked SAP which I found very, very sweet. Pretty darn hardy too. My best early three are SP, KB and Uralskiy Ranniy. UR ran a tie with SP for 2nd and beat out Siberia and Manitoba for flavor as well as earliness. I'd like to try some of these other early recommendations such as Bloody Butcher etc that rank up there SP, KB if someone wants to trade a few earlys let me know.

[creister]

333,

Does your 333 OKH moniker refer to the rifle cartridge? I know it is off topic, but had to ask. Morovski Div is another excellent early tomato.

[creister]

Forgot to mention you may want to try Maya and Sions Airdrie Classic. It is a Brandywine Stupice cross. Seeds from Casey's Heirloom Seeds (look in seed sources for link). Very productive, very good flavor, and relatively early. I grew it last year and it is back again.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by creister

Forgot to mention you may want to try Maya and Sions Airdrie Classic. It is a Brandywine Stupice cross. Seeds from Casey's Heirloom Seeds (look in seed sources for link). Very productive, very good flavor, and relatively early. I grew it last year and it is back again.

And I have to thank Jeff b/c he's one of the few that worked with the F2 seeds I sent him and different form the many others at a much earlier seed offer at GW where I used to do my seed offers. I can't remember what Jeff said about it but F1 seeds for five crosses were sent to me by Stanley Zubrowski in Canada.

He crossed Brandywine with Stupice, Glacier, Siberian, and I can't remember the rest.

(Morovski Div is another excellent early tomato.)

It sure is and I like it a lot, seeds sent to me by Andrey in Belarus and I've been offering it my seed offer here for a few years and also SSE listed it/

But, but, gently I say, it's spelled Moravsky Div.

And you've reminded me that Adam Gleckler spelled it wrong at his site so I'd like to let him know about that as well.