Best year since 2010

[cecilsgarden1958]

Really having a great year. My hybrids 4th of July, Bella Rosa, Mt. Fresh, 1 st Prize, Black Cherry and Jasper are just so flavorful, as well as plentiful. A little disappointed with Orange Slice (cat facing) and Lemon Boy and my OP Hilltop are not producing well this year, but am so satisfied with my overall production and flavor. I must have had perfect weather. for the most part. A little cool a week or so back though.
WARNING: Never grow Super Boy

CECIL

[linzelu100]

That's great! I had a great tasting tomato year too. It was good weather for it.

I see you grow mainly hybrids? I want to grow some hybrids next year to mix it up. My heirlooms at best get 6# per plant. Do your hybrids get more than that? I do grow Sungolds but get 4# per plant. Sorry if this is off topic! Trying to make next year even more prolific!

[drew51]

Originally Posted by linzelu100

That's great! I had a great tasting tomato year too. It was good weather for it.

I see you grow mainly hybrids? I want to grow some hybrids next year to mix it up. My heirlooms at best get 6# per plant. Do your hybrids get more than that? I do grow Sungolds but get 4# per plant. Sorry if this is off topic! Trying to make next year even more prolific!

I guess it despends where you live! 4 pounds!? Wow, I get at least 20 pounds. I never really weighed them. Say like 1500 tomatoes or so.

[linzelu100]

Originally Posted by drew51

I guess it despends where you live! 4 pounds!? Wow, I get at least 20 pounds. I never really weighed them. Say like 1500 tomatoes or so.

Wow! I wonder what you are doing differently than me? Maybe hybrids wouldn't help.

[cecilsgarden1958]

Originally Posted by linzelu100

That's great! I had a great tasting tomato year too. It was good weather for it.

I see you grow mainly hybrids? I want to grow some hybrids next year to mix it up. My heirlooms at best get 6# per plant. Do your hybrids get more than that? I do grow Sungolds but get 4# per plant. Sorry if this is off topic! Trying to make next year even more prolific!

If you plant the right hybrid they do get 15-20 # per plant. My Bella Rosa, First Prize, Balls Beef Steak (which I finally tried-YUM), Mt. Fresh will all have about that this year. 4 th of July will come close, due to volume. Jet Setter is probably already past 6 #, but will never due as well as the others I named, this year.

[drew51]

I planted Amana Orange an heirloom, and it easily produced 20 pounds, so did Russo Sicilian Togetta. Some heirlooms or OP's are even resistant to wilts. Like Costoluto Genovese sel Valente which is resistant to fusarium & vert. wilts. Also a 20 plus pound producer too. Russo, which i want for sauce, is the winner. Most are almost done, but that plant still has 25 tomatoes on it, and produced at least 30 so far. I will be growing this one every year. I have hundreds of pounds of tomatoes off of 11 plants. 3 were cherry and not kept, so really hundreds of pounds off of 8 plants. I will grow less next year, I don't need that much. Well i want to try some new to me, so I'll probably grow as many.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by drew51

I planted Amana Orange an heirloom, and it easily produced 20 pounds, so did Russo Sicilian Togetta. Some heirlooms or OP's are even resistant to wilts. Like Costoluto Genovese sel Valente which is resistant to fusarium & vert. wilts. Also a 20 plus pound producer too. Russo, which i want for sauce, is the winner. Most are almost done, but that plant still has 25 tomatoes on it, and produced at least 30 so far. I will be growing this one every year. I have hundreds of pounds of tomatoes off of 11 plants. 3 were cherry and not kept, so really hundreds of pounds off of 8 plants. I will grow less next year, I don't need that much. Well i want to try some new to me, so I'll probably grow as many.

Heh heh, yep, that's how it works. The search for the perfect tomato sucks us in!

[drew51]

I know! It's also just about trying something new. Keeping it interesting and unexpected. Many of my plants look rather sick at this point, but no late blight at least. Some don't produce as well, and others do. I have not always have had good luck. Also I'm not in the ideal area. i can grow 7 foot plants, but in other areas people can grow 10 foot plants, and they will out produce anything I can do.

[SharonRossy]

I have to say I'm having a great tasting year too although it had a shaky start with septoria and a couple of plants had to be cut down. The only hybrids I grew were brandy boy which did not do well for me, much to my surprise but I'll blame that on me and sun sugar which always pumps out loads of cherry tomatoes. My heirlooms have put out at least 15--20 pounds each if not more. There are a few that are stingy and won't be back, like Aunt Gerties Gold, Brandywine (any of them), Valencia, amys apricot.

[drew51]

I grew Cherokee Purple and Paul Robeson this year and they didn't produce a ton, but a decent amount. Right now a couple of huge tomatoes are just turning on Cherokee Purple. Only a few were small. Most of the tomatoes on this plant are good sized beasts! Most are not ribbed, but this one is. It has 5 other tomatoes, and that looks to be it.

Here's a couple others. The plant is showing some septoria now, so these last few are probably it.

[b54red]

This has been my best year growing tomatoes in nearly 40 years. I attribute it to 5 things.

Grafting plants using highly resistant rootstock with heirloom scions.
Texas Tomato Food
Support system with drop lines and clips keeping plants to two stems allowing good air flow.
Preseason adding of cottonseed meal, alfalfa meal and compost
Mulching heavily with cypress mulch.

Bill

[drew51]

You know i stuck a sucker in the ground, in my blackberry patch. I did nothing to it, except water. Now It has perfect leaves from top to bottom, and is buried in blackberry canes.
I think I discovered a new companion plant! It's full of fruit too!

[Labradors2]

I'm not disciplined enough to weigh every tomato from every plant but, since Indian Stripe (RL) decided to ripen almost all of her fruit at the same time and I had to pick them because it was going to rain, I decided to weigh them! Allowing a little extra for the two fruit we had already eaten, it came to around five pounds and there are two more tomatoes still on the plant. It seemed like an impressive amount to me, but I know that you guys would consider it measly .

In its defence, this plant was an "extra", growing in an area where the soil had not been amended, apart from a large amount of aged compost at planting time. It was not pruned at all, and seemed happy in a giant tomato cage.

Linda

[drew51]

You made me curious so I weighed a few of my saved frozen bags. They weighed between 4 and 6 pounds. Let's say 5 pounds each. I processed 10 bags already and have about 10 bags still on the plants. So 30 bags at 5 pounds is 150 pounds. Not all my plants produced a lot, the tomatoes are off of 8 plants So 150 divided by 8 is 18.75 pounds. So my plants averaged almost 20 pounds a plant. Russo has 27 tomatoes on it still. They are not that big, but 10 bags may be low. I'll keep count as the season is almost over.

[linzelu100]

My husband thinks I have OCD because I like to weigh everything I get a kick out of knowing how much $ worth I grew. I have a little nerdy spreadsheet where it multiplies the grocery store price by the pounds I grew. It gives me satisfaction!