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best tomatoe
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Posted by softmentor z9/sunset13 CA deser (My Page) on Thu, Nov 8, 07 at 4:08
I've decided to try tomatoes this year. We start them now and keep the vines over winter so that when it starts to warm up we have good vines ready to set lots of fruit. This way we have the earliest non-greenhouse tomatoes on the market.
We have to grow VFN varieties since we are Susceptible to all 3. I would like to have a nice slicer (big beefsteak style) and a good meaty salad variety.
Any suggestions for best VFN varieties? and where to get the seed? I prefer organic seed but doesn't have to be as long as it's not treated. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: best tomatoe
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Celebrity is a great slicer type. Resistant to a lot of things and vigorous plants. I get seeds at mvseeds.com
Amish salad from totally tomatoes or tomato growers supply was a great salad tomato for me this year. Oval, larger than a cherry (fills up a quart/pint quickly), good taste, pinkish red, little cracking with changes in water, and an heirloom to boot. |
RE: best tomatoe
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Thanks for the recommendations.
with Celebrity, did you grow the hybrid or the bush? |
RE: best tomatoe
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| "did you grow the hybrid or the bush?" What does that mean? Just curious. |
RE: best tomatoe
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The site that was recommended has 2 varieties, and that is how they label them. I'm trying a few of the hybrid, since I'm hoping they will train up a stake more easily. I have to keep them off the ground here or they will get damage from pill bugs (sow bugs) or rot.
Generally this refers to the determinate and indeterminate way the vines branch. "Bush" branch more from every leaf node, so I have to spend a lot more time pinching out side branching, to keep a long vine that I tie to the stake or trellis.
I'm also going with an Ace variety and a low acid variety. We'll see how they do ::smiles his jolly smile:: |
RE: best tomatoe
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| Are you asking for information or passing out information? Every 'sucker' you pinch on a determinate or semi-determinate, such as Celebrity or Bush Celabrity, is equivalent to throwing away fruit. Search Google for 'pruning tomatoes', or Harry Truman U. |
RE: best tomatoe
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- Posted by jpc57 coastal Virginia (My Page) on
Sat, Dec 1, 07 at 18:16
| How do you start the tomatoes now and carry them over winter? That sounds interesting! Do you need a greenhouse? |
RE: best tomatoe
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| Sorry not to be on here sooner, I grew Celebrity bush this year. They got to be around 42" tall, perfect for a tall cage. They turned out to be a great container tomato for folks growing on their patios too. I'd imagine that the hybrid is just as good, but of course taller, and it sounds more suited for your growing situation. I retail to city folks at an urban farmers market. |
RE: best tomatoe
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hi again and thanks sandy.
I keep them in a makeshift greenhouse of sorts. Just a pvc frame with plastic cover that I use on cold nights. Otherwise they are in the open air. I grow them in the ground and have to protect them on frost nights. Our climate is unique. It gets to hot to grow tomatoes very early, usually by mid may, so I need to have the vines growing and up to the size that they are ready to start flowering by Feb 15. that way I can get fruit on before the sun gets so hot it scorches the tomatoes. Our days are warm but night time temperatures drop by 40 degrees so a 72 degree day can see frost the following night just before sunrise, then go right to 72 again. In May that can be 62 at night and 102 during the day. All the extra work with frost protection pays off when we have ground grown vine ripe tomatoes long before anyone else,(NOT greenhouse or hydroponic which do not taste as good or expensive air freight from Chile) so the price is usually pretty good. I say we meaning growers in the Coachella Valley. I have grown tomatoes this way many times on a small scale for personal use, but this it the first time I've tried for sale. We have a new organic/health food store that is really moving lots of produce, on a par with the giant chain stores, so they can handle the volume. They have been buying some of our specialty produce, thought I'd try something that is more of a volume staple crop. |
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