Most of those hybrids, sold locally, are sure fire for production, which is why they are so popular.

I'm on my third year of trialing Heidi (open pollinated) I have concluded that it is dependably high producing, on par with the best. For flavor it is okay, much better than Roma, which in my opinion only means that it has a noticeably tomato flavor when eaten raw. But for canning, it's a winner.

George
Tahlequah, OK

would really like great flavor for canning too. it affects everything you cook but if you dont get enough off of the plants to can then it doesnt matter how they taste. will try that one next year. thanks

I have been reading this forum for a long time and the posters here all give very good information. If you lived closer to me I would make you a present of enough tomato's to can. I planted 11 Bradley Tomatoes, 11 Traveler Tomatoes & 1 Porter Tomato and have canned and give away more tomatoes than I know what to do with and still have more coming on.
Sometimes it's not how many you plant. I am lucky to be over run with tomatoes as some years they just don't make well. I don't try to have the earliest tomatoes. I plant these varieties because they make well in hot humid conditions when other types quit and this year it paid off. I wish you better luck next year.

I have too many tomatoes but most of them have spots and flaws that makes it harder to give them away. I didn't get cages around many of my tomatoes this year and they are within the reach of rabbits. I try to be organic but I am afraid of Bt for worms and I can't beat the stinkbugs. Last year Wes was one of the best; this year I don't think I have had one. The spot I put them in makes the difference. I have to improve every hole when I plant and not all places are equal. 90 plants should equal tomatoes all over your house and neighbors saying please no more tomatoes. My friend said I foundered him. Keep working on your soil. Something is not right with 90 plants and few tomatoes.

Well i added composted manure, blood meal, bone meal, super phosphate cotton seed mill and lime. I have been adding worm poo and every bit of compost i can get my hands on. My boss goes and puts his hybrids in ground with commercial fertilizer, later than i do and his produce out the wazoo. No soil amendments at all. Dont know what more I can do to the soil. I am putting down hay and cardboard and tilling it in but just started that last year. My hybrids have produced pretty good. But didnt plant very many of them. Thanks for the wishes for next year. Refuse to give up. I have made a couple of batches of salsa which take 35 cups each and 2 canners of tomatoes off of my bosses so I am not without tomatoes. Just like to grow them myself. Crazy I know. Thanks Sheila

I cannot imagine how 90 tomato plants would fail to give you about a gazillion tomatoes, Sheila. Something is wrong, and sometimes it is hard to figure out why they didn't produce because the weather can fluctuate so wildly from year to year and that plays a role in how well the tomato plants produce.

I plant a mix of open-pollinated heirlooms and hybrids and some of the OPs produce as much or more fruit per plant than some of the hybrids. I do agree that if you had lots of rain during the tomato season then it likely did have a negative effect on the flavor of the fruit. High humidity also can impede fruitset by making the pollen sticky so it does not move around well inside the flowers and accomplish fertilization. So, even though it can seem like a rainier year would be a great tomato year, we know that is not necessarily so---too much rain can affect tomato crops just as adversely as too little rain, or even more than too little rain.

I wouldn't blame the poor flavor or poor production solely on those varieties being open-pollinated. There has to be more to it than just that. I am a very demanding gardener and expect everything I plant to produce well or I stop growing that variety. I am pretty ruthless about culling out varieties that just don't cut it here. If OPs didn't produce well, I wouldn't plant very many of them, and most years the tomato portion of my garden is about 75% O-P varieties and 25% hybrids. If my O-P varieties weren't producing heavily enough for me to do the canning I want to do every year, I'd ditch them and plant only hybrids because it wouldn't make sense for me to grow varieties that didn't produce enough for me to meet my canning goals.

As far as enriching the soil, I did a lot of that in the early years when I was trying to improve the tilth of our compacted red clay, but all I add to it now is compost. When you are throwing a lot of stuff into the soil---i.e. compost, bone meal, blood meal, earthworm castings, greensand, etc.---it is easy to add too much of some things and inadvertently cause a nutrient imbalance. Sometimes, too much of one kind of nutrient can interfere in the ability of a plant to utilize other nutrients.

For paste tomatoes, you cannot go wrong with Rutgers, Heidi or Speckled Roman. Heidi has been my main paste tomato for 5 or 6 years but I grow others as well because I like a lot of variety.

I'm glad your boss had extra tomatoes to share with you this year so that you were able to do some canning.

I know it must have been disappointing to have the results you had this year, but next year could be entirely different. Ha! That ought to be our motto here in this part of the country...."just wait until next year".

I believe most gardeners are planning next years garden before they even start planting this years garden. I also believe that most of the gardeners on this post plant organic gardens. Maybe you should watch what your boss does. I have seen with my own eyes how commercial fertilizer can sometimes make plain old poor dirt look like good topnotch soil. I'm not saying that he is right and everybody else is wrong, I'm saying you have to watch what other people do and then try what you think will work on your ground. All soil is different. Your garden soil needs to be built up, but maybe you are putting to much, plants will not use things they don't need. Some varieties of plants do better in different kinds of soils. The weather this year caused all of the plants to act strange. Nothing that was planted early grew well until nearly June. Try different varieties to see what grows best in your soil. Everyone on this post will probably be angry with me now for writing this.

lol Auther. I have used commercial and done ok with it but after having a girl with cancer I am trying so hard to go more natural and not use pesticides. The amendment ratio i used was from a man that has grown tomatoes forever to sell. His do great. So I'm just shakin my head. I of course will never give up. Just keep going back to the drawing board.I think every farmers motto is probably wait till next year Dawn. Sometimes I think we're all crazy!