Skybird,
I've grown Gold Medal here 2 years ago. Was a tough tomato year as the last 3 have been here. A drought year and some disease issues. It survived all season. Was a nice looking plant that I never picked one fruit from. It had a few small greenies on it when frost hit. Not sure if I will grow it again.

KB is one of my favorite orange/yellows. Usually produces well and has good taste as long as the temps don't get too cool and you don't over water it. I've grown KBX several times. It has great taste but a poor producer here in my garden.

Juane Flammee' is another that I really like and on my must grow list every year. Most fruit are in the 2-3 ounce range. Heavy production and good disease resistance. They might be just a tad smaller than you want.

Woodle Orange is another I grew last year that is a good producer. It wasn't as big here last year as most say it should be. Probably due to weather conditions. Most fruit were in the 5-8 ounce range.

I grew 1884 Yellow Pink Heart for the first time last year and really liked it. Some call it a bicolor. Fruit vary in color. Some are a solid yellow while some have a slight blush on the blossom end and those will usually have a pink heart when sliced open. That is where the name comes from.

The other yellow/golds I have on my list for this year is Casey's Pure Yellow( I grew it in 09 and it only produced a few fruit. Had it in a less than ideal location so trying it again.), Lillian's Yellow, Golden Queen non USDA and Orange Minsk.

I've grown many more. Thought to keep it short would limit comments to those I grow every year and those on the 11 list if Im able to grow any. Jay

Oh Boy! One of my favorite subjects - tomatoes!

I don't know nuthin', Skybird . . . . but, maybe you will tolerate me, please . . .

Posted by skybird, Anybody know anything about any of these varieties---or---have any recommendations for other yellow/gold/orange "big," indeterminate tomatoes!

It was a fairly bad tomato year last year here, as well. I grew Orange Minsk and the plant only had 3 ripe fruits, if I remember right. Two were very large and DW loved them! I'll grow another plant this year.

Jaune Flamme has been a variety that I've wanted to grow for a long, long time. It was something of a disappointment last year! The skin was a bit tough . . . Now, I'm a pushover for tomato flavor but spitting the skin out for a snack-size tomato is only acceptable behavior in the garden.

Thanks to Jay! I will be trying Woodle Orange in 2011. The press on that variety is outstanding!

Also, I will be trying Kellogg's Breakfast. Now, I am doing this with some trepidation . . . Jay, David, Jali, and others have sung the praises of KB & KBX. I am really concerned that it may not have time to ripen its crop here.

Jeff Casey also sent me Pure Yellow. There's a real question mark in my mind about that variety, also.

The latter part of this month has been really cold (-10F yesterday)! I hope that we don't have a lingering cold spring as has so often been the situation around here! I am NOT making the mistake that I did last year of starting the tomatoes real early. However, I can only delay so long in setting them out and expecting a crop from what-might-be 80-day varieties.

Steve

Steve,
From my experience in the one year that I grew Casey's Pure Yellow it was later than KB. I was concerned some if you would have time for it. You should have plenty of time for the Dana's Dusky Rose though. I picked my first one in late June here and they produced till frost. Jay

lemon plum. Havent grown it in a couple of years, but it has wonder flavor and great for cooking.

gloria

Skybird, I grew Gold Medal last year, and was pleased with it. In the picture below are two bi-colored tomatoes. They are Striped German and Gold Medal.

{{gwi:353383}}

I believe the Striped German's were the more pleated ones in the front, and the Gold Medals were the more roundish ones towards the back. Sorry, I wish I'd kept better notes with my photos.

I grew Kellogg's Breakfast in '09 and here are my notes:
9-21-09 First ripe - Very large, very late, not much flavor, few seeds or liquid.

Your milage may vary : )

Bonnie

Thank you, guys, for the recommendations! I just spent FIVE HOURS looking up TOMATOES online!

Possibly I'm even more undecided now! Here's what I've found and what I'm thinkin' so far!

Jaune Flamme
orange
2-3 oz - only! Tatiana's says 2 oz (another report says 4-6 oz)
55 days ?
excellent sharp taste

Sounds good, but I am hoping for something larger---but I'm finding conflicting reports about size as you can see above! So far, probably because of the soil (CLAY), my tomatoes are ALWAYS smaller than they're "supposed to be," so I think I might be disappointed with this. And I definitely don't want "tough" skin---your opinion of that on this one, Jay? Bonnie, haven't you grown this one in the past? Opinion as to size and skin?

Woodle Orange
orange
5-5 oz -- Tatiana's says 1 lb
85 days
very good flavor

This one's definitely in the running! Pictures look good and it sounds good! BUT, the only place I'm finding seed available is Baker Creek, and I wasn't planning to get anything from them, so with shipping, 25 seeds would be VERY expensive. I've already looked a lot, but might try a little bit more! (Where was yours from, Digit? You use Baker Creek, don't ya?)

The 1884 Yellow Pink Heart (which I found mostly as Yellow 1884 Pink Heart) has the same problem with seed availability as the Woodle! Might look a little bit more to see what I can find on that one too!

From what I've found, Lemon Plum sounds like it's better for cooking than eating fresh, and while I hope to have enough to do that some day---probably when my soil gets better---for now I barely get enough to eat fresh (and not even enough to give any away!), so I'm gonna stick with things that sound like they're more for "take the salt shaker out into the garden with you!" But thank you for the recommendation, GJ!

Your comments about the KB are interesting, Bonnie! In my explorations today I also found a place where people were rating it, and the flavor ranged from mostly non-existant to excellent! I am more and more convinced that the flavor of any one tomato variety has much more to do with the soil and growing conditions than with the actual variety, and my experience with it last year was pretty much similar to yours, but I've heard enough good things about it here on RMG that I'm gonna try it one more year! This year is Sink or Swim for Kellogg's Breakfast in my yard!

BTW, if I was still able to salivate, your picture would have me dripping all over my keyboard! With the few and poor tomatoes I got last summer, I am SO ready for a year of GOOD production and GOOD flavor! Can't come soon enough for me!!!

Does anybody know anything about the Dr. Wyche's Yellow? I found that one last year sometime, and it sounded good enough to remember the name "for future reference!"

AND in my lengthy explorations today, I found (wasn't looking for more -- honest!) several more possibilities for yellow/orange tomatoes! Any comments or opinions about any of these?

As I mentioned above, which ones I wind up getting is going to depend at least in part about which varieties I can get where! The more I can get from one place, obviously the cheaper they'll be since I won't have to pay shipping from a bunch of different companies.

I really like the "old time taste" description with this one -- but not wild about the skin description!

Dejena Lee's Golden Girl (Heritage Seed)
yellow/orange
"medium" -or- "large" -or- 8-10 oz -or- 3" fruit
80 days
1929 - 1st prize at Chicago Fair for 10 years! ?
delicious old-time taste, sweet, tangy flavor
semi-thick skin!

Earl of Edgecombe
orange
6-12 oz
80 days
taste is excellent, not too sweet, not too tart, just right
dwarf growing habit - tree type

Amana Orange
orange
4-8 oz -or- 12-16 oz ? "beefsteak"
80-90 days
very good sweet mild flavor

And this one sounds really good because of the 60 days! but it was called determinate on one site, and indeterminate on another! Anybody know anything about it? (Might be a problem finding seed for this one too!)

Orange Blossom
DETERMINATE or indeterminate???
yellow/orange
6-7 oz
60 DAYS!

Thanks for the help, everyone! Oh, how I wish I had an acre to plant with tomatoes! SOME of them would have to come out good!

Skybird

P.S. I'm sorry you don't know nothin', Digit! I'll pray for you!!! ;-)
And thank for chiming in here! The more discussion the better---altho it should be obvious by now that I'll just keep getting confuseder and confuseder!

Kenny, DW forced me to grow Yellow Pear for 4 years of abject failure because of splitting. Also, she claimed my grandmother's tomato, which is a pink "saladette" was her favorite. That's what started me down this road . . .

It isn't that I mind, however. Color seems to have a direct relationship to flavor. Yes, they aren't "tomato red" flavor but they can be wonderful! Also, I have found some non-reds that are early and don't easily split! And finally, I'm still in that heated and grueling run-off to learn which variety is the best cherry: SunGold or SunSugar!!

An envelope from Tomato Growers Supply arrived in my mailbox yesterday! I had forgotten that "Dagma's Perfection" seed had been back ordered! Dagma's Perfection is a bi-color slicer, Skybird. I am really encouraged by the 73 days to maturity rating. I don't know where Tomato Grower supplies are but that seed is widely available this year and you can even buy plants, mail-order.

Steve

digit - see my kids love yellow pear and I have no problems with splitting.

Glad I am not the only one who had problems with Brandywine. I tried several of them and had terrible results. Also was not impressed with Cherokee Purple, set lots of fruit relatively early even, but would not ripen, they stayed green forever and them were purple mush. Maybe it was just a bad year for them.

Billie

Skybird,
Take a look on the Totally Tomatoes website/catalog for a description of Dr. Wyche's Yellow...seems he had a circus that he overwintered near Hugo, Oklahoma and used some of the resulting manure to grow his tomatoes. I recently ordered some of these seeds from TGS and hopefully I don't have to raid the pens at the local zoo to get good flavor out of this tomato! Good Luck...

Skybird,
I been looking at too many catalogs...the above description was in the SSE catalog, which you have already seen...mea culpa

Lemon Boy and Valencia. Also, Jubilee is a favorite of mine.

For a moment, I thought Skybird was back.

!

Lemon Boy wasn't sufficiently "problem-free" in my garden. It was grown for years because I liked it but too often the fruit had problems – maybe bacterial spot. Production really suffered those years but the last time I grew it, there was essentially no usable fruit or, none that met my standards.

So, I was happy to see a Lemon Boy "Plus" and decided to grow in 2023. They stayed healthy but the fruit was smaller than what was said in the seed catalogs and, smaller than the original Lemon Boy. An unfortunate problem was the toughness of the skin. That was really surprising. I have seen another gardener complain about the flavor. The flavor was fine for me once the tomato was peeled.

Steve

Hi Digit!!!

I’m still around—it’s just that NOBODY ELSE is around anymore! I don’t even remember the last time somebody had a “perennial question” around here—and whenever it was chances are it was posted on “more” than just RMG—and I prefer to stick with only The Friendliest Little Gardening Forum In the West! So even if there is a “perennial question,” if it’s posted on “perennials” or something else in addition to RMG, I just don’t reply! It was the Hostile People I ran into on the perennials forum that almost drove me completely away from GW—in 2005 I think that was!

And the Lack of People Posting is, in my opinion, because Houzz took over and GW/RMG NEVER show up in search results anymore, so as old members “go by the wayside,” there’s never any new folks finding us—like they did before we “turned into Houzz!” Back In The Day GW always came up in the top several results for any “garden type” search! I still check to see “if anything’s happening” about once a week—but sometimes, for weeks at a time, there’s no new posts at all! It’s been a Long Slow Death for RMG! It was fun while it lasted!!!

BUT! About tomatoes!

I can’t believe how OLD this thread is! [Can’t believe it got bumped up again either!] There’s only one of the tomatoes I was asking about in the original post that I still grow—Moonglow, it’s wonderful! I’ve been thru a LOT of them since then!

Here’s my list of Must Have Every Year ones:

Amana Orange – orange – 1 lb – mid

Goldie – yellow – 10 oz – 75 days

Moonglow – orange – medium – mid

Rose Beauty – yellow – early

Cherokee Purple – 10-13 oz – 77 days

Sheyenne – red, 8 to 12 oz

Grew for the first time in 2023:

Ashleigh – red – 1 lb – mid – pretty good – will grow again this year.

Sweetie beefsteak type – pink – 1 lb+ – early – good tomato & big – very poor production but will grow again this year to give it Another Chance!

I also grew Earl of Edgecombe – orange – 6-10 oz – mid, for many years, but, while the tomatoes are always good, there always seems to be “some sort of a problem” with the plant—and this is the first year I’m dropping that one!

I’ve also grown Brandywine – red – 8-12 oz – 80 days, for several years and the tomatoes are also good, but I seem to wind up with “more plant than tomatoes” so I’m skipping that one this year too—which makes room to try a couple new ones!

And my cherry tomatoes are:

Sungold!!! Who does NOT grow Sungold?!?

Sweet Aperitif – When Monsanto bought out Seminis [a company that used to grow a LOT of the seed we buy!] and took total control of them—producing more and more GMO seeds!—I decided to stop buying seed for my absolutely-positively-favorite-cherry Sweet Baby Girl—because buying that seed would have—in my opinion—been supporting Monsanto! I chose to not do that! So I set out on a quest to find a replacement—it took a few years, but I did come up with one, and it’s one I like even BETTER than SBG! As listed above, Sweet Aperitif, red [Fedco]—it’s like “eating small bites of Tomato Candy”—in my opinion! It is SO good!

This year I’m trying a green one for the very first time! A woman who owns one of the cabins I stay in on my trips gave me a ripe green one of hers to try last year and it was SO sweet and good—but she didn’t know what variety it was! In looking thru Sandhill’s list of almost 800 tomatoes, I picked one called Evergreen! Evergreen – Green – 10 to 12 oz – Mid-season, and I’ll be trying that one this year! The one possible problem with a green one is that—I don’t have a clue how you know when they’re ripe!!!

I’ve also been trying to get seed for another “new one” for a few years now—Summertime Gold – yellow – 8 to 12 oz, but Sandhill has been out every year, so if I score some seed I’ll be trying it—or else I’ll just be growing 11 instead of 12 this year—in my Very Small Space, where I grow tomatoes UP!

And if anybody is interested, these are my Every Year eggplants!

Rosa Bianca eggplant

Listada de Gandia eggplant

Galine eggplant

They’re all as good as Rosa Bianca, and can very quickly be cooked by just peeling, cubing, and sautéing in hot olive/canola oil until starting to brown. They don’t get soft and mushy like “grocery store” and many other varieties do!

I have a big long list of Other Tomatoes I’ve tried “over the last THIRTEEN years” with my own personal “ratings,” and the ones I grow now are the “ones that have evolved to the top of the list” and are my Mostly Every Year Ones now—except it is still nice to drop one or two and try something new when I come up with something I WANT to try!

I have more info about any of the above varieties [the skin isn’t tough on any of these varieties, Digit! I don’t like tough skin either!], including where seed is available. I only buy seed from three companies anymore, Fedco, Sandhill, Seed Savers—ALL companies that I consider to be Good Companies, meaning they don’t deal in any GMO seeds or deal in any way with Monsanto (who has, in large part, taken over the seed production business in this country—and around the world—and they PUSH the varieties they can make the most money off of, rather than supporting people who want to “try different varieties” till they find the ones THEY like best!) or any of it’s “affiliates!”

Fedco also has a leg up with me because they have an Indigenous Seed Royalties program, where they take a percentage of any seed that has any “connection” with Indigenous Peoples, or has a “name that sounds like an Indigenous name,” [i.e. Cherokee Purple! Which is also said to be directly connected to the Cherokee People!] and the proceeds of the “royalties program” are donated to an East Coast Tribe at the end of each year!

And Seed Savers and Sandhill! Well, they’re both doing the Good Work of saving/preserving seed of “old varieties” against the time when our new Plant Monoculture collapses—just like it collapsed when the Irish potato famine happened! Seed Savers and Sandhill will be here to Rescue Us when it happens in this country—and that’s worth supporting, in my opinion!

Thirteen years later!

Still alive and kicking—even if not kicking quite so hard anymore,

Skybird

W 02.28.24 @ 1555 MST

Wow. And, still gardening in a beyond-minor way and willing to share information!

I check RMG everyday but miss a day now and then. I'm reluctant to criticize because everyone has complaints and there's a chance of an avalanche of dismay, even if it isn't expressed. The posting problems seem unreasonable in this day and age but, they sure are real and interfere, too often. Right now, I'm typing elsewhere so that I can copy and paste on the forum.

Another package of tomato seed was picked up just today :o). The tomato seed will go in the soil mix tomorrow or this weekend.

I'd like GW and RMG to regain some of its vitality and plan on continuing to stop by to check. We are all likely to be gardening involved soon. Maybe little notes re: progress will help. They are likely to be of help to me.

Steve

Hey, Digit, from what you've posted in the last couple years you're not exactly "easing up" yet on the gardening either--and, like me, you're no Spring Chicken anymore either! I'm not sure about this, but I think [80] I'm older than you are! Do you remember when we did that Olde Folks thread--with all the Do You Remember When... stuff??? That was long ago--we weren't even OLD yet!

The tomatoes I posted above really ARE Keepers, and if you're ever looking for something new to try--especially orange and yellow--I can give you lots more info about any of them! I start tomatoes (& eggplant) for my neighbors on one side too, and he gives me ratings on them too--the same varieties I have. I've threatened to stop growing them for him if he doesn't give me a ratings sheet each year--he has better soil and more sun than I do so it's nice to see how our plants/production compare to each other! (I start some to take along on my spring trip each year too, to give to "cabin owners" and "other people" I've become friends with on my trips! My trips have gradually evolved into "less hiking"--tho I do still do that too--and more "getting together with far-flung friends" to "catch up" every year!)

I checked Sandhill yesterday and they STILL don't have Summertime Gold--I've been trying to get seed for that one for at least four years now after finding it described on their site! Won't give up--yet! But I guess I will need to decide if I just go with 11 plants this year--or look thru my piles of Olde Seeds to see if there's something else I want to stick in to try this year! Decisions, decisions!

I truly hate to be pessimistic, but unless Houzz somehow changes something that causes GW and RMG to start showing up in search results again, I don't see how RMG can be "revitalized" again--or even keep going in the long term! With no "new members" showing up it's just not gonna happen! Remember our "Who's Here" threads each year for a few years? SO many people showed up to post on those threads--even just lurkers would often stick their heads in to let us know they were "in the shadows!" Times gone by!

Gotta go!

I'm in the process of not only finalizing WHAT I'm gonna grow this year, but also how many of each of The Whats I'm gonna grow--to give to Which Whos--but I'm also of trying to get my ducks in a row for my spring trip! And then there's all the "cleaning up" I need to get done in the yard VERY soon, since the perennials are all starting to grow again! Have crocus blooming like mad--and dafs and others right behind them! A lot going on right now, so might not get back to reply right away--but if you have any questions about varieties, I'll get back as quick as I can!

Garden on, Digit! It keeps us Young!

Skybird

TH 02.29.24 @ 1450 MST

Hi Skybird and Digit! I'm here! Well, only once a month or so anymore - partly because I'm not in the RM area anymore since I moved to Kansas (almost to Missouri) and partly because I haven't seen much activity on the Houzz RMG group when I have stopped by.

So nice to read your posts again! Would be great if the old gang could be revived. I know many people have moved on, either due to moves such as myself, or just busy lives with other activities, have found other groups or other reasons. Yes, it definitely was fun while it lasted! I remember the posts and gatherings very fondly. When we moved in 2022 I was sad to have to leave most of my plants behind because many of them had memories from our plant swaps. I did manage to dig up a few starts from several plants and was happy that most of them survived. I'm seeing some new growth happening now - irises (oh those were really fun swaps! I got sooo many different varieties from them!), peonies (thanks to lizbest for turning me on to growing them), anemone (I got from you Skybird!), daylily (only grabbed a red one, which was one I got from the lady that had all the lily garden beds - I think her online name was katlady, because she had a LOT of cats).

Well, I know I'm not in RM region any longer but I'll butt in here on this really old tomato thread and just add my 2 tomato varieties that we grow - Black Krim and SunGold. BK has been a long time heirloom variety favorite of DH and mine. Started growing it when we lived in California and continued when we moved to Colorado, and now Kansas. Love it's distinct tangy flavor and juiciness. And it being indeterminate it just keeps on providing fruit well into Sept. when the temps start getting too low. Then that SunGold - I think I may have gotten a plant at one of the swaps, or seeds. Once I tasted one it became my favorite cherry tomato!

We are getting our garden area refreshed. The ground here is very rocky and there was a big tree stump in the area we are using. It seemed to have the best for sunlight so we worked around it last summer, but my husband managed to complete pulling it out and is working on a few of the roots. The rocks will always be a problem unfortunately. We do our best to dig what we can out. We are adding more soil for amending and raising the area a bit. The soil here overall is good as there is a lot of nice organic material. But if plants don't grow well this summer we may end up putting in raised beds.

I have a few seeds started - cauliflower, broccoli, spinach and lettuce. Will start other seeds soon. I have more time to focus on gardening since I retired in Jan. (what, an 'Olde Folks' thread?! That must have been before I joined GW/RMG, but I could definitely fit in with that now!), and hopefully we have a bigger harvest than I have in the past!

MstyWoods, One of the real helpful gardeners who was here years ago was someone from Oklahoma. He was right in that Panhandle area and so, very close to both Kansas and Pueblo and that corner of Colorado. (You know, with a square state like CO, it must be a little boring venturing around. Ha! Do you suppose that it might help trying to "get a rise" outta the most folks who have been on RMG in the greatest numbers?)

Anyway, that OK gardener was helpful. In fact, he sent me seeds for a tomato called Woodle Orange. A funny thing about that was that the fruit of those plants from the seeds wasn't up to standard size as in online descriptions AND it wasn't Orange! Nevertheless, it grew nicely, produced early, and I continued to save seed from those plants. After about 4 years, There Was Orange Fruit on One of the Plants! That's a "recessive" characteristic, as I understand it, so it has remained a smaller orange fruited plant ever since. (I continue to grow it :o).

Anyway, Msty', don't feel like you have to be "inside" the confines of the Rocky Mountains. When I first showed up on GardenWeb, I posted on the Pacific NW forum ... until ... I found out that I had so little in common with all those gardeners on the "WetSide" of the Cascades. I have had a garden between 2 ranges of the Rockies for decades but this neck of the woods is just at the edge of the Columbia Basin. If I tossed my rubber ducky in the river, it would probably be out of the Rockies in less than an hour! But, at 2000' elevation and 48°North latitude, I bet I have plenty in common with RMG. Hope so ...

Steve

Hi, Misty! ALWAYS nice to see you pokin' your head in around here!

It's interesting that you left the ROCKY Mountains--and now you have ROCKY soil instead! I'm not so sure that's a good trade off! :-D But I'm glad to know you're still growing a buncha veggies! There's no food as good as home grown veggies--especially tomatoes! I don't know what they are, but the Pink Stuff they sell in food stores are not tomatoes! If you like Sungold, you REALLY should try Sweet Aperitif red cherry some year! They're "different" from Sungold, but they are BOTH To Die For! [Fedco--good seeds, good prices! Free shipping over $50 -- $6 under $50!]

If you're in "eastern" Kansas, what town are you in/near? I'm asking because long, long ago, my husband's best friend--best man at our wedding!--was from Hutch--as in Hutchinson! And when he got married, his Intended was from Beatrice (Bea-A'-trice!), and my husband was HIS best man so we went back there for the wedding--the wedding was in Beatrice! Then, after they got married they lived on his father's (inherited) farm at Hutch, and one year we drove back there and stayed--in the olde farm house--for a couple nites and one day went out and waded in the Arkansas (Ar-KAN'-sas!) "river," which runs across the farm they lived on! It was great fun--except for the nasty, nasty "no-see-ums" that were biting us--no matter where we were! So I'm just wondering how close you might be to that area!

Getting way off the tomato subject!!!

Also! If you're close enough to St. Louis, have you ever heard of Cahokia Mounds??? It's right across the river (the BIG river--not the wading kind!) from St. Louis at Collinsville, Illinois! If you've never heard of it, search it (I recommend doing it on DuckDuckGo so you can actually SEE the "images"--since you can't anymore with google search!). It's part of the "Mississippi River Mounds Cultures", ancestors of some of today's "east coast" tribes (Creek, Shawnee, Seminole, and more!)--there are "ruins" that "look like" Central American ruins, but they're "made of earth!" If you're interested in "that sort of thing" I thought they were very interesting! If you ever go and you walk to the top of "Monk's Mound" (yeah, named by White Man!) you can "look across the river" and see St. Louis--that's how close it is to the river!

I found the Ye Olde Folks thread on RMG (actually, I had saved a link to it--it's virtually impossible to find anything you try to search for on GW anymore since houzz took over!) and I'm gonna do a short post on it right after I post this, to bump it up! It was started in 2008! If you have "some time," check it out! I just reread virtually the whole thread again--Memories!!! Candy cigarettes and Burma Shave signs!!!

Please do keep showing up here every now and then! You're Family, and if you have "garden"--or bird!--questions, we're still here with answers--even if you DO live in No-See-Um Kansas!

Happy Spring,

Skybird

F 03.01.24 @ 1255 MST

Thanks Digit and Skybird - will not be shy about continuing with the group now ;)

lol Skybird - didn't think about that rocky soil vs rocky mountains trade off! Guess I sure did!! I'm trying to repurpose the rocks we dig up by using them for flower garden bed borders, or ground fillers in other spots we're trying to raise up.

We are in SE Kansas on the outskirts of La Cygne (about 10 miles SW). That's French for Swan, which apparently there were some back in the day. But haven't seen any around here now. It should be pronounced Lei sin, but most people just say lah seen. Hutchison is 3 1/2 hours west of us. I can't find a Beatrice KS, but there is one in Nebraska. That also is about 3 1/2 hours from us, but NW. Have not heard of Cahokia Mounds, but it looks pretty cool when I looked it up. That's about a 5 hr drive. There are lots of interesting scenic areas around here that I'm interested in checking out. My DH doesn't travel well due to some health conditions, but I might get my daughter interested in going with me - or maybe I should just solo it like you do!! And yea, those 'no-see-ums' are a pain!!

You've peaked my interest in that Sweet Aperitif tomato. I'll check out Fedco for some seeds. Thanks for the tip! Our Black Krims did pretty well last summer, with a bit of a problem here and there such as my first experience with Horn Worms. I'd never had that problem before so I posted on the KS garden group I belong to when I was seeing tops of a couple of plants chewed down to the stems! The diagnosis was Horn Worm so I went out a searched for them. Finally found one, yuck!, picked it off and put it in a pail of water. I could only find that one worm and fortunately the plants recovered pretty quickly.

Skybird, I grow Kellogg's every year. It is one of three varieties that merit 2 plants rather than one. Great fresh and great for sauce.

Last year was so weird. As of 8/1, I thought that were heading for a 15-20% yiled, but a big comeback in Aug and Sept got us up to about 60%.

2023 was also the first year I had some disease on my grapevines. I'm hoping that a more nrmal spring/early summer will wipe that out.

Glad to see people back into the gardening mode and to hear from mstywoods from Kansas. I just started a few pepper seeds, no more Chinense as they're really too hot for us now. Broccoli and maybe cauliflower soon, then tomatoes on April Fools Day. I'm not sure about all of the tomato varieties I'll be planting, mostly the ones that have done well here - Thessaloniki, Rosedale, Cherokee Purple, Purple Dog Creek, Owen's Purple . . . . and some sort of a paste tomato if anyone brings them to the swap (I hope).

I just checked the garlic at the community garden, and it is starting to show growth. Yay. The few cloves I planted at home have not sprouted yet and maybe were eaten by squirrels, though I did put a few barriers on the few that weren't dug up. Squirrels, humbug.

Hi Tomatoz and Jerry! Tomatoz - what, a pepper too hot for you?! Didn't know there were any! lol April Fools Day is a great way to remember when to start you tomatoes :) I just got some of our tomato and other seeds started. Kansas has a bit earlier last frost date than Denver area.

I found this neat seed starting/plant rack at Walmart. It accordions out to be a 4 shelf rack a bit over 3 ft tall and the shelves fit those 10” x 20” seedling trays (got one on the third shelf - has 50 cells and the domed lid has some adjustable vents). It's made of bamboo and seems pretty sturdy, and looks nice. The window I have it in gets good sun almost all day so don't think I need any lights. We've had some drop in temps lately as well as wind, and are to get some rain next couple of days. But after that should be able to set them out on the porch so they get overhead sun.

i garden west of Loveland. New to this forum, but happy to have found it. my fav tomatoes are Pink Tie Dye, Dark Star (was very early last season, just a few days after Early Girl and much tastier), Gold Medal, Solar Flare and Orange Woodle. I love my BLTs!

Pink Tie Dye is my new variety to try this year.

Paul, would appappreciate seeing a picture of your Orange Woodle fruit at some time.

i was sent seeds of what was said to be Woodle by another gardener. The fruit was never orange nor was it the size noted in an online description. Nevertheless, it was early an a nice red tomato. I grew it about 4 years and one plant had … I will say, orangish fruit. Still, healthy, early-fruiting plants. Fairly small fruit – DW likes them. What have I got??

Welcome

Steve