Oh - Bonnie - I didn't grow Big Rainbow - just recommended it - someone else brought that to the swap. I'll try it in 2010;)

I have ONE teeny tomato (!!) so I am jealous of those in Texas...I planted 50 plants, half in mid-March, and then found 6 more so I re-spaced two yard areas...then I found 2 more...they aren't planted yet.

My original list: (quantity in my garden)
Amazon Chocolate (2)
Black Cherry (2)
Blondkopfchen (1)
Blueberry (1)
Brown Berry (2) THANKS Bonnie
Chocolate Cherry (1)
Costoluto Fiorentino (1)
De Berao Black ALL DIED
Earl's Faux (2)
Galinas (1)
Garden Peach (1) has one tomato
Gardner's Delight aka Sugar Lump (3)
Giant Belgium (1)
Giant Valentine Hybrid F1 sent these to my dad
Hawaiian Currant (1)
Indian Stripe (1) wussy plant?? third one planted
Jersey Giant (2)
Mama Leone sent these to my dad as well
Matina (1)
Nyagous (1)
Pantano romanesco (1)
Paul Robeson (1)
Ramapo F5 (2)
Riesentraube (1)
Roma grew these for a neighbor
Rutgers grew these for my dad
Sarnowski Polish Plum (1)
Sicilian Giant Paste (2)
Sioux grew these for my dad
Snow White (1)
Isis Candy (1)
Super Sioux (2)
Thessaloniki (1)
tibet appell (1)
Tiger Tom (1)
Tiny Tim (2)
(Unknown to me) German Heirloom (1)
Yubileny Tarasenko Red (1)

Varieties I added:
Prue
Carbon
San Marzano 3
Super Italian Paste
Sarnowski Polish Plum
Red Robin
Gogosha
JD's Special C-Tex
Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red

There was something screwy in the germination air this year. I had several that I had to re-sow and sometimes twice. I dunno.(shrug) But some of the oldest seed I got from a couple of people were the first to sprout (started in paper towels) and are robust fellers, while some purchased seed took forever. Just never know.

Babies go in the ground tomorrow. Forty-five tomato varieties and 10 pepper varieties. Have supplied the neighbors, friends, and crew at work and still have some left over. They will have homes soon. :)

My toms came up OK but hardening them off was a real challenge with the crazy wind changes, so I lost a couple that got battered into submission.

I've had to re-sow some peas and beans due to poor germination and some peppers really got pounded by the wind as well...

Dan

Holy jeez you're all very serious about these tomatoes with all those varieties! Wish you lived in my neighborhood, I'd be begging for handouts. Makes me feel insignificant with my three little boring Home Depot plants - beefmaster, husky cherry, and early girl. All have lots of blossoms, and beefmaster has a golfball sized mater already growing.

I'm a bit hesitant to plant out just yet - it's still pretty cold at night.

But I got:
Sungold (18)
Carbon (18)
Pink Climber (6)
Eros (3) some freebee from Sandhill
Zlato-sumpin-sumpin', (3) another freebee from Sandhill
Thesloniki (6)
Josie's Grandma's (6)
Aunt Gertie's Gold (6)
OTV Brandywine (6)
Vorlon (cross between Cherokee Purple and Marianna's Peace) - 6

Last year, the 'Carbon' was a huge hit at the market.

There's just two of us here, and I never plant more than one or two tomatoes. My varieties this year as Principe Borghese (Italian sauce tomato) and New Girl. I had good germination, so I'm going to tuck a couple extras into random pots. If I get lots, hubby wants to freeze some sauce.

Ooo, such exotic-sounding lists! I haven't even heard of half of those varieties. They all sound fabulous.

In containers I have:

Patio Prize (4)
Juliet (1)

In the ground:

Early Girl (1)

In an EarthBox:

San Marzano (1)
Siberia (1)

It'll be very interesting to see which ones will do well; I put the heirlooms in the EarthBox, figuring that they would be the fussiest, but so far "Juliet" is the one that's acting like a primadonna, sulking dramatically every morning when I take it out of the garage and onto the front porch. It then perks up around 2pm. Despite this, it's already producing lots of blooms.

"Early Girl" has been protected by a "Walls o' Water" device for about a month now, and is peeping out at just over a foot and a half tall, also with lots of blooms.

I bought the Earthbox because I'd run out of space on the porch and garden plots, and wanted to see if sub-irrigation really is the way to go. I've got a hot weather 80 day tom (San Marzano) and a cold weather 50 day tom (Siberia) so we'll see who likes the arrangement best. Both are being protected by a couple of layers of row cover at night, or whenever the temps drop below 60 degrees or so.

"Carbon" sounds interesting -- is it very different from "Cherokee Purple"?

Well, I'm afraid to look at the tomato varieties that existed in my flights of fancy back in January and February. There were these "can't do without" varieties . . . apparently I'm going to "do without" some of them.

I couldn't order Early Girl seed from 2 different catalogs because they were sold out. When the garden center finally got their 2nd batch in - I only ended up with enough plants to supply a guy that I'd promised them to.

I had terrible germination with the Legend seed I saved, darn! After deciding that Sweet Chelsea was equal to or better than any red cherry I've ever matched her against, I forgot to order seed - sheesh!!

And what happened to trying Jaune Flammé! Didn't get the Fireworks, either. I'm a faaaiillyuuure!

Here's what has just gone out there into the open ground:

my grandmother's tomato, which either is Porters, or darn near and that I've grown for about 15 or 20 years

Big Beef Hybrid
Goliath Hybrid
Super Sweet 100 Hybrid
SunSugar Hybrid
SunGold Hybrid*

Rainy's Maltese*
Thessaloniki
Bloody Butcher
Large Red Cherry
Red Pear*
Ildi
Yellow Submarine*
Gold Nuggets

(*1st time in my garden) There are 52 plants set out . . . so far.

Maybe I can't be trusted to grow as a gardener even tho' I try to seek out new experiences. I really try! I want to thank Shelley for having faith in me.

Steve

David - I would love to trade for Vorlon seeds...are the seeds stable or hybrid?

I seemed to struggle with tomatoes this year. I assumed it was the "crazy" varieties I selected, but maybe there was a 2009 tomato seedling dark cloud....transplanting was problematic and then hardening off was challenging...maybe I'll better appreciate the fruits I do get??

Trying the Florida Weave trellising process this year and although I have a few plants outside the "straight line", I think I like this system so far. It doesn't protect the plants as much from my toddler but I figured a plant or two would be sacrificed this year...

There is absolutely nothing boring about the more common tomatoes some of you got at the stores. They produce well and taste good, and afterall, that's what matters in the end, isn't it? :) The open-pollinated tomatoes are great fun because there is such a vast variety out there to explore, but just because they are heirloom or open-pollinated doesn't mean they are all winners by a long shot. Its just the fun of trying to find the winners that hooks me. :)

Okay, Steve, the "basket case" patch is in place. Have to extend the drip for the new baskets and then plant the poles, but we are growing tomatoes for 2009.

. . . The hand that rocks the cradle - is the hand that rules the tomato garden world!

I'd like to "2nd" that comment about varieties to choose from. There were reasons why some heirlooms fell out of favor and "shipping quality" was just one of them (albeit, often an important one ;o).

With modern varieties, I was very pleased to see how Husky Red Cherry grew one year in my garden. It was disappointing that the only ripe fruit I got from the plants was after the frost, on my kitchen counter. Still . . .

digitS'

austinnhanasmom, I'd be happy to send you some Vorlon seeds - remind me in the late fall, the ones I have now are several years old, and I need to get some fresher stock. It's a stabilized cross - not all that productive a plant, but I get 12-20 large fruit a season, and they taste great.

Steve, with that Jaune Flammée, I tried that one year we had some hard freeze on June 22, the plant died down to the ground, and came roaring back - in mid-August, it was a huge, round bush absolutely covered with flowers - you'd think it was some ornamental. Unfortunately, none of them ripened in time.....

I'm busy procrastinating planting out the rest of the 'mater plants. I got a couple dozen out yesterday, and I really should get on with it.