Short list of plants for 2010

I only have room for 7 plants in my main garden. I plant a couple of small fruited varieties in large pots. In the garden, last Year I planted:

Early Girl
A red Grape
Brandywine, unknown version
Cherokee Purple
German Johnson
Mortgage Lifter
Kelloggs Breakfast

For next year I am considering substituting KBX instead of Kelloggs Breakfast if I can find it. I want to replace German Johnson and maybe Mortgage Lifter. I am not sure if the problem with ML was all the rain, so not sure if I should give it another chance.

These are the new ones I am considering replacing them with:

Yellow Oxheart, Orange Strawberry or Aunt Gerties Gold (one of the three); and Paul Robeson, Hillbilly, German Red Strawberry, or Cherokee Green (one of those). I might be able to stretch it to one more if it can do with slightly less light.

I buy plants because I don't have the lights and equipment to do it well and it hardly seems worth it for 7 or 8 plants. I am willing to try with a couple to get harder to find varieties, however.

I live in zone 6 CT. Any suggestions, advise or experience is welcome. I want a variety of types, good flavor, either sweet or acid, and I like to have a pleasing variety of colors and shapes. It makes using them that much more fun. But I won't sacrifice taste to get a particular color.

Thanks!

Sue

Those are all very good substitutes minus the Yellow Oxheart and Hillbilly because I've never grown either. I hear great things about KBX, but never grown it. Out of the yellow/oranges you got there I would go with AGG for sure. Your second set of selections is where it gets hard for me. All those are mighty fine tomatoes (minus the Hillbilly). Allright it would have to be GRS then its a tie between PR and CG. Good luck!

Damon

Sue,
If you have limited space indoors for lights, have you considered trying to winter sow your seeds? I've had great results with that technique. Check out the wintersowing forum in GardenWeb or http://wintersown.org to find out more. It's really easy & if you only try with one or two tomato plants, but buy your other plants, you have very little to lose. It may lead to you being able to try all sorts of varieties in the future.

Karen

Just an idea.

Here is a link that might be useful: WinterSown Website

Definitely include a green one in there, green-when-ripe are SOO tasty! Cherokee Green is good, Green Giant is also excellent--one of my personal favorites... not sure if you are taking suggestions outside of your list though =)

I am trying KBX myself this year as I've heard a lot of good things about it.

Cherry tomatoes seem to do ok with a bit less light, maybe take a little longer to fruit and produce a little less... but since they're generally earlier to begin with, and produce so much, that may not be a problem.

We seem to have similar space issues/wants. I have room for about a dozen, and I also want different colors and shapes for variety. I grow at least one of each: pink, red, purple, black, green, orange,and a bi-color. They look so pretty cut up together in salads or salsa, I think you will love both the looks and flavors.
We live in opposite zones, but this is what I grow: Cherokee Purple & Green, KBX, any productive red as the mainstay( I change every year as I haven't found a favorite yet),and Sungold cuz its a cherry and so good. The rest I experiment every year with different varieties, making sure I get all colors except white/cream, which I find to be bland.
If you want to try growing from seed, its worth a try. Shoot me an email if you want KBX seeds.

Damon, if you read this, know that your pics of Orange Strawberry last year inspired me to try it this year. I have some on the heating pad now.

Suzie

I will consider others. I have a long list of ones I would like to try eventually, but the ones I listed seemed to be recommended the most times and appeared on the fewest "won't grow again" lists.

I would replace Kelloggs Breakfast with KBX, so I still could use 2 more. I would probably still buy a KB plant but put it in a pot so I have it in reserve if my attempt to grow my own KBX was a bust. Is AGG better than KB or KBX, though?

Maybe KB/KBX, Cherokee Green (love the idea of adding a green), and German Red Strawberry? I can either have 2 yellow/orange and add AGG, plus a green or red, or I can go with just one yellow/orange with KBX or KB or AGG and both a green and red with CG and GRS.

I wondered what winter sowing was. Thanks for the link. My concern with that is the effect of cold exposure on the taste of fruit and production. I would appreciate any opinions from anyone who has grown the same plants by winter sowing and traditional methods to see what differences they noted. Have you done the same plants both ways?

Thank you so much Suzie, for your generous offer of seeds. I sent you an email. :)

Sue

OK, I did some research on my short list of plants for 2010 and found out which are available as plants (but not yet confirmed that they aren't already sold out) and the days to harvest for each. My three criteria are: 1. Taste 2. color variety and given the first two being equal, 3. days to harvest. Living in CT, I can't get plants out until mid to late May depending on the year, and the season is often over by early Sept., again depending on year. 100 day tomatoes I would rather avoid becuase it could take several years to get a season when I would have much fruit at all.

These are the days to harvest I found, although if I have any wrong, please let me know. I could find no info on DTH for Wes.

I need to narrow these down to 7 or 8:

Early Girl - 52-59
Jet Star - 70-72

Brandywine Suddarth - 85
Brandywine OTV - 72

Cherokee Purple - 80
Black Krim - 75
Paul Robeson - 74

Kellogs Breakfast 80-90
KBX 80-85
Aunt Gerties Gold - 75

Cherokee Green -85
Green Giant - 85
Aunt Ruby's German Green = 79

Anna Maria's Heart - 83
Anna Russian - 70
German Red Strawberry - 85
Kosovo - 75
Linnie's Oxheart - 97
Ukranian Heart - 85
Wes -
Russian 117 - 90

I would like one red, one pink, one yellow/orange, one purple/black, one green and at least one heart (Carolyn, you really sold me on that!). One must be a very early tomato to get me through until the rest ripen and for me, this has usually been Early Girl. I don't know of many that ripen that early. Like sweet and not sweet.

These are the days to harvest I found, although if I have any wrong, please let me know. I could find no info on DTH for Wes.

I need to narrow these down to 7 or 8:

Early Girl - 52-59
Jet Star - 70-72

Brandywine Suddarth - 85
Brandywine OTV - 72

Cherokee Purple - 80
Black Krim - 75
Paul Robeson - 74

Kellogs Breakfast 80-90
KBX 80-85
Aunt Gerties Gold - 75

Cherokee Green -85
Green Giant - 85
Aunt Ruby's German Green = 79

Anna Maria's Heart - 83
Anna Russian - 70
German Red Strawberry - 85
Kosovo - 75
Linnie's Oxheart - 97
Ukranian Heart - 85
Wes -
Russian 117 - 90

I would like to place my order very soon to reserve my plants.

Sorry for the double post. I got a server error message and so resubmitted it, not knowing it had posted anyway.

Of the groupings that I know, I would suggest the following (and these 4 are in my top 6 or 7). I don't do any early tomatoes (perhaps I should), and have had little luck with oxhearts (don't seem to ever fully ripen in my area):

- Brandywine Sudduth

- Cherokee Purple

- KBX

- Green Giant

(though I might also want to sneak in a Black Krim, Cherokee Green (tried twice, no great tasting ones, but trying again on Carolyn's advice), or Paul Robeson (taste weird to me, but a few fruits here and there have been excellent)).

good luck

Thank you, you picked several that I had originally wanted to grow anyway. I was hoping for Carolyns opinions on the hearts. Maybe they would ripen for you if you tried one of the early hearts, like Anna Russian? Considering where you live, I would think it would be difficult to only grow mid and late varieties. You must have a pretty short season when you are harvesting those varieities, or use a lot of protection. Thanks for your input.

Weather is indeed a challenge here. My seedlings are usually 3 feet tall when planted, and despite what others might say this gives me a much needed headstart. Last year they were 3 or more feet tall at 9 weeks of age (from date of seeding, not date of sprouting), the accelerated growth a result in my opinion of switching to only 1 pot-up (instead of 2) from 2x2 inch trays directly to 10-inch pots. I think they were 7 or 8 weeks old in this pic:

Re. oxhearts, a friend of my aunt grows amazing smaller hearts of some sort, sweet as candy, I really should get some seeds. Unfortunately he won't know the name of the variety, likely something saved from year to year for several decades from something passed on to him from some ancestor.

Those are impressive looking plants. I wish I had the light requirements to grow plants that size without them becoming leggy. Considering the size of my garden, though, it doesn't seem worth investing a lot of money in seed starting. Fortunately, I found a large selection of heirloom plants available for sale at Selected Plants, and I plan to give them a try this year.

Sue

Back of the house faces south, so a few large windows/the sliding door make good growing spots. Quite a hassle with 40-50 plants though, particularly moving them around regularly and turning them so each gets equal sun. Seed starting not too tough/expensive, but a good supply of available heirlooms would be great.

Sue, All you need to grow suitable transplants is a four foot shoplight and cool white lights. That is 7-10 bucks for the light fixture and another 5 or so for the bulbs.

Just got one order of seeds in today.

Extreme Bush
Moskvich
Siberia
Stupice
Uralskiy Ranniy
Tiny Tim

Still waiting for other order...
Anna Russian
Manitoba

Also have...
Brandywine
Rugers
Sweet 100 has been growing since Dec. 17th! No wonder I went mostly early varites.

We have a local gh grower who will grow your seed variety for you as assuming you pay them. Never tried it because I grow my own.

Maybe we could do a trade? I see your down south of me. Yep, zone envy on my part!

Rick

I grew Danko last year and loved it, it's an early red heart so you could kill two birds with one stone there!

I know Carolyn has also recommended that one, just in case she doesn't get over here to mention some herself =)

Rick, I live in the Northern most portion of CT, so it is more likely that you are East or West of me. For some reason, most likely having to do with elevations, Litchfield and Tolland counties are zone 5, but Hartford county which extends to the Northern border between the those two, is zone 6. At least since the change in the map in 2000.

I do have a light, but more like a 2 foot than a four foot, and I don't really start enough plants to need one that big or have the room for it. Anyway, with the light, I still got leggy plants, moldy peat cups, damping off, and a mess when the cat knocked them over.

I know it is at least a minor sin on this forum to purchase plants instead of starting your own, but it does have its benefits. If I do have a problem and loose starts to damping off or other damage, there is no way to replace them, since there is no good local source of heirloom plants. I would be very interested in finding out what it costs to have someone grown them for you. Can you give me info on the greenhouse?

I would like to try starting my own Early Girl and A cherry and see how it goes. At least those are easily replacable locally if they don't do well. The heirlooms I can order since I found a source with such a good variety. The down side to mail order, of coarse is the shipping costs. If the EG and cherry go well maybe I could branch out next year.

I wish there was a local grower that offered the variety Selected Plants does.

By the way, why start plants in Dec around here? Do you have a green house?

Danko is not available as a plant. The hearts I listed above were recommended by Carolyn in previous posts and also available as plants from Selected Plants.

Your seedlings may have been leggy if you didn't have your light close enough to them...? I keep my lights touching the tallest seedlings. It's also useful for keeping the cat away =) My kitty has no room to get under there with the plants, she ends up just sitting next to them instead! (And she is one clumsy cat!)

Using a sterile seed-starting mix, running a fan for a few minutes a day, and removing the greenhouse cover as soon as sprouts appear all got rid of my damping off problem... don't know if that might help you with your Early Girl and cherry tomato attempts this year?

I read your message that you emailed me for seeds, but I never got that email. I emailed you and never got a reply. If you still want them, can you try again? If you do not hear from me it means it did not go thru.

Thanks,

Suzie

Suzie, I just emailed you again. Let me know if you don't get it again.

I think the leggy plants and disease problems may be related to the high temps they are grown in. I don't have a porch or other cool, bright place to grow them. I do it in my craft/sewing room which has a south facing window and a west facing window. Because of those windows, it is one of the warmest rooms in the house and does not have its own thermostat, so I can't turn the heat down without making the rest of the main floor cold, too. The entire house is heated, including the basement.

I did not have my light touching the seedlings, that is for sure. Probably a foot above them. I will have to look at the setup again, I haven't used it for a while, and see how much I could lower it. I do think it only uses one bulb so a cool and a warm is not possible. I could see what HD has in stock that might work better, but I reallly don't want more holes in the ceiling for starting 7 or 8 seedlings. You have to remember, most people on this forum do this on a much larger scale than I do and so it is worth while to devote more time and money to it.

I still to look into winter sowing some more, too.

Sue

If you can't lower the light, stack some books under your seedling tray and bring them up to it instead ;) You might find that helps. I grow my seedlings in a warm room as well and they do fine...

Great, thanks, I will try that. Now who is going to help decide which one or two hearts to order from Selected Plants? :)

Sue

I'm West of you then. The place is called Camp's and my Brother in Laws parents have them grow them stuff.

Why? Because I'm losing my mind for spring! I'm looking to get friut before most people set their plants out! I started all 11 varities a few days ago and some are up. In fact the Yellow Pear won the prize for fastest germination! Like that matters.

Tomatoes like to dry out a bit in between waterings. Don't let them wilt and keep them close (with in inches) of the lights. Water in the am and thats about it. I do grow award winning African violets so it comes easy for me! Good luck with your choices...this might help

Go to Mother Earth News and read "Best Tomatoes to Grow"

They list the top 30 and the top votes for your region.

You can do it Sue!

Thanks for the encouragement. I have done seed starting before, and was pretty successful, just with flowers rather than tomatoes. Didn't like the mess, occ. had a problem with damping off, and often had leggy plants. I have no doubt that I could get tomato seeds to germinate. But I will be a very UNHAPPY CAMPER if I experience those problems with my heirloom tomato plants and end up without some for even one year. If I could get the plants locally, I wouldn't even be considering it. Just a bit of a pain in butt to start your own seeds. But paying 15.00-25.00 shipping is certainly an incentive.

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