When considering the disease resistance issue for Iowa. What diseases do you really have that would be needed? I would think for the most part its septoria and early blight. There really isnt descent resistance for those so many of commercial lines being considered for their resistances may be a mute point.

The real issue is what are your target customers needs combined with yours. What do the customers want? Do they want beefstakes? Do they want pinks over reds?

What kind of traffic does your stand get? Are you going to typically need things to hold a few days potentially before selling? If so then you may want some of those commercial lines which will hold better.

I'd get a mix of varieties and offer samples of things to try. Get a few older types (pink and red) and get some commercial lines just in case things slow. If over time you find your customers like variety then introduce the darker tomatoes or different colored cherries. Sales will tell you over time which direction to go.

I'd recommend an older variety called 'Souix'. It isnt a beefstake (more like 'celebrity' or 'rutgers') but it was developed for and does well in the plains. It also has better flavor then most of the lines you mentioned. It's available from several seed sources.

Mulio, did you go to the tomato session at GPVGC? The speaker had several that he highly recommended.

Iafarmboy: How are you growing these tomatoes? Outside or in a High tunnel? That may influence what you select also.

I have grown Big Beef, inside a high tunnel. I would not call them less vigorous. I like their production and flavor and so do my customers. I have also grown BHN 640 good variety. However, I also like Florida 91. It set some really nice big tomatoes in the heat of summer.

The speaker at the conference also recommended Mountain Fresh Plus and Scarlet Red. He also mentioned BHN 589. I haven't heard much about the BHN 961.

If you are going to have to pick and hold them, I would go for a hybrid. If your customers will pay more for heirlooms, raise them too. However, if you are going to grow them outside, it makes it tough. I grow heirlooms inside and I find it hard to sell less than perfect ones. However, that is changing.

People shop and eat with their eyes. If it looks good the will like it more. Most consumers don't know a great tomato, in my opinion. So, a hybrid that produces well that is vine ripened and ate a few days later will always be better than a grocery store tomato. The grocery store tomato that was picked green, gassed and forced to ripen.

Is this your first year? If so, I would try the shotgun approach. If you are planning on growing 100 plant lets say, then I would grow 25 each of Big Beef, Mountain Fresh Plus, one of the BHN Varieties and a yellow or black for variety.

Just my two cents.

I agree with Mulio that in IA you don't need to grow varieties with specific disease resistances/tolerances b'c you don't have problems with systemic diseases and as Mulio said the main problem would be the foliage diseases for which there are no varieties that have any significant tolerances to those diseases, either hybrid or OP.

That leaves taste and to some degree shelf life as traits to be looked at. And yes, I have sold fruits via a farmstand.

I think the first thing to think about has already been mentioned and that's what do your customers want? Would they be buying fruits for canning, sauce, fresh eating, etc?

Would selling fruits other than the typical reds and pinks be a draw?

With SSE being in Decorah, IA, and knowing that lots of folks in IA know about that organization from articles in the paper, etc., I wouldn't assume that your customer base would NOT know about OP heirlooms.

SSE grows hundreds of tomatoes each year, and does so mostly organically as does Glenn Drowns in Calamus, IA. And I know others in IA who grow lots of varieties as well.

So if you could tell us about your customer base and what you think they want, I'm sure many here will suggest some varieties you might consider. I know I would.

Carolyn

If you labeled the heirlooms as "old timey-flavor, the kind your great-grandparents grew" and offered tastes of them, I'll bet you'd have people buying them. Most of us have noticed the change in food-tastes since we were children, and not all of it is due to aging taste buds. (My two particular tastes are chocolate ice cream and tomatoes, and both are related to a change in the way chocolate ice cream is made and the varieties of commercially-produced tomatoes offered.) A lot fewer people grow their own produce these days, so we DON'T get that heirloom taste very often.

Many people LOVE discovering foods that are better tasting for themselves and others, like their guests. It's great when you discover a sublime-tasting tomato (to you) that is all mis-shappen or "oddly colored".

But unless we're tomato-educated, we also like bright red tomatoes that look perfect if they're tasty as well. So have fun your first year, and you'll be more knowledgeable about what your customers want and enjoy next year. If you want to get a leg up and you know who others are who sell at road-side stands, you might ask them what tomatoes go quickly from their shelves.

You might also want to grow and sell Sungold F1 cherries and offer them for tasting, too, since they're orange -- people seem to think they're one of the best-tasting tomatoes there are. Another cherry that people seem to really like is the red SunCherry. I saw it in Johnny's seed catalogue.

Anyway, you'll get lots of suggestions, I'm sure!

I went to the Rotations and Fertility talk instead.

I sampled BHN lines last year at a trial - I found their taste to be average and definitely didnt care for their texture. Red Scarlet was just slightly above average for taste.

Most of the BHN, Florida and Mountain series tomatoes share similar backgrounds.

I use Big Beef as my 'main' tomato. In 2008 they produced very well. Last year, 2009, nothing produced well. In 2008, we planted approximately 300-400 plants of Big Beef, I got plants at a great price. Those plants were producing 1,000+ pounds per week.

We pick our tomatoes as they start to 'color'. Yes, they're not as ripe, but we don't need to worry about 'critters' as much either. These tomatoes would keep for about 7-10 days without any type of cooling, just put in the shade. Of course, we sorted 3x per week. We sort our tomatoes either just before market or at market. When we have some not so good tomatoes, we pull them. The 2nds are for those people that don't mind 2nds, I sell them at 1/2 price. The ones that are split and not rotten yet, go to friends that have chickens or pigs. These critters really LOVE me in the peak season.

I haven't had much luck with Celebrity.

I have used the Moutain series but they are more expensive seeds.

I am not familiar with Iowa temps and climate particulars.

With regard to Mountain Fresh Plus, the market farmers around here grow a lot of that and Mountain Spring and I am familar with those. Mountain Glory (which basically is Mountain Spring + TSWV resistance + flavor enhancement) tastes better in my opinion and produces very well here in S.W. Indiana/Western Kentucky.

I've heard Septoria resistance and Early Blight resistance basically are mutually exclussive. But I don't know that for sure. What I do know is that Mountain Glory and Sioux are highly susceptible to Septoria in my garden anyway. But Mountain Glory outlasted Sioux when both were infected with Septoria. Sioux also got Early Blight but I didn't notice any on Mountain Glory.

Aside from the Mountain Series, the market tomato growers around S.W. Indiana and Western KY seem to grow Big Beef and Celebrity quite a bit, including the Amish farmers who also seem to like the Mountain Series. I don't think you're gonna beat Big Beef or Celebrity for disease resistance except with regard to TSWV for which neither of those two are yet proven to resist. Fletcher is another Mountain Series tomato with, I think, TSWV-res. like Mountain Glory.

Scarlet Red did as well as Mountain Glory here in my garden two years running. Nothing to brag about regarding flavor but as good as Mountain Glory and damned good looking, full red, extra large, meaty tomato.

I am hesitant to suggest any heritage tomato varieties for market gardens in Iowa because I do not know the acceptance level for non-red, not perfectly shaped, generally round tomatoes in your area. If you think you can sell "off-color" tomatoes, I would try a few Indian Stripe, JD's Special C-Tex and Spudakee plants just for a trial run. All three of those stand up well to heat with Indian Stripe having the more compact growth habit but still fully indeterminate. It gets about the same height as the semi-determinate Celebrity and I have never had one minutes problem growing Indian Stripe in adverse soil and weather conditions ... and it outlasted many modern, lab-cert. "disease resistant" hybrids.

Bill

I know around here the heirloom tomatoes cost extra at the farmer's market. The cherry Sungold sells well too.

Thank you so much everybody for the insight. I know some of you asked for more info on my circumstances.

To be honest I did a little sweetcorn sales last year and wanted to expand into tomatoes. Ive done a lot of hobby gardening in the past but nothing on a market scale.

I'm going to grow the tomatoes outside on black embossed plastic mulch and give them as much TLC as possible. I agree with what a lot of people are saying in that I'm torn on whats the better route.

My thought is that for roadside sales I'm probably better off going with the Mountains and BHNs and Crimson Reds. I feel like in the farmers market, a premium taste like an heirloom or big beef would be more rewarding.

I very much agree that most people today have grown up on supermarket gas ripened crap. So would they even appreciate or like a more sugary tomato like big beef? I very much want to give my customers a quality product that they remember but people's interpretation of that can be very different.

From a disease standpoint...the foliage disease previously mentioned are the biggest threat.

I hear more and more about Mountain Fresh. Does everyone feel its taste is on par with Mountain Glory? Is it a more prolific plant and bigger fruit?

Again thank you all, I genuinely appreciate all your opinions. This forum is an incredible resource!

Thanks,
Eric

"I hear more and more about Mountain Fresh. Does everyone feel its taste is on par with Mountain Glory? Is it a more prolific plant and bigger fruit?"

It's my understanding that Mountain Glory is Mountain Spring plus TSWV-resistance. But that's just the easy way of saying that the two tomatoes share at least one parent. I also understand from a friend just today that Mountain Fresh and others in the series, and here I'm assuming Mountain Spring included, share a parent that has the gene for extra large fruit.

Another thing I learned today from a friend who worked at North Carolina State University with Dr. Gardener, is that the parent line of the Mountain Series hybrids that donates the huge fruit gene also is highly susceptible to some of the foliar diseases that the hybrids are resistant or intermdiately resistant to. That means there are other parent lines besides the huge fruit parent that are donating the disease resistance genes.

I know that every summer I see Mountain Fresh and Mountain Spring tomatoes from F1 vines that are absolutely huge in comparison to other large to jumbo varieties like Celebrity. I also see tomatoes from F2, F3, down the line grow-outs, particularly from Amish growers down around Crofton, that are humongous, round, red, hard market tomatoes. Yes, hard. I understand that comes from the rin gene that inhibits ripening and enhances holding and shipping qualities. For example, I've bought Mountain Series tomatoes that appeared full ripe and left them on my kitchen counter for 3 - 4 weeks before they began getting anywhere near soft enough to eat in a salad. I've even left Mountain Series tomatoes set on a counter so long that a few seeds sprouted inside the tomatoes while the fruit was still firm enough to sell and had unblemished skin. That's holding power.

As far as flavor, I eat a few Mountain Spring and Mountain Fresh tomatoes ever summer, vine ripened, and bought from roadside vendors who grew them or bought them at farms in Western Kentucky for resale. By comparison, Mountain Glory has better flavor by far while still not nearly as tasty as heritage varieties. But keep in mind, Mountain Glory is one of those new varieties that has the flavor enhancing gene bred in similar to Scarlet Red, Fabulous and a few others I cannot remember the names of just now.

Hope that helps answer you question.