Any of the so-called "early" varieties are considered cold tolerant - within reason of course. Stupice, Bloody Butcher, Matina, Glacier, Manitoba, just to name a few. Most seed vendors list the early varieties in a separate category so they are easy to find. TGS list about 30 of them for example.

Many will have a "cold" sounding part of their name using words like "polar", "siberian", "sub-artic" etc. but not all are open polinated varieties.

Hope this helps.

Dave

Try the varities from Russia, Germany and Canada.

I have Siberia, Moskvich, Anna Russian, Stupice,Uralskiy Ranniy and Manitoba to name a few.

There are many more early season varities/cold tolerant.

Also I have Tiny Tim, Extreme Bush,Rutgers which are early types.

Sub-Artic Plenty is supposed to be the earliest at 45 days. Then there are some named Polar...

Good luck with what you find and if you want to trade give me a shout. rfiore06 at yahoo dot com

Rick

Black Krim is my very favorite heirloom, and it's Russian (so, cool tolerant; I hate the term cold tolerant since it's misleading when applied to a tomato). I am also in Z6, but in NY, and I have great success growing it!

Black Krim is my very favorite heirloom, and it's Russian (so, cool tolerant; I hate the term cold tolerant since it's misleading when applied to a tomato). I am also in Z6, but in NY, and I have great success growing it!

Interesting. At 80 to 90 days DTM I would never have considered Black Krim as either an early or cold tolerant.

Dave

Erlyberd is right in suggesting varieties from cold regions. My husband's family came from Minsk and Pinsk and to celebrate his heritage one year I winter sowed mostly Russian and Eastern Europeans varieties and sure enough, the ones from USSR, and particularly Siberia were the first to sprout.

I've also done several GRIN accessions from other cold climates or areas with mountainous growing regions and they too have been early sprouters in cold soil, it's very fascinating. Look for short DTMs, like 70 days or less.

trudi

That was a really nice thing to do for your hubby!

Black Krim and most other so called black varieties are from the Crimean region of the former USSR now called the CIS( Commonwealth of Independent states) and palm trees line the streets in Yalta, the former capital of the Crimean region. An area not known for cold hardy varieties and actually many Siberian varieties are not cold tolerant either as we found out when Bill McDorman of Seeds Trust/High Altitude seeds first brought many varieties in the early 90's when Siberia first became open to outsiders.

Another idea is to look at the short season varieties specifically listed by two seed sellers in Canada.

One is Jeff Casey who lists early short season varieties seperately, aas well as many other great varieties and you can find him at;

http://members.shaw.ca/jwlcasey/Caseys_Heirloom_Tomatoes/Home.html

And the other is Tatiana who with her husband immigrated from Russia to Canada and she, as does Jeff above, lists earlies separately if you look at the links on her home page, and she features lots of earlies from the CIS. And she also has a data base for about 2000 varieties so you can look up lots of different varieties you want to know more about and she also gives seed sources for those varieties. And Tania sells seeds as well.

I've linked to her site below.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Tatiana's Tomatobase

Anney,

It was a succesful enticement to get him to love heirlooms. He is now an ex tomato-hater, he thought they all tasted like the four-pack of "red rocks" that the supermarket sells. He liked cherries better, and the year before I had grown the Russians, I grew Chadwicks and Black Cherry so with those he knew the difference between homegrown and storebought. It took a while but he started eating more home-grown tomatoes. Four years back I just about had to drag him to MAGTAG but he came and actually had a wonderful time. Now he likes maters much more. Sadly, he can't eat too many because they sometimes irritate his IBS, so he eats them with caution ;-)

T

I haven't grown many of the earlies but I did grow plenty of sub artic plenty as I didn't want to wait for maters.LOL they were the first in my garden and lasted the longest when I finally pulled them up I still had cherry size fruit frozen solid.I found the tend to get slightly smaller towards the end.I'm going to grow them again this year maybe half as many plants though.

I have seeds of Skorospelka, which i'm assuming is Russian, it is very similar to Stupice, fruit size and habit-wise, but is even earlier and has bright green shoulders. Dunno if it's "heirloom" but it sets in cold weather.You're welcome to some seeds, e me.

I like Siletz, early and will set fruit even in 55 degree weather. It's "cousin," Legend is not considered an heirloom but has been grown for 35+ years. Both determinates, they produce 4-6 ounce tomatoes, a bit on the sweet side, nearly seedless and 55 DTM. However, I was still getting a few ripe toms in October, even though they were transplanted in the middle of May.

Mike

sgtdraven,

Did you like the sub-arctic plenty? I grew them last year. A lovely plant, fruited later than other tomatoes, and they were bland and mushy. Should I put it down to the year and try again?

Lipother
with last years weather the weren't as good as the last years but still an ok little tomato for salads etc my plants gave me way more than ever needed.Not the greatest tasting tomato but give a few plants a try again this year and see what you think.