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paulah_gardener

Have you grown Polish Paste Tomatoes?

paulah_gardener
11 years ago

Has anyone grown Polish Paste Tomatoes. This is my first year to grow them. This has not been a great year for gardens. My PPT are large+ meaty -- also are cracking and have green shoulders. Is this normal? They taste wonderful. Any comments will be helpful. Paula

Comments (9)

  • carolyn137
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Paula, there are lots of paste varieties that originated in Poland, Opalka being one of them.

    Do you have the name of the specific variety you're growing?

    I can find reference to just one variety actually called Polish Paste, a page for it at Tania's wonderful website>

    http://t.tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Polish_Paste

    .... and seeds not all that available.

    But I can also bring up another of Tania's lists of paste varieties with many of Polish origin and other origins as well andwill link to it below.

    Since you referred to Polish Tomatoes, ( plural), I wasn't sure what variety you were growing. What is the shape and color and name, again, of what you're growing?

    And yes, green shoulders on many varieties, not just paste varieties,is quite common. And thats' b/c they lack what's called the unifrom ripening gene which is bred into almost ALL hybrid varieties. Most open pollinated (OP) varieties already do have that gene naturally.

    Hope that helps.

    Carolyn

    Here is a link that might be useful: Paste varieties

  • paulah_gardener
    Original Author
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Carolyn There ia a polish paste listed in the websight you sent me. It is the one I have and the discription is right on. I did have trouble finding the seed. Thank you for helping. sincerely Paula

  • carolyn137
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Paula, the reason I linked to that Polish Paste one for you in the body of the text, not the link below, WAS in case the actual name of the variety you are growing WAS Polish Paste. ( wink)

    Most of my tomato friends switched from using just pastes for paste and sauce many years ago, for several reasons.

    Carolyn

  • paulah_gardener
    Original Author
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Carolyn After checking my tomato packet. Found the tomato I am growing is polish linguisa. The texture of linguisa is nice and the flavor sweet and I like the Idea of growing hairloom veg. But romas are such darn good yielders I think I'll go back to them. Thanks for your help. Paula

  • carolyn137
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Oh Paula, please don't go back to romas, I mean if you want some good paste varieties there are plenty of others to consider and many threads here at GW listing them which you can find by doing a search at the bottom of this page.

    Another Polish one is Sarnowski Polish Plum, if it's polish ones you want, along with Opalka, also polish in origin.

    Most of my tomato friends abandoned romas many years ago and just use the best tasting vartieties they have at hand for sauce, etc., and just cook them down to the desired consistency wanted.

    Carolyn

  • jolj
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    catolyn, What wrong with Romas?
    I ask because my DW wants to put up sauce for all kinds of dishes. I am told that many paste tomatoes are bad about getting BER. If true, how do you counter that problem?

  • newyorkrita
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Try Vivia Italia. They are not prone to getting the BER like those Romas do. Plus they taste better. A really fabulous paste type that even taste good if eating fresh.

  • carolyn137
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Jol, I'm going to answer you and Rita at the same time.

    jol, first, why not romas? Because they don't have great tastes, with few exceptions, and as with other paste varieties they are more susceptible to BER and Early BLight, as you already mentioned.

    There are many many threads here about BER so I'll be brief. There are many conditions that can induce BER , all of them stresses, from using too much N or growing in too rich soil which cause rapid growth which is a stress, to uneven moisture conditions, etc., but the major stresses that cause Ca++ to not get to the blossom end are weather conditions and no one can control the weather.

    So variety X might have BER in one season and not the next time it's grown.

    The same situation obtains with non-paste varieties but more often with paste varieties.

    Rita and I post at another site and when she said that her new one had no BER I pointed out and shared with her that for sure this season b/c she's only grown it for this past season, but who knows for the next season, so you can't say that this paste OR non-paste variety is BER prone or not until you've grown that same variety several times over several different seasons.

    Paste varieties do have a different physiology in terms of water and nutrient transport within the plant and that's what some tomato physiologists think causes them to be so susceptible to BER.

    I'll let you look at some of the many threads here at GW about BER by doing a search but will say that it's NOT lack of Ca++ in the soil as used to be thought. Addition of Ca++ to the soil can only help if a soil test shows that the soil has NO Ca++, which is rare indeed and Ca++ from the soil isn't taken up if the soil is too acidic, which can easily be fixed by altering the pH of the soil, and even that situation is relatively rare.

    Summary? it's just my opinion that the best sauces are made from the fruits of the best tasting varieties, and preferably beefsteak and heart varieties that have very dense flesh with few seeds. All one needs to do is to cook them down a bit longer than using only paste varieties until the desired consistency is reached. Or consider using half pastes and half non-pastes for sauce, and a few of the former to consider might include Heidi, Mama Leone, Martino's Roma, Opalka, Sarnowski Polish Plum, Kenosha Paste, to name just a very few that have worked out well for quite a few folks.

    You can look them up at Tania's wonderful website which features pages for over 3,000 varieties and for most of them there are comments from others, the traits of the variety,histories where known and if you scroll down on a page seed sources if known.

    When at the MAIN page for the link below scroll down to where you see the link for searching by the alphabetical method which works wonderfully if the name of a variety is known.

    Hope that helps.

    Carolyn

    Here is a link that might be useful: Tania's Tomato Data Base

  • PlantsAndYarn
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I grew Amish Paste tomatoes this year. They were great! Large, meaty, tasteful fruit. I also grew Whopper tomatoes. I thought they would be juicy, but they too were a very meaty, tasty fruit. They also lived up to their name -- these babies were real whoppers! I plan on growing both varieties next year.

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