16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
As with tomato sauce, the best salsa comes from the best tasting tomato, not from a particular type. If you have a slicer you love, that will probably make a great salsa. Personally I like a tangy tomato, not the 'sweeter' varieties. In salsa, the taste should be bold, because it's mixing with other ingredients. You could mix a red and a yellow just for appearance and get a great salsa - anything goes.
My favorite Salsa mix is Kelloggs Breakfast mixed with a good strong red or pink like Brandywine or one of the heart varieties. So pretty, and whatever your best tasting tomato of the year is, mixed with KB, which is always good, makes an awesome combination.
If it lasted as long as you say it could well be what's called a keeping variety, they ripen very slowly and in geneneral have lousy tastes with a few exceptions.
I've linked to a list of longkeeper varieties below from Tania's excellent tomato data base so you can see how many there are.
But with no information given to you I think, actually know, that it will be impossible to ID it.
The only one on her list that I've grown, is the one under the Z category, which is also known as Giraffe.
Hope that helps.
Carolyn
Here is a link that might be useful: Longkeeper varieties
I am in NW IL - Z5 and have been WS for many years. I tried tomatoes the first few years but found that they never catch up with the ones started indoors and our growing season is too short. BUT since I started WS, the ONLY things I start indoors are tomatoes and peppers. No more with the trays and trays of germinating plants!
Regular leaf = RB Landis Valley
Potato Leaf = something 'called' Red Brandywine but isn't. As Carolyn has posted many times on the subject, there are no strains of the real Red Brandywine so the leaf is the clue. Ask Renee which leaf.
TGS specifies their 2 as Red Brandywine Landis Valley or Brandywine Red Potato Leaf. So which did you grow?
Dave
Is the Red Brandywine from Renee's garden the original Landis Valley "strain" or that yucky fake one (my opinion) from TGS?
I ask because my local hardware store has them in stock and I would like to give the real variety a try. I know Renee's Garden has a good reputation and I've had good experiences with that brand in the past. Thanks.
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THe Landis Valley one is NOT the original one. It (RB)was listed in the SSE Yearbooks for members for many years and it was Tom Hauch at Heirloom Seeds in PA who got it from a yearbook and made it known to others on a commercial basis and he still considers it his signature variety.
Those of us who are long time SSE members, I joined in 1989 have had it since the early 90's and have offered in my annual seed offers at several places.
It was Tom who sent it to Steve Miller at the Landis Museum in PA and it was Steve who got most of the background info.
I could link you to a nice review of all the Brandywines if you want, and they are in two places, at Victory Seeds and also at Craig LeHoulliers blog site. Craig did the heirloom ones and I did the ones that arose via X pollination, directed crosses and the like.
Yes, for many years Linda Sapp at TGS has listed those two NOT RB's from Seeds by Design not retail,and I've pleaded with her, I've known her since the early 90's to do something about it but she says that many like them and so she keeps them.
I don't know why she went to the Landis Museum to get her seed stock when there are many other places that carry the true RB, and she listed it as a strain but there are No strains of RB.
There's been a lot of wrong RB out there, with PL foliage and whatever, and below I'm going to link to Tania's superb tomato data base and indicate all the places that list it and which ones I'd go to for true RB, but I don't have to since I have my own from an SSE member long ago.( smile)
When you click on thelink below read that page first, then go to the top of that page and click on Seed availability.
From that list I suggest the following sources:
Sandhill if Glenn wasn't sold out for 2013
Tania
Heirloom Seeds,Tom Hauch's website
Victory Seeds, Mike Dunton
TGS, for the Landis one
Hope that helps.
Carolyn
Here is a link that might be useful: Red Brandywine
Tammy - first things first, lettuces, yes, you can grow them in a coldframe now. I have done this for years, no problem.
As for tomatoes, I am trying them this year in a coldframe. I plan to start them indoors around feb 1, and then transplant them into the coldframe around Mar 15, much earlier than my recommended safe day of May 1 (note, I am just east of you in zone 7A (N. VA) so you may want to adjust your schedule accordingly.
As for how the coldframe works, in daytime, its essentially a mini-greenhouse. As the sun streams in, I can achieve anywhere between 20-25 degrees over the outside temperature. This is fine now, but come late mar, early april as we sometimes reach 70+ degrees, the issue then is too much heat. In years past, I literally cooked my tender greens by neglecting to uncover them on warm days. Thus, as potterhead notes, its not a bad idea to get an automatic vent opener (it operates as temps cause a cylendar to expand and lift the lid).
My bigger concern now is nightime temps as I dont want it to get too much below 50 degrees at night and potentially stunt production. In lieu of christmas lights, I am using an adjustable spotlight, facing the ground with a 150 watt bulb on a timer. I dont know if this will work, but thusfar, I am able to achieve about 10 degrees over the nighttime temps, possibly more. That said, the 150 watt light seems awfully hot - im almost afraid to use it for fear it will set some mulch on fire!
Any event, these are my plans. But again as far as lettuce goes, go for it - just be sure to somehow vent it if necessary.
Hello again, branmuffin. I'm afraid the first post is an Oops; at best the thing is related to leafhoppers and often confused with them.
I was looking for life cycle info, but failed to find that particular bug on Google Images, which caused me to wonder if whoever told me it was a leafhopper years ago actually gave the correct name (most likely my parents or grandparents, as these seem to be California bugs and I grew up in California). So I looked further, and it is actually a keeled treehopper [sometimes Keelback, sometimes Tree Hopper, etc.].
In no particular order:
http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/hemipt/KeeledTreehopper.htm
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2009/12/27/keeled-treehoppers/
http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/green-insect-identification.html (scroll down; comments are good)
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tompests/msg0303171821790.html
http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=60935
Yup they look like them alright. Uuuuugly! ...and they killed my tomato plant. I now wonder if they didn't come from the Miracle Garden Soil that I purchased.
I'm beginning to wonder about the Miracle Grow soil as this is the 2nd one (bag) that I've had insect problems with.
You'd think that if you paid a higher price for good soil that you would get GOOD and NOT contaminated soil.
I mixed 1 teaspoon of Neem Oil and 1 teaspoon of Dawn Liquid Soap to one gallon of water and used that to spray the plant and it seems to kill them. But it was too late to save the plant. OH WELL ... time to replant.
The good thing here in Hawaii is that you can plant veggies almost all year round and they will grow. The bad thing is a lot of things have to be shipped from the mainland (continental U.S.) and shipping more often than not is prohibitive .. costs an arm and a leg.
Such is the price of living in Paradise as they say. LOL!
Mahalo Nui Loa (Thank you very Much) for all the work and research that you've done to find the right insect. Funny thing is I also grew up almost all my life in California (Alameda) area and I've never ran into these.
Aloha
K-Guy (I'm thinking of changing my name to Kauaiguy, which I use in most of my internet sites, but seems to be a lot more hassle than it's worth) LOL!
This post was edited by branmuffin on Fri, Jan 25, 13 at 18:41
Occasionally I'm here too. Just lurking, learning and being entertained.
I've not had a garden the past 2 summers but am planning to have a small, but nice one this year. I hope at least some of my good 'older' tomato seeds will germinate for me, since I acquired such a nice collection. I'm planning to start seeds quite early to allow time for starting more later in case of bad or 'no' germination.
Back in 2009 I developed an addiction to collecting, growing and exhibiting daffodils and now have about 1000 different named cultivars and add to them each fall. There are approximately 25,000 known named cultivars, so collecting them will keep me busy for quite a while.
Maybe some tomato lovers would like to attend a daffodil show (or two) if there is a show nearby. See link below. I'm planning on hitting at least 5 shows (maybe more) so maybe I'll see you there.
Sue
Here is a link that might be useful: 2013 Daffodil Events & Show Calendar
So, here are my 2 cents: the Juliet works better than the yellow and red cherry and the roma, all from my local garden center (not the big box stores). The plants stood up best against the rkn army, and made amazingly large fruits for a grape variety. Was not prone to cracking, and it sure rained a lot here lately (what happened this winter?Usually it doesn't rain for weeks?!)And the taste was good enough, they were not soft or mealy, kept good on the counter. I have yet to check on the roots, how bad it is, but the cherries are wasting away now. The Juliet still has a bit going on.
Plants are normally started indoors approx. 6-8 weeks before plant-out date. Plant out would be approx. 7-10 days after your last frost date - weather permitting.
There is a good How to grow tomatoes from seed FAQ here as well as lots of info over on the Growing from Seed forum.
Dave
Congrats on the seeds sprouting! Ditto above. Be sure to only handle the leaves, not stems. If needed, you can plant part of the paper towel so as to not hurt the tiny roots. I would gently separate them into their own containers. Hope you get some yummy tomatoes!
Thanks Digdirt for the links,helped alot. So nerveracking moving seedlings. I only sacrificed 4 out of 60, so not too bad.
Thank you afishlady,I can't wait to taste them and my first time growing tomatoes from seed.Now I have a new hobby to start learning...Canning :)
wow, wonderful!! Do moneymaker tomato plants get much taller than they are now? If so, how will you support them? I have tomatoes on my plants too and will post a thread of photos shortly :D
Tell me how the raised bed does Wipa. I had a problem with nematodes getting into a potted plant once!
ameera, I have mine in a tomato cage and now I've added some 8' bamboo sticks to support the plant and the cages. I pinch the very top of the growth now so they will branch out more instead of growing taller.