16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Hi emileeg,

Dave's right, there are literally thousands of heirloom and open pollinated tomatoes. Personally, I have over 600 varieties of seeds and that is merely a drop in the bucket as far as that goes.

Of the plants listed, Atkinson, Homestead, Pink Brandywine, perhaps Red Beefsteak, and Cherokee Purple are heirlooms. (If I am not mistaken, Red Beefsteak is also known as Crimson Cushion, Henderson's Crimson Cushion, Ponderosa Red, or just Beefsteak.) All should be good tomatoes.

Atkinson did well at the 2009 SETTFest tomato tasting in Texas. 6-10 oz fruit, red in color with green shoulders, DTM aout 80 days, indeterminate, Regular Leaf. I have not grown that one. (Jeez, now it is on my list for .... someday. *sigh*)

Brandywine, a Pink Beefsteak 12-16 oz. range in size, DTM 78-85, Indeterminate, Potato Leaf.

Cherokee Purple, Dusky Rose Beefsteak, 8-16 oz. DTM 78, Indeterminate, Regular Leaf

Homestead is good for fresh eating or canning, about 4-8 oz. in size Red Globe Slicer, DTM 60-70, Semi-determinate, Regular Leaf.

Beefsteak, a.k.a. Henderson's Crimson Cushion, Ponderosa Red, etc.; a 1 to 1 1/2 lb. Red Beefsteak, DTM 80, Indeterminate, Regular Leaf.

I don't think you can go to far wrong with any of them. I realize there are some good hybrids out there too, but I only grow Sungold hybrids, so really can't comment on the others.

Of course, your mileage may vary.

Betsy

I'm just stumbling across your post after doing a search for Bonnie Select. I too have always hated tomatoes. I love spaghetti, chili, everything with tomatoes in it, but whenever I eat out, I always order my food with no tomatoes on it.

This year I'm starting my first vegetable garden. It's going great and I have several tomato plants too. Why? The same reason you started yours. I've heard and read that if you've only ever tasted store-bought tomatoes, you've never tasted a real tomato! I just harvested my first two off the Better Bush plant and they're yummy! I took some to my mom to try and she said it was freaky to see me just munching on a slice of raw tomato. Honestly, she's right. Haha! So far I'm impressed with the Better Bush. I have it in a 5 gallon pot on the patio and it's doing great. Once it had its roots established (just like any other tomato plant) it took off. It's a much smaller plant than the heirloom Marglobes but it's been a very early producer. It's still growing so hopefully I'll get lots more tomatoes off of it. I can't wait to try the Marglobes!

One of my Marglobes has been lost to wilt. :( The container said they are VF resistant but that doesn't mean they're resistant to all strains of verticulum or fusarium. I've had a hard time identifying it but I think it's probably something that was spread by a pest. Before I planted flowers near the garden, I hadn't seen any ladybugs and the aphids and spider mites were already getting really bad. Since planting flowers, I haven't had to use my insecticidal soap once. Yay! I love how nature works!

Anyway, I bought one Bonnie Select plant to replace the lost Marglobe. It's supposed to be extremely disease resistant. We'll see!

So how did your tomatoes do last season? And what are you growing this year?

What kind of tomatoes are they? Also - the first fruits of the year often have blossom end rot (though I rather like "bottom" end rot ;).

And BER is not necessarily from too much watering - rather inconsistent watering. Dry soil then saturated soil, then dry soil then saturated soil is not good. Especially in containers.

Also - I believe BER can present up to three weeks after the watering problem has been corrected. So if you believe your soil is maintaining moisture evenly now, you might not have to do anything - just pluck the problem fruits.

I supplement my Earthboxes with calcium nitrate as a snack to help avoid BER. The only year I had it was the first EB set up and I was growing paste type toms (Super Marzano as I recall) which are particularly susceptable.

If these Violet Jaspers produce like you say they do, especially in this heat. I may grow more next year even if they do taste a little bland. We can use them in salsa. It should be interesting to see how these tomatoes act in perhaps the hottest area if the nation outside of Death Valley. I know my peppers are going nuts right now. I already have red Chile de Arbol and bell peppers, but I wish my Pasilla would turn black. They have been huge for a while now.

You're outside of Death Valley? How cool! Ha - or not. :) Another heat lover I would recommend is the costoluto. I am also not a big fan of that tomato but production was good during the hottest part of the summer last year.

Big Rainbow and Cherokee Purple are also good with heat but are later to produce. And yes - pretty much all of my salsa last year came from the Violet Jaspers.

This is a helpful string. I am planting tomatillos for the first time this year and have wondered how much to treat them like tomato plants. What if the tomatillo seedling has flowers and buds. Should I pinch them off prior to transplanting so that the plant puts it's energy into root development?

I would pinch them off, yes.

Look here http://msucares.com/crops/comhort/tomatodisease/images/glyphosate.jpg

Here is a link that might be useful:

" plants are turning yellow where the leaf stem attaches to the maint stem and the yellow runs up to the leaf. It is a very bright yellow not like it is dry and lacking water"

Agree with Jean. That description is classic for weedkiller damage. Drift. Contaminated mulch.

If that's the case then they may recover all depending on how much the exposure but the damaged leaves are a loss.

Dave

I have had pretty good luck with Pineapple in clay soil garden in southern Ohio but as been pointed out my plants grown from purchased seed may be diff than your plants. I have two plants this yr so we will see.

It's only May 6th! If you are in N. Cal. it hasn't been hot much yet, especially not the nights. I love growing pineapple, and near Davis, it helps a lot to have blooms by May 1st, which is when the nights start getting over 55.

Hi TeXasbaby,

As a general rule, tomatoes need an inch of water every week. An inch of rain is exactly that, water that is one inch deep. One inch of rainfall equals 5.6 US (4.7 Imperial) gallons of water per square yard. Cool weather or soil with lots of clay needs will be less, hot weather or sandy soil will need more.

Dig down with your finger about 4", is the growing medium wet, dry, or just right? If it is wet, don't water, if dry then water. If it is just right, check again the next day. Water deeply once or twice a week. Watering daily encourages shallow roots which means the plant is affected more by variations in soil moisture. In my garden during the heat of the summer (90 degrees F and higher), I water deeply every 4-5 days, early spring I may only water every 8-9 days and when the weather is moderatly warm (70-80 degrees F), about once a week.

Mulching heavily (to a depth of 6 - 8 inches) with compost, straw, hay, rotted leaves, grass clippings, even shredded paper or sheets of paper or cardboard helps maintain a consistent moisture level.

I hope that helps.

Betsy

You must learn to watch your plants and recognize signs
of water need. If they're wilting, definitely water them,
no matter what the general rule states. Keep an eye on
your soil too. Like you said, it's a learning experience.

How much you water depends entirely on your climate and
conditions. What works great for a person in one part
of the country could be entirely wrong for a different part
of the country. In SoCal, I have to water a lot due to the
dry, hot conditions of summer. When I lived in Chicago, I
watered less since there was humidity and rain.

Blossom drop can have many reasons. Of course, you're
familiar with the overwatering, but too cool temps or too
high temps or high humidity can also be culprits. My
plants generally don't set fruit until the nightime temps
reach 55 deg and above.

Good luck and good learning.

Even though it ate half the plant overnight??? I've seen a couple on the heirloom tomatoes and they do quite a bit of damage if I don't pull them off.

My point was learn to tell which caterpillar is which - who are the good guys and who are the bad guys, which do actual damage and which don't.

The hornworms that damage tomato plants are one thing, the swallowtail butterfly caterpillars on mint are something else entirely and they are VERY different in appearance. Mint easily recovers. Tomato plants don't.

Dave

It was not a hornworm. I know what those look like. And it was the same kind on both plants.

Thanks, Betsy. I have to do some garden shopping today so I'll look for the spray. I agree about trying to get the powder under the leaves--pretty much impossible.

I use a Dustin-Mizer. Flip the deflector to get the underside of the leaves.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dustin-Mizer

Let a few grow, nothing like freebie fruits, and you'll see how well volunteers do. I think you'll be happy with your results, and quite likely the plants will produce fruits similar to their parent plant. You're in zone six with several more months of growing season ahead of you. Small seedlings catch up quickly, you'll have lots of fruit from these plants during summer and into early autumn with production tapering off as the weather cools in the fall.

If you have limited space, I would not risk a volunteer. Better Boy is a hybrid so for sure you won't get Better Boys from your volunteers. Mr. Stripey is not a hybrid, but I wouldn't let unknown volunteers take up valuable space if it were me.