16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

No, Ananas Noir isn't an heirloom. It was found in a field of the tomato variety Pineapple , just one plant, this in Belgium, and it is a cross between Pineapple and an unknown other parent, presumably a dark colored one. It was genetically stabilized by the person who found it and so while OP it is not an heirloom, it's the result of crossed seeds.

Aha, I just found that the response I gave to the clarification didn't post although it was here last night. Wonders never cease, so here we go again.

As posted above:
Of a pack of ananas noire I grew one plant. That plant produced globes - all globes on that one plant. I saved seed from those globes. I grew out 5 plants from the seed I saved from the globes - all 5 plants gave me the beefsteaks.

******

The one plant that grew all globes could well have been from a stray seed which you don't know since you only had one plant.

If it resulted from a stray seed of a known variety then all 5 plants whould have been the same.

If you saved seeds from those globes, which is not what A Noir should be, and then put out 5 plants from those saved seeds and you say that all 5 plants gave you the beefsteak shaped fruits that WERE Ananas Noir, then I don't understand what was going on.

If the Globe plant was a hybrid from a natural cross then saving F2 seeds and putting out 5 plants should have given you sone different plants and fruits b'c the genes would be segregating.

The fact that you got ALL true Ananas Noir plants is not something I can understand.

So perhaps someone else can offer a different explanation that might help. If all 5 F2 plants were different or at least some of them were I could understand the situation better.

Carolyn

Could you have possibly mislabeled your seeds? Did you grow any of the seeds from the plants that gave you the Ananas Noir? Maybe those that you labeled as that were in fact the green globes.

Perhaps there is a latent recessive gene in the AN similar to how an albino is formed. Maybe you got a plant last time that was just a very rare recessive permutation and even the offspring will revert back to the dominant gene. I'm not sure if plants work the same as animals, but it's a thought.

Thanks for the responses... My wife really likes the flavor of AR, which I think is going to be similar to other heart-shaped varieties. I was wondering if someone can suggest a heart variety as good or better in fruit quality and growing characteristics (time to maturity, productivity etc.) that I might next next year instead of AR, just to see if it resists disease better? I know AR is pretty early, and well liked for its flavor, so it might be a tough act to follow.

I don't mind different-colored ones either, as long as they produce as well and mature at about the same speed as Anna Russian.

I think that disease is just a fact of life where I garden- it's a community garden and people tend to crowd their plants together in a huge thicket, plant in the same spot year after year, let their disease-ridden vines stay in the ground once the season is over (sometimes with rotting), etc. I don't do that, but the neighboring plots do, so whatever I grow needs to handle folliar diseases well.

You could consider the following:

PInks

Kosovo, grows well for almost everyone
Nicky Crain
Tsar of Bells
Anna Maria's Pink Heart

Reds

Linnie's Oxheart
Danko
Indiana Red
German red Strawberry
Russian # 117

Maybe take a look at those, and there are many more, at Tania's T-base and see what you think. I could have listed many more b'c I'd a dedicated heart lover, but when lists get too long it gets ridiculous IMO.

I'm not going to list any yellow/orange or white or black hearts b'c I think it's best you start with the pinks and reds.

Carolyn

You can also take measures to accelerate their ripening on the vine: reduce watering, pick off new blossoms, shift the roots a bit, and even cover plants at night, especially if temps remain in the 40s overnight. Here's a link that gives more tips for ripening tomatoes on the vine quicker:

Here is a link that might be useful: 10 tips for ripening tomatoes on the vine

I got to put in my 2 cents too. Wrapping in newspaper is a waste and you have to unwrap to check. I just set them in a back corner of the kitchen. And from advice here, I set them on the stem end.

BUT, I could NOT find a Youtube video of peeling that did not include blanching. HUMMMM, somebody with experience needs to do this ;-)

Tom

a pound of cherry or sun golds?? - easily!!

This is my first year growing tomatoes. I grew Sun Gold, Black Krim, Black Prince, Cherokee Purple, and Jaune Flamme. I grew several Sun Gold and Black Krim plants from seed at the end of March and bought 4" starts of the Black Prince and Cherokee Purple. I transplanted them all at the end of May under plastic tunnels, watering weekly and adding Dr. Earth tomato fertilizer once a month, and left the plastic on until the beginning of July, when one Sun Gold grew tall enough to touch the plastic.

The Sun Golds, Black Prince, and one Black Krim started setting fruit while under plastic around the end of June, and the Cherokee Purple and other Black Krim had fruit set by mid-July, when I added a Jaune Flamme from a 1 gal container. I also put 1-2 2L bottles full of water around each plant for a little extra warmth. The fruit on most of the tomato plants grew about 1/2" to an inch per week.

The Sun Golds finally started breaking at the end of July (~30 days after fruit set and ~70 days after transplant), and the larger tomatoes started breaking in mid-August (40-50 days after fruit set and 80-90 days after transplant).

We've harvested hundreds from the 4 Sun Gold plants, and they're all still producing 40-50 tomatoes/week while we get about 2-3/week from the Jaune Flamme. We've harvested about a dozen each of the larger tomatoes, all between 2.5-4" in diameter. We would have gotten more, but I was paranoid about diseases and pruned them to a single stem since I'm staking them. Next year, I'll prune to 3-4 stems, so we can get a higher yield. The larger tomatoes stopped setting fruit after the first bunch in July, but now we're getting a second crop setting on the Black Prince and Cherokee Purple, but they probably won't mature before the rain and cold arrives for good.

I posted photos of the plants on this thread: PNW Post Your Tomato Pictures 2011

I'm about an hour and a half south of Seattle and this is my 3rd year growing tomatoes. This year they didn't start ripening until about the end of August. I grew 2 Brandywines, 1 grafted Brandywine, 2 Big Beefs, and 1 grafted Big Beef. I bought them all as starts from Territorial Seed. The 2 regular Brandywines are spindly, but that may be because I didn't give them enough room. I didn't see a difference between the grafted and regular Big Beefs. The big beefs haven't had a lot of flavor and the brandywines have been mushy. I haven't used any tunnels or cloches. Next year I'll try some Roma-style plants. The Cherokee Purple recommended above sounds good, too.

On a side note - I put mylar around my Early Jalapeno and I'm getting a few peppers now. I'll do that again next year and might try it on new tomato transplants.

Yes, tomatoes can also be called berries according to some definitions.

So tomoato= fruit, aka berry or Tomato = berry, aka fruit. LOL

See link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato; Fruit and/or Berry

This is a hilarious post. Truly great,since the answer is already questioned.

Tomatoes love manure,and also care, and attention,and whatever thought you put into them.

Ever think about the idea of attending to a plant in plain dirt with all of your might versus not attending to a plant with optimal soil? Yep, you guessed it, the plant you care about will win. Know why?

Care. It defaults most all scientific knowledge,as well as environmental situations, because you care,which means you are on top of it.

Take care,
Travis

Are the gallons smaller in Dubai? Your plants are going to be happy with all that room.

Since you're Zone 11 the trick to a smaller container is that with smaller soil volumes and container diameter you have to keep the soil from getting too hot, so I'd try to shelter the base/container from getting too much direct sun.

Try watering them with salt water to see if that sweetens up the fruit if the plants are still producing. Don't use more than 1/3 of a cup of kosher salt to a gallon of water, maybe less.

To add some context, I haven�t done a comprehensive soil test, but have confirmed that PH is within normal range. Not sure of the comprehensive soil test as many of the kits that I�ve looked up on the web fail to have much positive said about them.

I live in Portland, OR, a region with a climate not always conducive to tomato growth. Nonetheless, I�ve had some success in the past with varieties like Early Girl, Better Boy, and Celebrity, but have not had much success with the beefsteak varieties, most likely due to the northwest climate and sometimes short growing season.

So, I got a little more ambitious this year and tried something new. The Brandywine that I planted is a grafted plant, spliced onto the rootstock of a heartier, disease resistant variety. Bingo, the health and production of this plant is remarkable in my experience here in Oregon, but the flavor is a disappointment. Maybe the grafting process is the issue, I don�t know, but since my other plant, the French Carmello, is also rather bland, I suspect something else.

On the bright side, I tried a topsy turvy with a grape variety and it has produced a lot of very tasty fruit.

Ted

PINK AND RED
Anna Russian, is early and reliable and tasty
Brandywine From Croatia (a definite), again, lots of hype and I've told Ray I don't think it originated in Croatia at all, but I have seeds as well but don't know when I'll grow it out
Bulgarian Triumph, absolutely outstanding cluster tomato, great taste
Druzba, a standard for many, very good
Goose Creek , haven't grown it and won't be growing it for several reasons
Kosovo (somewhat early is a plus). again, a very reliable heart although there are others I like as well

PURPLE AND BLACK
Black Krim , prefer Noire de Crimmee
Carbon (skip this one? have seen mixed reviews), ho hum
Cherokee Purple , yes
Indian Stripe , yes, and many like it better than Cherokee Purple

YELLOW AND ORANGE AND BICOLOR ETC. (I love yellows but this is too many)
Berkely Tie Dye, have not grown it and won't be
KBX , a must
Little Lucky, one of the better bicolors
Orange Minsk , outstanding, a must grow
Pork Chop , haven't grown it and won't be

CHERRY
Chocolate Cherry , mixed reviews, bred by Aaron Whaley, I prefer Black Cherry
Red Star (looks cute ... any comments on the taste and productivity? should I go for a different red cherry?); I haven't grown it so can't comment
Sungold, if you mean the F1 hybrid, sure, why not

EARLY
Mountain Princess , haven't grown it
Moravsky Div or Moskvich (if I can find seeds for either of them) , Moravlsy Div is a must grow, very early and outstanding taste
Sophie's Choice, also an excellent early with large beefsteaks not commonly found in earlies
I have Matina seeds but think the options above are better.

PASTE/SAUCE (only need one of these ... have seen lots of recommendations for Opalka but have a seed source for the other two and not that one)
Opalka , one of the best known and reliable and tasty to boot
Ernesto , also good
Romeo, haven't grown it, seeds not easy to get
For pastes I'd strongly also consider:

Heidi
Mama Leone
Sarnowski Polish Plum
Martino's Roma

Most of my tomato friends no longer use paste varieties that much, they just use the best tasting varieties they have for two reqasons, most pastes don't taste that great and many pastes are very suscetible to BER as well as Early Blight ( A. solani) You could use half pastes to lessen the cooking time if you wanted to.

Check out Tania's T-base for seeds for those you don't have access to and I know that M Div is at several places as are some of the others you mention. If yoou don't have Tania's link let me know and I'll link to it or go to Google and just enter it. it would probably read Tatiana's T-base but those of us who know her call her Tania.

Carolyn, who has not e-mailed with you, LOL, but N VA is nice as is Remy, a good friend here in NYS and has been for many years.

Thank you for your feedback, Carolyn! Yes, I'm planning on using half paste tomatoes and half other tomatoes ... tried that combination a couple times recently in cooking and liked the result. And definitely familiar with Tania's Tomato Base, great resource. And yes, I mean the hybrid Sungold -- my mom and husband love it and it's growing on me.

OK, so this is why my list is so long. It seems that all three of you (Remy, Carolyn, Dave) have different favorites, and I came up with that list in part by reading comments from you three. :D

Here's my shorter list for now:

Brandywine From Croatia
Bulgarian Triumph
Druzba
Goose Creek
Kosovo

Cherokee Purple
Indian Stripe (I want to compare these two together)

KBX
Little Lucky
Orange Minsk

Chocolate Cherry
Sungold

Moravsky Div
Sophie's Choice

Opalka

Assuming I can get seeds for all of them. Then, the following year, after I narrow down favorites from these, I can add some that I'm skipping this time.

But really, here's what will probably end up happening in practice. I'll order a small batch of seeds to start with ... then probably buy a few more here and there over the winter when it's cold and depressing outside, and end up with way too many varieties, including some that I just dropped. I'll start a bunch of them and will lose some in the process as this will only be my third year at starting from seed. Whoever survives gets to grow in my garden and a couple friends'. :) And then hopefully the plants won't die or get attacked by wily animals before I get to try the tomatoes. :D