16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes
Where did you get your seeds from?
I looked around online and at Tania's T-base I found there were three Napoli ones, but she shows no pictures, and all were described as det , regular foliage and small red plums.
I looked at the sites listed there as well, and all listed Napoli as Napoli with again saying small red plums, det and regular leaf.
Have I grown any varieties with foliage that looks like what you show? Yes, and I could argue either PL or RL for what you show, leaning strongly to perhaps PL. There are several different known forms of PL foliage and PL foliage as you know is usually more substantial than RL foliage. And what you show is not rugose as you also agree.
But since you said they weren't paste tomatoes b'c of too many seeds and too much gel, then that seems to me to be the most important point. Could that have been weather related in any way?
Which gets back to my initial question, which is what is your seed source?
Since RL ( Napoli) is dominant over PL which is recessive, any initial cross pollination should have led to an initial RL, not a PL variant, .
Carolyn
My seed source is Mariseeds, one pkt. I ordered and the other was a gift. I don't remember which I used this year. It apparently wasn't seed I had saved. Anyway there is possibility of error either in the sowing process or in the planting out process that could get the wrong name on the plant. I just can't figure out what other tomato variety I sowed could result in these tomatoes. One I can't find in the list of planted out tomatoes that I had in my list of sown tomatoes is Lebiajinski but it doesn't really match the photo on the Tanager Song Farm site where I bought them. Anyway, I like the tomato for productivity and non-blemished fruit but not much for being seedy as I prefer a paste or heart tomato that is mostly fleshy instead. I am saving seed though and would grow it again. Thanks for your help, Carolyn!
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
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.
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
I might need some clarification from experts on this one. I did not get cutting from lower branches, instead I cut the top 12" of the plant and got cutting from there. will it work? what is the best place of plant to get a cutting that will produce good?
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
Yes, pictures would help a lot.
If you need it, here's how to post them
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hosta/msg0513322013993.html?14
Here is a link that might be useful: how to post images
Blossom end rot (BER) See the FAQ. http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/tomato/
It's the 2nd item on the list.
Here is a link that might be useful:
I love tomatoes, love them. They make up about half my garden space, but if I get into a survival situation that space will go to root crops, not tomatoes.
And BTW, can't you just prune back the plants at a certain height? I mean if I am stuck in space for five years I will be looking for something to do, and pruning a couple of plants is not going to be overwhelming (unless the crew is busy fighting off alien attacks).
Sorry I let that go, it was more thought than this thread merited.
I put mine in a cooler (the kind ya take on a picnic). Sometimes I put an apple on the top of them, sometimes, not.
I just load the cooler, shut the lid & within a few days, they start to ripen. I've been able to have fresh mater's right up into December.
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.