16,949 Garden Web Discussions | Growing Tomatoes

Matina? Just a thought.

I grew Siletz and Matina (as suggested above) in 2014.

MATINA: A vigorous indet. Early -Mid season. Round red fruits, 1- SILETZ: Determinant compact: Early .. Fruit size 5 -7 oz.

I will grow Siletz again but Matina is not coming back.

Seysonn

I plant 2 tomato seeds per cel in the 6 packs, They all germinate even after 6 years. But maybe that's because I keep the seeds in plastic vials in the fridge.

I don't use a dome nor a heat mat and no lights. The result is a healthy stocky plant. First I soak in a bowl and change the water once or twice a day. When I see the beginning of a sprout I carefully plant them one each to a three inch pot.

I make my own seed mix. Usually roughly equal parts of DE, peat, compost, and bark fines. The mix varies depending on what I have around. I keep the mix wet until they sprout.

After being placed in the pots they are placed outside in full sunshine during the day and brought inside at night. After a week or two they stay outside if the temps are mid forties or above.

I use stainless steel trays. Plastic is too flimsy for me, difficult to carry in and out and sometimes they develop leaks which isn't good inside. Stainless steel has a much longer useful life. I use restaurant style full size chaffing dish steam pans and inserts. Perforated inserts can be used if you want to water from below by dipping the insert into a steam/water pan.

I tried a heat mat and ended up with leggy plants. I don't mind waiting a couple of extra days for the sprouts.

If you use full sun and no dome you shouldn't have any damping off problems. And you don't have to worry about hardening off because they are conditioned from day one.

I bought some horticultural oil. Will try this out since it is organic.

We will want to know the results.

Have a look at this yardenman. Ponderosa is a large ribbed beefsteak reportedly bred by Henderson as a pink tomato in 1891. It was a standard with few seeds and made great slices for sandwiches: snippet from Victory Seeds scan of 1914 Burpee catalog for Ponderosa:

The reason is wasn't even more successful even though it is so great was that the ribs made it hard to deal with when everyone was going smooth. The original heirloom Henderson's Pink Ponderosa Tomato variety is on sale at Trade Winds Fruit for a buck a pack, and Burpee had picked it up

Victory Seeds scanned the 1898 description from another seed company for another heirloom called Ferris Wheel, which it sells:

Dr. LeHoullier who pours over and collects these catalogs, speculates Ferris Wheel might be a selection of Ponderosa and the descriptions look pretty convincing that they are. Victory Seeds sells Ferris Wheel.

Two great heirlooms to grow! Many of today's commercial tomatoes have some Ponderosa left in them, but only a little itsy bit.

PC

I ordered it from Trade Winds. Thank you so much for finding it.

Let us take the lower estimate here.
With 50 container filled with about 20 gallons each it will be 1000 gallons of potting soil. Ready made commercial potting soils cost upward of one Dollar per gallon.

That is why I make my own mix that costs me about $0.35 -0.45 per gallons. Last year I make about 10 cu-ft. which i am going to reuse them by some refreshing.

Another point is that a tomato plant can live with half that much soil. ie. 12 gallons happily.

Seysonn

Not all of my planned containers will be 25 gal., just for the bigger varieties. Some of them will prob. be more like 10-15 gal. I work in tree care/ landscaping and I have 5 or 6 truckloads of compost/ potting soil mix that was destined for landfill I got for nothing. I have access to as many free nursery pots of most any size. If I didn't have all the free materials, fuhgeddaboudit. I'm going containers this year because I need to rotate nightshades out of the garden for a season or two and I don't have other ground to grow them in.

After a couple of years of trying different catalogs, I tend to use Tomato Grower's Supply for my tomatoes and eggplants, Johnny's for just about everything else, and Park's/Burpee for a couple of flower seeds I haven't seen anywhere else.

I also really like Territorial and Seed Savers.

I've also noticed that the catalogs seem to be coming out earlier every year. I like that. If they arrive before Christmas, I stuff them in my bag and read them on the plane while heading off for the holidays.

I like territorial when ordering a large amount of seed for their flat rate shipping and I have always been pleased with the quality. For trying a new variety pine tree is good for their cheap small packets. For specialty stuff I like southern exposure seed exchange and seed savers. I probably do too much, but that's the fun of it.

Looking good, Green . Thanks for posting.

I have the seed for it to grow 2015.

This post was edited by seysonn on Sat, Jan 10, 15 at 23:56

And who was the person who introduced Druzba in the US? Yes, me, read thelink below and it gets another vote from me as well. ( smile)

But there are others , round red ones only now, that I like and they might include:

Bulgarian Triumph
Red Brandywine, only the true RL one
Break O Day
Lida Ukranian
Red Barn ( flat globe)
Bulgarian #7

...... to name just a few and round of any color tend to have mid sized fruits, not as large as beefseak varieties.

You can find info about all the OP ones that folks mention at Tatiana's superb website if you don't know them where she has traits of the varieties, comments from others, pictures, seed sources and histories when known;

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Main_Page

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Druzba

I went to the J & L Gardens website, and actually found "Pink Ruffled", for sale there, under that name.

But the description for "Pink Ruffled" mentions this tomato name...

Violaceum Krypni-Rozo (supposedly a Latin name meaning "Violet Krypni Rose") "krypni" doesn't seem to be a meaningful word in any language, but "kryp ni" IS two words, in Swedish: kryp=insect & ni=you - so, a loose translation could be, purple rose bug or purple bug rose, or Violaceum Kryp ni-Rozo.

The photos of this tomato, do NOT look like the heavily pleated accordian types, but more like a round, pleated, drawstring pouch, that are 8 oz in size, much larger than the 2-4oz size, in the other description.

I will have to grow out the seeds I have, and see what size they are, as well as if the plant is indeterminate, and fruit ripens late.

What do you think about this theory, that "Pink Ruffled" IS or may be Violaceum Krypni-Rozo?

As you can see from the link at the bottom I was the one who introduced that variety to the US after getting the seeds from Norbert in France in 1992 after a huge trade between four of us and Norbert.

What I think is that it's yet another large pink that has ribbing/ ruffling, call it what you will.

I can't see that there is ANY one variety that was called Pink Ruffled from the get go, since there are so many large pink ribbed/ruffled ones.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Violaceum

Yeah, they can put out some bad ones. You have to let them get completely ripe. They are hard and take forever to ripen.

I believe 2014 was the first time I grew Tiny Tims. Started the seed in late January.. Got a few toms off them while still indoors in early spring. Planted them with other toms in raised beds. They kept making more tomatoes as the season went on. I believe they peaked late August, loaded with many handfuls of little red tomatoes. The taste was ok compared to the many late season heirlooms I had growing. But I am a little confused about the determinate classification. Those little guys made toms early and just more and more as the season wore on. They were still making fruit at the end of October. I have a photo or two of them. Think I will push a seed or two in the starting soil soon.

Besides being a nice looking tomato in the picture, what is the news about Brandywine?

It's gorgeous, it's tasty, and it weighed a pound and a half!

Too bad it fruits in January, as it would be frozen in the north (LOL).

Linda

Tommy Toe is my favorite red Cherry. They are on the larger side for being a Cherry tomato. They taste more like an old fashioned red beefsteak tomato than a cherry. They are sweet but also have a good amount of "bite" or acidic taste.That is the best way I can describe the flavor. If you are looking for sweet taste without the acidic flavor then these aren't the tomatoes for you. They are very prolific. I have been eating Tommy Toe tomatoes since I was a little girl, my grandma always grew them and now I grow them.

Thanks everyone! It looks like Sweet Million and Sweet Baby Girl are the favorites so one of those for sure.