Author Topic: The official "my tomato can beat up your tomato" thread  (Read 4475 times)

Mark in Texas

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The official "my tomato can beat up your tomato" thread
« on: May 22, 2013, 09:17:01 AM »
Gonna stop hijacking one of the lemon threads and start a new one on maters.....


Hi Mark, i can tell you don't know your heriloom tomatoes. There are so many that are 10's that it would make your head spin! I worked one summer at Seed Savers Exchange in Iowa and got to taste about 400 varieties that year. Sorry to derail the thread.

What I do know I don't like regarding the heirloom tomato's growth habits, productivity, disease issues, tendency to catface and crack like crazy, blossom end rot issues and all the ones I've tasted have not come close to the richness, texture, juice, perfect round shape and skin-that-melts-in-your-mouth of the new 'Rodeo'.  It was developed in Florida for hot climates. http://www.plantanswers.com/Articles/BHN_602_Tomato.asp  Another one I love is "Big Beef".  Please start a thread recommending some varieties, I'll try anything.  For example, I've been growing Dutch bred greenhouse tomatoes since the fall.  Here's a great resource for seeds, catalog is a must have - http://www.johnnyseeds.com/

Regards,
Mark

I haven't tried Rodeo but would be willing to bet some of the heirlooms are as good or better. As i remember some of the best tasting ones of the heirlooms to my taste buds were the orange colored ones that were streaked with red inside. I don't remember all the cultivar names, there were 4-5 like this. One i remember was called Pineapple Pleasure, or something like that, was many years ago. I think seedsavers.org sells some of these.

I'll look for it, thanks!


Cherokee Purple
Cherokee Green
Neves Azorian Red
Eva Purple Ball
Black Cherry
Sun sugar ( Hybrid cherry that is really good)

I grow Big Beef sometimes. It's a pretty good tomato, but all of the above blow it away. I'll give Rodeo a try next season.

Thanks for those names.  Other than the cherry what is your fave?  I've already got my tomato crop in for 2013 - Big Beef, Rodeo, and Sunmaster (Sunmaster seeds no longer bred). 

Rodeo aka BHN 602 is the craze of Texas now.  It was developed by a Florida research facility and sets excellent fruit throughout our hot summers.   Off of 3 Rodeo plants I grew last year I canned 2.5 gals. of juice and ate and gave away "tons".  The canned maters is blood red and sweet as sugar.  Makes great chili or pasta sauce.  My plants finish at 7' tall by 5' wide and are grown in 5' tall by 3' diameter cages built out of a 50' roll of concrete reinforcing cloth, the kind that has 6X6" mesh.

Like another member pointed out, your mileage will vary depending on where you are, soil, and how you grow.

Mark
« Last Edit: May 22, 2013, 09:20:38 AM by Mark in Texas »

Mark in Texas

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Re: The official "my tomato can beat up your tomato" thread
« Reply #1 on: May 22, 2013, 10:56:27 AM »
Hmmmmmmm, quick cursory glance at a few comments on the Cherokee Purple is "poor taste, poor disease resistance and low yield."

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/msg0717525917864.html

Wow, the NAR (Neves Azorian Red)  looks really promising, IF, it can take our heat.   Being that the positive comments are coming from more northern climes it probably drops its blossoms when night time temps get over 72F, which is a real issue for many tomatoes.  Worth a try.  Check out these huge maters!  http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/msg0810282714601.html
« Last Edit: May 22, 2013, 11:03:50 AM by Mark in Texas »

Tropicdude

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Re: The official "my tomato can beat up your tomato" thread
« Reply #2 on: May 22, 2013, 10:57:20 AM »
I would have to say the most disease resistant, and easiest bullet proof tomato I have ever grown was the Florida Everglades,  small current sized fruit but they have an excellent tomato flavor,  and grow zillions of fruit, great for salads or eating out of hand, even my daughter at 2 years old loved eating them.

So for those people like me that have problems growing tomatoes due to fungi, I recommend Florida Everglades. 

a plant in a container on the roof of our office building, re-seeded itself the next year, never watered it or anything.
William
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Mark in Texas

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Re: The official "my tomato can beat up your tomato" thread
« Reply #3 on: May 22, 2013, 11:07:11 AM »
I would have to say the most disease resistant, and easiest bullet proof tomato I have ever grown was the Florida Everglades,  small current sized fruit but they have an excellent tomato flavor,  and grow zillions of fruit, great for salads or eating out of hand, even my daughter at 2 years old loved eating them.

So for those people like me that have problems growing tomatoes due to fungi, I recommend Florida Everglades. 

a plant in a container on the roof of our office building, re-seeded itself the next year, never watered it or anything.

Bill, that sounds like a winner.  Obviously it excels in your Florida type clime.   check out that NAR that the other fellow recommended in the comments I just posted.

nullzero

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Re: The official "my tomato can beat up your tomato" thread
« Reply #4 on: May 22, 2013, 11:25:40 AM »
I highly recommend Black Cherry, its a monster with vigor and production. It also produced some of the best cherry tomatoes I have tasted. Black Cherry continued to produce tasty tomatoes into January (until a cold front slowed it down).

Some Caigua and 'Black Cherry' tomatoes harvested around 12/19/11


BHN 602 sounds like a good FL tomato. I wonder how it would turn out using it as a rootstock, and top grafting with tasty heirloom tomatoes.
« Last Edit: May 22, 2013, 11:46:02 AM by nullzero »
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CoPlantNut

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Re: The official "my tomato can beat up your tomato" thread
« Reply #5 on: May 22, 2013, 11:55:13 AM »
Here in Colorado, my favorite cherry tomatoes are Black Cherry, SunSugar, and Sweet Treats.  Sweet Million is also good but is so productive as to be annoying.

Brandywine tomatoes remain my favorite beefsteak tomato for flavor, but they are horribly disease-prone; I'm trying them grafted onto disease-resistant rootstocks this year to see if I can get the flavor without the diseases.

Amish Paste is my favorite cooking / drying / canning / freezing tomato for its productivity, reliability, flavor and meatiness.

   Kevin

Mark in Texas

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Re: The official "my tomato can beat up your tomato" thread
« Reply #6 on: May 22, 2013, 02:10:22 PM »
  Sweet Million is also good but is so productive as to be annoying.

   Kevin

I've found the same thing.  They're a great tomato but gawd they over produce!  IMO, that's one the best tasting cherry maters one can plant!  Did you know it was bred from Sweet 100?

zands

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Re: The official "my tomato can beat up your tomato" thread
« Reply #7 on: May 22, 2013, 02:13:09 PM »
I would have to say the most disease resistant, and easiest bullet proof tomato I have ever grown was the Florida Everglades,  small current sized fruit but they have an excellent tomato flavor,  and grow zillions of fruit, great for salads or eating out of hand, even my daughter at 2 years old loved eating them.

So for those people like me that have problems growing tomatoes due to fungi, I recommend Florida Everglades. 

a plant in a container on the roof of our office building, re-seeded itself the next year, never watered it or anything.

They love to reseed themselves I have a few....Good taste. The only problem it takes some effort to pick enough. But they are bulletproof, many cherry tomatoes are, getting towards being a primitive tomato. Not over bred so more survivability. High seed to flesh ratio shows it want to propagate its primitive self

Mark in Texas

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Re: The official "my tomato can beat up your tomato" thread
« Reply #8 on: May 22, 2013, 02:30:22 PM »
I quit planting cherry tomatoes....too lazy to pick 'em all!  Juliet, a grape tomato, is about the only one I'd consider now. 

nullzero

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Re: The official "my tomato can beat up your tomato" thread
« Reply #9 on: May 22, 2013, 08:00:33 PM »
I quit planting cherry tomatoes....too lazy to pick 'em all!  Juliet, a grape tomato, is about the only one I'd consider now.

Black Cherry has nice sized cherry tomatoes that are easy to pick as a cluster. Just cut off a cluster and you have 1 large amount of tomatoes.
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fruitlovers

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Re: The official "my tomato can beat up your tomato" thread
« Reply #10 on: May 22, 2013, 10:46:29 PM »
iI remember that in the SSE garden Green Zebra was one of the most productive small tomatoes, not quite cherry size, a bit bigger. But what does best in Iowa may not do so well in FL, TX, CA, or HI. But they were productive there and nice tasting, Just a bit odd eating a ripe tomato that is green.
Oscar

bsbullie

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Re: The official "my tomato can beat up your tomato" thread
« Reply #11 on: May 25, 2013, 06:39:07 AM »
Its all about picking the right variety for your location.  the save variety will not do well in the NE, Michigan, Cali, Texas and Florida.  The growing times and climates are just far too different.

Between a friend and myself, we grew about 30 different GMO free heirloom tomatoes over the last two years.  Some produced extremely well, some did very poor with everything in between.  Some same varieties even fared differently from year to year due to the climatic conditions....here in SFla, having to grow in winter time can cause some bumps in the roads.

Oscar - I have grown both the green zebra and its "cherry" version.  Its cherry version did phenomenal this year.  Also grew black cherry, was a heavy quality producer last year but much less this year and was out produced by the aforementioned green cherry.

Bottom line, at least for us here in SFla, you need to selectively pick the heirlooms that will thrive here and then hope you have optimal weather conditions.
- Rob

fruitlovers

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Re: The official "my tomato can beat up your tomato" thread
« Reply #12 on: May 25, 2013, 07:08:32 AM »
Its all about picking the right variety for your location.  the save variety will not do well in the NE, Michigan, Cali, Texas and Florida.  The growing times and climates are just far too different.

Between a friend and myself, we grew about 30 different GMO free heirloom tomatoes over the last two years.  Some produced extremely well, some did very poor with everything in between.  Some same varieties even fared differently from year to year due to the climatic conditions....here in SFla, having to grow in winter time can cause some bumps in the roads.

Oscar - I have grown both the green zebra and its "cherry" version.  Its cherry version did phenomenal this year.  Also grew black cherry, was a heavy quality producer last year but much less this year and was out produced by the aforementioned green cherry.

Bottom line, at least for us here in SFla, you need to selectively pick the heirlooms that will thrive here and then hope you have optimal weather conditions.

Here in Hawaii we also have certain tomato cultivars that have been especially bred for our very humid climate. There are open pollinated types as well as hybrids that do well. Main difficulty in growing tomatoes here is fruit fly. They will sting tomatoes. Don't seem to bother cherry tomatoes hardly at all. Thicker/tighter skin i guess makes it hard for them to penetrate into the fruit. Very rainy weather here can also cause larger tomatoes to crack.
My main point to Mark was that with many thousands of heirlooms to be tried you can't put them down after having tried only a handful. Like with everything you have to be selective, but there is a HUGE pool to choose from! Heirlooms have survived in their regional areas because they are tried and true for very long period of time. Most hybrids come and go out of style very fast. The seed companies only push hybrids so much because they can be patented, a higher price can be charged for them, and the consumer has to return to the company to buy them as they will usually not come true from seed.
Oscar

nullzero

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Re: The official "my tomato can beat up your tomato" thread
« Reply #13 on: May 25, 2013, 09:45:06 PM »
Did some research and here is some varieties that should perform well in FL;

Floradade
Homestead 24
Anahu
Neptune
Atkinson
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