Silvia, I am thinking of next year already. What turned out to be your best tasting and producing varieties?

Great harvest! Mine are just starting.

OK, now what are you going to make with those?

Christine

Christine
Yesterday for lunch I had a tomato sampler with fresh Ciabatta bread, olive oil, salt and pepper.
Willy had BLT with Tom's Beefmaster, Tom they are great!
For dinner I made a chickpea curry with tomatoes and Basmati rice.

The best tasting and producing varieties is a very involved question. I also have my neighbors as tasters of everything that I grow, I have a lot of input this way.

Some varieties are still ripening on the vines, some other that I picked are green when ripe.

After finishing this tomato season I will be able to give a more accurate report.
Christine, any seeds that I have, I will be happy to share them with you.

And, off topic- I hope you didn't plant the casabanana in the ground. Mine is in a container, can spread more than 50 feet!

Silvia

Looking at everyone's tomatoes makes me hungry. They look delicious. I had no idea there were so many varieties of tomatoes. Apparently I've had a very tomato sheltered life. What a great harvest.

Hi Silvia, nice to hear Willy liked the Beefmaster. Although not the most productive, for me the best tasting indeterminates have been the Beefmaster and the Brandy Boy, I'll be curious to see where the Beefmaster ranks in your trials.

Tom

jellybobelly
Tomatoes are like wine. So many different varieties from various regions. Some you like, some you don't.

Hi Tom
Willy agrees with you on the Beefmasters and the Brandy Boys, but he still likes his Angolan tomatoes.
Cheryl prefers the cherries for her salads. And me, I am more complex than that. I am still sampling...
Some I am going to like for taste, others for production, others for easy to grow.

And of course, they will be the ones I didn't like because they did not produce or they were hard to take care of them.

As for flavor from all the varieties that I am growing I still did not find one that I completely don't like.

My neighbors are voting for the cherries, in fact yesterday one of my neighbors asked me for a Hawaiian plant, he loves those he said and the Hot Portugal peppers that I gave him.

I decided that I am going to start growing for the summer the Hawaiians to give to the neighbors that asked, for Cheryl's salads and Tiny (my dog).:o)

Steve and I had one of the BEST BLT sandwiches last nite...made of course from our homegrown 'maters! I think it was a Better Boy. It tasted like a tomato should.

I'm gonna have to get on board with some of you all and get some of these tasty tomato seeds for fall!

I'll trade for canned jellies/jams and homemade wine!

Hi Kathy
Any seeds that you want, I will be happy to send them to you.
You have to give me an idea of what you like, then I can recommend varieties.

I am also saving bottle of wines,because Cheryl told me that you save them. Let me know how I can give them to you. And if my house is not too far from you, maybe you can stop by. Just give me a call.

Also, I will be saving a lot more bottles coming up, because Cheryl is starting a wine tasting club in the house.
I think she told me that she is going to start sampling wines from France.

And if you come to my house, you can see the tomatoes yourself. And maybe have a tomato tasting, tell Steve he is welcome to come too.

Silvia

Silvia, where did you say you got the Spinosad? I looked for it at HD yesterday and they didn't have it. Is the Hawaiian plant you are talking about a tomato? Grows in the summmer?

Katkin,

I get Spinosad at Peaceful Valley.

I am going to try to grow the Hawaiian for the summer, it is a pea size, sweet tomato that packs a lot of flavor.

Here are some pics of my tomatoes.

Hawaiian tomatoes

Good different purpose tomato: Goose Creek

Good producers: Goji, Aliana

The big guns! Brandy Boy (Thank you Cindee), German Red Strawberry, and Beefmaster (Thank you Tom).

Silvia

Here is a link that might be useful: spinosad

Nice harvest. I only have one variety that is starting to ripen so far but soon I think we will be inundated with the cherry tomatoes again. This year I'm trying hard to get enough tomatoes at once that I might be able to can some or make salsa. Last year all I really managed to grow in quantity was cherry, grape, and jelly bean size things.

I have what I'm guessing is a variety of plum tomato (probably for paste) that I got some cuttings off a friend back at Christmas time and that plant and it's subsequent cuttings are the ones starting to ripen. And of course the cherry and grape toms are way ahead of the rest too. I have also planted a few others that I'm eager to see the results, one is Big Rainbow and the plants are looking good so far.

I love seeing the variety in your harvest!!!!

Silvia, WOW Those Brandy's look wonderful. Mine didn't make it through the frost. Actually, I think we have Treefrog to thank for their seeds! How do they taste? My hawaiian are still putting out and I may plant more for summer too. They like it under the pergola where it's a bit shaded and humid with the bubbler fountain nearby.

Hi tclynx
I am saving seeds from all my tomatoes that are heirloom. Especially, I will concentrate on the Goji. I will have plaenty of seeds. If you want any, send me an email. After the season is over, I will send them to you. We need hardy tomatoes that can take the heat.

My harvest is only beginning, is harde to see and pick everything while watering.

This morning I saw an apple cucumber after I posted the lemon, then I saw my Rosita eggplants ready, then went on and pick more squash and peppers.

And I think I have an answer for Jonny. He was asking how come my squash have the flowers attached? It has to be the variety Costata Romanesco and also I have them lifted from the soil on tiles. I do this with everything that can touch the soil.

Hi Cindee
I ordered the Brandy Boys from Burpee, since they are hybrids, I can't save the seeds. I will be growing them for my neighbors,looks and Willy's BLT.

What I really recommend for you is the Cuore di Bue. Since you have the Italian father, you will be pleasantly surprise of the deep, rich, Old world flavor. Like a good wine!
I found out that keeping them in all day sun, like mine, they tend to crack. It will be best to grow it in morning sun, afternoon shade.

I gave a slice to Willy and he said "Wow"

I am also saving the T. Smudge for you. I am still waiting for the Berkeley-Tye and to ripen...

Silvia

Silvia, thanks for the info on the insect spray. I think I'd like to find some of those Hawaiian tomatoes if they would grow here in the summer. I hate that the season is almost over. We love tomatoes and have them in salads everyday.

Katkin
If you want to try the Hawaiian tomato, send me your address to my email. I can send them to you.

{{gwi:874099}}
Here's the harvest - 1/2 pounders. The one in back is like two Sumo wrestlers joined at birth

I think these are Beefmasters from Tom. I started the seeds early fall and they were just normal sized tomatoes up til now. I've never grown (or even seen in real-life) such big 'uns, so I was super-surprised when I first saw them.

We took them to the restaurant, along with the snook, trout and blues caught on Tues and had a great fresh dinner. I finally feel what you guys have been saying all along.

Denise, I've been harvesting the Principes, Purple Cherokees, Siberia and I-can't-remember-what-the-other-one-is, and I wanted to show you a pic of that experiment, but it's too windy to get a pic-in-focus. They are planted right on the water in big pots and they look really ratty, but they are still producing. Oh yeah the other one you sent is Black Cherry. I really appreciate them!

Susie
"right on the water" means a couple of feet from an inlet on Chokoloskee Bay (in case it seemed like on water in pots somehow)

PS Almost forgot

I get Green Light Spinsosad from Wal-Mart

Susie - you ROCK girl! Nice to see you reaping some rewards after all the suffering you've been through....

Silvia - And me, I am more complex than that. I am still sampling... Oh yeah, that's you! Tell Cheryl to try some non-Napa, non-Sonoma wines from our "other" backyard, Columbia Crest, Two Vines, great Cabernet and Merlot at reasonable prices ;-) Regarding the currants, I'll send a picture later but my Matt's/Everglades has sprouted over my dump pile on the edge of the lake and is growing profusely through the cattails!

Kathy - if you want to get spinosad from HD it's put out by Southern AG as Conserve - Naturalyte, white 8oz. bottle, yellow/green label just like all their products...don't expect the bozo's at HD to know what or where it is....

Tom

Hi Tom

Cheryl is going to have wine tasting parties with different groups of people.
Depending on the group, she will have the wines. The first group she is starting with the French group, that is why she is having the French wine and food.

She is also going to get a training fromm work as a somalier. That should be interesting, one more thing to add to her resume.

I am going to tell her to try those wines that you recommend, I will buy them too. I have a glass every night, when not celebrating.:o)

Have you tried the Lakeridge winery in Clermont? One of this days we are going to see how it is, they have entertainment sometimes.

And Tom, I am still sampling tomatoes, looking for gold...

Silvia

Hi Silvia,

Well, I guess we'll have to be getting all our recommendations from Cheryl then :-)

Publix now actually has a decent wine selection, including Columbia Crest; I don't think you'll be disappointed.

We have not tried the Lakeridge wines, might have to make a road trip ;-)

When you find that GOLD let me know :-)

Tom

Silvia, you have mail. :o) I'd love some.

Tom, thanks for the name, you are right they had no idea what I was talking about. I had a bad time with spider mites and lost all my tomatoes already.

Susie, your tomatoes look terrific! And thanks for the Walmart brand of Spinosad. I'll check it out, if I can't get it at HD. :o)