Here's my post on it from awhile back...

Here is a link that might be useful: Recommending tomato varieties

I looked for these seeds and tomato growers say they are the exclusive vendor...but one small pack plus a pack of lemon boy plus shipping was nearly $13!! YIKES!!!

Thanks Carol.

Tina, that's my problem too. I didn't have any other seeds I want to try, I'd rather trade for some Sweet Baby Girl seeds or something else I have.

Tom

Tom - You've given me PLENTY so I'll buy them and share. I'll buy some sweet babies and lemon boys at the same time. I'll give you a buzz when they arrive. BTW I am going to Sally's tomorrow with some salvia and a bag to put mangos in. :)

Okay Tina - Don't buy the Sweet Baby Girl seeds, I was so impressed with it that I bought five packs just to make sure this F1 doesn't change on me for the next few years. I can give you more seed....

Have fun at Sally's, I'm trimming bamboo in prep for the hurricane season :-(

Tom

Tina beat me to it. I was going to buy just about anything Tom wanted to try, and share, because he's been so generous.
I can't believe everyone is thinking about next year's tomatoes already, partly because we've had such a weird season. I'm actually eating the last tomato today - yes, down here in 10B, I harvested a tomato in July. Amazing! It was a Roma, so not great taste, but still better taste than supermarket. And I was harvesting Black cherries last week too!
Unheard of down here!
I'm leaving the vines for the caterpillars, because the cardinals like the caterpillars and I'm a sucker for a cardinal rooster feeding his babies (I've learned that they only eat seeds as adults, but they harvest cats for their babies - males and females do this, which is so sweet to me.)
And I've been sowing sunn hemp for a few weeks now, in successive sowings, as a cover crop. But the seeds I found were enough for the South 40. So if anyone wants some, shoot me a message.
Anyone? I have a half-pound!

Thanks for the kind words Susie ;-) Based on my response yesterday (7/7) to this post my start date will be 7/25. I just ate my last Beefmaster yesterday, although I pulled the plants out a month ago :-(

I love the cardinals too. They nest in my bamboo but I've never thought about their nutritional needs, sounds like I need to leave the tomato plants in longer....

Tom

Tom,
I discovered that my second year of tomato gardening when I got lazy (and it got hot) and I didn't pull the plants out when they were done producing. That was a bad year, with white fly and pretty stressed plants and they were covered with caterpillars. One day I heard the daddy cardinal outside my bedroom window and looked to find him perched on a tomato cage picking my fat juicy caterpillars. He called his mate who came and helped him. Funny thing is, they used the paving stones to smash the caterpillars, just like I do when I pick them off the plants earlier in the season. I didn't understand that until I read that they feed the babies caterpillars. Apparently they also bash the caterpillars' brains in first. Sweet parents. Ever since then, I've left the tomato plants for a few weeks after they're done producing. This year, the pair picked caterpillars off plants that were still producing, because this was such a weird year and I still had tomatoes producing while they had babies to feed. The plants are next to the deck, so it's fun to watch them. And they don't bother the fruit at all.
That and the fire plant that keeps the butterflies and the hummingbirds fed (and would take over the tomato bed if I let it) make my deck more fun.

WOW - and Tomato Growers wins FIRST PRIZE for speed of delivery! The seeds arrived today!

Cool Tina, I want six seeds! :-)

Tom

Hi Tom, I can bring them by this weekend. I bought the sweet baby girl before I got your post....so maybe I can try a corantine cuke instead?

Works for me Tina, Cathy's dad will be here from Okeechobee but probably not til noon. Drop me a line so I know when you want to come by.

Tom