I plant old fashioned Beefsteak for picking green, they can and will get large, but tend to get rotten blossom ends if allowed to ripen. I have customers that want those plants, so the left-over ones go into the garden. Plus they are heirlooms, and the seeds are cheap. The plants will get HUGE, downside if you have a small garden.

It's never too early to think about next season. I'm thinking about the next season as soon as the seeds go into the ground/dirt for the current season. I always try to have 2 years of seeds, in case there is a crop failure for a certain seed.

Marla

I do prefer to grow heirlooms, but my thoughts on the fried green tomatoes was that taste of an unripe tomato isn't as important to the customer as the size & availability. Most customers will buy 6-8 slicers that are unripe. If I am down to only 2 or 3 most time the turn their noses up since that isn't enough for a mess of fried green tomatoes. Or at least that is what they say. For my family 2 or 3 is plenty, and theres 4 of us!
I was leaning towards a hybrid so I could get something to succession plant that would put on lots of fruit at once & maybe every 3 wks plant them again for as long as I can through August.
I do have TONS of beefsteak seeds & they are on my list to grow again next yr.

I always have plenty of beefsteak, and they just keep growing. That's the nice thing about indeterminates, they just don't stop. I plant about 25-30 of them along with my Big Beef, that really produce. This year, we planted about 200-300 plants and most are Big Beef. You can use almost any Beefsteak type, since big is one of the main part of the description. Most heirlooms are of the Beefsteak type, but take longer to produce. I just start my plants extra early to give them a head start.

I know people say that the size of the plant doesn't mean anything as far as production dates, but I've found that it does. My plants are usually at least 4" pots, and 12-18" tall when they go into the garden.

Some people will have fried green tomatoes for the entire meal a few times each year. Not me, tho.

I get my tomato seeds from Jordans Seeds out of MN, very reasonable pricing and good seed and service. I usually buy 1/16 oz or more of any variety, usually costs about $3-4 for that amount. Look for open pollinated instead of heirloom, usually cheaper without the hype.

Marla

Can unripened Celebrity tomatoes be used to make fried green tomatoes?