Wow!

George,
Baker Family heirloom is at the top of the list for next year. Jay

Jay,

It is a truly amazing list and I hope the weather gives you a break and allows for some good fruit set.

All my spring tomatoes have been in the ground for some time---some planted in April and some planted in May, and of course, the few I plant in containers in February for earliest tomatoes. Those extra-earlies were yanked out of the containers in late May and replaced with varieties I like better and needed to plant someplace since the ground was still so wet in the spot where they otherwise could have been planted. The earlies weren't anything special--I think they were Better Bush, Bush Goliath, Early Girl and Grape---and they did their job--giving us ripe tomatoes in April and May while we waited for the in-ground plantings to start producing.

These are the spring plants I ended up with. The plants listed survived late freezes, 18" or 19" of rainfall in 5 weeks, high winds in the 30s-40s and gusting into the 50s, etc. After the kind of spring weather we had, I just feel lucky to have tomato plants that did survive.

This year, I have cut back drastically on both the number of plants and number of varieties, having struggled with drought so desperately last year. I choose to take 4 rows out of tomato/pepper production and plant them with broccoli and potatoes because I felt like whatever rain might fall would fall during prime time for cool-season veggies. So far, that has seemed like a good decision. Although we'll have a lot fewer tomatoes/peppers overall, we'll have tons of broccoli (in the middle of the harvest right now) and lots of potatoes too.

After years of trying dozens of new (to me) heirlooms every year, I've actually reversed and have been trying many more new (to me) hybrids the last 3 years. And I have been trying to "pare down" the heirloom list to only the best performers, planting more of the proven varieties that produce good yields for us and less of the heirlooms that may or may not. I'll never stop trying different heirloom varieties, but I am trying to go more and more with great producers (both heirloom and hybrid) and less with the testing of new varieties.

So, here's my pared-back, scaled-down list of tomatoes that have been planted and which have survived so far in 2009:

IN CONTAINERS:

1. Red Defender
2. Scarlet Red
3. Scarlet Red
4. Livingston's Gold Ball
5. Mountain Princess
6. Momotaro
7. Chocolate Stripes
8. Indian Stripes
9. Red Defencer
10. Red Defender
11. Tropic
12. Moreton
13. Homestead 24
14. Sophie's Choice
15. Tropic
16. Moreton
17. Viva Italia
18. Sioux
19. New Big Dwarf
20. Box Car Willie
21. Glacier
22. San Marzano Redorta
23. New Big Dwarf
24. Black Plum
25. Viva Italia
26. Black Krim
27. Aunt Ruby's German Green

IN THE GARDEN:

28. Tess's Land Race Currant
29. Sweet Million
30. Snow White
31. Grape
32. Gold Ball
33. Black Cherry
34. Dr. Carolyn
35. Rose Quartz
36. Ildi
37. Better Bush
38. Yellow Cherry
39. Yellow Pear
40. Snow White
41. Ildi
42. Snow White
43. Rose Quartz
44. Black Cherry
45. Black Cherry
46. Jet Star
47. Ramapo
48. Indian Stripe
49. Indian Stripe
50. Brandy Boy
51. Brandy Boy
52. Black Cherry
53. Primetime
54. Royal Hillbilly
55. Nebraska Wedding
56. New Big Dwarf
57. Primetime
58. Moreton
59. Moreton
60. Supersonic
61. Supersonic
62. Jet Star
63. Ramapo
64. Arkansas Traveler
65. Arkansas Travelet
66. Box Car Willie
67. Black Cherry
68. Porterhouse
69. Orange Flesh Purple Smudge
70. Sioux
71. Brandywine
72. Brandywine
73. Sophie's Choice
74. Early Girl
75. Early Girl

The following Dwarf plants were planted as a "border" down one side of a raised bed that had a double-row of Packman broccoli plants:

76. Red Robin
77. Red Robin
78. Red Robin
79. Orange Pixie
80. Orange Pixie
81. Orange Pixie
82. Yellow Canary
83. Yellow Canary

There were about a dozen other varieties that did not survive the late freezes, flooding rains, and high winds that occurred after they were in the ground. Among them was True Black Brandywine, which was one of my healthiest plants and earliest producers last year.

Last week I started seeds for the fall tomatoes. Although I don't yet know how many of each variety will end up being planted in the ground or in a container, here's the varieties I started:

LIVINGSTON'S TOMATO VARIETIES:

1. Dwarf Stone
2. Favorite
3. Gold Ball
4. Golden Queen
5. Globe
6. Honor Bright (Lutescent)
7. Ideal
8. Magnus
9. Main Crop Pink
10. Paragon
11. Stone

LONG-KEEPING TYPES:

12. Long Season Peach
13. Longkeeper
14. Keepsake
15. Sunray (technically not considered a longkeeper, but seems to be one)

PASTE TYPES:

16. Rio Grande
17. San Marzano Redorta
18. Opalka

HEAT SETTING TYPES:

19. Solar Set R
20. Solar Fire

CHERRIES:

21. Cuban Yellow Grape
22. Sun Cherry
23. Sun Gold
24. Golden Sweet
25. Fargo

OTHERS:

26. Dixie Golden Giant
27. True Black Brandywine
28. Bloody Butcher
29. Mountain Glory VFFF/TSWV
30. Mountain Fresh Plus

For peppers, I'm only growing a few of the varieties that are the heaviest producers for us. I dropped about 20 varieties this year that I usually grow, but here's what we do have:

1. Tepin
2. Tepin
3. Tepin
4. Tepin
5. Jaloro Yellow Jalapeno
6. Mucho Nacho Jalapeno
7. Mucho Nacho Jalapeno
8. Mucho Nacho Jalapeno
9. Grande' Jalapeno
10. Ixtapa Jalapeno
11. Ixtapa Jalapeno
12. Ixtapa Jalapeno
13. Ixtapa Jalapeno
14. Habanero
15. Habanero
16. Habanero
17. Habanero
18. Red Beauty Sweet Bell
19. Red Beauty Sweet Bell
20. Red Beauty Sweet Bell
21. Red Beauty Sweet Bell
22. Purple Beauty Sweet Bell
23. Chocolate Beauty Sweet Bell
24. Chocolate Beauty Sweet Bell
25. Chocolate Beauty Sweet Bell
26. Chocolate Beauty Sweet Bell
27. Chocolate Beauty Sweet Bell
28. Chocolate Beauty Sweet Bell
29. Roumanian Rainbow Sweet Bell
30. Roumanian Rainbow Sweet Bell
31. Roumanian Rainbow Sweet Bell
32. Roumanian Rainbow Sweet Bell
33. Mini Belle Mix
34. Mini Belle Mix
35. Mini Belle Mix
36. Orange Sun Sweet Bell
37. Orange Sun Sweet Bell

The only peppers I've planted for fall are ornamental ones, since the spring peppers will produce in the summer and in the fall. The ornamental ones I planted were Purple Flash and Royal Black, I think.

All my plants get exactly the same thing at planting time....Espoma Tomato-Tone and a little bone meal. They do get periodic feedings of liquid seaweed or fish emulsion, and the ones in containers get fed a lot more often than the ones in the ground.

In this year's garden, the earliest tomatoes to produce ripe fruit (not counting the extra-earlies in containers) have been Jet Star and Better Bush, Yellow Cherry and Black Cherry. The best-looking plants with healthy foliage and lots of blossoms/fruit, though, are the Harris Hybrids---Supersonic, Primetime and Moreton and the Rutgers/NJAES variety Ramapo. Close runners-up for great growth and fruit set include Indian Stripe, Royal Hillbilly, Mountain Princess and Brandy Boy.

Although beaten almost to death by the wind as they were hardening off and/or newly planted, Scarlet Red and Red Defender have rebounded and look great.

Most of my plants have set fruit now, so it is just the wait for more ripe ones.

Everything went in later than usual this year, so the big harvest has not yet begun. Normally by now I am running the dehydrator daily with a few hundred cherry, grape, currant and small pear-shaped types being dried for winter. I was just thinking yesterday how odd it is that I'm not running the dehydrator yet. Still, I planted tons of bite-sized tomato varieties so I'm sure I'll eventually be dehydrating fruit daily. At the present time, none of the cherry tomatoes have made it into the house yet, because I pick them and eat them while working in the garden.

Dawn

Dawn,
There are many on your list that I've either grown or have seeds for. Will be watching for your results and impressions as they progress. Likewise I've been trying more op/heirlooms. This is the last year I plan on growing as many varieties. I've been trying to find what will grow well in my garden. This year I will also let a steak house try several different varieties to see what they like. I will probably grow more hybrids again in the future and mainly what will grow well here. I imagine I'll always try a few new ones every year but try to keep it too a few. A few I had planned to grow this year was in the trays of seed starting mix I had trouble with and never recovered. I had planned on trying Scarlet Red and Security. Gave them to my family and as they were in the trays mentioned didn't have that many good plants. With the years we've had and water the way it is I can't see wasting water in the future on too many that won't produce. Have way more of the Brandywine types than I planned on. Hopefully will find a few that will produce. Like usual the Brandywine plants were vigorous and pretty and hardy. I mainly grow peppers for use in salsa, hot sauce and too roast. May sell a few this year. I have never tried as many of the more exotics. I'm trying more of the Harris bell peppers this year. Hopefully they will produce well. Jay

Jay,

You have so many varieties on your list that I've either never heard of or just barely heard of......and it is mind-boggling.

In my most outrageously adventurous year, which I think was somewhere in the 2003-2006 time frame, I had 400 tomato plants and about 140 varieties. It was fun, but I had to take copious notes to remember what was what and how it performed and it was almost overwhelming. I gave bags and bags and bags of tomatoes to everyone that year. I mean.....if a total stranger stopped to admire the garden, I sent them on their way with a sack of tomatoes. LOL

One thing I learned from that year is that most plants produced a lot of tomatoes, but not necessarily a lot of really tasty tomatoes. I tried and dropped so many hybrids that seemed so bland in comparison to some of the OPs. And, I tried oodles and oodles of 'black' types and found none of them tasted better to me than Black Krim, which was the first black one I ever grew, so I pretty much stopped growing the others. A couple of years later, though, I found Black Cherry and True Black Brandywine, so if I had completely stopped the experimentation, I never would have found them.

I did not grow some OPs this year that we really love, and I'll likely add them back to the grow list for next year because I miss them already.

I couldn't grow that many tomatoes nowadays because the deer really discovered the garden a couple of years ago and many of those 400 plants were outside the garden fence, which didn't matter much then but probably would matter now.

Some of the tomatoes that I grow, I am growing for someone else. The yellow pear? That's my husband's boss's favorite. The black plum? Our mail carrier loves it. All the cherry, grape, currant and small pear-shaped ones are for me....for eating in the garden and for dehydrating for winter. The pastes are mostly for Tim to use in making his salsas.

I thought I was pretty much through with all the experimentation, and then I started reading the William Woys Weaver book, and now I am making new lists of varieties I want to try. LOL

My favorite hybrids remain the Harris hybrids. They must have some great tomato breeders because their plants seem superior in performance and flavor. I hope you find the same to be true with their pepper varieties.

I was just looking at my tiny sprouting fall tomatoes today, and was asking myself if I had started everything I want to grow for fall. The answer, as always, is "no", but I started all I'll have room to plant.

The two Brandywines I bought at Wal-Mart are performing better than any Brandywine I ever raised from seed, which makes me wonder if they actually are Brandywine. I guess time will tell.

Ironically, I've learned how to tell which plant is going to produce really tasty fruit long before I get to try the fruit. How? All I have to do is watch for the arrival of stinkbugs and leaf-footed bugs. They always go to the plants with the best fruit. Their favorite targets in my garden? Black Cherry, Royal Hillbilly and Indian Stripe. I wonder how they know which ones will taste best?

Dawn

Dawn,
You have me beat on number of plants and also varieties. I believe my high was around 90 plants and 70 varieties. I promise myself this is the last year for so many varieties. If I want to start selling some at a farmer's market and to the steakhouse I need to grow for production also. The Goliath hybrids like I've said before have usually done well for me. I have more hybrids that I might stick somewhere. I've had fair results with the Burpee hybrids. Especially Brandyboy and Porterhouse. When I plant I leave the dirt 3-4 inches below the top then come back and fill it in to about an inch below when cage and tag. I'm putting a wrap around tag on each cage so I will be able to tell what the plant is without my cheat sheet. May drive a short stake by each sprawler with one. I received seeds for so many new ones this year and I felt I should try as many as I could. I haven't counted but there are many new to me this year. Some I'm very anxious to taste the fruit and see how they produce.

I have found the blacks seem to do a little better here than some of the others. Of the darks Cherokee Purple is one of my favorites. But Black from Tula and Carbon did fair in a terrible year last year. Black Krim will be on my list next year.

I have found some things in Woy Weavers little book I have I want to try but
not necessarily tomatoes.

Several of the different Brandywine types I'm growing look nice will have to see if any will produce and also if I can capture that flavor so many have experienced. The few I've managed to pick weren't nothing special like Lucky Cross and a few others.

I agree if something is going to happen to a plant it will be one of the good ones.

Royal Hillbilly is another I've had seeds laid out to grow and have never sowed yet. Will put in on next years list.

I'm trying to keep good notes. Hopefully if all goes fair I should have plenty of tomatoes to eat, give away, sell a few and save several seeds. I hope to have seeds for anyone that wants to try them next year. Jay

Jay,

Growing and trying all the varieties is such an adventure, but I did finally get to the point where I needed to get serious about finding the ones that produce best so I get the best possible production.

Just wait until you try Royal Hillbilly. It did amazingly well last year in a very hot, dry, droughty year and the flavor of the maters was outstanding. When I grew Goliath, it was a very heavy producer and everyone who ate the fruit liked them, but I think I like Supersonic and Ramapo a little better. (Of course, any homegrown tomato tastes yummy compared to supermarket ones.)

Tim always jokes that when he retires, we'll supplement our income by growing and selling tomatoes at farmer's markets. (I'm not really sure if he is serious or kidding.) Of course, in order to do that, we'd have to build some more raised beds.....so I guess we should start that process by adding maybe one new raised bed every year.

I also want to build a couple of self-watering containers either using Raybo's or somebody else's detailed directions, try tomatoes in them, and see what I think of their growth rate, productivity and flavor. Guess I can put that on the list of "Things To Do" for next year.

Dawn

Dawn,
I'm not sure how you get everything done you do now. I'm always behind. Seems my progress gets slower every year. I'm sure it is not age.
I tried Ramapo last year and lost the transplant I put out this year. Last year it only produced 2 fruit. Was probably the year. Goliath produced ten pounds which was one of the highest. What I've found is what does well elsewhere may not here. So have to find what will produce here and still have the best flavor possible. I have a Supersonic plant the Totally Tomaotes sent me free seeds of. I may drop it in somewhere and try it. Jet Star doesn't do well here for me and many others. Shady Lady is one that many have good results for and I have a nice plant of. Like a greenhouse owner in Liberal told my stepdad. Heartland does well and is popular here. In Wichita they say it doesn't do well at all. She said also that Jet Star is popular there and seems to struggle for most here. I think some plants have trouble with the wind and dry air. Black from Tula is one that many growers like around here as it seems to tolerate the heat, wind and drought and produce. I have read several favorable posts about Royal Hillbilly. So it and Black Krim along with George's Baker family heirloom will be on my 2010 list. Depending on results from this year I hope to keep the new list to 10-15 next year. Cheetham's PL is a salad size that I was told was the heaviest producer that the person had grown. I hope it does well here. Casey's Pure Yellow is another I'm anxious to see how it performs. Jay

Jay,

Well, I'm a stay-at-home wife and mom and my child is grown-up, so the yard, garden and animals are my "children" now. As long as I keep the house reasonably clean (harder than it sounds with dogs, cats and humans running in and out all day), prepare some home-cooked meals now and then, and stay caught up on the laundry, nobody around here minds if I am outside playing in the dirt all day. I guess it would be more accurate to say I'm in and out all day. When I get hot and that's at least once an hour in hot weather, I come inside and pour a cold drink, grab my laptop and sit down to cool off and visit GW for a few minutes. The hotter it gets, the more time I spend inside and the less I spend outside. I try to get out right around sunrise to make the most of the cool temps most days.

For what it is worth, I feel like I am slower every year, and I am fairly sure it IS age. LOL I feel like I was so much more efficient and productive when I was 40 years old than now that I am 50. There are a lot of flowers I wanted to grow this year, and I never even got seed started because I had too much other stuff going on. Bad wildfire winters, which seem to occur about every other year here in Love County, really do mess up my seedstarting routine. I also wanted to build several new flower beds, and only one of them is currently in-work. Still, I just keep on keeping on and figure any progress is good.

We have been working for the entire 11 years since we moved here to improve our soil and convert lawn and pasture to mulched beds with trees, shrubs, groundcovers, perennials, etc. We started it then because we figured that if we did so, maybe we'd have a low-maintenance landscape by the time we're 60. In the beginning, all we did was mow and weed-eat, but now we are slowly reducing the amount of mowable area every year, so I know we're making progress. And, the less time I spend mowing, the more time I can spend on the veggie garden and landscape area. I currently have about 300 small plants (mostly reseeding annuals and perennials) in flats that I am trying to keep alive until I can get the bermuda grass removed where I want to plant them. I thought I'd be finished with the bed by now, but removing bermuda grass always takes longer than I think it will.

Since I have heavy, slow-draining clay and you have fast-draining sandy soil, it could be that plants that grow and produce well for you won't work well for me and vice versa. I guess we'll find out as time goes by and we compare notes. I also don't have the wind issues you have, or at least not very often. Our garden has windbreaks, more or less, on three sides although they aren't solid and some winds come through. Still, I know that our garden is much more sheltered than yours.

I posted a separate message that said "It is raining at Jay's!" I hope it pours down gently and makes your plants grow, grow, grow.

Dawn