In my garden, several have been very good producers this year, including:

Black Cherry
Ildi
Indian Stripe
Cherokee Purple
True Black Brandywine
Riesentraube
Nebraska Wedding
Gary O Sena
Dana's Dusky Rose
JD's Special C-Tex
Heidi
Dora
Heinz 1439
Rutgers

A lot of the hybrids I grow for canning are outproducing the heirlooms I grow for fresh eating/canning, but in this heat, that's not surprising.

Dawn

Out of about 40-50 varieties this year, I've been most impressed with Black Krim (as usual) and Japanese Trifele Black (new to me). Both are putting out the most out of all and they taste great.

It's not a great tomato year for me and even the cherries aren't producing much. Well, except Tess's Land Race. LOL Mine, though, doesn't have the great flavor I've heard talked about, just kind of average.

Diane

Diane,

The flavor may be impacted by moisture. I don't think my Tess's were as flavorful in last year's heavy rain but their flavor perked up in August when the rain stopped here.

Dawn

Yep. that's what I thought as well. We've had enough dry weather but right by Tess is where I let the kids play in the sprinkler once in a while. It just dawned on me that that might be the problem. LOL Noted and will pick a different location next time.

Diane

I have seeds for Rutgers and Japanese Trifele that I didn't get started this year, so I'll be sure to give them a try next year.

I got my Tess's Land Race plants into the ground really late, so they are just starting to grow up the trellis. I'm hoping they'll take off for fall. I have one little Reisentraube, but I think it's stunted because it's only about 2 ft. tall. Too bad because I've heard they are great.

Our soil isn't great this year, so I can't properly judge all of the varieties we're growing. I will definitely keep growing the ones that have done well, though. I figure that if they can survive in this soil, they're keepers.

Diane,

I do love the current location. It is just so big and gorgeous there, and I love the photos of it on your blog.

Remember how people used to plant hollyhocks to 'hide' the outhouse back in the olden days? (By that, I meant that you and I have heard stories of how people did that....not that we're old enough to remember it ourselves. lol) Well, if I wanted to hide any sort of building, I think I'd plant Tess's. It gets bigger and fuller than any hollyhock I've ever grown.

Dawn

And the Japanese Beetles don't eat Tess, but they make lace out of the Hollyhocks. My hollyhocks wouldn't hide an outhouse, or even a Sears cataloge, and by the time they bloomed, they looked like flowers on a stem with lace for leaves.

I understand that they planted those because it was uncouth (is that a word?) to say. "Where is your outhouse", but perfectly acceptable to say, "Where are your hollyhocks?"

I would have to have had some production at all to be able to answer. LOL

As we get into this ridiculous heat, amazingly I found the first fruit set on my plants. Not much. This has been the most awful year I've ever had for tomatoes.

~Laura

Carol, I've heard that too....that 'genteel' people would ask if they could go see the hollyhocks rather than asking if they could go use the outhouse.

I didn't get around to planting hollyhocks this year because it was so wet at all the wrong times. A few reseeded but not many because I had stolen ground from the flower border and put tomatoes there, so the hollyhocks couldn't come up through the heavy mulch around the tomatoes. Maybe next year will be a better hollyhock year.

Laura, With all the rain y'all had in the spring, I have heard a lot of people in your part of the state lost some or all their tomatoes before getting any tomatoes from them. As a tomato lover, I consider that a horrible tragedy. I was hoping the cool (with cool being relative) rainy spell last week would help everyone's plants set fruit.

Are your plants healthy and just haven't been setting fruit because of the heat/humidity, or has the constant rain and high humidity spawned diseases?

I am sorry you're having a bad tomato year. When I have a bad tomato year, it makes it seem like the longest, worst summer ever.

I see new tomatoes on my plants, but with no rain falling here, I don't know how well they'll progress and ripen. In this heat and humidity, it is too hot to spend time outside watering the plants. All I do is run out and harvest and do whatever else I can early in the day before the heat arrives and then scurry inside by about 9:30 or so. Our heat index hits about 100 around 10:30 or 10:45 every day and I like to be inside and have all the dogs and cats inside by the time the heat index is 100. Then, the heat index stays at or above 100 until sometime after 8 p.m., so there isn't much time to water in the evenings either.

It is pretty discouraging to get up at 5 a.m. in order to be outside by 6 or 6:15 a.m. and the temperature at 5 a.m. is 77 or 78 or 79. I can handle heat if the nights are cool, but once the nights are staying near 80, you feel like you never get a chance to really cool off.

My yard, chicken coops and garden have been invaded by snakes this week, so it is just as well I'm hanging out inside because I don't like snakes. I know the snakes are just looking for a meal and/or a cool place to come inside out of the heat, but that doesn't mean I want them underfoot here. One of our neighbors killed two copperheads in his garage in the same day.

This is turning into such a long, hot, humid, miserable summer with all the garden issues that accompany that kind of weather.

Is it too early to start talking about next year?

Dawn

I'm pretty ashamed of my tomatoes, Nice looking vines not much friut tho. The only tomatoes that are doing any good are the deterninates "Gurney's Burgermasters, they are loaded with good size green friut.

Oh well I have a new digging fork from Lee Valley am I proud or what.

Charlie

It was a rough year all around for me. My Burpee Pink Brandywine did OK, about 12 fruit per plant, but half never made it to anyone's plate because of cracking, rot, etc. Cherokee Purple did well early, but nothing after that. Belgium Giant did very well with yields (most productive of all) and fruit size, but poor quality. Delicious was similar to Belgium Giant, but not quite as good. All the others were poor. Brandy Boy did pretty well, and it is pretty close to the heirlooms in taste/texture for me.

I am probably going to let Brandywine and Brandy Boy keep going, but the other will be pulled up by the end of the month. Oh, and Rutgers produced a ton of fruit, but I didn't use enough support so half of the fruit was damaged by the sun or being too close to the ground.

I should also add that I have discoverd that at least half of the performance of each type can be attributed to how well I took care of them. Even Celebrity did poorly for me this year in some beds that I didn't care for well.

Rutgers has done exceptionally well for me. Of course, this is based on the fact that I didn't really, honestly, and faithfully care for my tomatos in past years. It bears a lot of fruit, and tho they have been smaller since the heat hit us, they are still very tasty tomatos. I have tons of green fruit on the plant right now just waiting to ripen. I will probably plant this one again for its flavor, vigor, production, heat tolerance, and general health. It is showing signs of Early Blight now, but it has been a surprisingly strong plant in all the categories mentioned. I don't have much else to compare it to, except Jet Star, which is not an heirloom.

Susan

MORTGAGE LIFTER.

This has been the saving grace for me this year. I harvested over 2 dozen Mortgage Lifter tomatoes, all weighing 1# each, before I ever harvested another heirloom.

Outside of the four early ones I got on Memorial Day weekend, which were 2 Arkansas Travelers and 2 Lemon Boys, I have just this week harvested a few Lemon Boys and am still waiting on Arkansas Traveler and Black Prince. Am still waiting on my hybrids too.

Mortgage Lifter is the star of my garden in an unhappy year.

Marcy

Still too early for me to make any judgments. If I do disease or something may hit and change the results. I have been getting a few. Starting to pick a few every day. Mainly cherries and plum sized. I picked my first one in June so over a month earlier than last year. The only mid to large size I have picked so far have been hybrids. They were both large plants I bought to put out right after our last frost. Pink Girl hybrid so far has done well and continues to set well. Hopefully the heirloom/op's will be starting to ripen soon. Then can start making some judgments. Hate to say much as I don't want to jinx the crop. And with the insect vectored diseases know things can change in a day. They say their is a 7-14 day period from when a plant is infected and it shows signs. But have some that are looking promising. After everyone else has left this thread and moved to what they are going to grow next year I will be posting my results. Jay

Jay,

Just for your sake, I'm trying really hard not to start on next year's list until August. Ok? I sure am making mental notes about what I want to grow, though!

All the types I'm growing only for canning (Santa Clara Canner, Rutgers, Rutgers Select, Heinz 1439 and Heidi) are about to ripen large crops, so I'll be busy with them until sometime in August. They've all done really well despite the heat, so I think we'll 'harvest' a bumper crop of salsa this year.

Marcy, I love, love, love Mortgage Lifter and it always produces very well for me. I didn't grow either Radiator Charlie's ML or Estler's ML this year because Jay sent me so many wonderful new varieties to try, and seeing your photo makes me regret I don't have any MLs in the garden. Estler's always produces earlier for me and then Radiator Charlie's produces later, so I guess for a perfect Mortgage Lifter year, I need to plant them both.

In some hot, dry, just impossibly awful drought years, Mortgage Lifter has produced better for me than almost anything else. I think it is a very vigorous plant compared to many others in terms of its ability to survive whatever weather Mother Nature throws at it.

Dawn

Dawn,
My plants were hit hard by the heavy rains in May - and as soon as they started looking better, they were hit hard by the excessive heat followed by excessive rain in June. Their growth seem stunted and the leaves reamined weirdly curled. Just in the last few weeks they've put on a tremendous amount of growth (which all looks very healthy) and I actually have two small fruit set on a Sioux plant. The cherokee purple and the brandywine cherry are huge, but no fruit. (I have not fertilized other than spraying the leaves with miracle grow as was suggested a while back because of the curled leaves.)

I do think I am going to try fall tomatoes this year. I don't have much to lose at this point.

~Laura

Dawn did I send you seed for Glick's 18 Mennonite? All the plants I have of it are setting well so far. Jan said hers were also.

In the past only growing 1 plant of a variety many times and for one year if it didn't do well I've really never gave some good ones a chance. And ML maybe in the group. The year I grew it big plant with very few fruits. Another I probably should give another chance too. But now my list of favorites and must grows is so long I can't grow or regrow as many as I have in the past and I would desire too. I planted 2-3 plants of more varieties this year than I have in the last several. Planning on increasing that to 5-6 of many and growing few varieties. But then that means growing fewer of the new ones I receive.

I've been interested in Darrel Merrills favorites and developed varieties for some time. Has been slow aquiring seeds of several of them. I'm also growing Yellow 1884 Pinkheart this year. Have a few more on my wish list to get seeds for. So far the 1884 Pinkheart is setting well. The Royal Hillbilly I'm hoping will set more when temps moderate. I like to find those from growers closer to me.Usually a better chance they will do better here. Jay

Dawn,
Like I've warned Carol just leave a few empty spots in those mental notes for tomato seed gift packages that the Tomato elf may deliver later. Jay

Tomato Elf - Creates a great mental picture. LOL

Laura,

Thanks for the reply. I was wondering if they hea rain waterlogged the roots or if hail or a tornado got your plants, or what it was. So, did the leaves ever uncurl? I have one plant that has been curled for so long that I don't think the leaves will ever straighten out. The top growth comes out healthy, but curls within days. It is in a really bad spot, on the west side of a metal shed, but I can't decide if it is heat stress or a nutritional deficiency or a virus. It is still producing tomatoes though, even though it looks sad.

Now that yours are putting out new growth, maybe they'll recover. New plants for fall might 'save' your tomato year, as in "better late than never" when it comes to having tomatoes.

Keep us posted on how it does. We're really good at commiserating and hand-holding during a tomato crisis.

Jay,

You sent me Glick's but I had a germination failure.

I always save space for seeds from the Tomato King. How do you spell tomato seed happiness?

A-N-T-I-C-I-P-A-T-I-O-N.

Dawn