Rose
The answers to your questions have been asked before. Using a search tool you will get links to anything you wish to know.

"Bloody Butcher" then add tomato or taste or flavor

search

Here is a link that might be useful: Google search

There are a couple of really good sites selling seeds or plants of heirloom tomatoes such as Laurel's heirloomtomatoplants and tomatofest that have a lot of information for each type (climate preference, days to maturity, flavor, size etc. for hundreds of tomatoes). You can probably find the seed cheaper at other sites once you decide what looks good.

For big plants figure 3ft between plants in all directions. That would give you five or six plants in one row, double that if your space has room to either side for roots so you can put in two rows with 3 ft between. The important thing is root space per plant for more fruit, not number of plants. They will shade each other out and compete for water. If you put up a line or fence trellice down the row you can fit in more plants than if you cage them.

Alot of the black tomatoes and other Russian varieties ripen early and go until frost. I would look to them first for your zone. Black Krim is one of my favorites. Heavy production on a medium sized (4ft) plant with 5" tomatoes (Paul Robeson is another). Stupice is an early producing Russian red with good flavor and good production of 3" fruit. Both are widley available. You might want to look into Sunset's Red Horizon as well for a big red/pink russian with award winning flavor.

Hope this helps

How many tomato plants you can successfully grow in a bed 4 feet wide and 16 feet long depends on several factors, among them 1) what varieties you plant and whether they are dwarf, short stake determinate, cordon indeterminate, and considering other size factors exhibited by individual varieties, 2) whether you trellis and prune your indeterminates, like pruning to a single central stem supported by a drop line, or whether you grow them unpruned in wire cages, 3) whether you Florida weave your short stake determinates or grow them on individual stakes or in individual cages.

There are other factors that come into play as well such as whether your bed is a raised bed filled with a rich growing medium or a flat garden in less fertile soil or hard clay, how deep the tilth is, the adequacy of drainage, etc. Factors such as access may play a role in your layout. Certainly the amount and duration of sunlight that falls on our tomato bed will be a factor.

So, when all factors are taken into consideration, you may be able to grow up to one plant in every square foot of bed to no more than one plant in every 9 square feet. The answer is not as simple as some would make it.

If you prune to a single or a double stem (I prune to double) and grow up a drop line or trellis, you can put plants at 1 foot intervals and have more variety.

For early tomatoes, my standard is Stupice which is listed as 52 days. The flavor is good, and it's the earliest I've found. I tried Silvery Fir Tree, not quite as early, bigger fruit, nice flavor, but not very productive for me. You might want to look also at Siletz and Matina.

I've had excellent luck with Dona as my "mainstay," very good flavor, good slicer, and reliable. A good all around tomato. If I could only grow 6, this would be on the list. If I could only grow one tomato, this would probably be the one.

In a 4 X 16 you can probably get a dozen plants (two rows of six) without too much crowding. Maybe fourteen. I usually plant six in my 4 X 12, but this year I may cut back to a single row of four plants down the center.

You will notice the same varieties cropping up over and over in these forums. Some seem to do really well for most people, depending on yearly weather condition, etc. Southern climates usually have a wider range of varieties that grow/produce well, but lots and lots of good varieties are available for the shorter summers as well.

I think you will see Sungold and Black Cherry on most lists mentioning the cherry type tomatoes. These two are sort of the benchmarks and are pretty sure bets for more people. Bloody Butcher is not a large tomato, but bigger than the cherries, and is very popular as an earlier variety with excellent taste. You will see it mentioned alot in the smaller/earlier varieties.

I prefer the larger red and pink beefsteak types. I don't delve much into the other colors except for the purples or somewhat darker ones. Of these you will see Black from Tula, Cherokee Purple, Carbon, and Paul Robeseon as favorites, with Robeson usually being the best. Generall speaking. Other top favorites of differert colors include Kellogg's Breakfast, Tom's Yellow Wonder, Aunt Ruby's German Green, and a very few others.

Of the larger reds and pinks you will see Brandywine Sudduth, Brandy Boy, a new one called Earl's Faux, Big Beef, Aker's West Virginia, Mortgage Lifter, Neves Azorean Red, Stump of the World, Omar's Lebanese, Coustralee, Zogola, and a few more. This seems to constitute the heart of the all star team that gets consistently good results around the country. And again, it will vary from place to place, year to year, with local weather conditions.

This will get you started. I'm new to the game also, but learn a lot from these forums. I watch the lists pretty close and I think you will see these varieties over and over as good choices.

Hope this helps!

Don

I think another try for the Brandywines might be in order... although, I'm unclear as to whether or not you have Sudduths... (I'm not sure which one TT offers) which is supposed to be the best. If you don't like them - there's nothing saying you HAVE to grow them... :)