If you want larger yields grow some hybrids.

The old "quantity vs. quality" debate. ;)

Personally I've never cared to track # of pounds per plant as quality is far more important to me. I keep a rough idea of number of fruit from a plant just to figure how many of a certain variety to plant the following year. But even then it is quality of the fruit that truly counts.

You can grow 2 Yellow Pear plants and likely get 35 lbs. of fruit from them. But then why would anyone want 35 lbs. of Yellow pear? Meanwhile you can grow 1 Brandywine Sudduth and maybe only get 5 lbs. of tomatoes but they will be some of the best tomatoes you ever eat.

Yields in pounds just isn't a consideration IMO but Mule is right, if #lbs. is what is important to you then grow the common hybrids that are bred to produce heavily regardless of quality.

This year I have a 15 X 30' plot with Lots of sun at a local community garden. I want mostly sauce, and salsa, so my picks for this years grow revolve around that goal. I am limited to about 10 plants and I am going all heirloom.

You can get more than 10 plants in that size space and a diverse variety of tomatoes - not just paste types - makes the very best sauce and salsa's but I'd use San Marzano instead of Amish Paste. Consider Matina for early and Anna Russian and Rostova - both tasty oxhearts and heavy producers IME.

Dave

Thanks Dave. It is really quality as you say. I have some other veggies to grow, but I am getting the impression 10 may not be enough. Our company did a plot in this garden last year and 18 plants yielded 300 lbs of tomatoes for the local food banks. I usually buy 40-50 lbs from local growers to can, so that was my baseline. Of course I am completely out already, so obviously I did not have enough. This year more whole tomatoes and juice is in the plan. Maybe my 10 should be 20 with some more flavors to enhance the sauce. You guys are a horrible influence on me. I better start making more cages.

Meanwhile you can grow 1 Brandywine Sudduth and maybe only get 5 lbs. of tomatoes but they will be some of the best tomatoes you ever eat.

The hybrid, Brandy Boy, has good flavor and high yields.

One can get quality hybrids too.

Hybrid vigor for flavor is possible.

I plant for retail sales at a farmers market and only count on getting 10-20# per plant. Of course, this is only good enough tomatoes to sell, otherwise almost perfects. I always get some not so perfect, but I don't count them. When I do MY canning, I use the not so perfect along with any that don't sell at market. I may not be right in my thinking, but that's what I do. I also include all sizes of fruit in my calculations. 10-20# is an average over all of the sizes and varieties.

10-20 #'s makes sense in that perspective. I often try to pick up a few bags of those not so perfect from my local stand during my canning sessions. Using that formula my 10 plants would net 100 to 200#'s. That is probably OK, but I would still be buying some tomatoes to get all my canning done. 35-40 #'s per plant would probably be OK, but I am getting the fealing here, that that is too high a yield to count on from one year to the next. Maybe 20 plants. The good news is, that let's me plant some more varieties. I have some seeds like carbon, that may provide some interesting flavors and search for new favorites. I really wanted to try motgage lifter as well. Too many tomatoes and too little space. Thanks for everyones thoughts.

I had a couple of Red Zebra plants last year (fantastic for sauce and juice) and I was averaging 15-18 ripe tomatoes each time I picked them, which was about twice a week. They were still going strong when the killing frost hit so my guess is getting 35 pounds or more of these in a decent year is not a stretch.

Mike

Is Brandy Boy flavor really similar/comparable or even close to that of Brandywine Sudduth? I would like to try it in Memphis if close enough with the extra yield.

I have terrible hard clay soil that tomato roots can't grow in, plus my tomato plants usually succumb to disease. As a result I get yields of zero per plant up to maybe three or four pounds per plant. Therefore I have to usually plant about 20 or 30 plants to barely feed four people. I never have luck with large fruited tomatoes, they always rot before they ripen.

Athey, Brandyboy is best sub for BW in our zone 7 IMO. Ponderosa and Rose are good all around toms for me.
PS update your page if you want PMs from other members

Good Luck Bill

SORRY NO PMs this Web

6lb-25 lbs is general range for most plants.
As for how acheive great yield that is up to the growing practices of grower.

Californian, have you tried mulching? If you don't have the time to work amendments into the clay over a large area, mulching it with something like grass clippings can help tremendously.

I have put tons of amendments in my soil, actually many tons, including 70 cubic yards of compost, maybe a hundred bags of mulch, potting soil, bark, planter mix, what have you. I even tried dried cat food. One problem I forgot to mention is my endless battle with Bermuda grass and oxalis which keep trying to take over my garden. I also put a ton of gypsum and hundreds of pounds of fertilizer. Anything with a tap root or powerful roots like Bermuda grass does good, but stuff with weak roots like tomatoes or fruit trees can't get through the clay. Eucalyptus and Chinese elm trees have powerful roots and can get through the clay.

Bill,
I appreciate the Brandy Boy response , but need more info about undating my page and PMs.

athey this website does not have pm's
updating your page here in not worth it do to the antiquated interface.

For the last two years, I have harvested and sold over 30 pounds per plant. This is what I have ran over the scales. This doesn't take into account ones that go bad on the vine or crack and split. However, these are growing in my high tunnels. Grown outside, I don't have any good numbers.

Jay

Californian,

With all that work doing the right things I think you should be getting a better result. I don't know how big your garden area is but adding "tonnage" quantities should have gotten some better results. Unless maybe you have done too much of a good thing!

I'd suggest talking to your ag agent and doing a soil test.
It sounds like you are willing to invest some money in the matter so see if the state can offer trace mineral testing with the standard tests.

need to start out with high quality transplants.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.californiaheirloomtomatoplants.com/

This is the fourth time I see a link to an online tomato plant seller from this heirloomtomatolife. Are there any rules about spamming?

I have put tons of amendments in my soil, actually many tons, including 70 cubic yards of compost, maybe a hundred bags of mulch, potting soil, bark, planter mix, what have you.

Just amend the planting hole. One third peat moss and/or compost by volume should suffice. Depending on how lazy you are, hole sizes up to 2' diameter and 2' deep are practical.

Struwwelpeter, I do amend the planting holes, and I make big holes, maybe ten to twelve inches deep and a foot to 15 inches wide. I have used everything from potting soil to planter mix to shredded bark to compost to bagged mulch to organic tomato fertilizer to grass clippings to cactus growing formula, even tried dried cat food. But when I pull the plants after they die or at the end of the season I see most of the roots are still clustered in an area about the size to the four inch pot they were transplanted from. My soil is getting fluffy from all the compost I put on it, but only to a depth of about four inches because that's the deepest my 8 horsepower Troy Bilt rototiller can till in my rock hard clay/caliche. If I dig a hole about two feet deep the clay changes from gray color to yellowish orange clay/silt that is full of veins of some white mineral deposit that may be salt or some alkali mineral or lime. When I first came across this white stuff I thought I had discovered dinosaur bones. Some of these veins of white mineral are an inch thick. BTW, there is oil under my property, in fact there are some capped oil wells within two hundred yards of my house. This impervious clay is probably what trapped the oil.

californian,

If there is no root growth within an amended planting hole, why waste more amendments outside the planting hole? Aside from the fact that roots don't grow within the fluffy contents of your planting hole, how are the above ground parts doing? Did you fertilize?

If I were you, I would do experiments growing tomatoes in pots, using your soil plus various amendments. Did you try peat moss? Did you try milled sphagnum moss? Did you try peat muck?

Why not drill for oil, and then you can buy all the tomatoes you want at your local farmer's market? ;)

http://www.aglabs.com/newletters/tomatoes.html

this article is for commerical growers of tomatoes.

Calif
Try Earthtainers(homemade SWC with plans to make them) if you want send me an email mtbigfish@earthlink.net and I will let you know or send you a copy of the plans - they are free - there is quite a bit of info on container growing and really good production on another site - I haven't checked if there is much here I have had to grow in containers myself over the years

but on this site a user Miesenbacher does a lot of container growing though not earthtainers and posts alot on another site - you may want to check here and see if there is a thread

Dennis