Yes, heat can really do tomatoes in, and they can taste bland if you have to water them lots and lots to keep the plants alive! Rutgers tomatoes do well for me, are delicious though not large, and I'm a couple of states south of you. If you had a determinate version of Rutgers, it would run out of steam before the end of summer anyway.

I know others here can give you variety names that might do well in your area, and you can also contact your County Extension office and ask them. They'll know your soil type as well as temperatures, and other growing conditions, etc., and those things do affect how well anything grows in an area.

Good luck! A good tomato crop can make up for a lot of other poor crops.

Agree that your local county extension office is a wealth of info - well worth a visit to them. In addition to Anney's suggestions about watering and location effects on taste, also consider using heavy mulching to help stabilize moisture levels in the soil. Oh, and Rutger's is a determinate variety so it will normally crop and peter-out accordingly. ;)

CP generally gets good reviews here and Opalka is a great and popular paste variety - for both fresh eating and for canning. But much of your choices will depend on what plants are available locally - unless you plan to grow from seed?

You might also want to check with the folks over on the regional gardening forum for your area. They can tell you which varieties have done the best for them.

Gardening in Virginia

SE Coastal Gardening

Hope this helps.

Dave

Thanks for the advice. The tomatoes I grew were indeterminate (at least 8 feet tall at the end of the season!)- but I'm pretty sure they were packaged as Rutgers. Perhaps they have another variety? Anyway, I keep the soil very heavily mulched with yard clippings. I'm thinking that the heat from the wall made them wilt a smidge during the day and perk back up at night, thus promoting cracking.

I'll look into Opalka. Is there a difference between a "paste" tomato and other canning tomatoes that you would use for, say, salsa? I noticed that "Amish paste" seems to be mentioned a lot, but I wanted to make more than just tomato paste. But perhaps I'm revealing my newness at tomato canning...

I didn't realize there was a regional gardening section. I'll definitely check that out! Thanks!

Laura

NP

There is a variety of Rutgers that is indeterminate. You can see it on this page, called Rutgers Select #3695.

I got the determinate version of Rutgers, but it also acted like an indeterminate in my deck container. It stopped producing in mid-July but kept growing and produced more tomatoes beginning in late August.

You'll have fun trying new varieties of tomatoes, and may you have no disappointments!

Anney is quite correct that there is an indeterminate strain of Rutgers that can be grown from seed, but I assumed you bought the plants and it's the common determinate variety called just plain Rutgers that one sees for sale as plants. That said, it can indeed grow quite tall and, in some climates, produce a late second crop. But if full season production is your goal then you want to plant indeterminate varieties as they will produce till frost.

Is there a difference between a "paste" tomato and other canning tomatoes that you would use for, say, salsa?

Not really as any and all tomatoes can be canned or used to make sauce, salsa, or tomato paste. It just takes more cooking down. ;) In fact many of us prefer to use a wide variety of tomatoes in our canning - more color and more taste. Planting some determinate varieties helps if you plan to can as you get a good crop all at once.

When you get a chance, come on over to the Harvest Forum as that were all we home canners hang out along with several of the professional cooks/canners. Lots of great info on home canning, drying, recipes, and preserving. ;) And when you do, search out "Annie's Salsa" recipe as it has a very popular following and allows for use lots of different kinds of tomatoes.

Dave

{{gwi:10965}}

PS: oh, and for heavy mulching, I'm talking about 8-10" deep. Can you get enough yard clippings to go that deep? I use hay as we have plenty of it but straw and many other organic materials also work well.

Wow, that's a lot of mulch! We have a lot of lawn (by landlord choice, not ours), but I'm not sure I can come up with THAT much. In the current bed, the matted-down clippings are about 4" deep at the moment. Guess I'll buy some straw! BTW - how to you keep the stink bugs down with so much mulch for them to hide in?

I did start last year's plants from seed. I am lucky to have a south facing picture window with absolutely no shade in front (this is also the brick wall that I planted against last year). I can actually grow seedlings on the windowsill provided that I turn them occasionally.

I'll definitely check out the harvest forum. I usually make a lot of jam in the summer, but have been thinking that I should try to make salsa and sauce, at the rate we go through them!

Good to know that the determinate varieties will yield a more time-concentrated harvest. I've only ever grown indeterminate varieties.

Thanks everyone for the advice!

Laura

Oh, wait - one more question! Since the Rutgers were so bland last year, was there something I was or was not doing that could affect the flavor? We had a really big drought, but I didn't water too much (I think) due to the grass clipping mulch, so I don't think I watered it down. We have a silty, very slightly sandy loam underlain by clay (about a foot down). It's actually really nice to garden in after growing up in stone-ridden Boston area and then clay for 10 years in Georgia! I put fertilizer in each planting hole, then didn't fertlize thereafter.