Mid-term report

14 years ago

I would like to give a mid season report on the tomato varieties in my garden. I planted two gardens, one in my back yard, the other in a community garden plot. I planted Italian heirloom from two seed sources, Neaves Azorean Red (thanks to Carolyn for introducing this variety), Cherokee purple, Brandywine OTV (another Carolyn var.), a particularly productive strain of Brandywine pink, Moscow (popular locally in Utah), Marianna's peace, Julia Child, and Amana Orange.

The tomatoes in my community garden failed due to 2,4 D exposure. Those plants are still alive but the leaves are curled and they have not grown since. They probably will not produce this season. I lost a lot more varieties from that. Don't use 2,4 D anywhere near your veggie garden! And contrary to other threads on gardenweb, they will not grow out of the herbicide easily.

In my home garden, to date Italian heirloom is the only one to set fruit so far in these hot temps and has no sign of disease. There does seem to be some differences in the Italian heirlooms from the two seed sources. One source has produced smaller plants, but both are setting fruit. These naturally wispy foilage toms are doing well.

Neaves has lush robust foilage but few blossums and no sign of disease. Its probably one of the healthiest plants in the garden. I expect great things from this variety this year. I suspect that it may just be a later season variety than the others.

Brandywine pink is loaded with blossums but no fruit set yet and is showing signs of yellowing on the lower branches. Last year I had huge production from this strain. Other times I have grown brandywine pink the plants bearly produced.

Brandywine OTV has a medium amount of blossums and has no signs of disease. This one has done well in my soils/climate the past 3 years. I find it sets fruit later in the year than other vars.

Cherokee purple is smaller than the other plants but is healthy and has lots of blossums. This represents a change from years past when it was one of the earlier varieties and was one of the largest plants. I expect it to do well this season as it has in the past. No yellowing is seen yet.

Marianna's peace and Julia Child have no precievable difference between them so far and have less blossums than the Brandywine pink. Otherwise they look the same as the other potatoe leaved varieties. At the moment, I can't remember whether they are showing signs of disease. I will have to look when I get home.

Moscow has produced shorter bushier plants, but they are healthy so far but not as many blossums yet. Last year this plant crushed the tomato cages because they were so heavy with fruit. This year the harvest may be more modest.

Amana orange was started later this year so it is a couple weeks back from the others. So far so good, healthy and growing. This one is a somewhat later variety as well.

I will keep you posted as the season progresses.

Kevin

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Comments (5)

capoman
14 years ago
I wish this site had areas dedicated to grow journals allowing direct uploads of photos. It would be great to watch progress of plantings such as yours.
claydirt
14 years ago
Want a status report from Indiana? A bucket of aged horse manure grows a great looking plant! Yehaa! Now for the bad news.

4 Brandywine plants (2 pink, 2 either red or pink) that I started from seed are over the top of their 4 foot cage. Perhaps 4 or 5 green tomatoes on each. Good number of flowers but no fruit set in the past month (weather). At least I end up with a few of these great tomatoes to eat.

1 Carbon plant purchased from local organic couple. 2 green tomatoes. Good number of flowers but no fruit set in the past month (weather). This local couple (business) started 2500 tomato plants - most if not all heirloom. Glad I know them! 2 Burpee Supersteak plants status is about the same as the Carbon. 2 Cherry tomato plants may end up with some fruit (usually they over-produce, so this year it may be manageable)

We really need a break in the weather here or there may not be any more fruit set this year. Feels like August out, the yard is all crunchy brown.
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Tomatobaby
14 years ago
Most of my sungold are at least 3-4 feet by now, one that is probably about 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide - it is a monster. There is a lot of green fruit, but have only picked a handful of sungolds off of 7 plants. Have an orange banana that has a good amount (12+) fruits but all green and they have been green for weeks.

Have 3 or 4 cherries and they are big w/ fruit but still green. The bigger tomatoes - Uncle Mark Bagby and Patano Romanesca are just starting to set fruit now.

Have had some fungus problems on the leaves and it is starting and usually gets all the tomatoes by end of summer.

Capoman - I have been thinking the same thing! I've asked my hubby to write a phone app or something that I can use to just take pictures so I can visually track how my plants do ... I want to stagger my plantings more and see if that makes a difference in how the plants do.
suncitylinda
14 years ago
Last year I planted everything out mid March. This year I spread it out much more which seems to be working well. I have a long growing season and dont usually get killing frost until late Nov. or later.

Lots of Early Blight this year.

Brandywine Red, Landis is a real star and trooper. Heavy fruit set and seems to be the least impacted by EB. Moravsky Div has been a great early with lots of golf ball size and larger fruit but it will succumb to LB in the next week.

Have also harvested Rosella Purple, SunGolds, Early Girls, Moskvich (a fave) Druzba, Fourth of July and a few Orange Bananas as well as a few others paste types.
samsthumb
14 years ago
Planted Brandywine, Brandy Boy, Black from Tula, Prue, Better Boy, Cherokee Green, Cherokee Purple, Pink Girl, Opalka, Aunt Ginny, Eva, and Black Krimm (my favorite) on May 1. Lots of fruit set, some the size of softballs on Better Boy, Brandy Boy and Black Krimm. Ate a Black Krimm a week ago. I have never had tomatoes prior to 4th before, except for cherries. Another Black Krimm and Prue will be picked in next couple of days. Better Boys and Cherokee Green are turning. Brandywine is my only poor producer so far, the rest are doing great. This should be a bumper crop year even though we've only had 2 inches of rain total in two rainfalls since May 2. Mid-Missouri is experiencing a drought so I have quite a water bill. I have noticed little disease on plants this year, but I spray every 10 days with fungicide.