I'm not an experienced grower, but I had a good year in upstate NY, at least by my own standards.

8 marglobe plants with about 6 volunteer romas from last year. Marglobe in raised bed and produced many toms. Big crop ripening on the table right now, and at least another 50 large green ones on the plants to go. Plus they are still growing and putting out new flowers.

The romas were behind the others so didn't get much of the great sun, but they are still giving me a nice little crop, maybe 30 tomatoes so far with another 50 on the plants. Since they are so vigorus, I'll save some seed this year and give them a proper planting next season.

I have just learned about picking at the break stage and this has helped me greatly as I have only tossed a few tomatoes so far. Last year I tossed 25 or 30 with a similar amount of plants.

I have never tasted one of the super tasty heirlooms, but the marglobes so far are far better than a store bought watermatoe.

Our spring was normal here, if a bit warm, and we had a super hot and dry july, August has been tremendously rainy so picking at break stage I think is even more important for my area.

Looking foward to next season alrady, steaks didn't work this season as I didn't prune suckers (first time doing that) so next year I'm making big homeade cages, or possibly florida weave.

Really glad I stumbled upon this forum, hope to continue to contribute from here on out.

Second year grower.

Only put out (2) varieties this year.

Better Boy and Brandy Boy.

Planted these because the taste of last year's tomatoes wasn't worth the planting.

Pleased to say ... these are some good-tasting tomatoes.

Unfortunately, the extreme temperatures in July has kept production way down. But the recent break in temperatures has resulted in a lot more tomatoes on the vine.

I can hardly wait until they ripen.

Other than the temperatures, I really didn't have much trouble with pests or disease (I may have lost one tomato).

I believe that I'm committed to doubling the number of plants I put out next year. I'll probably stay with the Better and Brandy Boys, and may add a Lemon Boy.

Estler Mortgage Lifter did wonderful..averaged about 20 oz weighed on a Paula Dean scales. Burpee Orange Slice was a great new find....will grow it again. Cherokee Purple did good and it was my first yr growing and the taste is above avg as everyone says. Mr Stripey(the big bi color one) did medium and I like its sweet taste. Grew Italian Ice, Orange Paruque and Choc Cherry small tomatoes. The orange were the sweeter..the II the more robust producer but I got more feedback from the dark ones just because of their color I guess. All in all my tomatoes did very good.

My summary is short but not sweet.

Way too wet early followed by way too hot for far too long. Poor production from all varieties except the few earlies that beat the heat.

Dave

YOu have a way with words, Dave! LOL ! Heres wishing you a better next year! LInda

To answer the initial question, no. We aren't even done starting seedlings yet. A summary on Jan 1 2012 is in order though. I will say I have an ambitious fall crop to planting of 157 varieties - the remainder of the ones from my collection I have yet to plant this year.

2011 was the best tomato year in quite a while. I am in the Bay Area of CA.
Absence of squirrel predations is the primary reason. Last year I think I got one tomato from 15 plants. But I didn't give up. I swore under my breath a lot, but I tried again this year.
This year I have 5 freezer bags full of tomatoes and I'm not done yet.
I started paste varieties from seed (Roma, Marglobe, Polish Linguisa, Costoluto Fiorentina, and others). I bought 4 plants from nurseries: Omar's Lebanese, Black Plum, Green Giant, and Yellow Mandarin or maybe it is called Golden Mandarin.
I love Black Plum. Green Giant has lots of green fruit, so I don't know yet. The Mandarin I have just started to harvest. And Omar's was a great looking plant, but production has not been so good. It does have a nice big green fruit on it at the moment. One is better than none.
I used a fish emulsion foliar spray for fertilizer. I tried to water as little as possible as well. We have not had any days above 90 this summer so that helps.
My only regret is that if I had known that the squirrels would be so cooperative, I would have sown some more eating tomatoes in relation to sauce tomatoes. I have 4 eating variety plants versus 12 sauce types. But I love my tomato sauce too, so it is a minor quibble.

Weather - cooler than normal, lots of early morning cloud cover, cool nights

Diseases - mildew on squash, but that's pretty normal here

Production - loads of plum lemon tomatoes, good amount of watermelon beefsteak, not many purple Russian tomatoes, but I only had one of each plant

The yellow squash did ok, zuccini, not so much, but I planted late. The green beans are going to town, and okra will be ready to pick in a few days.

Peppers are not doing as well, except for the pepperoncini. I don't think the peppers like the cool damp weather.

Bugs - not too bad. Only a few hornworms early in the season, and the birds took care of them. Leafhoppers got on the tomato vines, but Safer seems to have taken care of them.

All in all, not bad.

Here is a link that might be useful: What's Growing On?

Here in Australia we are just starting our season. The last frost has past (hopefully) and I have a lot of tomatoes and peppers on heat pads getting started and some planted out in my plastic house. One tomato I'm going to try this year is Pink Ping Pong. I also bought some seeds of Peron (Sprayless) "reputed to have 25 times the vitamin C then other tomatoes and so insect resistant that it doesn't need spraying". Has anyone tried this? Last season-ending March 2011 I tried large tomatoes for the first time and was happy with Marriannas Peace and won the local large tomato competition with Giant Syrian. This year-just for fun I'm going to try grafting onto some local weedy solanums. Good luck with your Winter toms. Cheers max

I'm going to be lazy and link to my garden blog where I already made a long post about Tomato Class of 2011.

I live in Central Texas, which is having the second worst drought in history and the absolute hottest temperatures in history, so I should just be grateful I got any tomatoes at all. Cherokee Purple was especially impressive, setting fruit for a while after the other tomatoes shriveled up in the heat. It was still fruiting when temps were in the upper 90's, though once it got into the 110's even the CP's couldn't take it anymore.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Class of 2011

i enjoy reading the posts and the comments from the members. i took some notes for next year...

i was wondering - do any of you collect seeds from the tomatoes you grow this season for next year or is it just better to just buy new batch?
i looked up the proceed on line but not sure it is worth while

also, does anyone trade seeds? would love to exchange some if possible to try out next year few more varieties
thank you so much,
eli

Hey All... Fist of all, I just want to sum up the forum for 2011. REALLY AWESOME!! You all are great. I've learned so much from so many of you, so thank you for that. Now for the 'maters...

I had an interesting situation this year. For about 6 years now I've been getting my seedlings from Laurel's Heirloom Tomatoes, here in Southern California. She's been a reliable supplier of really great quality plants and seeds, and she is super kind to boot! Unfortunately, this year for the second year in a row some thing went wrong and 8 of the 14 varieties that I purchased from her were incorrect. So, apart from 6 of my plants, I have no idea what I was growing this year. And sadly, quite a few of those other plants were just kind of runty tomatoes...tasty but not what I look forward to in a big hearty summer tomato. That being said, the ones that I did know, I loved.

Cherokee Purple: My favorite tomato this season. Was supposed to be growing Paul Robeson and Black Krim too, but those grew as something else. The CP's were fantastic though. Hearty, deep smokey flavored and robust. Good producer. My favorite plant this season.

Anna Russian: My first time growing this one. Beautiful tomato with a great flavor. Its the one that people love to pick up from my tomato bowl and say, "gorgeous!" Will grow again.

Pineapple: My most prolific tomato of the season. Just tons of big multi colored tomatoes. Flavor not as bold as some of the other ones, but sure does look great on a plate. Golden tomatoes with red bursts inside, creating beautiful patterns. Impressive one to share with guests.

Green Zebra: I've always had great luck with this plant in the past, but this year it was a low yielder. I do really love the flavor of this tomato though and will always grow it in the future. It is very citrusy and unique among other more traditional tomato flavors.

Carbon: I love this small black tomato. This one was actually a clipping that I kept going from the prior year, and it produced beautifully. Deep flavor and a great size when ya just want a couple of bites of great tomato.

Chocolate Stripe: This one was also a clipping from the prior year although I didn't know what it was until it started fruiting. Another visual show-stopper. Deep green and red stripes that beg to be shown off. Flavor is great...not my absolute fave, but great. Produced well.

Berkely tie-dye: Hmmmm...sad to say I was unimpressed. Nice looking, but didn't love the flavor and the skin was very thick. Plant struggled with some fungal issues too, and lost it's mojo kinda early in the season. Wont grow again.

Apart from that, what I learned was that I have to spray earlier to discourage those nasty fungal problems that we seem to get in SoCal every year. But the plants were very happy overall, due to the homemade compost that I made this year for the first time. Composted through the winter and it was so worth it. Those plants were very happy and it was very rewarding to know that I actually created the soil that they lived in.

Season is not quite over though, so looking forward to a little more time with our indian summers here. Best to everyone. And thanks again for all the great posts!!
Best,
Don

Just North of Indy.

Spring was a bit cool, so my plants went out about 2 weeks later than normal, I didn't try my usual attempt to get the first tomato on the block this year either by using cool weather techniques. I started tons of seedlings and gave them away, except for mine of course :), about 30 varieties this year. Then we had the really hot, dry period and I thought the tomatoes would never turn red/ pink/ purple, etc. Eventually they did though and I have a ton of tomatoes, most not so pretty, but plenty for salsa and slicing anyway.
I had about 60/ 70 plants this year, mostly heirlooms
I stuck with the tried and true Celebrity, but added Park's Challenge, Razzleberry and Park's Megabite. Park's Challenge was my first tomato, but if I had planted at the same time, I think Megabite would have won. That is a really cool compact bush tomato. It's amazing how many tomatoes it will produce on a little stout plant, however they were all much smaller than advertised and I mostly use them in Salsa. Razzleberry is really a nice pink hybrid giving consistent medium tomatos that last a long time and are pretty hardy. Everyone I gave plants to also loved it and will grow again. Very tasty for a hybrid also. No for me, it did not give me the later season growth and tomatoes, but for my neighbor it is still going strong and producing, I think mine got hit with herbicide drift early on.
Pink Belgium was the next tomato to turn, and these are really delicious, but I also grew German Pink and they are a bit larger and prettier on average for me.
So this was my first year for purples/ blacks except for Black Cherry. I had Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, Carbon, Calabash, and Japanese Trifele. I would probably say Carbon is my favorite, but I only got 3 so far. Looks like a small late summer crop is coming on. To me, taste wise, Cherokee and Krim taste about the same, I love both of them and so do my friends, but Cherokee had better looking tomatoes, whereas Krim has produced better plants and more tomatoes, but they crack around the tomato for some reason. Trifele is a really pretty good producing tomato, but not as tasty as the others. Also, does Black Zebra count here? I love Green Zebra, but this is just, meh, so probably not going to grow next year, looks cool though.
For Orange tomatos I had Persimmon and Amana, both are terrific, Persimmon is a medium good producing tomato that is nice and long lasting/ hardy for an Heirloom. Amana is just beautiful and large, and is really producing well. Also had Ildi cherry tomatoes, which are always a great producer and taster.
Reds were my real disappointment this year, other than hybrids, which are really just an insurance policy for me. my Beef Hearts did nothing, I mean no tomatoes !! Well I did get one, but it was weird and I couldn't eat it. Pulled the plants up after that. Every DinnerPlate tomato has been weird too, they didn't really turn red properly. I do have some late plants my Dad gave me like Fantom, Fletcher, Applause, Ultimate Opener, just now are turning, but I think those are all Hybrids. San Marzanos did really well though, I just use those for salsa, I was thinking about making some sauce or paste with them, but got lazy.
Green Zebra, usally very productive and resilant, was not a great producer for me this year, but I'll still grow it, it's one of my favorites.
Just some notes about the plants this year, sprayed early on with Daconil and did not get any early blight. After the heat wave, I did get a lot of brown leaves, I am on a watering system, but still got a lot of it, I thought at first it was late blight, but there wasn't any sign of it in our area, and tops still keep coming on green and healthy, so maybe just stress. Also almost every plant had leave curl !!! Still got plenty of tomatoes, oh the potato leaved varietes didn't do this, hmm. Any, not much lost due to this, but I think I would have had a greater yield without it. And the birds pecked at everything that was ripe, so I bring everything in when it breaks color for the most part. Overall, pretty good year, but why do almost all of my tomatos have some type of spot on them, so dont' show up until I have brought them in and they sit for a couple days ripening.
I know this is tomato forum, but I fought so much with cucumber beetles and for the first time ever.... Squash Bugs !!!! I thought Zucchini was a fool proof plant, but out of 8 plants only 2 produced and then they died out. Usually I am baking bread like crazy right now, but I don't have any zukes this year. Melons as usual for me, are a waste of time, watermelons get to be baseball to softball size and then just stop growing. Canteloupe all died from bacterial wilt. All cukes except marketmore died from that too. Corn was eaten by ants, but I got one meal from it. Green Beans were ok, not prolific.
Crazy year for peppers though, I do have 70 pepper plants, but they have done fantastic.

My 2011 was better than my 2010 (first year in)

Outside of Atlanta, close to Athens in a town called Dacula.

Too hot June, July, August. Not a lot of rain. - I need to get a better understanding of water (too much or too little). Most of my tomatoes had fruit crack.

Experienced a little early blight on a plant that was segregated. Bagged him. Had one plant (Ace55) grow runted (pulled him).

Suffered some BER on my Anna Russian late into the season. In not worried now about infusing any calcium, just gonna let my plants grow.

Varieties: Black Krim, Green Zebra, Hartmans Yellow Gooseberry, Yellow Pear, Borgo Cellano, Oxheart, Mortgage Lifter, Anna Russian

My Black Krim has been the best all around producer in quality. My Gooseberries and Pears were producers by quality and quantity.

I only found 1 worm this summer so far. I think the birds around are fat dumb and happy.e
I'm on autopilot now. Just picking and grinning until the frost comes and taketh away. Then I will clean up the place and get ready for next year.

I will post in seed exchange what seeds I have if anyone is interested. I really enjoy the seed saving and extraction part.

Thanks to all those that helped me here. I really appreciate it and I will not go away.

So glad everyone kept this thread going even though I disappeared! I want to thank you all for the interesting posts, and encourage more tomato stories of the year because I really enjoy reading them.

Coconuthead: I too discovered the joys of picking at color-break this year. How did I not know about this before??? In spite of having a lot of disease, this is the first time I really managed to get a good amount of tomatoes to feed myself and friends with. Prior years I'd watch them color up and look beautiful only to lose them at the last moment to squirrels, groundhogs, rain that made them split, etc. Added bonus: I no longer have violent thoughts towards my wildlife! It's the way to go, I think.

Don, love your pics. I had a similar experience with Berkely tie-dye last year. Loved the look, but didn't love the tomato. If I recall, I planted late and only got one or two, so it might not have been a fair trial.

Two people mentioned Carbon as a favorite. I'm making a note of that....

Let's hear more!

I wanted to update my review of Isis Candy. I still haven't tasted a single one but now I've gotten a lot more trusses getting close. Problem is, though... They've all split. Even the green ones have split. I don't know if that's common for this variety - I think I'm growing it under somewhat unfavorable conditions (as mentioned in my first post). But I'm a little surprised because it's splitting way more than Sun Gold even though it appears to have a thicker skin.

Just saying....

I was sent a free package of Park's Razzleberry seeds a couple of years ago. I have read mixed reviews on it's taste. What did you think of how it tastes?

Madison, WI checking in. Weird year ... cool spring, HOT July, pretty normal but dry August. I have tomatoes both in my community garden plot and in my tiny front yard... south facing, against the house with a blacktop walkway on two sides. This is an excellent little micro-climate for tomatoes and peppers. It gets warm early, the blacktop holds the heat over night. The awful heat we had in July turned my sunny spot into an inferno. I have plenty of fruit on the bottom of the plants, nothing in the middle (apparently, toms won't pollinate in this kind of heat) and lots of blossoms at the top which won't ripen. Usually we get the heat in August when fruit is already set.

I start seeds for a fundraising sale and tend to try different things. I also plant some random leftovers from the sale. So, all but one of these are first timers for me.

Rose de Berne (in hay bale) -- lovely, prolific and tasty

Italian Heirloom (in hay bale) -- third year for this one, I LOVE it -- early, big, tasty.

Mortgage Lifter -- very lovely slicer, beautiful, not as prolific as hoped

Garden Peach -- OMG ridiculous producer. This is an oddball, mellow flavor, cracks

German Stripe -- few, huge, deformed, cracked, very sweet and juicy after cutting out all the bad parts. Not worth the space.

Bush Tomato ace -- trying some compact varieties this year. Nice producer of good sized fruit, flavor meh.

Tomato Better Bush -- quite prolific good size fruit, nice tomato flavor. Stunning amount of foliage for both these little guys. Honestly, I like being able to use a regular cage and have everything stay upright.

Romas -- Out in my plot were two roma varieties which were after thoughts from the CSA. I have to find the names. Yellow one is an excellent producer and eater. Red, good producer, kind of hard even when ripe which keeps the skin in good shape.

I had so many yellows, I created roasted yellow tomato soup (with yellow bell pepper and a yellow hot pepper also roasted) and just last night, yellow tomato juice (using both the yellow romas and garden peach). Weird but tasty.

Sungold -- yummy, over achiever. Couldn't keep up so lots of cracking.

Been freezing roasted soup, roasted sauce, juice and whole tomatoes.

I grew Razzleberry this year and thought it was better than average for a hybrid. The fruits were consistent in size and color, good flavor too, not great, but definitely good. This is an excellent cropper, enough that most of my fruits wound up in the sauce pot--awesomely good sauce.

Relative tomato newbie, here, still making lots of mistakes...

I have/had what I think were several different types of disease happening to my plants. I think I am still planting them too closely together. I did have a better crop than last year, though.

Weather started out warm and dry, then hot and dry until a couple weeks before Irene. Since then, it's been hardy a day without rain for about a month so far. First frost is probably still a month away.

Stump of the World: big plants, big fruit, big disease. This guy was the first by far to get early blight 2 years in a row.

Black Krim: Both plants got fusarium wilt and are gone at this point.

Anna's Russian. Took FOREVER to set and ripen fruit; Only one ripe fruit so far. Which according to DH had average garden tomato taste. I thought it was a bit on the juicy side for a heart, but that might have been due to all the rain we are getting.

Kosovo: After a bit of a slow start, started producing a good crop. Unfortunately some had to be trashed due to blossom end rot, bird attacks, and splits due to the rain. But the ones that could be harvested tasted great. I will certainly plant this again.

Cherokee Purple: Both plants were the healthiest of all. They produced/are producing lots of baseball-sized and smaller fruits much to the DH's delight. I will certainly plant this again.

Summary: Growing roses is much, much easier than growing tomatoes. :o)

This was my best year ever, in some 15 years. We had a cool summer, relatively speaking, and my cool-weather-favoring PL Polish heirlooms prospered. That's the only heirloom I grow, any more.

LA Don ("ladon"), can you say more specifically in what area you live? Awesome post. Thanks.

Hey JohnPeter.... I'm in Hollywood. I agree that the temps this year were perfect for growing. Much better than last year, where it was overcast and cool all summer.

BTW, to all you LA based folks...Where are you buying your heirloom tomato plants/seeds. I can no longer use Laurel as she has supplied me with the wrong varieties 2 years in a row. Any suggestions for more reliable sources that have great varieties? (This might be a topic for a different post)

Don

I maintain my own seeds now, which has gotten easier since I grow out only one strain of heirloom ...one strain of tomato, period, in my backyard.
Years ago I bought seeds from Tomato Grower Supply ... Florida... by mail.
I favor recessive markers, so I can readily detect lack of genuineness in the seeds I grow out.

Best year for me!I started with 8 plants 4 Moretons and 4 Ramapo.I got away from the containers and got a small plot of land 20x18.I bought a Mantis tiller and I was impressed that thing is great, and turned over the soil.Planted the Toms with 2 eggplants and fertilized the soil with Tomato-Tone in a ring around each plant.In the past I always had the blight so this year I bought Serenade to control the blight and it worked I used this every time it rained or 1 time a week and it kept everything in check till Sept when we had Hurricane Irene came.! I then pulled 2 plants but they produced many lovely small tomatoes but had many blossoms.I also had used a new fertilizer Big Bloom from FoxFarm and the blossoms are still coming on the Tomatoes and the eggplants Total so far from 8 plants over 100 eaters and 19 eggplants now I have 2 Moretons and 4 Ramapoes and they all have buds I think Moretons are on there last legs but the Ramapoes are showing a little sign of ware but I am very happy.Some advice
1 Till the soil
2 Use a good fertilizer, FoxFarm,TamotoeTone.
3 Very important Use Serenade.
4 Get great seeds and start them or buy plants from good nursery farm not the big Stores
5 When in a fix get help all the great people on Gardenweb

I had a terrible year -- really, really hot june and hot and dry July then the wettest August on record around here.Tomatoes that were super for me last year, like Anna Russian and Black Krim, were horrible this year. Anna's supposed to be early, but set fruit pretty late then took forever to ripen -- maybe the really hot, dry July took it's toll, though I did water a couple of times a week. I think I had some kind of disease infecting most of my plants, too. They just rotted on the vine really fast. Also had a problem with a rabbit or something sampling everything (why can't they just eat one?), then the stink bugs take a bite and the fruit starts to rot. Lots of cracking, too. Plus, I think something crossed with the black krim because it just didn't look the same as last year -- almost a rose instead of the deep purple. BER was a big problem, too, and it lasted all season -- usually it resolves after the first few weeks.

My paste tomatoes -- amish and opalka -- were nice and big, but also subject to rot. The opalka's would ripen on the bottom third, but the top third or so remained greenish. If I waited for it to ripen, the bottom part was getting mush already. Not a good year here.

Next year, I'm spacing more, and maybe planting things between certain varieties so they don't cross polinate, although I don't ever remember that being a problem before.

Caryl

Ffreidl,

It�s a bit early for totals, but my summer recap has peaks and valleys.
My first year growing in grow bags, I had four and out of those one plant was too big.
WAY too big. These 12 gallon grow bags are intended for dwarfs, most determinates,
and manageable indeterminates. I grew Remy Rouge salad/cherry in one and it did fine.
We finally got tired of picking the sweet gems, then I had a Greek Domata in a grow bag and it has done well.

Early Glee was a total failure with leaf curl, turning brown and succumbing to alternaria and late blight. The same with Crimson Jack, so I feel these are vulnerable varieties.
I say that �cause with close spacing leaves and stems reaching, touching and getting intermingled with other plants, and identical garden conditions these two were my only plant failures. Nearly as abundant in harvest numbers to Remy Rouge was Ailsa Craig,
then down the line County Agent, Dusky, Mountain Princess, Hanky Red and Greek Domata. My taste test winner was (is) Palo Alto, a rare sport from California Master Gardeners. 2nd best taste Mountain Princess, with Greek Domata still producing on a very nice green plant. So would I grow in grow bags again? Definitely - and will add two more next year, but planting the less prolific, less gangly, smaller plants like Hanky Red, Celebrity F1, Mountain Princess and Greek Domata is the right choice. -Randy

2011 was an average year, here.

I'm grateful for:
No hail.
Above normal rainfall until August.
Late summer heat made up for cool May/June.
No significant pest or disease problems, although the deer are lurking.

Disappointments?
Frost coming this Tuesday & Wednesday.

If we can survive those two nights, it may turn out to be an above average year. Which reminds me, instead of posting I should dig out and prep my row covers.
:o(

Summer from hell. Nothing worked. 100F+ every day. Nasty hail storm with 1" d. hail mid August. Destroyed every tomato fruit and blossom on my 100 vines, and on all my 40 sweet pepper plants.

Took all the leaves off of my muskmelons and cucumbers. Melons cooked in the sun, cucs quit producing.

So hot, corn over-matured before ears filled completely.

Northwest Kansas and Southeast Texas have at least one thing in common. I just posted a post of worry,and it is valid,but at the same time, I wonder if it matters.

And something comes to me, and reminds me that my wonder is just my own making,and that nature will always balance itself. At least for our concerns.

Take care,
Travis

My first attempt at gardening!

Planted three itmes:

Early Girl toms - total dud. Could have been any number of things I did wrong, but I ended it pulling it completely in July because it hadn't grown in two months.

Sun sugar - grew fast and tall, and would have done even better if I hadn't made the mistake of pruning early on, and if I had properly supported it. It is just now finally producing prolifically, with probably over 100 fruit on the plant. Ripening has been slow throughout, perhaps because of the very hot followed by very wet weather. Had to overcome septoria spot, aphids, overwatering and a chipmunk.

Red bell peppers - these got off to a very slow start but eventually prospered. Unfortunately, I lost a few branches due to poor stem strength (did not harden off). Ripening was also slow, but it has produced a few good peppers.

You can see from reading this how much I've learned this season considering that this time last year, I knew absoutely nothing. I look forward to next year, when I use proper sized containers, proper potting mx, proper cages, etc. This forum has been an amazing resource for me and I can't thank everyone enough for their help!

We are in south central PA and it was a very challenging year for gardeners. Long cool spring, torrential rains, very high temps, then low precip for a period, and so on. Tomato plant growth and yields were the worst I've ever had. What I have noticed in driving around the areas within 100 miles or so of here is that all the tomato plants in all the gardens seem to have had similar results. Small plants with few tomatoes and dark or dead leaves all over them. Seems that even folks who usually have great results, did not this year. They just didn't grow in the conditions we had this year. Any thoughts?

Weather (Ontario Canada)- Spring was very chilly & rainy. Rained through our entire ususal plant out time... got the plants in 3 weeks late. Suddenly in July we had a heat wave with no rain for a month. 100F daily is NOT Southern Ontario weather.
Pests - None - except an occasional naughty chicken.
Diseases - Horrible Septoria
Varieties - about 40-50 different varieties
How they did:
Generally nowhere near as good as usual. I have never had blossom end rot like I did this year (weather conditions).

Production winners - Guernsey Island, Yellow Pear, White Queen, Orange Russian 117

Taste winners - my favourite Emerald Evergreen, husbands favourite Black Krim, general honourable mentions: Orange Russian 117, Tuxhorn, Sunsugar, Paul Robeson

Prettiest - Roughwood Golden Tiger had beautiful furry leaves in a gorgeous gray/blue tone. The insides of the Bi-colours were all beautiful and all of the heart tomatoes were stunning. Monkey Ass was highly anticipated (by the kids because they got to swear when they talked about it).

Biggest disappointments - Black Cherry wasn't very tasty & was more golf ball sized. Maybe a mix up(one of the last minute purchased seedlings). Ribbed tomatoes always look good to me - Costoluto Genovese & Purple Calabash looked great on the table.

Best for traditional sauce - Monkey Ass & Ernesto. The roma & marzanos all had blossom end rot.

Highlights; The first ripe tomato was Evergreen - the first taste was unbelievable fantastic! Guernsey Island set fruit in my July over 60F greenhouse & went from seeding to eating in 89 days - WOW! Tuxhorn's fruit was absolutely beautiful. Very tasty.

Winding down the garden & looking forward to next year!

I love a post like this! You folks are done, like the Aussie, we're just getting started in central-south Florida...while most of you here have savored the summer we can't grow tomatoes through the summer, we've been dying to get started with the fall crops. So, my answer to your question is NO, I won't post a response until my fall crops are done in December since your questions states production for 2011 ;-)

Tom

Just like always, Sweet Million was so prolific I couldn't pick it all.

Tropic was out of this world, as always. A steady supply from each of four plants, about 40 tomatoes a day and a bucket of sweet millions every other day if I had time to pick them. They got exhausted in Aug, and I let them go....and half of them still produce but the flavor goes downhill when they are tired. I have more seedlings for the winter crop ready to go into earthboxes.

Overall I had a great tomato season. Spring was real wet so I had issues w/ bacterial spot. But, once the weather dried up & heated up the plants did great. With the cooler spring my tomatoes were later - cherry tomatoes in July but bigger tomatoes not until August. Here's how my lineup did:

Celebrity - good regular performer although not real happy since in pots, will grow again

ARGG - vigorous plants, vigorous production once got started, beautiful large green tomatoes, only plants still healthy & producting, 2012

Burgandy Traveler - amazing plant, tons of yummy tomatoes on vigorous plant, 2012
Kelloggs Breakfast - great plant, beautiful yummy tomatoes on vigorous plant, 2012Black Prince - one of my earliest, yummy smaller tomatoes, more compact plants but prolific, 2012

Black Krim - one of the yummiest, more compact plant, first to die, 2012

Hillbilly - good plant, good production, beautiful tomatoes, family favorite, 2012

Orange Strawberry - vigorous plant, great production, beautiful large orange tomatoes, family favorite, 2012

Orange Russian - vigorous plant, vigorous production, beautiful large tomatoes, not my favorite, might do 2012

Yellow Brandywine - vigorous plant, decent late production, family favorite, might grow 2012

Roma - no disease resistance & horrible BER, never again

Sungold - delicious as usual, 2012

Black Cherry - delicious, 2012

Green Grape - horrid, never again

Yellow Pear - tons but blah, never again

Prudens Purple - vigorous plants, no production, only 1 green tomato discovered while tearing out, never again

volunteers - little production & inconvenient placement, never again

Well, I think that's everything!

Ciao all-

I'll echo some of what Glynis said regarding the weather conditions here in Ontario - a very wet, unseasonably cool spring slowed planting time by quite a bit, not just with the tomatoes, but other crops and flowers as well. The peppers weren't planted until mid-June. July was very dry and extremely hot for this region, causing some things to wither and die while other things held their own, but stalled with fruiting. This was the worst year for blackberries in my garden. We got more rain in August just as the fruit was starting to ripen, so most of the tomatoes were cracked. A lot formed scars, but I had to toss quite a few that rotted before ripening. I had way more slug damage due to rains at ripening and I'm getting holes in green fruit now. As Glynis also mentioned, it was a horrific year for Blossom End Rot as well. My three large-fruited determinate plants in pots did very poorly at first, especially during July: Sicilian Rosso Togetta, Evelina's Roma, and Don Juan. Of the three, Don Juan recovered and did very well in August. SRT suffered really horrible sunscald, despite having very good leaf cover. I was perplexed. I did not get one fully intact fruit off Evelina's Roma - every single one had some degree of BER.

Stars of the show: several of the pastes did very well including Goldman's Italian-American, Giant Sicilian Paste, Hovath Plum, and Cornue des Andes. Provenzano, a large red oxheart, also did very well. Of the beefsteaks and hearts, Blondokee and Tuxhorn's Red and Yellow had the best production with Anna Maria's Heart, Vera's Seeds of Paradise, and Bear Creek having the best overall flavour.

Disappointments: I had a few small-fruited pastes that I grow exclusively for drying and these normally have eye-popping production. All of them did poorly this year - Principe Borghese, Black Plum, God Love, and King Humbert, which when grown a few years ago, I think 2009, grew to a height of 15 ft - this year, it MAYBE got to 3 ft.

Wipe the slate clean, campers and start praying for a better 2012.

Checking back in. October 14. I have pulled everything except what is in my hay bales. I have easily 30 fruit ripe on Rose de Berne. I didn't think they would have time to ripen, but ... they are. They have been prolific since July 4. Picked 8 huge Italian Heirlooms last week and see another 4-5 ready to go. Also in a hay bale. Insane!

The prolific small yellow romas were Golden Rave. Reds were Viva Italia. The prolific and tidy Better Bush ended up ripening with huge, deep black shoulder cracks. Radial (out from the stem). Bummer. Don't know if this is cultural, weather or genetic. Thought I might grow them again but won't now.

Year 20 in the books. I still have 3 plants producing though. Unreal rainy season especially early. Plants eventually out grew lots of disease so production was low on many varieties except Orange Minsk and Defiant F1 laughed it off and OM is a crazy tomata maka! Some varieties I have listed my friend grew and I just sampled via tomato swaps...:)

OK, just gonna grade for taste here, not production or disease resistance. 1 to 10 scale and I have never had a 10 because I'm saving that for the perfect one someday LOL:

Pork Chop 9.5
Dana's Dusky Rose 9
Gary O Sena 9
Red Penna 9
Top Sirloin 8.5
KBX 8.5
Amazon Chocolate 8.5
Pink Berkley Tie Dye 8.5
Daniels 8.5
Barlow Jap 8.5
Cowlick Brandy RL 8
Cowlick Brandy PL 8
Purple Dog Creek 8
Claude Brown Coral 8
Granny Cantrell PL 8
Wild Bill Big Red 8
Terhune 8
Marianna's Peace 8
JD's Special C Tex 8
Orange Minsk 8
Mrs Benson 8
Bear Creek 8
Liz Birt 8
Couilles de Taureau 8
Rainey's Maltese 8
Big Zac 7.5
African Queen 7.5
Terrasenko6 7.5
Claude Brown Yellow Giant 7.5
Strawberry Margarita 7.5
Yamal 7
Indian Stripe PL 7
Cleota Pink 7
Defiant F1 6.5

Why you say I have all higher scores? I try and not grow crappy varieties...;-)

The weather here in Oklahoma was really terrible this year. We actually had the hottest July for any state in recorded US history, plus horrible drought as well.
I planted six heirloom varieties and the only ones to produce in this terrible weather were Sioux and Porter Cherry.
My Sweet 100 is now full of green tomatoes, but the foliage got some frost damage so I'm not sure if they will ripen or not.

Brutal..............Spring started fine, planted in between rain. What blossoms that did set thru the humidity, hit with end rot, then the heat set in. Managed one Prue,a couple of Coulastrele, an Italian Hierloom and a Sheyenne. Then the squirrels tore thru the netting,. Lost Amana Gold, Enormous Plum to wilt, found the four hornworms before they did too much damage. When the heat broke in August it was as if optimal spring conditions magically occured. Blossoms abundant on all varietys, fruit set and grew big on remaining plants. Alas only Juanne Flamme, Black Cherry a few Sungold and Roma ripened with tough skins,and less than usual flavor. Interesting tho, some BC exhibited a mottled color of burgandy and green. As I type, with temps lowering, a few more Juanne Flammes ripening up and Coulastrele breaking color. Will pull all and sow cover crop in the next few days with hopes of 2012 already lifting my spirits.
Tom

Here is my summary: bleh.
I planted about 6 plants. I got one teeny tiny cherry tomato from a volunteer that came up in my hibiscus. Similar results from neighbors.
I'm in Pittsburgh. Wet spring. Wet fall. Hot summer. Pretty normal really.

My tomato season is officially over. I finally gave in and harvested the last of my (unripe) tomatoes yesterday. I had a Black Cherry and 2 Bloody Butchers in bucket SWCs that I've been putting in the garage on cold nights (and for hurricanes), but the vines have finally had it.

Our weather this season similar to what many others have posted, spring was on the cool side, summer very hot and dry, then some heavy rains and hurricane in late summer. Early on groundhog attack destroyed 6 of my choice plants and set back 4 others by at least 3 weeks. I had problems with spider mites again during the heat, in part because I reused some of 2010's mix for seedling (bad idea). Plants did fine disease-wise until after the heavy rains toward the end of the season, then early blight and Septoria set in--big time.

- Bloody Butcher: 2nd year, 2 plants in small SWCs. Early and excellent flavor and decent production. Will grow 2012.
- Sungold: 2nd year, 2 plants in small SWCs. Excellent flavor and good production, some cracking. Will grow 2012.
- Yellow Pear: 2nd year, 2 plants in small SWCs. Mild flavor, but a favorite of some family members. Good production. Will grow 1 for 2012.
- Black Cherry: 2nd year, 2 plants in small SWCs. Excellent flavor and good production. Will grow 2012.
-Rose: 2nd year, 1 in-ground, 1 in 18gal SWC. Was favorite in 2010, but not as good this year. Fruit tended to ripen unevenly. Plant was too big for 18gal SWC. Some cracking. Will grow 2012 (maybe just one).
-Big Beef: 1st year, 2 plants in-ground. Very good producer, nice looking fruit, but nothing special in the taste department. Won't grow again.
-Black Krim: 2nd year, 1 in-ground, 1 in 18 gal SWC. Decent producer, Excellent flavor, a little cracking.
-Mr. Stripey: 3rd year, 1 in-ground, 1 in 18gal SWC. In-ground plant had a lot of cracking and rotting on the vine, but earlier fruit was good. SWC plant had golf-ball sized fruit. Might skip for 2012.
-Green Zebra: 1st year, 1 in 18gal SWC. Good producer and surprisingly tasty (a bit lemony). Will grow in 2012.
-Cherokee Purple: 2nd year, 1 in-ground plant. Low and late production, probably due to early on groundhog damage. Was 2nd favorite in 2010, so will grow in 2012.
-Ramapo OP: 1st year, 1 in-ground plant. Nice tasting basic tomato. Low and late production due to groundhog. Maybe for 2012.
-Martino's Roma (Italian Pear): 1st year, 2 in-ground. Nice paste tomato, very good producer. I liked it better than Amish paste from 2010. Will grow in 2012.

Grew some Rosa Bianca eggplant this year and like it better than Black Beauty. Also grew 'Fairy Tale' eggplant for 2nd year and it's a keeper.

Hot peppers all did very good, low and late yields out of Bells. My main pepper was supposed to be Crunch Sweet Orange, but I wasn't careful saving seed in 2010 and it was crossed (probably with Fresno), so we had lots of red hot peppers instead of orange sweet peppers. We loved the Crunch Sweet Orange in 2010, so I'm hoping someone out there has done a better job than me saving seed so I can try again.

Here's to 2012 tomatoes!

Zone 10 Florida here, my plants would still be producing in January but I'll pull them at the end of this month to start my spring seedlings mid-January. 575SQ, 30 plants, 12 varieties.

Best taste/production here:

Beefmaster
Big Beef
Mountain Magic
Sweet Baby Girl
Flamme

Tom

I have never before had ripened open pollinated tomatoes abundant on the counter in December. This yr I gathered all green 'maters on the vine right before the first hard freeze in Nov. tossed 'em all in two one gallon flower pots and set em in the kitchen.

Thinking fried green was going to be the order of the day, they started to ripen. No wrapping in paper and storing, no anything. 90% were used in stews, pasta and blts, etc.

None were what you would experience in the days of summer, but all held the taste of variety......ok... the skins were tough, some bad spots cut out and there were a few fruit flys but over all a unexpected great experience.

Some never fully ripened on the inside...still whitish etc. The flavor was still there in slow cooker recipies and pasta dishes. I would comb thru the pile to find ones breaking color and seperate them to a "finishing" tray where I picked lush red just like summer from quite a few.

Dec. 9th and just ate the last Black Cherrys, Romas and Coulastrale's............fun!

It was weird and challenging. I had lots of battles, heat, bugs and probably the worst, herbicide drift. It wasn't due to poor application, it was because they sprayed and it volitilized in the 95-100 degree heat we had in May. To go along with this, the wind was blowing 30-40 mph. The perfect storm.

This fall was better. My problem if you have 300 plus pounds of tomatoes in December, not too many people want them.

These were the rest of my fall crop, before I gave up and quit heating the high tunnel. This picture was taken on December 3rd. We have been eating tomatoes from our garden for 6 months out of the year. I am going to try and see if we can get a few into January and call it 7 months. Not too bad for a Zone 5.

50-60 days away from starting all over again, is it possible?

Jay

Jay....time waits for noone....the Rolling Stones.

Been following your saga and am happy for your successes. Have you approached any supermarkets or resteraunts in the city for your product? Seems with a unique ad, hierlooms out of season would sell well to chefs and produce managers.
Tom

Not alot of interest from grocery stores. Tomatoes aren't a big seller this time of year, they had a big shipment in and had a "Sale" on so they didn't need any. I ended up selling 3-4 tubs at our winter market. Then I sold 3 more tubs to people who wanted to make salsa. I took one tub to school and said "Merry Christmas" and I still have 4 tubs left. I am also selling them to our online market customers. My school doesn't even need any for their food service. I did sell them several tubs earlier in the fall.

These were suppose to be ripe by October 1, not November/December. I guess I will move that planting date back a few weeks!

Jay

Worst drought in decades.

Somehow managed to get 120 lbs from 25 plants. The only things I did different last year was amend the soil and fertilized with Tomato Tone instead of the really cheap stuff or Miracle Grow.

Or, maybe my plants like drought.

Without reading a single post in this thread, which is a weakness of mine(ny resolution), I would say we could sum it up in 77 hours and 20 minutes. then again, in the spirit of late.

Had to go out of town in March, when the seeds had just started. Lost two weeks of seed starting.

Marmande : grown from a seed packet I bought at the corner organic market during my extended stay in Germany in 2010. Good flavor, good yield. Used primarily on sandwiches and pizza. Might do these again in a second growing season in 2012, if I'm feeling lucky.

Goldman's Italian-American : gave me one gorgeous-looking fruit for the whole season. Tasted good too, but a lot of effort for disappointing yield. Might try it again some time, but not this year.

Sungold F1: My first season trying Sungold. This was the plant that would not die (that is, until it finally did). It was the first one with ripe fruit (mid-August), and it kept going until mid-December. Unfortunately, neither my wife nor I particularly liked the flavor. Might have been the growing conditions.

Stupice : 2011 was the first year one of these survived long enough to make it into the ground. It lived up to its reputation. Started early -- only the Sungold had ripe fruit earlier -- and kept going even after the Sungold gave out. These were great in my wife's tomato sauce. Definitely will be on my list in 2012.