If you want a larger tomato you might consider Gregori Altai for an earlier variety. Stupice or Matina is a smaller(2-3 ounces),early and tasty variety.

I looked up the three. The Stupice looks like a great early tomato (50 days). The Gregori Altai showed up as 90 days to maturity. Were you suggesting I relpace the Mortgage Lifter with the Gregori Altai?
Thanks for the help!

Many great early, mid, and late season choices out there! Hundreds if not thousands. Instead of so many Jet Star and ML why not expand your list to include several more varieties and only plant 2 or 3 of each?

Check out all the great "favorite" discussions running here for ideas on varieties.

Dave

"3 Sungold (57 days), 11 Jet Star (72 days), 8 Mortage Lifter (83 days)"

If I had room for 22 indeterminate tomatoes, I'm not sure I would or could pare my choices down to only three varieties. Have you narrowed your selection over the years and these three are your favorites? If so, cool. But if I was gonna plant three cherry tomatoes, I'd probably plant three different kinds.

And if I was gonna plant 11 fresh market type slicers and 8 large beefsteaks, I'd probably mix'm up a little beyond just Jet Star and Mortgage Lifter ... but that's just me ... I like a little variety of flavor, purpose, color, disease rersistence, leaf shapes, stuff like that.

So many tomato varieties ... so little room. But to each his or her own. And, hey, you got all winter to decide :::smile:::

Now you have me really thinking.... I have plenty of room for tomato plants. I only grow tomatoes, squash, peppers, cucumbers and beans in my 40' x 100' garden. I have 24 drippers set up for them 3' apart with 4' between rows. I end up giving away alot of the slicers. This year was a disasterfor me for tomatoes. It is a new garden that I tilled into an old field and I planted before testing the soil (only after tilling in a lot of manure). I'm sure a soil test will show that I need a truck load of lime. I've been watching the thread that you mention. I'm considering Brandy Boy and a couple others. I want to make sure I have some decent early tomatoes (though I've never had one) and some beefsteaks. A couple cherry's are great for salads and just eating like candy. The problem is that I don't want to have to order seeds from tens of catalogs as you get crushed on shipping charges and end up spending 100's for seeds.. I usually get seeds from Fedco and Henry Fields since I can get the rest of what I need there, though I'm considering the Brandy Boy from Burpee.
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated...

Consider Tomato Growers Supply Catalog. http://tomatogrowers.com. You'll either be thrilled or overwhelmed... or may be a bit of both.

Tom-

Macheske,

Since you already have your favorite seed vendors and don't wanna up the ante with additional delivery charges, you might just want to check out local big box store seed displays this and nursery transplant offerings next spring.

You may live where you have access to quite a selection of different tomatoes just at Wal*Mart, Lowes, Home Depot, farm supply stores, hardware stores, Target, etc. I sure find a lot of stuff at places like that as well as online seed trades which cost about 41c a pop.

Bill

Based on my experience, (for productive, tastey, early maters), I'd grow with:

Bloody Butcher & Silvery Fir Tree

~ Tom

Wow..Tomato Growers Supply Catalog has an amazing selection... I think I can add one more delivery charge, lol...

I if you want a early tomato try kimberly
i pick 4 in 38 days the taste is good also

gene

You have gotten some very good advice so far. I am on the same boat as you. I try to narrow down my choice between 2 or 3 seed companies.

I personally would not plant so many of one type unless it is something I am in Love with. I do not have a huge garden and I have to plan accordingly. I plant my tried and true and then I will try "new" ones. I cannot comment on the taste of Brandyboy because I planted them late and they are not ready yet. I can say they are very sturdy plants and are growing beautifully. I did not want to pay shipping for just 1 package of seeds so I bought them at Lowe's.

I have planted Stupice for quite a few years, it is one of my favorites. I will usually have no less than 10 plants. I also planted it for a fall crop and they are just about ready.

I am not sure if it is available to you but in the Spring, our local Arboretum has a Tomato Sale. A HUGE sale and they have hundreds of different plants and it is a great way to try new varieties. This is where I go to buy just 1 to try. The money goes to the upkeep of the Arboretum so it is a win win situation and the price of the plants are usually lower than the nursery. If I remember correctly, they were $1.00 each and then they sell peppers too and they sold those for a quarter. GL

macheske
if you looked at Tomato Growers Supply,early season you will find Gregori Altai and it reflects a DTM of 67 days and that has been my experience. I still stand by my statement that this is an Early Variety. It's tasty and does well here in the PNW

Wow...this group is much better than the general veggie gardening group.

I guess I can use a few seeds from each pack and save the rest for next year.

Here is how the list is shaping up:
2 Sungold - Fedco
2 Sweet Baby Girl - Fields
2 Gregoris Altai - TGS
2 Matina - TGS
4 Neves Azorean Red - TGS
4 Mortgage Lifter - Fields
2 Cherokee Purple - Fedco
2 Brandywine - I still have some seeds
4 Brandy Boy - Burpee unless I can find them somewhere else

Looks like it should be an interesting year.

macheske
I can send you seeds for Brandy Boy and Neves Azorean Red.I have Cherokee Chocolate,which is similar to Cherokee Purple but is more productive for me. If interested e-mail me.

Do you know what variety of Mortgage Lifter you are getting?

Ediej,
Is one strain better than the other ones? I've seen the seeds at Fields and Tomato Growers Supply.

I'm not Edie, but I think our answers are the same... I think the best strain of Mortgage Lifter is the Estler's strain...

Mark

Mark, yep, you beat me to it :^)

Macheske, I don't have very many seeds but I can send you a couple or so to try, if you'd like. Send me an e-mail with your address. Next year I am hoping to have more seeds; these came directly from my Uncle Bob (Estler) so I know they are pure.

I'm not Edie, but I think our answers are the same... I think the best strain of Mortgage Lifter is the Estler's strain...
Mark

****

And I'm not anyone but me and I agree that in my experience the Estler strain is best as to taste and production.

Mark, do you know of any commercial source for it other than Chuck's old site, I haven't done a Google search or gone to those sites that aren't scanned by Google. And I didn't even go to Chuck's old site to see if it was still being listed.

I guess what I'm saying is that I'm a bit concerned if Donna is still offering the Estler strain b/c those should have run out years ago and I don't know of any source offhand she can restock from. But perhaps by this time she has somebody who is doing seed production for her.

I just don't know.

If I had more seeds of it I'd make an offer here, but I don't have lots of seed.

Carolyn

I found this site while browsing... in their listing of tomato seeds they say that their Estler's ML seeds came from the family (which is entirely possible, Grandfather loved to share!):

http://www.appalachianseeds.com/

I am going to order some from them to grow next year to compare with the plants I am also going to grow from the seeds I already have.

for a reliable, prolific producer of small but tasty early tomatoes.............Early Girl Hybrid always works great for me.