(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/nonrancher/b8db0e06.jpg)
Our first year trying a purple tomato (Pruden's Purple) and a Polish tomato (Polfast).
The Polfast were ready for picking ( a VERY few) June 19 but had a surprisingly good taste.
Normally we can't get ripe ones until after July 4 so this is one to repeat next year.
Now the Pruden's Purple are getting huge and have a really good flavor, better than the
beefsteaks we've usually grown, very tiny seeds and very meaty with a complex flavor.
The only drawback as you can see are the green cracked shoulders and most looked worse
than this. Maybe it was the downpours we've had (2 " in one day)?
That's BIG!!
wow they look fab! have to ask wheres the seed from?? im a newbie but i dont think id get those in woolies...
From Pinetree Garden Seeds.
I'll send over a bunch from this years crop if you want to drop it into your seed exchange box to distribute.
I've forgotten who on A4A said they'd grown some purple toms and thought they were the best tasting. I'd have to agree after tasting these. The seeds are teensy weensy for some reason which seems strange considering their size.
It is a very good tasting one I agree,regularly grown here.. enjoy.XX Jeannine
I'm growing Cherokee purple this year, I think the seeds came from Baker Creek. I've only just realised they're a beefsteak variety so I've now got four of those on the go - the others are Amish Paste, Great White and Marmande (or possibly Super Marmande). What was I thinking?!
I did get some cherry types from Pinetree though, Tiny Tim and Micro Tom. They're really cute - and they make great gifts too.
Black Cherry is proving very vigerous and very popular here... :)
I've never tasted white or black type tomatoes. How would you describe the different tastes, please? What do they provide that is different from your other toms?
(This new to us purple tom has really jolted me into realizing we were in a tomato rut for years, same old, same old.)
The blacks and purples are largely my favourites. I would describe most of them as with a nice tangy bite combined with sweetness,some have an almost smoky flavour, however taste is a very personal thing.
Whites on the whole I tend to find have a milder taste, sweet but without the bite.
Guess we'll have to sample a black variety next year then since we like tomatoes with some zing to them.
Do the blacks seem as productive as other varieties?
This Polish tomato plant has been heavily bearing but small and looks like it is going to die of exhaustion now. Perhaps I should have fertilized it earlier. By comparison the potato-leafed purple tom is a huge robust plant and appears to be capable of constant production.
The Black Cherry is a vigerous as Sungold... :)
Hi Grannieannie, re production.. I don't think the colour makes any difference generally . pretty much like the reds really, some are better producers than others. I tend to go for flavour rather than quantity .
If you fancy a black a good one to try is the black cherry which Saddad mentioned,lovely flavour and certainly prolific, if you want a bigger tom my suggestion would be.. Paul Robeson, the flavour is excellent, the toms are are medium sized with very few blemishes. Black Krim is another good one,has a tendency to crack but is a heavy producer, Carbon is another of my favourites, very dark, perhaps the darkest of the blacks with a smashing taste. Nyagous is another good producer with tidy fruit, very sweet flavour. Cherokee Chocolate is another one, classified as a black. bit earlier than the others above..not much..the plants are very vigorous with a very good yeild, the skin is thicker than Cherokee Purple so they stay good a little longer.
If you fancy a white, try Hugh's. It is prolific with very big fruit very sweet but with that bit of tang that we like and for a yellow starter I would go with Dr wyches Yellow,sweet but with the tang, clean fruit, very large plants with good production due to the size of the fruit, but it is the flavour in a yellow that would draw mw to this one.
XX Jeannine
Jeannine
are there and goodflavored determinate (i think thats right bush ones) tomatoes that i can grow?
lbb
lbb, a bush tomato we have grown for the first time this year is Legend. I got the seed from Plants of Distinction, Simply vegetables, and they are really tasty, When you slice them the insides are like a beefsteak variety. The tomatoes weigh about 4oz each.
Another bush variety I can recommend is Red Cap. Smaller fruits, but tasty. Get these seeds from Dobies.
valmarg
cool, thank you valmarg
lbb
anyone else?
Bush Beefsteak..this is from the Beefsteak but has been brought down to a determinate, Bush Celebrity ( Hybrid)is the same ..both great Toms but in a bush version.Both are very early too but have the taste of the original toms. Bush Early Girl too also a hybrid, I think this would be my first choice if I was to grow only oneearly one.
I am particularly fond of Celebrity(hybrid) for taste and yield, a bit later than the aboves but an excellent tom
Rutgers is a real old fashioned taste went out of fashion but is coming back.I like this one, Yield is good and harvest is excellent.
Super bush if You are looking for determinate to keep the size down, grows to only about 3 feet.
I love La Roma(not Roma) for yield in a plum tom, far superior to Roma in yield, I use this one for canning.
Principe Borghese , loaded plant in a smaller tom and with great flavour.
I don't know of a black but there is a difference of opinion about the size of Black Trifele, personally I don't think it is a bush but many people do.
Bear in mind that many of the older great tasting toms are not bush, many of the bush toms mature early and I do think something is lost in the taste, but above are some of the ones I do grow as bush.
There are many more.
May I ask why you want bush.. many of the plants still take up a lot of room. in fact many take up more as they become wide.
XX Jeannine
Jeannine - I notice that Keepsake 'stops' at 3 trusses?
Thank you Jeanine (and others) for your ideas.
I wonder about the naming of these varieties, whether they change them slightly for some reason when the seed flies over the Atlantic ::) sometimes the names are similar like Cherokee something or other- but not exactly the same.
This was a listing in our newspaper last week of recommended varieties in our area ( zone 6) after a poll:
LARGE TOMATOES Cherokee Purple, Mortgage Lifter (also known as Radiator Charlie's), Hawaiian Pineapple, Pruden's Purple.
MEDIUM-SIZE TOMATOES Eva Purple Ball, Arkansas Traveler, Box Car Willie, Lemon Boy, Costoluto Genovese, Ramapo, Brandywine Red, Green Zebra.
SMALL TOMATOES Snow White, Isis Candy, Yellow Pear.
I think Rutgers was also on the list but I must have neglected to copy it.
hi, I wanted bush ones because i think i dont need to pinch them out
(i hope thats right) i have had huge problems keeping up with taking
out all of the new branches my plants want to produce from every leaf
joint over and over again, please dont think me lazy, just som days i
cant do it then it grows extra branches and i have to cut them of, which
it seems to me is a waste of the plants energy.
anyway if any or all of this is wrong please tell me :)
lbb
Our large tomatoes are Brandywine, Jaclk Hawkins, Mortgage Lifter, Costoluto Fierentino. Another large variety we grow is Mountain Pride. Not exactly a beefsteak variety, but a prolific producer.
You don't mention 'plum' varieties. My recommendation would be Olivade. A very heavy cropper of beautiful juicy fruits.
Smaller fruits are Bloody Butcher and Stupice, Probably the earliest fruiters.
Obviously Gardeners Delight for the 'cherry' variety, although they are not my favourite.
valmarg
calm down lbb.
It is most definitely not essential that you take out the side shoots. In fact OH leaves the variety Brandywine to romp away (tying in the side shoots).
He has been on several American sites, and they don't bother side-shooting.
valmarg
I agree, don't worry. It's practically impossible to control Brandywine and Costoluto anyway- you only have to take your eye off them for a day or two. :)
Mine have two or three main stems each.
Standing by to be corrected, but I do think you should check out the number of trusses that have set (i.e have fruit appearing on them) because the one plant will only be able to ripen a reasonable number of fruit. Pinch out the tips of the stems if the plant looks like it's getting overloaded, say more than 5 to 7 trusses.
Which reminds me, I should be out tying-in and Side-shooting the Toms... ;D
i just cant keep up with them, every time i look round they have grown again, their newest trich is sending out baby branches from the middle of leaves, now thats just bizzare
lbb
Quote from: littlebabybird on July 30, 2008, 09:47:15
i just cant keep up with them, every time i look round they have grown again, their newest trich is sending out baby branches from the middle of leaves, now thats just bizzare
lbb
I've had that as well, also sprouting from the end of trusses. I do remove both of those.
GrannieAnnie, I am not sure I undrestand what you mean about the names changing. Some toms do have two names..lke as you say Mortagge Lifter. RE Cherokee..there is Cherokee Chocolate, Cherokee Green and Cherokee Purple but they are all different.
LBB. don't worry about pruning if you don't want to, I know many folks in the US,,including the No1 authority who never prune anything, the plants do get very big sometimes though, but then some of the bush ones as I said can get very wide. You can simply pinch back if you want to now and again.
Tim, I don't know exactly if it is three but they will only set a few before stopping, the leader should then bear fruit.
Grannieannie, just thinking here,If a tom is changed from say a hybrid to an open pollinated, the seed that is sold as a result of the change will change slightly or if they are bred down to a smaller plant as in the ones I quoted. Which is why you can buy the original under one name and the later under a similar name,,as in Early Girl(ID) and it's little sister Bush Early Girl which is determinate.
Homesweet comes under 2 names as one is a generation removed from a hybrid.
Is that what you mean?
With Brandywines it gets even more confusing, as there is Brandywine Red ( a mid season tom which is the Landis Valley strain) and Brandywine Red which is a maincrop, and it comes in two leaf forms as well . Then there is the one that everyone says is Red Brandywine which is actually pink. it's correct name simply being Brandywine.. then there is the one often called Original Brandywine , which is also called Pink Brandywine or Brandywine Sudduths Strain and none of them are the one simply called Brandywine which also just happens to be pink.I will stop at that but there are many more strains and indeed colurs too. so much so that many breeders are questioning which is which!!
Tigerella is also Mr Stripey and it goes on and on. I found over there they had duel names too, but I think here for sure the Brandywines are confused.
Fun isn't it!!
XX Jeannine
If I wasn't confused before, I definitely am noW! :D LOL.
Often I've looked in US catalogues for varieties of plants being mentioned in the UK and they aren't here. I thought perhaps the person bringing them back from where ever they were originally hybridized just changed the name for something "new". (Am I cynical, or what?)
But your explanation of different generations makes sense. Would be helpful if the catalogues gave the genetic parentage.
Another point is that in the US catalogues you will see many more varieties than we see here, I buy the vast majority of my seeds from the US simply because I can get the varieties.They are becoming much more known now and folks are trying many more than they did even when I returned 8 years ago. I am certain that there were a lot of folks who grew toms that were unusual here when I first came back but not as many as there are now.
When I lived over that side and looked in seed catalogues for "UK" veggies I simply didn't find them(apart from roots and brassicas) The only tom I remember seeing that was English bred was Moneymaker..my Dad grew this in the sixties and we thought it wonderful ,now I know better,but.. every year I see them by the hundreds in the garden centres.
People shop in an International market place now so it is getting less unusual to ship "new" varieties from overseas. I originally had my choices shipped over because the ones I was familiar with simply were not here. It is the same with squash and beans my other loves,it is amazing and smashing to hear folks talking about their squash now, 8 years ago, squash was a butternut ,fullstop, at least it was to everyone I talked to.
Sadly many of the older varieties that were here many years ago are simply not available anymore.
I grow Hero of Lockinge melon..born and bred in the UK(another one of my Dads) but I can't buy it here, so I buy it in the US.
I think sites like this one are invaluable now as people are shopping all over the world and sharing their finds on line.
Now if only I could find Shake and Bake so easily!!
XX Jeannine
Quote from: Jeannine on July 30, 2008, 21:13:33
Now if only I could find Shake and Bake so easily!!
You can get it over here on ebay or from either of these sites.
http://www.angloaustraliantrading.com/Canadashop/CAdetail.aspx?ID=132
http://www.fabfoodsdirect.com/acatalog/Misc_Groceries.html
jeanine-my dad also only grew moneymaker-in those days i think it was the only one available-nearly everytime i go in the polytunnel i think of him when the tomatoey smell hits me!!
great days but now we are blessed with lots more choice-
just when i think i've kept up with the 'nipping out'i turn me back and *plink*theres more!
kitty
xx
Quote from: Jeannine on July 30, 2008, 21:13:33
Another point is that in the US catalogues you will see many more varieties than we see here, I buy the vast majority of my seeds from the US simply because I can get the varieties.They are becoming much more known now and folks are trying many more than they did even when I returned 8 years ago. .......
I've been getting Chilli seeds from New Mexico. Some aren't available here but even those that are work out much better value.
Yes I agree Barnowl, cost is another big reason I buy from overseas, I find I can bulk buy for very little more cost than a packet which allows me to share. I would much prefer to buy here but find it is almost impossible for one reason or another.
XX Jeannine