Do you have any suggestions for fall and spring crops here in south florida? This year as I posted to you on another thread, I am going to try the Brandywine OTV and possibly Sun Gold myself and then will grow the Sudduth and Landis Brandywine for my friends to grow for me. Thinking about Kellogg's Breakfast, Yellow Brandywine Platfoot and Cherokee Purple, too for them since they have quite a large piece of land. That would give them 1 pink, 1 red, 1 purple, 1 orange and 1 yellow. Then if I get the free Virginia Sweets, they could have a bicolor, too. Should be pretty to look at all those different colors together. Would any of these be better suited for the fall or spring down here? Stayed hot/humid here through early November then got real cold in December-January through early February and the heat was back by the end of March. Terrible for growing tomatoes, but I just have to try again this year and hope for better weather.

Yes, tomahtohs, I think you are probably correct. The pinkish color looks about right at this early stage of ripening. And I think you are also correct that the size is reasonable for a Mortgage Lifter. I've only grown ML one time before, as a newbie in 2007. What gave me pause for doubt is that one ML seedling turned out to be a cherry, and the lobing on the other "ML" doesn't quite match my vague recollection of what an ML is supposed to look like. Here is another photo of other tomatoes on this plant. This photo shows two tomatoes on the same plant that are still green. It's very weird that the two tomatoes are of such different surface textures. The one in front looks almost as lobed as a Costaluto Genevese. (Shameless newbie name-dropping as though I might know what the heck I'm talking about, LOL) I recall ML being quite a bit smoother, as in this photo of my prize ML of 2007 (Blind newbie luck - it was the largest tomato I've ever seen in my life and I forgot to weigh it. Damn!) This photo in unintentionally misleading. The dime, for comparison, appears to be directly next to the ML making the tomato appear to be the size of a watermellon. The dime is actually about 12-15 inches behind the ML.

The mortgage lifters are an excellant eating tomato, Mine get huge, the size of two hands. The Cherokee purple got huge too,we had too much rain and now they are starting to split.Had never tasted one before, wasn't sure what color it was supposed to be, but looked good. I brought it in the house and washed it and cut out the split and sliced it , it was the reddest color inside! Put a sprinkle of salt on it and tried a piece. OMG , so sweet, no tough skin....Gotta get bacon to make blts. Also have San Marzano and plum tomato of some kind. They aren't giving me as many a day as I thought they would. I'm getting about 2 quarts of sauce a day. So. I'm just freezing it.It's not worth canning that small amount. Smells so good though with the fresh garlic and onions and peppers. Yummm

Nighthawk i too grew rutgers up north along with pineapple, roma, thessaloniki, and brandywine. I sure miss them all but pineapple and thessaloniki were my favorites. I'm trying cherokee purple right now because many gardeners in my zone have good success with it. I grow all my vegetables except eggplants in containers. I bought 25-gallon poly half barrels for $5 each and I plant 5 cherry type tomato plants in each or 3 full size tomato plants. I also planted silver queen this year -10 plants to each of two of those half barrels ( you need at least 20 plants for pollination). The plants grew great - 6+ feet tall. They bloomed. And that's when the squirrels reached right through the chicken wire top of my totally fenced veggie garden and ate the "flowers". We were able to save some and sprinkled it over the silk but the ears that formed are only half full. Sigh!!! So we now have an added top above the corn barrels and the #%^* squirrels cant get to them. We're planting corn again for a fall crop but if that one is not successful I give up on corn. I'm very tempted to use my 38 on those squirrels.