I bought a Giant Belguim tomatoe plant and wondered (after-the-fact) how it will grow 4-5 lb. tomatoes without snapping the plant in half. I've used baskets, stakes and ties before with 1 lb. toes and still had some branches get bent and "cut-off". Any suggestions? Don't worry about it Jon b'c that variety has had the same wrong fruit size blurb at almost every place where seeds/plants are sold. You aren't going to get 4-5 # tomatoes, rather something in the 1-2# range which is standard for many beefsteak varieties. I'm wondering why folks posting here don't post in the main Growing Tomatoes Forum where heirlooms are discussed in great detail. I'd say 99% of all info for them is over there, and not here. And I suggest going there b'c that's where you're going to get the greatest input on anything related to heirloom tomatoes at GW. Carolyn

I wonder if anyone will look at this old thread, and I wonder how long it has been since I've been to GW. Years, probably, but my password still works; we'll see if Spike's humorless style of moderating is still the rule of the day, even though it loooks like Spike isn't in charge anymore. Early tomatoes? IMO, you have the choice of a large number of Early determinates, none of which are very satisfying, and a smaller number of early indets. Several years ago I became enthralled with the idea of trying every Canadian-bred variety and every variety popular in Canada; turned out that Canadian tastes in Tomatoes isn't much different than our own down here in the states. The absolute best early determinate in my opinion was Melfort, bred in the ag experimental program in the town of the same name. It is so good, I am quite surprised it isn't better known than it is. Stay away from the very early determinates like Sub-arctic Plenty or Early Lethbridge, unless your interest is in maintaining the work of the folks that originally released them. They just aren't all that good, and not early enough to be of value. Sophie's choice is alright, but soft and mushy, like Cold-set. Indets: there are a number of very early potatoe leaf types that are very similar to each other; fruit size is small (2 oz) but flavor and texture is great: Kotlas (I got seed from Early's farm and garden),Stupice (widely available) Kimberly (seed savers) and you may come across Sprint, Matina, and a couple of others whose name escapes me for the moment. In my N. Mn garden they all ripen within 3 or 4 days of each other, and very early indeed... around 1100 growing degree day units; about 60 days this year.

Hi Spatz, thanks for reminding me of the variety, I would love some seeds from Jaune Flamme, I have just been to visit my mum and I'm pretty sure I can scam a bit of space in her garden for some more varieties, though i haven't really told her that yet, ha ha - I managed to get her to grow a broad bean cover crop without having to reveal my sneaky 'surrogate' tomato patch plan *snickers loudly*. I was wondering if I could trouble you for some seeds of some cherry varieties as well? I was going try a few different coloured cherries in pots this year. I was just looking at Finbars recipe above and noticed the cavalo nero reference, now I have been looking for seeds of this for a while and was talking to the woman at the market who grows heritage seedlings and she informed me that cavalo nero is more often sold as lacinato kale, which I have had seed to all along! Can anyone confirm this for me? I did an internet search, from this I learnt that Cavalo Nero is most definately a type of kale but I'm still not sure if it is actually Lacinato. cheers, mudlark

Seysonn - Thanks for that explanation. I started a thread a week or so ago asking for early tomatoes with good flavor recommendations, which Dave is referring to. I am just realizing that early = short season. I grew Fourth of July last year for the first time, but had to plant out tomatoes later than usual, so I don't know how early it would have started ripening otherwise. We didn't enjoy the flavor, but they were our earliest tomato and very productive. I didn't mind the small size. Dave and others recommended some of those you mention - Bloody Butcher, Matina, Early Girl, etc. which I am going to look for at the nursery. I normally don't pay attention to DTM, I just choose by recommended named variety and I was just remembering how a lot of my tomatoes last year didn't ripen. I thought it was getting them in late, but really, I often have trouble with large tomatoes because of the reduced sun. [Only about 6 hours] Cherries do well for me, usually. This year, I'm putting 3 tomatoes out front where I have full sun. I grew the Fourth of July out there last year. This year, I'm trying one of each of Sungold, Cherokee Purple and Black Prince, both out front in full sun and out back in the 6 hours of sun. I expect those out front to perform to expectations. In the back, I am starting to think I should experiment with early - short season varieties. I have room for four more plants. I have seed for Black Cherry, Mountain Princess, and Hog Heart. I may try three of the early varieties instead. I was thinking of trying Brandy Boy too, which I see is a Mid Season. I live in New England, and have about 4 ft of snow in the yard right now and no warm up in sight.