OK...
Tomatoes -
Aunt Ruby's German Green
Cherokee Purple
Porter
Dr Carolyn
Pineapple
Mini Grape
Man of the Sea (I only have 3 seeds so I hope they grow!)
Arctic White
Golden Jubilee
Roma
Yellow pear
and any others I can get my hands on!

Peppers -
Mini Purple
Tequila Sunrise
Jalapeno
Serrano
Bell - Cal Wonder
Banana
Habanero
Cayenne
And still more coming from a swap

Eggplant
Rosa Bianca
Diamond

Tomatillo
Green
Purple

Caster Bean
Pink
Red
Giant Green
Purple

Thank you to Dawn for helping me pick several of those and Baker Creek for FAST shipping. So they are all planted now the wait...

Mitch,

"and any others I can get my hands on!"

I have an enormous variety of "leftover" seed that I'm offering to anyone on the Oklahoman Forum (Okies or Ozarkers since many post to both forums). This is 'leftover' seed from commercial packets, so I don't necessarily have vast quantities, but all these seeds are looking for a good home. LOL

You (and everyone else reading this) can see the list at the Exchange page here on the OK Forum.

I bet you'll see a tomato or two or three (or more) that you'll want to try.

Dawn

I thought it was a little early for the warm season plants.
I think i'll wait a while before i start mine. Plus i need to rearange so i actually can start more seeds.

I will be glad when i can set my cool season stuff out in the garden.And i still need to start more broccoli when the seeds arive.

Have any of you tried the different goliath tomatoes?I would like to see if i could get one of them to grow 5lb.That would be a monster tomato.

Got my totally tomatoes catalog today and there are some pretty pictures.

Busy1,

It depends on where you are in Oklahoma. It is not too early to start warm-season plants here in extreme southcentral OK where I live. (I am so far south in the 'bend' of the Red River that I have Texas to my west, south, and east.) Our average last frost date is March 27th and I sometimes set out my plants (with protection) up to 2 weeks before that, depending on what the weather is doing and what it is forecast to do.

It gets very hot very early here in my part of southern OK, so you have to get your tomatoes in the ground early to get good fruitset before the hot temperatures shut down production. Most years, I put my earliest tomatoes in containers in mid-Feb. to early March and usually harvest my first ripe tomato in late April--often about the same time that some of my gardening neighbors here are just setting out their plants. I usually get my earliest plants in the ground in March and am harvesting my first fruit from in-the-ground plants before Memorial Day.

Planting early is a lot of work, and entails quite a bit of risk if the weather turns very cold in March or April, but it is worth it to me. I get a huge crop of tomatoes most years--all we can eat and preserve, and plenty more to give away. Would I plant this early if I lived much further north or east in the state? No, I wouldn't. But, here in southcentral OK, I am in zone 7B and most years I can plant out at the same time people in zone 8 in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex are planting. Even in a year with a very late cold spell (we had a very late freeze here on May 2nd or 3rd last year), I may lose a couple of plants to a late freeze but that's a pretty rare occurrence.

My cool-season stuff goes into the ground beginning Feb. 10th, so it is almost planting time here, although I don't necessarily get my cool-season plants in the ground that early. Some years I don't get anything in the ground until Feb. 17th or later--it just depends on how cold the soil is and how cold the nights are.

I've grown the regular Goliath and it was OK but nothing special taste-wise or size-wise. I'm not saying it wasn't a tasty tomato--just that, to our taste buds, it was only "average". In order to get a 5-lb. tomato, you'll have to employ the techniques used by the folks who grow "giant tomatoes" and you'll have the best chance of success if you use seed of one of the tomatoes known to produce huge tomatoes. Getting really large tomatoes in our climate is not easy. And, most people who are able to raise a tomato larger than a pouund or two work at it for years before perfecting their techinique and finally getting a really big tomato.

There's a terrific book by Marvin Meisner. M.D., on growing giant tomatoes, by the way, and it explains in great detail what you have to do to get giant fruit. Even if you aren't going to try to grow a "giant" tomato, it still teaches you everything you need to know about growing tomatoes and is one of my favorite tomato books (and I've read a lot of tomato books). I have the book and read it last year and really found it to be quite informative, well-written and well-illustrated with many gorgeous photos.
I don't grow tomatoes for size, as I grow for flavor, but I've gotten some pretty large fruit from the following tomatoes: Tennessee Britches, Big Rainbow, Valena Pink, German Giant, Giant Belgium, Brandywine, German Queen, Pineapple, Black Pineapple, Dixie Golden Giant, Hillbilly and Mammoth German Gold. Based on many years of growing tomatoes, I'd say the largest ones often come from the large pinkish-red heirloom tomato varieties originally from Germany and the large bi-color heirloom varieties from the Appalachian part of the US.

One key to getting really huge tomatoes is to look for fused blossoms (you know, the super-large flowers that really are 2 to 3 or even 4 or 5 flowers fused together) early in the season when they are more common and then hand-pollinate them yourself, or at least thump the blossom several times a day to ensure pollination and fertilization occur. I almost always get my largest tomatoes from the really heavy flush of blooms that occur in my garden in May.

Totally Tomatoes always has great-looking tomatoes, and I do purchase seeds from them occasionally, but I've had the best results with heirlooms from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed, Victory Seed, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and Seed Savers Exchange. Of course, the photos and descriptions in every catalog make every tomato sound amazing and incredible, and the reality is that most of them are overhyped and it takes a lot of trial and error to find the ones worth growing. I also buy a lot of my tomato seed from Tomato Growers Supply Company, and in recent years, I have tried and liked many of the hybrid tomatoes bred by Harris Seeds, including Supersonic, Primetime, and Jet Star. This year I'm trying Moreton, Mountain Fresh and a couple of other new ones from Harris. One of our best producers in the August heat/drought here last year was Ramapo F-1, which can be purchased only from the Rutgers Univ./New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station's "Jersey Tomato" program. It isn't a huge tomato, but it kept producing well even in very high temperatures.

As you can see, I could talk about tomatoes all day. : )

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Giant Tomatoes book by M. Meisner, M.D.

Dawn, sent you an email regarding the tomato seed :)

Kathy

Wow, I never noticed the "Exchanges" feature before you mentioned it! What a great idea!

George

I sent you mail about the seed offer. I may order that book. I like medium sized tomatoes myself. I only usually plant a few but during this storm I've been thinking about tomatoes and spending too much time 0n-line reading about them. There is a woman on the tomato forum, Carolyn, who wrote a book on heirlooms don't know the name. Have you read that one?

Hi Helen,

I got your e-mail and e-mailed you back. If you don't get my e-mail, let me know.

Yes, I have Dr. Male's book and it is all worn-out and dog-eared, which shows you how much I have read and re-read it. It is a great book. I bought mine in about 2001 or 2002 or so. I already grew a few heirlooms before I read her book, but after I got her book, I went on an heirloom tomato binge!

The title of the book is 100 HEIRLOOM TOMATOES FOR THE AMERICAN GARDEN, by Carolyn J. Male, published in 1999, by Workman Publishing in New York. I purchased mine on Amazon.com because the nearest big bookstore to me was about 40 miles away and they didn't have it then. I do occasionally see it in the bookstores nowadays at major bookstores like Barnes & Noble, mainly (of course) in the spring.

I've grown maybe half the 100 tomatoes she describes and this book helped me "find" some of the heirlooms that are now favorites of ours. I've had good production from almost every one she lists, except for the Oxheart types which only produce 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 fruit per plant here because they just don't like our summer heat.

I've linked Carolyn's book below.

Hope this info is helpful.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Carolyn Male's 100 Heirloom Tomatoes

I ordered both books to get the free shipping. The total was about $33.

Helen,

I hope you enjoy them. The Giant Tomatoes book does the best job I have ever seen with regards to explaining in exquisite detail just how to grow tomato plants. The 100 Heirloom Tomatoes book will give you the absolute worst case of "gotta have it" fever. I grow a nice mix of heirlooms and hybrids although there have been some years when I have grown almost 100% heirlooms. I really, really enjoy trying all the different heirloom tomatoes. To me, each different tomato variety is like a different vintage of wine--unique and special withs its own special flavor.

Dawn

Dawn -

I have read and reread and rereread your list... and I sent you an email.. I would love to see your garden - all those tomatoes must be a stunning site!!!!!!

Mitch,

You need to drive down for a visit in late May or July. Probably late May is best...because by then everything looks really spectacular and the diseases haven't arrived yet. June is a terrific month to see it too, but we have oodles of family birthdays and other family occasions that month so we're hardly ever home in June.. Of course, if this drought continues (and I cannot let myself believe it will) at the current level, there won't be much to see.

I used to plant many more tomato plants than I do now--back in the early 2000s. At that point, the deer had not yet discovered the garden, so I could plant a couple of hundred plants outside the fenced-in garden, and the deer and rabbits hardly touched those unprotected plants. Now that we've been here a while, the deer, rabbits, raccoons and every other wild thing (including bobcats) like to get into the garden and feast. The first three are eating plants, but the bobcat is looking for birds or animals, including my cats.

Since the wild animals found the garden, I now have to restrict myself to only what I can plant inside the fenced garden, so I'm only going to grow about 1/4 the number of tomatoes that I grew the first few years here. That's OK, though. I grow far too many anyway (although I don't have any trouble giving the extras away).

I have had a great time trying new tomatoes, and I guess I'll never stop. I love many of the heirlooms, but the last couple of years, I've been trying a lot of fantastic hybrids from the Harris-Moran Seed Co. (and others) and I've been impressed with their flavor. I still grow a mix, but in hard years (when I expect drought), I grow a higher percentage of hybrids because they tend to produce more tomatoes per plant in many cases.

Dawn

Dawn -

Good to know... I do need to visit... maybe we need a plant exchange in Love County for all Okies in the spring? ummm just a thought!

Mitch

Mitch,

We have a plant swap tentatively planned for the spring but farther north in OK than you and I live, which is the most convenient location for most of our members, since the population of this state is heaviest in central and northeastern OK. Plantermunn and Mrs. Plantermunn have graciously offered to host and plan the swap. I haven't been to a swap in several years (not because I don't enjoy them, but because fire and drought kept me away one year and then son's graduation from the fire academy kept me away the next year) and I can't wait.

Ironically, even though we all enjoy bringing home new seeds and plants, I think we enjoy the covered-dish meal even more. Recipes start flying hot and heavy on this forum the week after the swap. (Gardeners love to eat!) My favorite part, though, is just meeting everyone and renewing old friendships. It is nice to have a "face" to put with a name.

Dawn

We were thinking mid April. Maybe the week before or after Easter. What ever can get the most people in? Wind Surfer Girl would like to wait till May. That would be kind of late for swapping tomatoes. But we could still have a lot of fun. After all it is more of a potluck with plants.

Every on chime in and we can start to narrow it down.

Here is a link that might be useful: The other sight.

Plantermunn,

I will come no matter the date. Yes, it would be a little late for tomato plants, but the world doesn't actually revolve around tomato plants, does it? (Well, maybe my world does--but not necessarily everyone else's!)

I think that those of us who grow tomato plants from seed still could bring our extras--all we'd have to do is pot them up to 1 gallon to 3 gallon pots (leftover black plastic pots from nursery shrubs or small trees would work) once they were 6 to 8 weeks old so they they'd continue good growth and not get hard, woody stems, which slows down growth and tends to lead to more transplant shock. I've seen very large (3' tall) tomato plants in 3 to 5 gallon pots at Lowe's in May, and they seem perfectly healthy and actively growing, in bloom and with tomatoes already on them. So, why couldn't we have some in that shape by swap time?

For Wind Surf Girl and others in the colder parts of the state, I know that often the cold is still hanging on in mid-April so it might be hard for them to carry home plants from the swap if they can't set them out ASAP. So, May is OK with me, but so is mid- to late-April. Whatever works best for everyone is fine with me.

I am really looking forward to it, and can almost taste the food.....wonderful food.....right now.

Dawn

Cool we will go for maximum occupancy.

I started a chime in thread.

Back in Texas I started a few swaps both small one local (5-10 folks) and bigger ones in Dallas (100 plus folks from all over Texas, Oklahoma, and who knows where) so if you all need any help LMK it was on another site that cost - they had next to no Okies over there in the forums so I sat there and said why in the world am I here and came over to GW with one of the best OK forums on the web I have seen anywhere.