Well, I can't grow nearly that many. I tend to put in 4 to 10 plants of each variety I grow, and I give them adequate isolation for seed saving. Already (when I start counting on my fingers) I'm headed for being overloaded. But here, off the top of my head, are the varieties I'll put in this year.

Spring.
Sunray VF
a generic grape tomato F3 generation from a hybrid
Roma VF
Baker Family Heirloom
Sioux
Prudence Purple
Tuxhorn's Yellow and Red
Porter

Fall:
Lil's Favorite
Polish Pastel

I just know I'm going to think of something else! Tuxhorn's Yellow and Red is an Indiana Heirloom I picked up while in grad school in Indiana. While out of the country I left it with a couple of Seed Savers Exchange members and reclaimed some seed back in 2002. My seed ended up to have been crossed with a pink beefsteak (Tuxhorn's is a large yellow with red streaking and marbling beefsteak). So I've been growing it out for two years and selecting back to the pure strain. It is quite heat tolerant, even for setting fruit, for a large beefsteak.

My wife REALLY wants the grape tomato and Roma. Actually, I want Roman, because I want a huge flush of cooking tomatoes for canning.

I tried Sioux in 2007, getting it in a bit late. But it was impressive to me. We still have ripe ones on our patio, so I know it holds well.

Our youngest daughter will ONLY eat Sunray VF. That's the only tomato she likes fresh.

Polish Pastel is a yellow/pink/orange plum tomato, extremely dry and with an incredibly low number of seeds. It holds well and makes good sauce. But what I find most impressive is the plant's growth and ability to withstand adverse conditions. It seems best for a fall crop, as fruit set is sparse when days are real hot. But once the fall comes it goes wild.

Lil's Favorite is a grow out in my seed rotation. I haven't grown it since 2003. It's a large beefsteak heirloom from Southern Illinois.

Baker Family Heirloom is our main crop variety, producing heavily and making a nice large tomato for slicing or cooking. Plants can reach over 10' long and are very bushy. Sets fruit well, except during the very hottest part of the year. (Also an Illinois heirloom).

Prudence Purple is another Illinois heirloom I picked up in a seed swap, back in 1983. This one has medium indeterminate vines and produces a good early crop of very large pinkish red fruit. This is our all time favorite slicer. Very similar to Brandywine, but earlier (I hear) and also handles the heat well. This one is a potato leaf plant.

Wow! I'm already overloaded!

George

George,

If I were growing plants in isolation in order to save seeds, I wouldn't be able to grow a lot of different varieties either. We have a decent-sized piece of property, but most of it is wooded, so I have to squeeze in as many plants as I can into the sunny spaces.

Prudence Purple sounds similar to Pruden's Purple, which is one of our top 10 favorites. Black Krim and Cherokee Purple are our two all-time favorites, and they produce well for us until the temps start spiking up over 100 degrees. Another one we really like is Nebraska Wedding, which is a gorgeous orange meaty beefsteak that is out of this world with regards to flavor. It also handles the heat very, very well.

I have grown Sioux and Super Sioux twice. Both years were rainy and the taste of the tomatoes wasn't all that great. Here in Love County, though, many of the old-timers swear that Sioux is the best tomato they ever raised, so I guess I'll have to try it again, preferably in a dry year.

Well, lunch is over and I'm headed back out to the garden.

Dawn

Prudence Purple may be a synonym of Pruden's Purple. I've just maintained the name as it was passed down to me.

Sioux tasted very good to us last summer/fall. But we got it in too late. I think, however, that there is sometimes a different emphasis between some old timers and some modern growers, which seems to go contrary to what we would normally think. Many old timers probably did WAY more canning than fresh eating and therefore, like my wife, would value a solid tomato, even if flavor wasn't that striking. We've noticed that we eat fresh tomatoes for about a month, each year, then we pretty much settle down to just cooking with them,... unless we put some grape tomatoes out on the table. Then the family snacks on'em. Nevertheless, Sioux, though not large, received very good ratings for flavor, in our family. Plus, I suspect it will work out as a main crop cooking tomato.

WOW, Dawn, that is quite a list. I just bought some romano tomato seeds, of which I already started some. I need some for the master gardeners booth in the Tulsa home and garden show in March.

Usually I buy two or three plants, and hope for the best. :) Thus, this year will be different. :)

Of course, I live in the city, and don't do much veggies anymore. Kids are grown, and husband is on his own weird diet, and cooking is just for me.

Dawn,

When you get time will you list some of the more heat loving type tomato plants, so we can all keep that in mind, when we make our own lists. Thanks Sheri

Sheri,

I will be happy to list the heat-loving types but I have to add this disclaimer: NONE of the heat-loving hybrids tastes nearly as good as any of the commonly grown heirlooms and hybrids. There are some heat-tolerant heirlooms although calling them "heat-loving" might be a stretch.

First, the heat-lovers are essentially fall tomatoes and I like to plant mine earlier than is advised--in late May to late June instead of late June to late July. I have found that the tomatoes planted later are not able to produce as many tomaotes as those planted earlier.

Secondly, I am not totally crazy about the flavors of some of the hybrid heat-lovers, but they do flower and set fruit in hotter temps, so they are sort of a "sure thing", or at least as much of a "sure thing" as you can find in gardening.

Finally, if we have very severe heat, even the heat-lovers may not set fruit during that time frame. Of course, cherry, currant, grape and paste-type tomatoes generally set in every temp. Also, I have had a few tomatoes relentlessly set fruit when we had a hot spell in early August when the temps were in the 107 to 112 degree range for a few days (Better Boy, Nebraska Wedding and Celebrity among them). So, sometimes you just get lucky!

Here's the list of heat-lovers (fall tomatoes that set fruit in spite of high temps) I'm planting in 2008:

TOMATOES BRED FOR HEAT:

Heat Wave II
Solar Fire VFFF hybrid
Solar Set VFF hybrid
Sun King VFTA hybrid
Sun Leaper
Sunmaster VFFA
Tropic

All of the above will give you the round, bright red tomatoes that breeder think of as the epitome of a "tomato". Most lean more towards being medium to medium-large, but not gigantic. Their flavor varies with the growing conditions and your own taste buds.

STANDARD TOMATOES That Handle The Heat Well: (Not specifically bred to be heat-tolerant, but seem to set fruit well in high temps.)

Arkansas Traveler/Traveler 76
Better Boy VFN
Bloody Butcher
Box Car Willie
Celebrity VFFNTA
Dr. Wyche's Yellow
Fourth of July
Homestead 24 F (not the same as plain Homestead)
Mule Team
Nebraska Wedding (orange fruit)
Peron/Peron Sprayless
Porter (produces very small tomatoes, only slightly larger than Large Red Cherry, but doesn't slow down in the heat). Pink oval tomatoes.
Porter's Pride--similar to Porter but has round red fruit.
Sioux
Super Sioux

LONG-KEEPING TYPES: These are the ones you can plant in July and harvest in October/November (barring an early killing freeze) and store for months.

Green Thumb
Keepsake
Longkeeper
Old-Fashioned Garden Peach
Ruby Treasure
Winter Treasure
Yellow In, Red Out

LIVINGSTON TOMATOES:

These are in a category of their own. I planted most of them as fall tomatoes last year (Golden Queen and Gold Ball I grew as spring tomatoes as well). They all were very disease-resistant and produced well in the heat, so I am growing them as fall tomatoes this year.

Livingston's Dwarf Stone
Livingston's Favorite
Livingston's Globe
Livingston's Gold Ball
Livingston's Golden Queen
Livingston's Magnum
Livingston's Main Crop Pink
Livingston's Paragon
Livingston's Perfection
Livingston's Stone

DWARF TOMATOES FOR CONTAINER CULTURE (INDOORS) IN WINTER:

Orange Pixie
Red Robin
Yellow Canary

Hope this info helps.

Dawn

That did help.

I am going to plan on the Bloody Butcher, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Sioux, Super Sioux, Fourth of July, Nebraska Wedding, and Mule Team. I think Darrell grows all of those, I wish he would update his site for the 2008 season.

I am trying to remember from last year, there was guy in eastern Oklahoma, who has a stand every weekend, with a ton of heirlooms. I know he had a website also, does anyone know who he is?
Sheri

I can't remember his name now. But he's renowned in this neck of the woods (I'm just a relatively recent arrival, which perhaps is why I can't remember his name!) I believe he lives in Sapulpa or Sand Springs, OK.

Don't forget Sunray VF for long keeping. I'm sure that this tomato actually has the long keeper genes in it. They regularly can sit on the kitchen counter, at regular room temperature, for over a month. Yet it's a very tasty slicer.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Darrell Merrell aka.Tomato Man is the guy in Sapulpa. He was moved to an assisted living center in Tulsa sometime last year. His health has not be good but his daughter kept the operation open at his home place last year. I've not heard of any news for 2008. His place is about a half mile west of the Beeline(Hwy 75) on 81st St. They have a great selection of heirlooms to choose from. I start my own seeds but go there to get sheep doo.

George,

I remember Sunray from the 60s or 70s but haven't grown it before. I think one of its' parents was said to be Jubilee, and I have grown Jubilee many times. From what I remember, Jubilee holds fairly well indoors, but probably not as long as Sunray.

I think I'll add Sunray to my list for the fall. Thanks for the tip.

Dawn

Last year I planted 3 Crista tomatoes based on the recommendation of my local produce store owner. (I tried 10 or 12 others also.)

I was surprised that Crista withstood the wet weather better than any other variety. That is, it kept its leaves more than others, and shaded the fruit until harvest (all at the same time) in August.

After harvest I was surprised that the Crista tomatoes kept on the kitchen counter much longer than the others I was harvesting.

I finally searched last week for some info on Crista, and it appears it is a newer variety that would be more for commercial growers.

If you are not too picky about taste (tasted similar to other slicing hybrids to me), it is worth a try for those that may not care for the plants "perfectly" in stressful weather, and want long storage and nice appearance.

One other note, I was also surprised that Big Bertha and Sweet Banana wer the onyl pepper plants that made it until frost in great shape and still producing. Even my jalapenos almost died from an overnight wilt of some type in July after days of saturated, heavy soil.

Here's what I can find on it.

"Sunray - Breeder: USDA, Plant Industry Sta., Beltsville. Parentage: Pan America and Jubilee. Resistance: high to fusarium wilt. Similar: Jubilee. Adaptation: regionally to most of the United States. So. Seedsman. Feb. 1950."

My story on Sunray is kind of unique. Back in 1983, I was in seminary and my wife working as a waitress. We really wanted to garden in order to cut expenses and eat better. So we rented a garden plot (about 50 X 50' for $10 a year). I ordered some seeds from Parks and they threw in a packet of Sunray VF. That's it, there was no description. Just a packet with the name. I couldn't find any info on it, but decided to grow it out. 1983 was the first year I grew more than one heirloom and Sunray was in the mix. I believe we grew out about 20 varieties of tomatoes. In a blind taste test, Sunray won almost every time. But when people were not blind folded they chose a red variety.

1984 was my first year to have a listing in the Seeds Savers Exchange. They didn't allow me to list Sunray, as it wasn't officially an heirloom (even though it was discontinued from most seed catalogs). They couldn't fit everything in their year book, so that year, I couldn't list it. Later they managed to change formats and fit in A LOT more varieties. Now Sunray is one tomato they especially tout.

Here is a link that might be useful: tomato cultivars

Scott,

I grew many of my peppers in containers this past year. I didn't intend to to it, but the ground stayed super-saturated for so long that they just never made it into the ground and, at some point, I just decided to leave them in containers. I think it was early June when I decided to give up on the idea of planting them in the garden-turned-swamp.

I didn't have 20 or 25 extra flower pots sitting around, so I planted them in 5-gallon buckets and Tidy Cat cat litter jugs that I'd been saving forever....I just cut the top part off the jug, punched holes in the bottom and transferred the peppers from their 6" pots to the larger containers. These peppers produced like crazy until a frost killed most of them in late November.

I still had 2 pepper plants (one hot red cherry and one red habanero) producing peppers until the overnight low went down to 12 degrees about 8 to 10 days ago. Each one of them was in a large pot with a brugmansia and dusty miller and they were in the garage at night and out on the sunny patio during the day.

I was pleasantly surprised with how well peppers produced in pots.....better than the ones that did make it into the soggy ground in May.

I am working diligently to improve the drainage in my veggie garden through the addition of tons of organic material. Of course, it is a never-ending battle, but my incredibly slow-draining Oklahoma red clay soil is getting better every year. Last year was truly a challenge, though, with the excessive rainfall that just wouldn't quit. (Well, here in Love County is did finally stop raining in mid-July unlike many parts of the state.)

George,

Thank you for the info on Sunray. I am excited about trying it. I might plant it next to Dr. Wyche's Yellow, another old favorite of mine and an Oklahoma heirloom to see how they do side by side. Dr. Wyche's performed very, very well for me in the horible droughts of the late 1990s and early 2000's, but I haven't grown it the last few years.

So many tomato varieties.....and so little space and time.
LOL

Dawn

Breasly, Yes that is who I was thinking of. I looked at his website but they have not updated it yet.

I believe I stated once that I was in love with Miss Dawn.

*Southern Red-neck grunt*

I ain't so sure about that now.

Nah - I am pretty sure I hate her.

She listed too many.

Here I was all happy cuz in about three weeks I could get the spinach in - and now she lists (lusts) about two dozen different types of 'maters that I know dad-gummed well I won't grow?

Pure evil, I say!

*Shakes fist*

To heck with you Dawn!

Unless you have some Brandywine seeds.

Yeah - I'm fickle.

Hi Trubbadubbadoo!

Where have you been? I've been missing ya!

If you could see all the chaos I endure starting all my own plants from seed....and keeping the cats from pulling out the labels and confusing me....and keeping the dogs from trampling the baby plants when they are hardening off outside.....and keeping the starving deer from eating the little plants once they are in the ground.....and keeping all the labels straight and attached and in their place once the plants are actually planted, mulched, caged, etc......then, couldn't you feel at least a little sympathy for me? 'Cause, ya know, if I wasn't SO CRAZY about growing so many kinds of tomatoes, I'd have so much less stress. LOL And, of course, if it isn't snow, late freezes or high winds, then it is tornadoes, hail, flooding or wildfire. But, once you're addicted to the almighty tomato, what's a girl to do?

I actually can remember a year in my mid-20s, newly-married, gardening on my own for the first time (although Daddy's garden was just down the road) and I only grew six tomato plants (really only had room for 3 'cause our whole yard was too shady) and they were all the same kind--although I don't remember if that year was Better Boy or Big Boy or what. Can you believe it? Then I discovered the famed Brandywine! From Brandywine to Mortgage Lifter and then to German Giant and Pineapple. THEN I discovered TGSC and SSE and really went wild. It has been all downhill ever since. (laughing at myself here)

Every now and then, I DO decide to simplify my tomato-growing. I tell myself I will cut back both on the number of plants and the number of varieties.....I tell myself I really mean it this time. And, at the point that I am saying that to myself, I really believe it. Then, the mid-winter "I-am-so-starving-for-a-real-tasty-tomato" blues set in, and I start making lists and starting seeds and I lose control. Some men, you know, are married to women who have to have diamond rings....or shoes, shoes, shoes. My poor DH has a wife who has to have tomatoes seeds. : )

Do you need Brandywine seeds? If so, send me your address through Gardenweb e-mail and I will send you some. There, now, will you love me again?

Your tomato sister,

Dawn

Has anyone grown Powers or Golden Jubilee?

Powers is listed as an heirloom. It's a yellow indeterminate similar to Amish Paste. 3 to 5 oz fruits originating in Virginia.

Golden Jubilee has golden orange fruits 6 to 7 oz in size. Indeterminate and I think also an heirloom. Says mild flavor and low acidity in one catalog.

I've been looking at all my seed catalogs and these two caught my eye. I was wondering if they would take our hot summers.

I'll grow my usual Porter and Early Girl. Possibly Nebraska Wedding, Arkansas Traveler, and San Marzano. And I'd like to try a couple others..... I really am trying to cut down, but orange and yellow tomatoes are calling my name this year.

Lynn

I live on a small city lot & don't have much room & have just a small garden. In only my 2nd year of gardening, I'm going to try the following:

Cherries:
Sun Gold (nearly half of these never made it into the house last year)
Black Cherry

In containers:
Tiny Tim
Stupice

Slicers, main garden:
Early Girl (for early I did First Lady last year, wasn't impressed)
Cherokee Purple (loved this tomato last year)
Kelloggs Breakfast
Arkansas Traveler

Another thing I'm doing differently is starting from seed. Last year I bought transplants. I'm ordering my seeds this weekend! It'll be a first for me to start from seeds!


Wish me luck!

Some of my harvest from last year:
{{gwi:109456}}

Last year's little garden:

Hi Lynn,

I have grown the 1943 All American Selection Jubilee/Golden Jubilee (sold under both names but I think they are the same variety) several times, both in Fort Worth years ago and here in Oklahoma in 1999 and the early 2000s.

Jubilee is a good yellow/orange tomato, but not the best yellow/gold variety I've ever grown. As grown in my garden, it is a medium-sized indeterminate plant that has proven to be quite disease-resistant. (I think it has shown VFT resistance for testing and labeling purposes.) The tomatoes are about 6 to 8 oz., sweet, meaty and juicy. During the droughts of the late 1990s and early 2000s it produced quite well under difficult conditions. It also holds well on the vine if you get busy and don't get around to picking tomatoes as often as you'd like.

For me, Jubilee produced more tomatoes per plant than Nebraska Wedding but fewer than Azoychka or Dr. Wyche's Yellow. Nebraska Wedding, however, produced larger fruit and, at least as grown in our garden and to our taste buds, Nebraska Wedding had a tastier, heirloom-type flavor. Since individual taste buds vary, you might find the opposite to be true.

The last few years I have tried various other yellow and orange tomatoes with mixed results. Both Persimmon and Russian Persimmon produced as heavily as Jubilee, but the fruits were somewhat smaller. They both had good flavor. Aunt Gertie's Gold has not been a heavy producer for me, but the large golden tomatoes are yummy and it handles our heat well here in southern Oklahoma. Yellow Brandywine had luscious flavor but not very many fruit per plant. Dixie Golden Giant is an outstanding choice, but I only grew it in Texas years ago and haven't grown it in Oklahoma. It does, however, handle the heat extremely well. I don't care all that much for the flavor of Lemon Boy although it produces lots and lots of tomatoes per plant.

Two relatively new tomatoes that show great promise in our climate are Little Lucky and Lucky Cross. Little Lucky produced smallish mostly yellow-orange tomatoes with a reddish blush on the blossom end of the plant that radiates about halfway up the fruit. It had excellent flavor and produced fruit all summer long in 2007. I grew it both in the soggy, wet ground that resulted from last year's abundance of rain, and also in very large containers on our concrete patio. Both produced equally well. Lucky Cross is a large tomato, about the same size as Big Boy in our garden. The fruit have a little more of the traditional bi-color marbling. The flavor is also outstanding. I didn't get a huge number of fruit per plant last year, but that may be the fault of the excessive rain, coolness and cloudiness that plaqued us until late July.

Jaune Flamme' is a small orange tomato that we like. It was one of the first plants to produce ripe tomatoes last year and one of the last.....it still had tomatoes on it when a freeze killed the plant in November. Last year it did better in a large container on the patio than in the ground. The heat didn't seem to bother it at all. Jaune Flamme's flavor seems worse (as in little flavor, almost none) when it is very wet, cool and cloudy. However, on the patio where it baked in the heat reflected from the patio, the flavor was better, so it might do especially well when grown in hot, dry conditions.

I've never grown Powers, so can't help you there.

I especially adore the yellow/orange cherry/grape tomatoes and always grow several of them. For us, SunGold is the tastiest, followed by Ildi, Dr. Carolyn and Coyote, which is pale yellow to white. Snow White tastes wonderful but always has foliar problems here. In your lower humidity, it might do very well.

And, I almost forgot two favorite golden-fruited heirlooms: Livingston's Golden Queen and Livingston's Gold Ball. Both produced until frost in our garden last year and both have excellent flavor. (Queen has larger fruit and Ball has more fruit.) They are both very heat tolerant.

I haven't grown Powers.

Dawn

Thanks for the info. Dawn!
Have you grown Galina's? It's a wonderful cherry type tomato that I grow most years and my mother always requests it. According to Tomato Supply Co. they say:

Originally from Siberia, this very sweet golden-yellow cherry tomato is about 1 inch in diameter and produced in long, fruit-laden clusters. The flavor is not just sweet, but has some complexity that makes it very tasty. It will be hard to resist snacking on this one when you pass by it in the garden, but fortunately harvests are large enough to provide plenty. Indeterminate. 75 days.

I really love the flavor of it. I don't think I've seen seed for it in any catalogs lately. I'll have to check my supply and see if I have any left.

I knew Nebraska Wedding was a larger tomato. You gave me a plant at the swap one year Dawn, and I really loved the flavor, but that year it did not make many tomatoes. So my plan is to try it again. Thanks for the info. on Jaune Flamme'. It sounds like it will be worth a try also.

Hi okcdan!
Your little garden spot looks great! So neat a tidy and not a single weed. Very unlike my beds...
It looks like you did very well for only your 2nd year of gardening. Good luck with seeds!

Lynn

Lynn,

I did grow Galina's. I got it (from you, I think) at one of the spring plant swaps a few years back. It was not in a prime location in my garden that year....I squeezed it in at the end of a row and it suffered horribly in the heat. I tried it again last year, and it was in a lower portion of the garden and the excessive rain drowned it. I am sure I will try it again. I do grow Dr. Carolyn, an ivory/pale yellow cherry that is a sport of Galina's, so I am "almost" growing Galina's. I do think seed of Galina's is still available commercially, almost certainly at Tomato Grower's Supply and maybe SSE.

I forgot to mention that I usually see seeds for Jubilee on seed racks at places like Wal-Mart, Lowe's or Home Depot just about every year.

Dan,

Your garden looks great.

Have you grown Tiny Tim or Stupice before? I have. (sigh) I'm not trying to discourage you, but neither one impressed me overly much with regards to flavor.

Stupice was OK but Tiny Tim wasn't even worth the (admittedly small) space devoted to growing it. And, as far as Stupice is concerned, it just doesn't taste as good to me as many other heirlooms that are almost as early to ripen. However, everybody 'tastes' tomatoes differently because we all have different taste buds (and different weather and different soil and different growing conditions), so you might like Tiny Tim and Stupice just fine.

Growing tomatoes from seed is so easy that, once you've tried it, you'll never buy transplants again! The most important thing is to use a sterile seed starting mix. Almost as important is to not keep the soil too wet as it tends to lead to damping off and other disease problems. Light is important too.

Don't worry. If you have seed starting problems, we'll be here to help and encourage you. Honestly, the first year I started my own tomato plants from seed, I LAUGHED when I realized how easy it was!

Since you like Cherokee Purple, you also would like Cherokee Green and Cherokee Chocolate, both of which are just skin mutations of Cherokee Purple. I think Cherokee Green is the best green-when-ripe tomato that I have ever grown.

Every day I look at my seed flats, and look at my big plastic storage bin of seeds and look at my light shelf and ask myself "Start them today?" Then, I get a grip, talk myself out of it and wait a little longer.

I'll wish you luck, but you won't need it. I am confident you will do just fine starting those seeds.

Dawn