Here's The Tomatoes I'm Growing in 2009

15 years ago

Now that all my seeds are planted (Round 1 was started Feb. 1st, Round 2 was started Mar. 1st), I thought I'd post my 2009 tomato list. So, here it is:

ROUND 1:

These seeds were started Feb. 1st and have been potted up from their peat pellets to 8.5 oz. styrofoam cups. Most of them have 4 true leaves. If the weather continues to look good, I'll start hardening them off next week. I've been keeping them dry and cool so they won't grow too fast and get too big too early. They have the potential to go into the ground just before our last frost date here (March 27th) but I'll keep them in their cups a little longer if the weather looks unfavorable.

Arkansas Traveler

Black Cherry

Brandy Boy Hybrid

Bush Early Girl Hybrid

Box Car Willie

Chocolate Stripes

Grape

Homestead 24

Indian Stripe

Jet Star Hybrid

Momotaro Hybrid

Mountain Princess

Nebraska Wedding

Neve's Azorean Red

New Big Dwarf

Orange-Flesh Purple Smudge

Porterhouse Hybrid

Primetime Hybrid

Ramapo Hybrid

Royal Hillbilly

San Marzano

San Marzano Redorta

Sioux

Sun Gold Hybrid

Super Sioux

Supersonic Hybrid

Tess's Land Race Currant

True Black Brandywine

ROUND TWO: These seeds were planted in peat pellets March 1st. These likely will go into the ground right after Easter. I'm trying to spread out the planting so I'm not doing so much of it at one time.

Mountain Glory Hybrid VFFF/TSWV

Mountain Fresh Plus Hybrid VFFN

Scarlet Red Hybrid

Red Defender Hybrid

Moreton Hybrid

Tropic Hybrid VFN

Sophie's Choice

Glacier

Snow White cherry

Yellow Canary (for containers) cherry

Red Robin (for containers) cherry

Orange Pixie (for containers) cherry

Rose Quartz cherry

Bloody Butcher

Livingston's Gold Ball

Ildi cherry

Sweet Million cherry

Black Plum

There will be a Round Three, although I am not sure if I'll start those seeds in March and then try to find room for the plants, or if I'll save them for fall. I'll probably start the following in Round 3, and maybe a couple of other varieties as well:

Golden Sweet Grape--for dehydrating for winter

Fargo Yellow Grape--for dehydrating for winter

Cuban Yellow Grape--for dehydrating for winter

Polish Linguisa--for sauce/salsa

Opalka--for sauce/salsa

Seeds for fall tomatoes will be Round 4. They will be started in May and those will include the Livingston line of heirloom tomatoes, the heat-bred Sunmaster and Heat Wave types for August production, and the long-keepers for the winter months.

I'm trying a lot of new hybrids this year and I'll explain that in a separate thread. And, you may notice two long-time favorites are gone.....Indian Stripe has replaced Cherokee Purple and True Black Brandywine has replaced Black Krim. I'm a little worried about not having Cherokee Purple and Black Krim, but I can always pick up one or two of them from a local store since these two heirlooms are now easy to find at retailers.

The dried cherry, grape and currant tomatoes were wonderful this winter but didn't last long enough, so I am hoping to dehydrate four times as many this year.

So, what tomato varieties will everyone else be growing this year?

I thought I'd post a separate thread for other veggies.

Dawn

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Comments (30)

okiegarden
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Oh my... ok I need to get my list together and ready to go! So they can go out and start getting harden off soon? Details please on your system..

I have to share this - ok my very first year on my own I had never seen anyone start tomato seeds... ever. I knew both sets of grandparents and all my greatgrands did but I had no idea. So I called my grandfather up and asked what to do - just felt like tooooo many steps and like he just made everything to hard. So I went in there and planted a whole packet of seeds on a big pot with yes - head in shame - regular garden soil - placed it in a sunny window, watered, and waited... ok so they came up - I know miracle - but they came up and I left them all there in the pot together... they all died but one in the next two weeks from my bad care... that one lived and lived and bloomed one little bloom and never did make one tomato... so I learned to call Granddad again and take every step of his advice on planting and growing little plants to big ones...
hiites
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I just started mine a week ago Sunday. I have planted and how long I have planted them:
Cherokee Purple (5 years)
Box Car Willie (8 years, one of my very favorites)
Red Brandywine (6 years)
Brandywine OTV (first year)
Brandywine Sudduth (second year)
Omars Lebonese (first year)
Coustralee (first year)
Black From Tula (first year, instead of Black Krim this year)
Dr. Lyle (first year)

I knew I should not have gotten Carolyn Male's book :o)
Related Discussions
2009 Tomato Review
Q
Comments (20)
Jay, It puzzled me too and still does. Your freeze damage occurred in a manner that contradicts almost everything we've been told about freeze damage....like the fact that yours occurred on higher ground and not lower ground. Mine is always the opposite. The year the bed of black tomatoes survived freeze damage that severely injured or killed everything else, they were in the highest bed at the top of my sloping garden. I had thought that maybe you had some wind and it kept the damage from settling in uniformly, so your damage seems even more odd in the absence of wind. I also have had times where I thought the foliage from nearby trees protected some plants, but that didn't happen in your garden either. I guess it is one more oddball thing to add to the whole oddball year. Ilene, I've been thinking about those of you in northeastern OK and wondering what the 2009-2010 El Nino with all its excess rainfall will do to y'all and to your plants this coming spring. It seems like y'all have enough issues with excess moisture most years, and now to have the looming specter of El Nino on top of that.... The only issue with starting seed in the ground is that your whole crop will be very late, and you might not get any ripe fruit until fall. It's that whole pollination thing where the plants need to pollinate while temps are in the right range, and it is doubtful that direct-sown plants would be large enough to bloom while temps are in the right range. Still, you never know....if you have recurring cold fronts next year like we had this year, you might very well get fruit set all summer during the recurring cold spells. I love your description of the friends that remind you of the Baldwin Sisters! I always thought they were so funny. I didn't save any seed from anything because I am always so overwhelmed with trying to keep up with the harvest (more about the latest harvest in a minute) at the same time I ought to be saving seeds, but I can still save some from Tess's later this week because it still has several hundred tomatoes on it. In fact, if it ever stops raining, I need to pick those tomatoes today and dehydrate a bunch of them. First, I'll look at my seed envelope, because I'm thinking it was packed with oodles of seed, so I might not have to save any since there might be plenty from the original seed packet to share. Here's where Tess's Land Race Currant gets interesting: are you ready for a simple lesson in tomato biology? Tess's Land Race Currant, like all currant tomatoes, is not Lycopersicon lycopersicum like most tomatoes. Instead, it is Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium. It has extruded styles on its flowers, so it is very, very prone to cross pollinate. Because of the extruded styles, all currant tomatoes cross very easily with other currant tomatoes--that is one thing I know for sure. What I am not sure about is how readily they cross with tomatoes that are Lycopersicon lycopersicum. Most modern hybrid tomatoes have retracted styles, so likely wouldn't cross with Tess', but some heirloom tomatoes, especially those that have potato-leaved foliage, also have extruded styles so they might cross. And, even with beefsteak types of Lycopersicon lycopersicum, any fruit formed from double blossoms (also referred to by some as megablooms) may be crossed. So, saved unbagged seed of Tess's might or might not give you Tess's---which is why I'm hoping my seed packet of Tess's has a lot of seeds in it that are more likely to be pure. Another interesting thing about Tess's is that it mostly produces red fruit, but is not stable (perhaps because it crosses so easily?) and sometimes you get gold or pink or a sort of rosy-gold fruit. On this year's plants, I've had all red ones though. Either way....whether from the packet or from some seed I can save and ferment this week, I'll send you some Tess's seed this winter when we start exchanging seeds. I have tried to grow Tess's in ever enlarging (diameter-wise) cages and in ever-taller cages. Because it simply won't stop growing, and I hate to prune/top a healthy plant, I am thinking that an arched panel may be the best solution for it. I guess we'll know by this time next year if I'm right. Isn't Jay's plants' damage the oddest thing? I guess we should be grateful, though, that it was hit and miss because at least he didn't lose them all. When green tomato time arrives, I have a recipe for a green tomato cake that tastes like a spice cake, and for fried green tomato parmigiana. We're not mincemeat eaters either, so I don't make tomato mincemeat and I don't care for pickled tomatoes either. Earlier, I said I don't even try to save seed because I always get so overwhelmed by the harvest, which is exactly the case here this summer. The harvest was late but abundant and I have about 150 jars of food put up in the cellar, and an equal amount in the freezers. Looking at it all, I am kind of amazed to think it all came from our garden. Except for a steady flow of smallish numbers of tomatoes...with no more than a dozen or two large ones on any given day....and recurring rounds of peppers, the harvest has really slowed down......until yesterday. I went out to the garden to pick ears from the earlier of the two fall sweet corns, and this is what I ended up bringing inside just before dinner time: Hundreds of Tepin peppers to dry Dozens each of jalapenos and habaneros A good-sized mess of black-eyed peas (the last ones, because I then pulled the vines), A good sized mess of Royalty purple pod beans and a similar amount of Contender bush green beans A modest amount of okra About a dozen tomatoes (large ones only, still need to pick bite-sized ones from the six remaining bite-sized tom plants) and still need to pick big ones today from the containers in the back yard A few dozen ears of corn About a dozen pickling cukes So, today I'll be in the kitchen processing all of these one way or another, although I'm about out of ideas for hot peppers, having already canned pepper rings and pepper strips, frozen plain green jalapenos and roasted red and green chipotles, dehydrated jalapenos and habaneros down into either dried, ground power seasoning or chopped dehydrated pepper flakes, and dehydrated tepins. I've also made several batches of Jalapeno Jelly, Jalapeno Gold Jelly, and Habanero Gold Confetti Jelly. I am really getting sick of peppers. I guess I could make more salsa--I think we have plenty, but DS thinks we need much more. I could make pepper ristras, but in this humidity, they'd likely dry on the outside and mold inside. So, I guess I'll just make more of the same stuff I've already made....and I haven't made any vinegar/pepper sauce yet, so that's a possibility. The second fall corn should be ready to harvest in 10-14 days so I guess we'll know in a couple of weeks if it has beaten the frost and matured, or if the frost gets it first. I'm hoping for another frost-free month so I can harvest a lot more beans and cukes, but the rain/clouds aren't helping because they stall without sunlight and some heat. In a way, it is nice to have bowls and bags of produce stacked everywhere to process again, because the harvest really has dwindled down. Harvesting the last of the purplehull pinkeye peas was bittersweet--I hate to see the harvest end, but they produced copious amounts of peas from July through October, so that's a pretty good run, and we ate them almost daily 'in season' and still have plenty put up in the freezer for winter. I really need more cukes in order to make a batch of pickles, but the others aren't enlarging very much in the absence of sunlight. I guess I could make a half-batch of something. So far, the only pickled cukes I've done have been whole Dill pickles, bread and butter slices, and sweet pickle relish, so I am hoping to get enough cukes to make dill spears, dill relish, kosher dills and bread-and-butter stackers before the cucumber harvest ends. I tried to help myself in terms of NOT having an overwhelming harvest to process by saving pickling cukes and bush green beans for fall, and it helped a lot. I don't think I could have handled the harvest I had in July-August if I'd had to deal with cukes and bush beans at the same time. Still, because the tomatoes produced great, if late, and the peppers were overachievers (and still are, which makes it tempting to just pull the plants now and put an end to my pepper misery) month after month, I still had weeks where every flat surface in the house had piles of produce waiting to be processed, or in some stage of being processed. I wish there were a way to spread out the harvest more evenly but you really can't.....the veggies produce when they produce and that's just how it is. In a year like this, I really think I could produce almost an entire year's supply of veggies here....but, then, most years are not like this...most have half the rainfall we've had so far this year, so I should be grateful for the non-drought years because they are fairly rare. Still, I'm at the point where I never want to look at another pepper again....and my jalapeno plants are still heavily loaded. The rain, by the way, continues to fall, and we've had thunder and lightning since the early morning hours, but nothing violent. Dawn
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Tomato Grow List for Spring 2009
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Comments (2)
Scott, First of all, with all the rain you had, it is remarkable that you had any tomatoes at all! We had that kind of rain here in April-July of 2004 (believe it or not) and I was the only person here among our "gardening circle" of friends, neighbors and acquaintances who had tomatoes at all. Our raised beds saved the day for us, because the folks who had their plants at grade level lost them when 12" of rain fell in the month of June and drowned the poor plants. I did have a lot of concentric cracking, and some vertical cracking as well, and to me the flavor of the tomatoes was not as strong as usual, but....the people with whom I shared the tomatoes were just so thrilled to have any tomatoes at all. Non-gardeners always think that rain is "always" a blessing for veggie gardeners, but the truth is that too much rain is, in some ways, more damaging than too little rain. If I had a choice (and I couldn't have "normal" weather"), I'd choose raising my veggies in drought over raising them in flooding rains. I thought about growing Celebrity, and there is NOTHING wrong with its flavor, but I am spoiled by the unique flavors of the heirlooms, so I usually don't grow it. I do, in fact like the flavor of several hybrids, among them Better Boy, Big Boy, Early Girl, Porterhouse, Little Brandywine and Bucks County. Every heirloom tomato is NOT superior in flavor to every hybrid, although a lot of them are. Roma was my dad's standard go-to tomato for sauce and salsa, so I grew up eating them and I like them. I do like LaRoma better (and so did he, once he tried it), but I quit growing it when I found Viva Italia, which is similar but has better flavor and much better disease resistance. THEN I found San Marzano which put the others to shame and I was sure it was "the" best paste tomato ever, until I grew San Marzano Redorta. At that point I was sure there couldn't be a better-tasting paste tomato, and for me, there probably isn't. And, yet, I love the flavors of Amish Paste, Martino's Roma, Grandma Mary's Paste and others like Heidi. Growing tomatoes is such a "journey" and it always amazes me when I find a "new" (to me) tomatoe that supplants one I had previously thought was the best. LOL And, guess what? In the winter, when grocery store tomatoes are all that are available, we happen to like salsa made from store-bought Romas just fine too! With salsa, it really isn't the tomato that contributes the most important part of the flavor....the tomato is just the base, and it is the peppers, onions and seasonings that make salsa taste like.....salsa! I always say to myself in winter that I won't "waste" garden space on Brandywine ever again, because 3 out of 4 years, they are very poor producers. Then, I think of their incredible taste and end up sneaking one or two into the garden somewhere. Brandy Boy has been a huge improvement, though, and gives tomatoes that taste almost as good as Brandywine, but not quite. I grow it because its' taste is close and its productivity is so much higher. Earl's Faux (grown from seed saved from Brandywine that had clearly crossed with something else, or at least that is what most people think) is close to BW in flavor and is more productive, but is not as productive in my garden as Brandy Boy. True Black Brandywine from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds was a great new find in our garden this year. It outproduced all my other blacks and purples, and the flavor is great, although it is not quite as good as Brandywine Sudduth. It may be the only Brandywine I grow from this point forward. If you garden on level land, the best way I know to get early tomatoes is to plant them using Wall O'Water or Kozy Koat devices. Unfortunately, I garden on a slope and I can't use them because they tip over and the water spills out. Gordan Graham (now deceased), the gardener from Edmond, OK, who holds the world record for the largest tomato ever grown, liked to use WOWs to get an early start.....and he started his plants so early with them that he had to stack a second WOW on top of the first to protect his plants until all danger of frost had passed. I'll try to find a description of how he did it and post it in a separate thread. Since I can't use WOWs, I mulch heavily to keep the ground warm, and cover my plants with buckets and blankets during cold spells. For a couple of years I wrapped the cages of the early-planted tomatoes with plastic, but that is a huge job and interferes with air flow. So, now if a severe cold spell with several consecutive days of sub-freezing temps threatens, I build a quick hoop house over the plants using 6mm plastic. I've managed to protect the plants from late sleet by doing that. Some of the older tomato varieties that are most resistant to cracking (some are true O-P heirlooms but some are just really old hybrids from the 1950s or earlier) include Sioux, Super Sioux, Homestead 24, Santa Clara Canner, Carnival, Mule Team, Champion, Box Car Willie, Earl of Edgecombe, Akers West Virginia, Traveler 76, Arkansas Traveler, Rutgers, Zogola, Porter (barely larger than Large Red Cherry), Porter Improved, and Bradley Pink. Most of the processing tomatoes that have "Heinz" or "Campbell" in their name are very crack-resistant, and so are some of the newer hybrids like Cobra and Amelia. If enough rain falls, though, or if you over-irrigate (and I know you wouldn't), any tomato will crack though because the excess moisture makes the inside flesh grow faster than the outer skin. I've never had any of my heirloom Livingston tomatoes crack either but I've never had the kind of moisture that you do. My favorite Livingstons are Golden Queen, Gold Ball and Paragon, but Stone and Perfection are outstanding too. Victory Seed is the only company I trust for authentic Livingston tomato seed. One thing about the Livingstons that I adore is that they grow and produce in the worst of our droughts. I don't know why they are so much tougher than other tomatoes in drought years--perhaps it is superior genetics Early tomatoes can be quite vexing. There are many years when some 70-75 DTM tomatoes give me ripe tomatoes before Early Girl does, and I have no idea why. Among the better ones for early tomatoes are Bush Early Girl, New Big Dwarf (slow in some people's gardens, but an early producer in mine), Sophice's Choice, Matina, Kimberly, Stupice (pronounced stoo-PEECH-ka, by the way), and Glacier. I use Better Bush as an early, but it is only early because I buy it when it is already quite large--clearly started by the growers in November to give early-bird gardners like me large plants in 6" pots in mid-Feb. to mid-March. Among the cherries, both Grape and Black Cherry produce very early for me. Finally, if you are looking for tomatoes that produce in our climate, one of the best (and few) "local" seed sources is Wilhite Seed, based in Poolville, Texas, west of Fort Worth. Although Wilhite's specialty is watermelons (oh my, their selection boggles the mind), they cater to market growers, so if they offer a variety, it is a good producer. Since Porter and Sons Seed went out of business in either the 1980s or 1990s, Wilhite is the only company in Texas that I buy seed from. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Willhite Seed Co. website
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Tomato growing idiot I am here....
Q
Comments (9)
diclemeg, here are my thoughts and questions. Way too many of them -- sorry -- just select the ones that seem relevant. First of all, you have obvious height differences. The tall plants are setting fruit. The short ones aren't. That has to be significant. So analyze the two groups for us. Are the tall ones and the short ones in different places, or interspersed? Were there any differences in how you planted them (buried one group deeper, used different fertilizers, etc.)? Do both groups get the same amount of sun? What was growing in these areas last year? Any buried gravel, cement, lumber, etc.? Is one area lower or higher than the other, or with obviously better or worse drainage? Is the soil the same? Are the short ones perhaps against a building or a fence? Are the tall ones from one vendor, the short ones from the other vendor, or some of both? Were both groups planted at the same time, or different dates? Can you tell us when? Or how much time between the two? (If there was no significant difference, don't go into details.) Since the taller plants are the ones with fruit, and the shorter ones don't have fruit, I think we can discount the manure. If too much nitrogen were the problem, the plants without fruit should big huge, green, and aggressively healthy-looking. === the ones that haven't mostly are between 18 inches and 3 feet, and some have curled leaves, some look atrophied Leaves can curl for a number of reasons (including both too much water and too little). Or this might be herbicide damage. Do you know when you first noticed the curling? About how long ago was it? Were the two groups of plants about the same size until then? Has anything been sprayed in the area in the past month or so? By you or a neighbor -- or even a neighbor's neighbor? Herbicide can drift incredibly far on the wind, and tomatoes are horrifically sensitive to it. Curled and twisted foliage is the main symptom. If you know of any herbicide that was used, try to find out what it was (brand or chemical; whatever you can learn). Have a look at these pictures of herbicide damage. Do they look at all like your plants? http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=tomato+%22herbicide+damage%22&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&oq= Are these plants putting out any new foliage? Is it just as twisted? === Daconil is used to prevent fungal diseases. I doubt your problem is fungus-related.
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2009 Tomato Report
Q
Comments (24)
2009 Tomato Season Report The season started off with late frosts and leafhoppers delaying the tomato plant out. May was rainy and cold and by the time the plants were in the ground it was the second week of June. The Sweet 100 plant is the only exception as it was planted around May 15th. June was very wet with a record 8" of rain and no days above 80*. July was still wet and cool with only a handful of days over 85*. August was a little drier but still fairly cool. September was much drier and warmer which got a lot of the tomatoes to flower but it was to late for fruiting. October started off dry and cool but then turned wetter with temps dipping down to 31*. Most of the tomatoes got hit with disease and frost damage after the cold spell. The last part of the month was warmer with temps in the 50's and 60's but several inches of rain brought a bad tomato season to an end well almost anyway. The sweet 100 plant still has a couple more tomatoes ripening on the vine. I had no late blight in my garden a little bit of early blight and at the end of the season septoria leaf spot started showing up. Brandy boy: - potato leaf, medium about 5-ft, average disease tolerance. No ripe fruit but it did eventually flower and produce a couple of tiny green fruit. They both Had severe cracking issues. Crack size: all the way in to the middle of the tomato. The cracking was partly do to uneven moisture but this variety was still very crack prone. Brandywine Sudduth's strain: - potato leaf, medium/tall 5-6-ft, had a several disease problems especially later in the season. No flowers or fruit. Overall very disappointing. Cuostralee: - Regular leaf medium/tall 5-6-ft, Not great disease tolerance but it was able to grow out of the disease. No ripe fruit but it did flower. Japanese Black Trifele: - potato leaf, short 3-4-ft, top of the plant broke in a windstorm. good disease tolerance but not great. first ripe fruit october 30th after ripening indoors for two weeks, 1 ripe fruit. Taste: Gel is sweet with a slight tang to it. The meat is very mild and a little bit bland but it has a faint smoky flavor to it. No problems with cracking. I saved seeds. Marianna's peace: - Potato leaf medium/tall 5-6-ft, good disease tolerance until the end of the season when both plants yellowed. No ripe fruit. both plants flowered . Neves Azorean Red: - regular leaf, medium height 4-5-ft. It did get shaded by the brandywine plant next to it. Average disease tolerance but it would probably do better with more sun. No ripe fruit. the plant didn't even flower probably partly do to the weather and partly do to the shade. Sweet 100: - regular leaf, tall 7-8-ft , average disease tolerance first ripe fruit mid August, ~ 45 ripe fruit. Taste: Sweet with good "tomato" flavor. size small about an inch in diameter. Looks. perfect round bright red tomatoes in clusters of 5-10. Only cracks when ripe fruit are left on the vine during rain. Crack size : Just the skin cracks open not the whole tomato.
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Macmex
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Okiegarden, if you drop me an e-mail I can send you a Word document on saving your own tomato seed. It includes instructions on growing from seed.

We've got going:
Baker Family Heirloom
Guker's Special
Roma VF
Sioux
Tomato Rock

I am waiting on some seed, which hopefully should arrive soon, for Black Cherry and Guido, and I also plan on growing out Prudence Purple. I've also started seeds for tomatillo, Chile Rayado and Thai Hot peppers.

Our sweet potatoes, with the exception of one variety, are all sprouting merrily.

George
Tahlequah, OK
gamebird
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I've never tried planting my own tomato seeds either, but I'll be doing that tonight or tomorrow with some of the seeds from Dawn. I have to get more egg flats today, because the others are all filled up with cabbage and brussel sprouts (and parsley and chard). I'm worried about the cabbage and sprouts. They're spindly and growing fast. I can't put them outside because it's just too freaking cold and I don't have a light set up to give them all the light they need to stay short. If the forecast is right, then I can put them out tomorrow. It should at least get into the 50s here.
lovetotweet
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hi Y'all,

After much deliberation, I narrowed my list down to the following: (Okay, actually I narrowed it down to 10, but then kept adding at the last minute!)

Chocolate Cherry
Sun Gold
Box Car Willie
Super Sioux
Jetson Hybrid (free...might as well)
Aunt Ruby's German Green
Black Cherry
Black Krim
Cherokee Purple
Riesentraube Grape (also free)
Dr. Wyche's Yellow
Mexico Midget
Red Fig
Nygagous
Rose
Ponderosa Red
Trucker's Favorite Pink
Nebraska Wedding
Tommy Toe
Striped Cavern
Mortgage Lifter
Brandywine
Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge
Striped Roman
Isis Cherry Candy
Giant Belgium (also free)

Whew! Now, I just have to find room for them all. :-)
Ada
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
What wonderful lists! I hope other Oklahoma gardeners will add theirs too.

Mitch, I harden mine off very carefully. Here's how I do it:

Once they have 4 to 6 true leaves, I'll carry them outside into the shade for the first two or three days. Usually, I carry them out only after the air temperature reaches 50 degrees and I set them on the shaded front porch, which faces east. I set them back far enough from the edge of the porch that they get almost no direct sunlight, but are being exposed to cooler air than they've had inside and they also are getting some exposure to the wind. I'll only leave them out a couple of hours the first day, then maybe four hours the second day and six hours the third day. If the wind is over 20 mph, I may not take them out at all because windburn is a definite danger to tender young seedlings.

Around day 4, I'll carry them out to a table on the patio for one hour, then it is back to the porch for a few hours, and then back inside for the night. Each day, I give them another hour of sun, so by day 11 or 12, they're in the sun most of the day. At this point, I consider them sufficiently hardened off and I can plant them (with frost protection) anytime after that. Some people only harden off for a week, but I like to do it for a week-and-a-half or two because our wind is such an issue here at the time I am hardening off and planting.

If they show signs of sunburn (beige or white flecks on the leaves) or windburn (dried, wilted, darkened leaf margins), I move them back inside until they are better, and start the hardening off process all over again. Sometimes, the hardest part is to remember to bring them in at night and I NEVER trust the forecasters and leave them outside if the nights are still cold because I am in a cold microclimate where the overnight low can dip as low as 10 degrees below the forecast low.

Finally, when hardening them off, remember that birds and bugs and varmints have been waiting all winter long for fresh, green, tender vegetation to sprout and your plants may prove to be a very appealing target. Be sure you don't set them outside where the bunnies or deer can devour them.

Hiites, If you enjoy Dr. Male's book, just wait until you see Amy Goldman's. You'll get tomato fever even worse than you have it now.

George, You've got your sweet potato slips going early! I don't know if I am going to plant any this year....their "spot" is outside the garden fence and the deer are so plentiful.

Gamebird, My broccoli is in the same shape, and I hope to get it planted Wed. I thought I'd have it in the ground already, but I decided to wait until this weekend's cold spell passed (and I am glad I did because we went down into the teens). I thought I'd get it planted today or tomorrow, but real life keeps getting in the way of my gardening.

Ada,

It sounds like you "narrow down" about as effectively as I do. : )

The first round is my "narrowed down" list. The second one is all the others I decided were "must haves". The third round will be the ones that I suddenly decide I "must have" and "can't live without" and still have time to grow if I start them "now".

I find room for them by: (a) squeezing them into places where they do not belong, like flower beds; (b) planting in containers....lots of containers, including 10-gallon Sun-Leaves Grow Bags (c) digging up additional ground outside the garden fence, planting them, and then hoping the deer and bunnies don't find them.

I am SO ready to plant, but it is still too early and I know that. So, if we can't plant tomatoes, at least we can talk about them!

Dawn
okiegarden
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Wonderful - ok - now to start getting them hardened off here in a week or so...

Spring is in the air!
lovetotweet
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I am really ready to plant too, at least in spirit. However, this waiting period gives me the time I need to get my beds dug! Our area isn't exactly filled with gardens, especially not any you can see from the road. Our place, on the other hand, is being landscaped all the way around in a cottage-style, very visible to all who drive by. Each time a new bed gets dug I'm sure everyone who drives by our well-traveled street is wondering why we're digging up all that nice lawn, LOL! Just wait, I think!

Dawn,

I'm already thinking about placing another order after reading about a couple of things in an article in Organic Gardening! Plus, I hadn't thought about fall tomatoes - thanks for pointing it out - I think I'll get out my Bakers Seeds and SSE catalog again and take a peek... ;-)

Ada
sooners
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
give me a list of the good hot weather tomatoes, thank you
sooners
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
are all the plant listed good for north west okla, and for the hot weather?
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Sooners,

Ill answer this on the separate thread you started on the same topic.

Dawn
devilwoman
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I'm really a little embarassed to even post in this thread as I only have two varieties, Better Boy hybrid and Traveler 76. I'll be planting the seeds in little peat pots with seed-starter mix tonight.

I really only have a small space for planting veggies this year. If all goes well I will plan on enlarging the little bed next year. I'll have to be sure this summer to check what sides get sunlight when. Until I decide to take down all the evergreen trees around the perimeter I have a very limited space in my backyard that gets enough sunlight.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Debra,

Oh, don't be embarassed. Not everyone has virtually unlimited space to grow oodles of types. : )

And, yes, some of us are somewhat obsessed with growing tons of varieties.

I like both Better Boy and Traveler 76 and think they are terrific choices.

The first year I grew tomatoes on my own, at our home in Fort Worth in about 1984 or 1985, away from the security of "Dad's Garden", I walked into the nursery, picked up a six-pack of something.....it was so long ago I don't remember the type but it might have been Spring Giant or Big Set, and planted them in the ground. The next year I branched out and had two varieties--having added a six-pack of Roma. I was perfectly happy with them.

It took me a while to begin experimenting with more and more varieties, but then I "had to" move to the country to have room for a bigger garden so I could try them all. The first two heirlooms I deliberately grew were Brandywine and Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter and they changed my gardening life. Who knew tomatoes could taste like that? Some of the tomatoes we grew when I was a kid were heirlooms, but I didn't know that at the time. LOL

So, here I am, all these years later and I am still obsessed with trying new varieties and I want to grow them all. Sometimes, I think about how much simpler I could make it if I went to the store, picked up a six-pack of this and a six-pack of that and just planted them. Once the tomato-growing bug becomes an obsession, though, you can't go back. : )

To this day, I have to stop and look at all the tomato plants at every store I go to, just to "see what they have". Never mind that we have dozens of varieties at home!

Once I was in a Calloway's Nursery looking at/admiring their selection of heirloom tomatoes and an employee asked me if I was finding what I was looking for. So, I had to confess "I'm just looking, I already have all these at home......" although, of course, the ones I had, while the same varieties, were ones I'd grown from seed, and not theirs, which were selling for $2.00 or $3.00 for a 4" pot, and that was probably 6 or 8 years ago.

I just try to avoid the nurseries in Texas that have heirloom tomatoes nowadays, for fear I'll find a variety that I've never grown.....because you just know I'd have to buy it and squeeze it into a garden that already has too many plants.

Dawn
devilwoman
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thanks, Dawn! I bought the Better Boy seeds at Westlake a couple of weeks ago. I think that may be the one I got last year but too late in the season to actually get its one and only tomato to ripen. I've also been trying to find a tomato my granddad grew years ago. I know I asked him once what it might be, but he'd grown so many over the years he couldn't remember. After a lot of research into tomato types I've concluded that the one I remember must be a pink variety. I was going to try Traveler (aka Arkansas Traveler), but when I was looking at Victory Seeds' website I saw the Traveler 76 just a little way below Traveler. The site said it was more drought and heat tolerant than the original Traveler and also less prone to splitting so I opted for that one. Here's hoping that I actually get to eat tomatoes from my very own garden this summer!

Debra
maubles
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
My list this year is a good combination of my curiosity, advice from this board, and varieties I know. I really think that I am either going to have to work this year on new places to plant next spring or quit adding to my list. I guess we all know what I'll be doing this summer and fall ; ).

Baker Family Heirloom
Better Boy
Black Cherry
Black Krim
Cherokee Chocolate
Giant Belgium (Free w/order)
Jubilee
Kellogg's Breakfast
Royal Hillbilly
Virginia Sweets ( This was my "Wonder what that will do?"
selection from the catalog)

I have started some seeds for my aunt and if I can find a little more room, I may plant an Arkansas Traveler or two.

I'm thinking that I may try to save my own seeds this year and see how that works, but I'll have to see how things are going as the spring progresses.

Michelle
dancinwaters
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
What are the best red tomatoes for dehydrating...or are other colors better for that purpose? Also, if you could plant only 4 tomatoes...what would they be?
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Dancinwaters,

I have found very few tomatoes that are not good for dehydrating. Principe Borghese' is especially good--it is an Italian variety used for sun-dried tomatoes. Of course, in Italy's climate, they just pull up the plant by the roots and dry them on the vine, but our humidity makes that impossible in most of Oklahoma.....unless you're in southwestern OK, and then it might be doable. If dehydrating cherry or grape-sized tomatoes, I'm partial to Grape and SunGold. One that has not been tasty when dehydrated was Orange Santa, but I don't know why. I try to stick to medium-sized to small-sized tomatoes for dehydrating because the very large, very heavy ones like Big Rainbow, Tennessee Britches, Hillbilly, Pineapple, etc. just take forever to dehydrate.

If I could only plant four, I'd lose my mind. I could never just choose four, but if I had to, these are my choices: (and I'm listing them several different ways and explaining why)

4 FAVES & THEIR RUNNERS'UP:
Brandy Boy or Momotaro--amazing flavor and very good productivity. Brandy Boy has the flavor of Brandywine but much more productive. Momotaro is also outstanding.
Sioux or Super Sioux or Rutgers--very productive in hot weather
Indian Stripe or True Black Brandywine (or Cherokee Purple or Black Krim as commercially-available substitutes for them if you don't grow from seed)--outstanding flavor you can't get in a red-fruited tomato
SunGold or Black Cherry--for an endless supply of bite-sized fruit for salads and dried tomatoes

FOUR HYBRIDS YOU COULD FIND AT ALMOST ANY STORE:
Better Boy
Jet Star
Sweet Million or Supersweet 100--for a cherry type
Celebrity

FOUR HEIRLOOMS WITH GREAT FLAVOR THAT PRODUCE WELL IN OUR HEAT:
Arkansas Traveler
Bradley Pink
Sioux
Dr. Wyche's Yellow

FOUR TERRIFIC TOMATOES FOR CONTAINERS:
New Big Dwarf (produces large pink tomatoes)
Husky Red Cherry (very disease resistant plants that bear loads of round red cherries)
Nebraska Wedding (large yields of golden-orange beefsteaks)
Better Bush (early and produces large yields)

If I could only plant 4 in my own garden this year, I'd go with:
Indian Stripe
Nebraska Wedding
Black Cherry
Brandy Boy

And, I've been busy exploring the world of newer hybrids that have great flavor and perform well in our heat. Many of the ones I like were bred by Harris-Moran and are available through Harris Seed, so here's:

FOUR GREAT VARIETIES FROM HARRIS:
Supersonic
Primetime
Moreton
Jetstar

There.....I can't list "just" four, but I have you several different combinations of "four".

Dawn
Macmex
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Debra, ditto on Dawn's comment about not feeling badly about growing fewer. Not everyone has the space, and, it's good to be disciplined and "plant within one's means." :)

I could grow more, but I grow each variety in blocks, and with enough isolation space, for saving seed. Right now I'm pushing the limits. I recently started Polish Pastel, Tuxhorn's Yellow & Red and Prudence Purple. I have Black Cherry on order. Normally I trial something before jumping in. But I'm planning to put in about five plants of Black Cherry since Jerreth, my wife, has requested a good snacking tomato. I've heard so much about this one I'm just trusting we like it! The only other "black" tomato we've grown was black plum; which, not only seems completely unsuited for this climate, but no one in our family liked the flavor. (In an appropriate, less extreme climate, I think we'd have liked it in sauce).

George
dancinwaters
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Dawn,
Thanks for the list of your favorite tomatoes! We were preparing a small bed (3 X 8) for blueberries (I've never grown them) but now I think it will be used for a few more tomatoes. Do you have a general rule on the closest I could plant tomatoes...or does it just depend on the cultivar? Thanks for all your help!
Cindy
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hi Cindy,

You're welcome. It honestly does depend on the variety you pick. If you go with shorter determinates you obviously could plant them closer together.

The first year, before tomato diseases and pests find your new planting of tomatoes, you probably could get away with planting them 24" to 30" apart. In future years, once Early Blight has reared its ugly head, you'll probaly need to plant them 36" apart. (And I am not saying Early Blight won't find your plants the first year....but just that it will be back stronger and more evil the second year.)

In a perfect world where there are no space limitations, I'd plant them 3' to 4' apart in rows that were 4' to 6' apart. It does depend entirely on the tomato variety though, and none of us are gardening in a perfect world.

If you were planting New Big Dwarf, Sweet Baby Girl and Window Box Roma, for example, you could pack them in about 24" apart and get great production. However if you planted Black Cherry, True Black Brandywine and Tess' Land Race Currant 2' apart from one another, they'd all try to kill one another and the largest one (undoubtedly Tess' Land Race Currant) would win and would bury the other two under its massive foliage. I like to space these monster plants 4' apart, but I don't always have room to do that.

You also can get away with planting closer if you do the following:

1) Cage or trellis the plants. I use cages formed from cylinders of woven wire fencing and stake the cages to the ground using 4 3' tall wooden surveyor's stakes. (For really large tomato plants like Black Cherry and Tess's Land Race Currant, I use 6' tall metal fence posts instead of wooden stakes.) You get better air circulation, less disease, fewer (if any) rotting fruits and higher fruit production from cages or trellised plants than from those allowed to sprawl on the ground.

2) Cover the soil in the bed with a heavy layer of mulch to prevent disease pathogens from splashing up from the soil onto the plants. I don't just mulch the beds, but also the paths between the beds.

3) Water ONLY using a water hose lying on the ground, soaker hoses that put water into the ground and not into the air, or drip irrigation lines with emitters that drip water into the soil. Never, ever water using a sprinkler and do all you can to keep water off the foliage of your plants. Wet foliage gets diseases and, if the plants are crowded and there is poor air flow, the diseases are more serious and spread more easily.

4) Feed only with all-natural products like Espoma Tomato-Tone fertilizer or something similar, liquid seaweed or liquid fish, etc. Absolutely avoid synthetic/chemical fertilizers and most especially those that are high in nitrogen. Excess nitrogen attracts pests and diseases so you always want to avoid it when raising tomatoes, but even more so when the tomatoes are spaced a little close together.

Can you get away with planting tomato plants 18" to 24" from one another? Sure you can. Commercial growers do it all the time (and often space their plants much closer than that). You can make close spacing work. You may get fewer fruit per plant, but your overall yield per square foot might be higher because you are planting more plants per square foot.

In a raised bed the size of yours, I'd plant a double row, with the two rows offset from one another. In a 3' wide by 8' foot bed, I'd probably put in six plants....three each in a row, but offset from one another in a checkerboard pattern. Does that make sense? Picture your raised bed as a checkerboard. In the first row, plant in the "red" squares and in the next row, plant in the "black" squares. That will keep them from crowding one another quite as much as they would if they were lined up in two precise rows like soldiers.

Dawn
ilene_in_neok
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Marglobe
Baker Family Heirloom
Arkansas Market
Purple Calabash
Kelloggs Breakfast
Beefmaster (hybrid)
Black Krim
Striped German
Chico III
Costoluto Genovese
Brown Berry Cherry

Actually this year I cleaned out my seed stash. Some of these plants are the result of using up little sample packets sent to me by the Wintersowing folks last year when I first tried that.

Arkansas Market is my own made-up name. It was seed I saved from some beautiful big round Arkansas-grown grocery-store tomatoes that my son brought over shortly after the e.Coli scare last summer. I have no idea what they really were. Any ideas, anyone?

Kellogg's Breakfast, Black Krim and Striped German are three that I grew last year and loved.

Baker Family Heirloom from George, my first year to try. Thanks George!

Brown Berry from a trade this year. Supposed to be a good candidate for a container plant as the vines are determinate.

Beefmaster was seed I had from several years ago. I wasn't really crazy about it as the core was pretty large. I know a lot of people really like this kind, so I may just put the plants in my garage sale this spring. Last year I sold tomato plants for $2.50 each. They sold quickly and I even had calls later asking if I had any more. I didn't have a whole lot to sell as I had only sown extra in case the seed didn't all come up, and practically all of it did. This year I planted a little extra to share with my exterminator (we are his benchmark house for ants, he says). Anyway, he's become our friend and has helped us in lots of ways so I try to do little things for him when I can. He has never experienced heirloom tomatoes. He usually buys hybrid plants for his garden.

I have been hardening my plants a little differently this year. All that carrying out and carrying in is a pain. Fortunately we've had several days and nights of warm weather. I put them out on my covered back porch where the sun reaches them for about an hour. I have them in foam coffee cups and fitted the cups into plastic storage boxes. The boxes are a little taller than any of the plants. After their hour of sun, I just covered the whole community with a sheer curtain panel, to protect them from the wind, etc. Left them out all day and all night that way. Next day, uncovered them for half the day, then covered again as it was terribly windy that day and I didn't want them to dehydrate. Next day uncovered for all day, covered during the night. They've been out now for four days and nights and look really good. Last night turned out a little on the cool side, 40 degrees. But I think they'll be ok. I already have Brown Berry transplanted into the tubs they will grow in. Looks like we have another spell of cold weather coming up, so I'll have to carry them all back in then.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Ilene,

Your Arkansas Market tomato could be just about anything, but if it is commercially grown it is most likely a hybrid. If you remember what month your son bought the tomato that might help us narrow it down to what it might be. And, do you remember if the fruit were very round, smooth and globe-shaped or if they were oblate? And, was the size of the fruit in the 6-10 oz. range, or larger. I have some ideas, but need some help to narrow it down to a few likely possibilities.

My tomato plants are begging to spend more time outside, but since the plant light shelf is upstairs and I don't like carrying all those flats up and down, I have been ignoring their pleas. After this week's cold spell passes, though, I probably will move them to the back porch to stay. The weather has been so up and down here in southern OK that I don't trust it at all--we keep going up into the 80s with nights in the 50s and 60s, and sometimes even high temps in the 90s, and then a cold spell comes along and the highs are in the 40s-50s with nights in the 20-30s. Last week, I think....or maybe the week before...we had two nights around 19 degrees and two days around 90. No wonder all the trees are blooming and leafing out.....but the cold isn't really over either.

Dawn
dancinwaters
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Dawn - Yes, I do get the checkerboard layout for planting. I recently saw it on Oklahoma Gardening and thought it was a great idea. I'm so glad I asked how close tomatoes could be planted because I wouldn't have dreamed we could put 6 in the 3 X 8 bed...yippee! Also, thanks for all the advice on keeping the evil ones away from the plants. I think we'll water with emitters and plan to grow organic so the fertilizer information is helpful too. Are nurseries likely to have Principe Borghese' plants or would I need to order seeds...if so who would you suggest?
seedmama
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I intentionally delayed posting to this thread for several reasons. I am growing far more varieties than I ever imagined I would, and I started tomatoes inside for the first time in 7 years. I've been waiting to see how much success I might have. I want the karma gods to know I am not bragging and don't wish to jinx this, but I have been much more successful than I expected or was prepared for. Once germinated, I have not lost a single seedling. (I humbly acknowledge the party is not yet over.) And it now appears I will have homes for all my seedlings. I expected many of these not to germinate, or to lose them along the way. I was prepared to sow replacement varieties. But I'm just simply out of room. So I'll save my favorites from this year and continue on with unsown seeds next year. In theory I could start fall tomatoes to replace the current indeterminates, but I know I wouldn't follow through, so this is it for 2009.

Tomato Ace 55
Tomato Amish Paste
Tomato Arkansas Traveler
Tomato Atol
Tomato Baker Family Heirloom
Tomato Betalux
Tomato Big Boy Hybrid
Tomato Big Zac
Tomato Black Cherry
Tomato Black from Tula
Tomato Black Pear
Tomato Bonny Best
Tomato Carbon
Tomato Celebrity
Tomato Cherokee Purple
Tomato Cosmonaut Volkov
Tomato Costoluto Genovese
Tomato Crimson Fancy Hybrid
Tomato Cuor di Bue
Tomato Garden Peach
Tomato Gardener's Delight Cherry
Tomato Glacier
Tomato Gold Medal
Tomato Green Zebra
Tomato Ida Gold Yellow
Tomato Italian Market Wonder
Tomato Jami
Tomato Japanese Black Trifele
Tomato KBX
Tomato Large Cherry
Tomato Marianna's Peace
Tomato Nebraska Wedding
Tomato Nyagous-isf
Tomato Nyagous-th
Tomato Olen'ka
Tomato Orange Banana Paste
Tomato Pineapple
Tomato Polish Dwarf
Tomato Principe Borghese
Tomato Sandul Moldavan
Tomato San Marzano Redorta
Tomato Slava Poryni
Tomato Soldacki
Tomato Striped German
Tomato Sun Gold Hybrid
Tomato Super Fantastic
Tomato Supersweet 100 VF
Tomato Sweet 100 Cherry
Tomato Tiger Like
Tomato Tiny Tim
Tomato Top Sirloin
Tomato Vintage Wine
Tomato Watermelon Beefsteak
Tomato West Virginia Hillbilly
Tomato Whippersnapper Cherry
Tomato Yellow Brandywine
Tomato Yellow Pear
Tomato Zapotec Pleated
Tomato Zogola Polish
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Dancinwaters,

Oops, I missed your post in March. I grow Principe' Borghese from seed--never see the plants in stores here.

Seedmama,

Nice variety. I hope you get oodles and oodles of delicious tomatoes.

Did you sow inside instead of winter-sowing, or did you sow tomatoes both ways this year?

Dawn
gamebird
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I have ended up with 114 plants from about two-thirds of the tomato seeds Dawn sent me. Some of them are growing their first true leaves now. These are the ones that have survived several rounds of damping off and I figure I'll lose a few more still yet to that scourge. They're all in six ounce styrofoam cups and I plan to leave them out on the back porch until I plant them.
seedmama
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Dawn, these are all indoor starts. I hadn't done indoor starts in a long time so I was prepared to get about half as many as I actually got, and planned to winter sow another 50 or so varieties. I've ended up with 119 tomatoes & 45 peppers and just don't have any more room! Starting indoors is a huge hassle with watering, hardening off, etc. but I love getting the earliest possible tomato. Next year I'm going to have a strategy for starting a few indoors for an early tomato, and doing the majority with winter sowing. The down side to WS tomatoes is a later harvest, but the workload and risk of loss is so much less.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Seedmama, Inside starting is a lot more work, but I do it for the earlier tomatoes too. Here, it so often goes from "too cold" to "too hot" almost overnight and that makes it so hard to get heavy fruit set before the heat arrives. I love winter sowing, but just won't do it with tomatoes.

I have to tell you, though, that by the time it is finally time to put the tomatoes outside to harden off , I am sick to death of adjusting the lights, watering inside, carrying them out on warm days and in on cold nights, etc. LOL However, when we starting harvesting and eating the yummy maters, I decide it was worth it after all.

I remember the old days--about 25 years ago--when I just went to the store, bought a couple of six-packs of tomato plants, and stuck them into the ground. Life was so much simpler then, but all I had was regular old tomatoes. The huge variety and many different flavors of the tomatoes I grow now also make all that time and effort worthwhile.

I hope you have a marvelous yield of tons of yummy tomatoes to pay you back for all the work you've done.

Dawn
seedmama
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Dawn, a neighborhood boy knocked on my door this weekend. He asked, "Is it true you have over 100 tomato plants inside your house?" I found this hysterical, because apparently someone who knows me has been talking and word gets around. It probably came from all my grumbling about the work. I'm hoping that next year climbing over baby gates won't be part of the equation and that will make it easier. Anyway, I invited him in to look. I'm sure in his mind there was a vision part Boo Radley/part Little Shop of Horrors. I hope I set aside his fears!

I think starting tomatoes inside and child birth have something in common. The mind has a way of making you forget how painful it was so you can be tricked into doing it again!
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I wish I had baby gates to keep the dogs and cats out of the plant room!

I hope your neighbor enjoyed seeing the 100+ tomato plants. I probably would have looked him straight in the eye and said "I have no idea what you're talking about", just to see his reaction, if I could have done it with a straight face.

I agree with the parallel between child birth and starting tomatoes inside! At least with a child, though, you get another tax deduction. I suspect none of us could convince the IRS to let us claim our always-needy tomato seedlings as dependents!

Here's The Tomatoes I'm Growing in 2009

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