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Growing Tomatoes

early tasty tomatoes

15 years ago

Have decided to extend my season by growing some early tomatoes. Taste is my only criteria. Suggestions?

Larry

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Comments (9)

digdirt2
15 years ago
In all the previous discussion of good tasting early varieties, the following come up:

Momotaro
Stupice
Bloody Butcher
Sophie's Choice
Moskovich
Legend

tomatogrowers.com offers over 50 early varieities you might want to check out. You might also want to review some of the previous 'early tomato' discussions.

Dave
bigdaddyj
15 years ago
Early and good taste doesn't exist IMO. Not when you compare them to later beefstakes. Dave mentions Momotaro and it is an excellent tasting tomato! One of my favorites. But I would call Momo a mid-season. Not an Early.
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I grew a number of heirlooms last year...and honestly, I was really disappointed. Maybe last year was just a bad year for tomatoes? I found them to be quite acidic tasting, they didn't keep AT ALL after picking, and I had terrible cracking problems. I had to throw out so many tomatoes because they quickly turned to mush and got moldy after cracking. The rest I mostly made into tomato sauces. They were fine for that. Off the top of my head, I think I grew Cherokee Purple, Indian Stripe, Black Krim...and a few others that I can't remember. I got loads of tomatoes, but there were just so many that were ruined. It seemed like they didn't get fully ripe, but they were still starting to crack and rot on the plant. Maybe a blight of some kind? We did not have a hot summer, maybe that was part of it. I also grew Black Cherry...it didn't do well. I started it at the same time as everything else but it took FOREVER to ripen. I have grown something called Chocolate Cherry in the past, it didn't produce a lot but the flavour was divine. Normally I grow varieties like Sweet Million, Manitoba, Celebrity, etc. They've been reliable for me. I will probably still try the purple heirlooms again, I'm assuming either my conditions were wrong or it was just a bad tomato year in my area. But last year was basically a bust for me! I don't think I'll ever plant ALL my tomatoes as heirlooms again, though. Just in case I have a complete failure again. I'll probably split my tomato plants between my old reliables and some new-to-me heirlooms.
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Do you mean you transplant, or you pot up before true leaves? Ah (shrug), I started 12 of the cocktails anyway, and 12 cells of Super Sweet 100s but those seeds are so tiny I can't just get 1 per cell so there are lots of those. If I can pick them out like last year I'll have plenty - my dad will want some, and I can sell some to neighbors (new market starts way too late to sell veggie starts). I also didn't want to do more than 2 flats of tomatoes (144 cells) so I put multiples in of the big heirlooms, everything in the 2nd flat. I'll have to pot those up earlier than the paste tomatoes (24), Rutgers (12) and non-cherries in the first flat. Last year I started about 500 tomatoes and didn't have room for all the 4" pots, didn't have room to plant more than 150 or so, had trouble selling (even with market starting June 1 and another farmer buying some from me), ended up giving a lot away. I'm not sure I even want to start the Mark Twain seed I bought - maybe a 6-pack? It's even later than Brandywines and this market ends earlier than my old one.
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Hi alina, I grew celebrity in New Jersey years ago and was also disappointed in the taste. Bought some a couple of years ago on sale at the Cox farm stand in Vienna and they were wonderful--our best variety of that year. Could have been mislabeled, I guess. We bought a celebrity last year but my husband (he has taken over the vegetable garden) lost track of what was what. They were all good, as I remember. We usually buy a mixture on the theory that different varieties will do better in different weather conditions. This year Bryan has invested heavily in German Johnsons though. His whole family swears by this heirloom variety. We'll see how it does in Va. I always make sure we have at least one early girl. Great tomato! One year I had one that turned out to be indeterminate. The tomatoes were classic early girls but they ripened early and the plant kept on producing without let up all summer. One of the regrets of my life is that I did not try to propagate that tomato--I was just too busy! Oh well... If you buy large nursery grown tomatoes you are supposed to strip off some of the lower leaves and bury a portion of the stem to achieve better balance between roots and top growth. You can sort of lay them sideways if necessary.
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Hi, Thank you for all your replies. I decided to grow Neve's Azorean Red as my heirloom beefsteak variety and Super Beefsteak as the hybrid. I'm also going to grow Sophies Choice as an early tomato for a large 1-ft wide 8" deep pot. I would like to thank Jim for generously sending me all three varieties. Carolyn I know Fusarium wilt and nematodes are not a problem from your previous post (thank you) However I think I maybe could have had a problem with verticillium wilt. I had the tomatoes growing were nothing but lawn had been for at least 15 years probably nothing had ever been grown there. However My heirloom tomatoes wilted and I freaked and pulled them up ( a good thing since there were 4 plants planted to one cage. I moved my garden to the other side of my yard however the soil used in one of my raised beds was in a pile next to were i grew my tomatoes. I think it's just me freaking out but I want to be on the safe side and thats why I wanted to grow something with VFN resistance. Thanks again everyone I would love to hear what you think about the varieties I mentioned.
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fulton
Original Author
15 years ago
Unless storebought tomatoes taste better I would think the effort would be worth it.
Larry
tomatovator
15 years ago
I grew Early Pick hybrid out for my neighbor last year and they were his favorite for the season. The seeds are "on sale" at Burpee website. Here is the link.

http://www.burpee.com/product/seed+shop/vegetables+and+herbs/tomato+burpee%27s+early+pick+hybrid+-+1+pkt.+%2830+seeds%29.do?search=basic&keyword=early+pick&sortby=newArrivals&page=1
barkeater
15 years ago
The only consistently great tasting early tomatoes I've grown are Bloody Butcher and Moskvich.

Early Wonder (pink) is excellent this year, my first time growing it. This is the first determinate early tomato I've found with really good flavor.
danincv
15 years ago
The earliest full size tomato in my garden this year was Danko, a red heart that averages around 12 oz and tastes great- full robust tomato flavor. It was third to set fruit behind Matina and Black Cherry in a 30 plant garden. It is one of my top producers in a cool summer climate. A new introduction from Carolyn, seeds are available through SSE and I am saving seed.
camochef
15 years ago
Larry,
With taste being the only criteria on an early tomato.
1. Sungold (hybrid)- cherry
2. Large Pink Bulgarian-ripened in my garden right behind Stupice, but had much greater taste. Not as Large as I expected, but a early ripening slicer that tasted better than anything else I had ripe at the time. very good producer also!
  Camo, in Gettysburg. Pa.
duajones
15 years ago
If you want a tomato that is simply better than store bought, I dont think you could go wrong with any early that has or will be suggested. I dont have much experience with earlies but have had good success with the hybrid Bush Early Girl. Usually comes in around the 65 day mark and has yet to yield less than 40 fruit from each plant, plus it is pretty compact. Its no Cherokee Purple, but definitley better than store bought
rwk_nova
15 years ago
In my Northern VA garden the early tomatoes I have tried are Early Girl, Silvery Fir Tree, Stupice, Matina, and Ultimate opener. I won't count grape/cherry types although Sugary is early and a favorite in this household. Taste is subjective but Matina comes in as the favorite early followed by Stupice. Silvery Fir Tree was too tart for me but that is personal taste. Early Girl produced well but tasted no better or worse than store bought and Ultimate opener had the same taste as Early Girl but wasn't very early. Besides being the earliest non-grape/cherry tomato Matina also lasted all season.

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