Bloody Butcher

Sophie's Choice.

Up to 8 oz red fruits on a determinate plant and with excellent taste.

Early season, meaning usually maturity in 55-65 days. An OP heirloom from Edmonton, Canada.

Carolyn

Siberia was my earliest (earlier than Stupice) and had good flavor. Sophie's Choice was not that early for me or very productive but I'll try it again.

Bloody Butcher is probably the best choice for all three: early, productive and taste.

My results are from growing in Florida October thru May.

I've heard of those!
Trying to determine what to plant for every part of the growing season, and of course having early maters is a plus! But of course, didn't want early but with no flavor!

I do appreciate the suggestions!
Now off to find seeds!

Susanne

I was pleasantly surprised by the taste of Azoychka. I don't think it's classified as an early tomato but in my zone three garden, it took only 3 or 4 days longer to ripen than Stupice.

I have always had earliness, fantastic vigor and production, and acceptable flavor from Early Girl.

I also plan to try Kimberly and Early Goliath, along
with the Early Girl next year. Haven't heard from anyone in here about their experiences with those two, so am going to find out for myself.

I have grown maybe 25 early varieties. I have yet to find one with great taste.

Good things come to those that wait.

That being said. Kotlas is the fastest from seed start to first ripe of any early variety I've grown.

Growing earlies and great taste don't belong in the same sentence to me. That is, once you've tasted a Brandywine.

Growing earlies and great taste don't belong in the same sentence to me

*****

And with that I will agree.

While I've grown many early varieties ( less than 55-65 days) it comes down to which might taste the best and that's always personal opinion.

Actually I gave up growing earlies quite a few years ago since it isn't that long until some of the midseason varieties start ripening.

Carolyn

I grew Burpee's 4th of July hybrid this year and was very happy with it. The flavor was pretty good. I had tomatoes at the end of June in southern Ohio without trying and it is still producing tomatoes. They are probably about 2" on average, much better than the cluster ones at the store.

4th of July and Bloody Butcher were my earliest, but only a couple of days ahead of Early Girl and Sun Gold. IMHO (WARNING: heresy coming up) 4th of July was better tasting than Bloody Butcher (all mine had green shoulders) and certainly bore over a much longer season (among the last remaining in the garden). I didn't care for Stupice at all. The only problem I have with 4th of July is sometimes a thick skin. They always make a lot of tomatoes.
JMO,
Tom

"Growing earlies and great taste don't belong in the same sentence to me "

I thought so...but figured I'd ask, as I'm no expert at growin' em--just eating them!

I appreciate the input by everyone! I think I'll try a couple, just to see what I think, but at the same time; I'll try to be more patient with my main crop! LOL

I think we have all asked your question at one time. I think many of us continue our search for a 50 day to ripe, one slice fills a sandwich, excellent tasting and tremendously productive variety.

If we ever found that, (Which I doubt we will) we'd go looking for an even better one with a 40 day from seed to ripe. LOL

The fun is in the quest. :)

I might add that some years early varieties for me aren't. They ripen same time as Brandywine that particular year. That's another reason I gave up on them. But some years yes the early WAS early. And that beats store bought. But getting older made me realize two weeks ain't a big deal. So now I don't devote too much precious garden space to earlies.

The two best tasting earlies I ever grew were:

Early Wonder
Matina

Well at least they are listed as earlies. They really weren't here.

Stupice and Kotlas are almost the same plant and have ALWAYS been early. But too small and not enough taste for me.

4th of July indeed was early and very productive but crappy taste and again too small.

Siletz, Glacier, Siberia, Arctic Plenty, Early Girl, Bush Early Girl...the worst tasting tomatoes I ever tried.

I'm sure I'll be tempted to try more in the future. Catalog descriptions never fail to reel me in. But Early and Great Taste have never happened yet...:)

Susanne,

My favorite is Silvery Fir Tree. Great,strong flavor (not sweet), and big enough to slice for a sandwich (just barely).

I also really like Early Wonder, but I think there may be some problems with seeds for it. I've grown it many times, and gotten 2 very different plants/fruit. IMO, the pink, slightly flattened ones are delicious, but I don't like the other ones (round and red) much at all.

Kimberly is very good taste-wise and also very early, but it's pretty small. I've heard some good things about Clear Pink Early, and plan to try it next year. I've also had good results with Siletz in 3 of the 4 years I grew it.

Paula

Bloody Butcher is so far the only great tasting extra-early tomato I've grown that can be sliced for a tomato sandwich. I say that because I grew Kimberly this year which was just as early but too small to slice.

The best large early tomato (1/2# or more), and one of the best the whole season here, is Moskvich. In MO, it should come in about a week after Bloody Butcher, about 65-70 days.

Bigdaddyj- you're right on the mark... I think... the fun is in the quest...

For me, in Z5 - we go about 8 months without really good tasting tomatoes... I get lured in by the promise of good tasting early tomatoes in the catalogs - and I've tried the earlies (even went into the hybrids) and the favor just isn't there - it ends up being a disappointment. I'm happy to hear that others have had good experiences with earlies - it just has not been my experience. Although I think Stupice tastes good, and IS early, it's a pip-squeak of a tomato - one mouth full... not enough!

For me, I try and find an 'early' non-early type (make sense??). I like Anna Russian - 70 days (not too shabby!) and it tastes wonderful. I don't have July 4th tomatoes but I don't have the disappointment of having one redden up and tasting bland.

But call me when the catalogs come in and I've been without tomatoes for 5-6 months - I'll probably have changed my mind and I'll be on the hunt for that early tomato no matter WHAT! :)

Tom-

While I'll admit that even the early varieties taste better as the weather warms, you just can't beat the flavor of your first few tomatoes from the garden. After having supermarket imports thru the winter and early spring anything would be an improvement.

One thing I've noticed this season while trying many early varieties is that if they don't set fruit in cooler temperatures you aren't much sooner in picking a faster developing fruit. My Trust(greenhouse variety) tomatoes were a few days ahead of the 4th of July plants in having ripe tomatoes this year and they were uniformly 8-10 oz fruits. So if you are trying for extra early tomatoes you have a few other considerations besides projected Days to Maturity.

". . . you have a few other considerations besides projected Days to Maturity."

When do you suppose the seed companies will begin to use Growing Degree Days the way they do for commodity crops and even many sweet corn varieties? Then "projecting" would be so much of a shot-in-the-dark and comparison of varieties would be markedly easier.

Steve

When do you suppose the seed companies will begin to use Growing Degree Days the way they do for commodity crops and even many sweet corn varieties? Then "projecting" would be so much of a shot-in-the-dark and comparison of varieties would be markedly easier.

*****

Probably never Steve b'c most small seed companies don't grow all their own tomatoes so they use the DTM's that are usually posted with the tomato descriptions in the SSE Yearbooks.

Carolyn

I don't much like the taste of Early Girl and did not find it much earlier than other varieties anyway. I was surprised with Jet Star the first year that I grew it, it was to first one to load up with decent sized tomatoes that had a very good taste.

I just plant them all as soon as I think that it is safe and take what comes along.
Bill P.

"you just can't beat the flavor of your first few tomatoes from the garden. After having supermarket imports thru the winter and early spring anything would be an improvement."

Amen to that. Tried a Peron #3285 from Tomato Growers Supply this year and was pleasantly surprised. It produced the first tomatoes and were as advertised "good flavored" It is not as good as a Stump of the World or a Brandywine but it's big enough for BLT's and better than store bought and ready long before the SOTW.

If you don't mind waiting just a little longer... Black Krim was the first tomato bigger than a cherry to ripen for me this year (out of over three dozen varieties.) And I think it compares favorably with Cherokee Purple for flavor. Come to think of it, BK ripened sooner than some of my cherry tomatoes. As for size, my biggest one was 20 oz.