Hi Cindy and George! Thanks for the input! See I knew you guys would try and talk me into stuff not on my list! Haha!!! George, I have considered oxheart varieties, and I think I have seeds for a couple different ones. The thing that has kept me from switching is that I have read that they are not very productive, and I need a large quantity of tomatoes without a lot of plants. How productive is the one you grow? I love the Amish Paste, and didn't realize that it wasn't a true paste tomato. Mine have never been overly juicy, have few seeds, and are nice and meaty, with a much better flavor than the other paste types I've grown. Most are mealy and bland to me. I really like both the Gold Medal, and the Striped German, so I am hesitant to switch to the Virginia Sweets, and Yellow Brandywine, but I want to be open minded as well. It's so hard when space is limited, and I want to grow the ALL! EDIT: Hi Euarto! It looks like we were posting at the same time. Now I'm even more hesitant to try the Yellow Brandywine! I don't have space to waste on weaklings. Have you had any luck with Hillbilly? I have tried 2 or 3 years in a row and got no germination. This post was edited by highalttransplant on Sat, Mar 23, 13 at 15:25

Cyrus, the first one shown is an older variety from Mexico and is quite similar to Zapotec Pleated, also from Mexico. Reisetomate, reise in German meaning travel or voyage and it's also called Voyage or Voyager, was origianlly listed in the SSE YEarbooks quite a few years ago by Nancy Arrowsmith who was at that time associated with an organization called Arche Noah, a seed saving group in Austria. Someone with a vivid imagination has said it's called Voyager b'c one can snap off the individual fused cherry tomatoes on the surface and eat them as one "travels" on a "voyage", totally missing the German translation, but there you go. LOL I'ts one to raise for novelty, not taste. I've described it as looking like a cauliflower with an attitude. LOL Yes, I've grown all three that I've mentioned in this post. And it's good to remember that Reisetomate is NOT the same as Riesentraube and some folks do confuse the two but the latter is a completely different variety. Riesentraube is also fun to grow b/c it's what's called a multiflora type with blossom clusters of several hundred blossoms on one stalk of which about 30-40 set fruit, and I think the taste of those pointed cherries is great. it's not specifically a German variety for it was grown in many areas of Europe and in one country it translates out to Goat's T*t because of the nipple at the ens of the fruits. It was known in PA in about the 1850's where a recipe exists for using it to make wine and a friend of mine did make wine with it which was excellent, very much like a pale dry sherry. It was reintroduced to the US by Curtis Choplin, an SSE member, who got it from Prof Klaprott at Gatersleben, the German Seed bank and listed it in the SSE YEarbooks in the early 90's. Carolyn

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.

Docjoc, Pretty much any bite-sized tomato you choose will grow well here. I don't think I've ever had any tomato plant that produces bite-sized tomatoes not perform well. So, really, it just comes down to taste. Most bite-sized tomatoes are commonly referred to as cherry tomatoes, but there's also grape tomatoes (size and shape of a grape) and currant tomatoes (smaller than cherry or grape types, and normally round in shape). For the typical red cherry tomato, you can't go wrong with Sweet 100, Sweet Million, Large Cherry, or any other red one you see. For a red cherry tomato that tastes not as sweet as the ones listed above and has a flavor that is more like the flavor of a beefsteak tomato, Riesentraube is outstanding. It is a heirloom and not always easy to find, but I think I've seen it in stores some years. For a red grape tomato, there is a variety called Red Grape or sometimes sold simply as "Grape". Other red grape types include Juliet (an AAS winner in 1999) and Jolly (an AAS winner in 2001). For a pink grape tomato, there's Rosalita, which has superb flavor. For a yellow grape tomato, there's Cuban Yellow Grape. There are several yellow cherry tomatoes, and my favorite is Galina's. There's also Snow White and Super Snow White, both of which are more of a pale ivory than a true yellow. For an orange cherry tomato, the standard is SunGold or its improved version with less cracking, which is SunSugar. For a black cherry tomato, you cannot go wrong with Black Cherry, which isn't black at all--it is sort of a deep red-maroon. For a plant that would stay more compact, you cannot go wrong with Cherry Falls or Sweet Baby Girl. There's thousands of tomato varieties available, so I encourage you to try different ones each year until you find the ones you love. Finally, although it is slightly larger than a typical cherry, for a tomato plant that can tolerate the worst summer heat and can handle quite a lot of drought and never stop producing, there's Porter. Sometimes you see it listed as Porter Cherry, Porter Dark Cherry, Porter's Pride or Porter Improved. It produces pinkish tomatoes that are just a bit larger than a standard cherry or grape tomato and are sort of egg-shaped, about 1.5" long and weight 2 or 3 oz. It was developed and sold by the now defunct Gene Porter & Son Seed Company based in Stephenville, TX, so was bred for pretty much exactly the same climate that we have here.