San Marzano Tomato a Love & Hate Relationship

7 years ago

So maybe others have encountered this love & hate relationship with San Marzano Tomatoes. This year I decided to grow some SM tomatoes from seed. I had strayed from the variety for a few years, just to try different varieties. This year I grew a mix of Green Giant, Mortgage Lifter, Florida Wild Cherry, SM, and a Pink Henderson / Sicilian Rossa cross on it's second generation. It's been a great season and all plants have produced well, I am located in Middle Tennessee. Here's the deal with the SM. It started of the season transplanted into the garden looking sickly, thin, and not much foliage. It continued to grow this way, never showing any signs of disease. SM was the first to bear fruit, however, as with most paste tomatoes most of those showed signs of Blossom End Rot. This mostly subsided throughout the season. However, even with the BER, SM was the most productive plant other than the Florida Wild Cherry, which honesty was out of control. My Green Giant, Mortgage Lifter, & Rossa Cross are pushing 8ft. great foliage and producing moderate fruit, on the other hand the SM is spindly not much foliage and has had great production. BER is always a downfall. I know some don't care for SM, but I think it is a great paste tomato and makes a fantastic sauce. I guess I grow for taste and fruit production, so it's a keeper. But I must say, it's tough to look at a tomato plant that looks so weak and spindle in comparison to my other varieties. Any thoughts, anyone else experience this in growing San Marzano?

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Comments (3)

defrost49
7 years ago
I am growing
the following that I bought as plants from a local grower. I chose the San Marzano Lungo (slightly later than San Marzano) because it's a newer selection and supposed to be a heavy producer. But I chose Vilms because it is a 2-3 bite tomato that I wanted to dehydrate. It's also a late season here in NH. I need to check my garden to see what the heck is happening with Cuor di Bue (70 days) which is considered a standby paste tomato in Italy and Grandma Mary's (also early season) that is supposed to produce even during cold summers (which this one isn't).

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1
Cuor di Bue

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1
Grandma Mary’s

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1
San Marzano Lungo

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1
Vilms

I grew a Hog Heart (1) and several Opalka from seed because I liked the large size for sauces and canning. They are ripening and showing some evidence of BER. The plants started off looking healthy but are starting to look spindly, possibly because of our drought situation. I have a plastic high tunnel which houses a few tomato plants. I have found the plants are much healthier and larger in the high tunnel. Even with the sides rolled up, temperatures get over 100 during the day. I use an oscillating sprinkler to water.

I've been haphazard about documenting which tomatoes we like best. Right now I have 4 plants in a bed that despite duplicate growing conditions, are vastly different. Asia Yellow cherry tomato is producing a lot but the plant is extremely spindly. Another cherry tomato is very healthy, heavy with fruit and bushy with leaves. A second cherry tomato in a different bed is also large and heavy with fruit.

Basically, with the paste tomatoes I found that I liked a small paste tomato for dehydrating and large ones for sauce. But I have a long ways to go in figuring out how to prevent some of the diseases. The drought has helped keep blighty diseases down.
digdirt2
7 years ago
You will find many discussions about San Marzano and it many various strains (Redorta, Gigante, Nano, Lampadina, Scatalone, Lugo, etc. both determinate and indeterminate) and sub-types over on the Growing Tomatoes forum here if interested. The forum search pulls up over 100 discussions about it.

But I will say that I have never had a "thin, not much foliage" plant of one of them. Mine tend to be quite large and robust plants. I grow Redorta and Super VFNT.

The strain used can make a big difference but mostly it is the growing conditions provided. I'd expect Central TN to be similar weather conditions to mine here since we are close to the same latitude but our sun exposure, soil, and nutrient support could be very different.

Some of the strains also have more resistance to BER.

Dave
Trinacria thanked digdirt2
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Trinacria
Original Author
7 years ago
Thank you for the advice to explore the Grow Tomatoes forum. I will check it out.

San Marzano Tomato a Love & Hate Relationship

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defrost49

digdirt2

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San Marzano Tomato a Love & Hate Relationship

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defrost49

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