Sey --- just seeded 5 Orange Pixie VFT midget hybrid --- 50 days --- 18" tall at maturity on our 6+ hours direct sunlight window. Hopefully we'll have a lot by early April. Here is what they look like:

And the window where they'll be planted:

And the final 14 Tomato varieties for outdoors:

1. Lime Green Salad -- OP dwarf
1. Pride of Flanders -- OP bush
2. Momotaro -- Hybrid
1. Jaune Flamme -- Heirloom
1. Bolseno --- hybrid
2. Rowdy Red -- OP
3. Margo dwarf -- Hybrid
2. Green Berkeley Tie-Dye --OP
2. Brandy Boy -- Hybrid
1. Bella Rosa Det. -- Hybrid
1. Pruden's Purple -- OP
1. Charger Det. -- Hybrid

1. Brandywine Sudduth -- Heirloom
1. Lucky Cross beefsteak -- OP

P.S. tomorrow's temps here --- high 23, low 16 --- with windchill factor... 3 degrees!

14Tomatoes , That Orange Pixie looks awesome. With 18" height you can manage it indoor, by south facing window. I grew Hahm Gelbe Topftomate, same color, same size. And it was the earliest in 2015. I think I got ripes around June 20th. I think I had planted it out around April 15th. So that was about 65 days. Not bad in cool PNW spring weather. And It was in a 2 gallon pot.

The rest of your grow choices look great. From those I have in my list :

BW Sudduth , Brandy Boy , Pruden's Purple .

I will grow Ananas Noire which is almost a carbon copy of Lucky Cross. Not very productive but the fruits are tasty and nice multi color when sliced.

I'm not going to tie myself down to a list yet as I know it will change a million times between now and April. :) Here are some varieties that I am considering that are new to me. Any comments or recommendations are most welcome!

Momotaro

Hungarian Heart

Boondocks

Aunt Ginny's Purple

Brandywine OTV

Church

Stump Of The World

Sungold

Ananas Noir

Indian Stripe

I am planning on growing these varieties again:

Chapman

Aunt Rubies German Green

Big Beef

Celebrity

hoosier40 - That's quite an eclectic lineup you're considering. Glad to see that you have Momotaro at the top of the list. I bet you love it - perfect flavor, disease-free & crack-free, and great production, It's the one that my neighbors ask for more than any other. In over 50 years of gardening I've never had a better tomato.

I also like your big multi-colored Ananas Noir for its wonderful taste. I haven't tried Hungarian Heart, but I bet that the similar Siberian Pink Honey would outperform it. I got more than 50 big fruits from one vine - it's a wonderful meaty tomato for making sauces or salsa.

If you are still thinking about varieties to try, some that have proven most productive and tastiest for me at different locations around the country are: Pink Girl, Big Girl, Lemon Boy, Park's Whopper, Clear Pink Early, Pruden's Purple, and Pineapple. Mostly hybrids, but all delicious and problem-free.

More recent favorites are Mary Robinson and Little Lucky. This year, I'm trying Rose de Berne and Ukrainian Pear for the first time, the fewest new varieties I've ever tested - but at my age I've decided to grow mostly old favorites. ;-)

Finally, you may want to try adding a spoonful of BioOrganics mycorrhizal inoculant in your planting holes. This beneficial fungi can boost the uptake of nutrients ten times or more, and also provides a lot of disease resistance. It's especially useful for older heirloom varieties that were not bred for synthetic fertilizers.

Donch: That's quite an eclectic lineup you're considering.

Hoosier's list strikes me as a solid list of well-known and widely grown heirlooms. The only ones I'm not familiar with are Church and Boondocks. It might be a strange list to someone who primarily grows hybrids, but it's a pretty standard looking list to an heirloom/OP enthusiast.

It's especially useful for older heirloom varieties that were not bred for synthetic fertilizers.

What is the mechanism you're proposing for heirlooms to be able to know that the nutrients they're taking up were synthetic in origin? People on these forums have successfully grown heirlooms in containers using "synthetic fertilizers" and in hydroponic environments. A friend of mine grows heirlooms on her Brooklyn rooftop using nothing but Miracle Gro for tomatoes. Very successfully, BTW, even though that fertilizer would not be my personal choice--for either OPs or hybrids.

tarolli: I have the opposite philosophy of choosing cultivars to grow. I do not need to test every one myself. The other members of these bulletin boards do that for me.

While I prefer to grow time-tested varieties primarily, I find that results can be really individual to people's gardens, and different people can have different tastes. Because I, also, want to eat the most delicious tomatoes, I want to try many different varieties that get high marks from other gardeners to see which ones produce the best-tasting tomatoes in my garden. And growing them in my garden is really the only way to determine this. But if a variety gets many mixed reviews, I give it low priority unless other gardeners near me say it's delicious in their gardens.

tarolli: For example, comments on this list told me that most people like Black Cherry over Chocolate Cherry or Brown Berry. So I once tested Black Cherry in a pot for my taste, liked it, and it got a spot in my garden.

The way I see it, there is no guarantee that my personal tastes will agree with everyone else's. Since these all have good reviews, I would approach this as a case in which I would trial all of them eventually, just to see whether I disagree with the majority. Also, I keep in mind that black cherry gets more positive mentions because more people grow it. It's by far the best known of the three.

IMO, going solely by how often varieties are mentioned positively is a great way to grow tomatoes that have a high chance of tasting very good but a very flawed way to determine which are "the world's best tomatoes". Because 1) the data set you're working with is flawed and biased by factors other than just the taste of the tomatoes, 2) results can never be ideally replicated between gardens and even between seasons, and 3) there's no accounting for personal taste.

gorbelly - I didn't say the list looked strange. I said eclectic, which means that the listed varieties differ quite a bit from each other. I've grown many dozens of obscure and better-known heirlooms, as well as hybrids - and appreciate good tasty results from any vine.

Lord knows, millions of folks successfully grow tomatoes with Miracle Gro, but to my taste buds one grown in a mineral-rich soil and fertilized with good compost and organic fertilizers has an extra depth of flavor that I really appreciate.

As for employing soil biology to boost uptake, fast-acting artificial fertilizers are regarded as incompatible with mycorrhizal fungi. You can choose one method or the other, but not both at the same time. However, a gradual-release osmocoated fertilizer at half the recommended dosage will not harm the beneficial fungi, according to USDA lab tests.

If you love heirloom tomatoes, you really should look into mycorrhizae. That's what they thrive on. There's lots of info on the Net.

Donch,

Thanks for the comments. Do you have a source for Big Girl? I used to grow it and it was my favorite tomato until they were no longer available. I haven't grown them in about 10 years or so. I have grown Pruden and a few others on your list. I Just like trying different varieties but I usually grow some of my favorites for a few years. I am going to use the mycorrhizae. I almost pulled the trigger on it last year but didn't get it in time.

Gee, I haven't grown Big Girl for 15 years or so, and it used to be one of my "must grow" varieties for years and years. Then I discovered that I liked Pink Girl and Park's Whopper better, so I stopped buying Big Girl seeds. Then Park "improved" their Whopper and I think it lost some of the great flavor.

Now Momotaro, Little Lucky, and Mary Robinson are my "must" favorites, and I have high hopes for Rose de Berne and Ukrainian Pear this season. Funny how lineups change as you try different varieties, eh?

I've still got about 30 varieties I'd like to grow, but may not have enough years left to get to them all. (Plus, I keep adding to the wanna-try list!)

I assumed that Big Girl seed would be still widely available. Doing a web search, I guess not. I'm surprised.

I might suggest Honey Hybrid or the old Sioux as replacements to Big Girl. Honey Hybrid is very prolific and tastes about the same, while Sioux is a bit less sweet. Gurney Girl also seemed pretty similar to Big Girl to me.

Donch: I didn't say the list looked strange. I said eclectic, which means that the listed varieties differ quite a bit from each other.

Sorry, I misunderstood, as most heirloom enthusiasts I know deliberately go for variety in their growlists (trying to maximize diversity of colors, shapes, etc.) unless they pretty much have settled into a list of favorites that doesn't change much or are doing a specific theme growout for comparison (i.e., all hearts). So variety seems to me the default for a growlist.

Donch: As for employing soil biology to boost uptake, fast-acting artificial fertilizers are regarded as incompatible with mycorrhizal fungi. You can choose one method or the other, but not both at the same time.

They're not incompatible. Using synthetic fertilizer won't annihilate your soil microbiome or anything unless it's overapplied. It's true that a lot of organic matter in the soil will increase microorganisms, but amending soil with lots of organic matter and judicious use of synthetic fertilizer are not mutually exclusive.

In containers, inorganic fertilizers work with mycorrhizae better than organic fertilizers. Organic fertilizers don't produce a harmful or negative result or anything, but containers lack the bacterial web necessary for best availability of nutrients from organic fertilizers, so it's just not as good.

BTW, I actually prefer to stay as organic as possible personally (in the beds--containers are different deal), mostly because I get more pleasure out of gardening in a way that minimizes any negative ecological impact and because I've always liked nature and critters, even bugs, and like a garden that is very alive with them. But truth is truth, and I know many people who have been growing way more tomatoes way longer than I have who produce healthy plants and delicious tomatoes using synthetic fertilizers.

Donch: If you love heirloom tomatoes, you really should look into mycorrhizae. That's what they thrive on. There's lots of info on the Net.

Mycorrhizae get discussed a lot on GardenWeb. Here's the most recent discussion on the Tomato forum. I haven't used mycorrhizae yet as a standalone product (but organic fertilizers often contain them now, and I do use those products). I have no objection to mycorrhizae at all; I just find other things have more priority when it comes to allocating my gardening budget since the fertilizers I use already have them. But I plan to use a mix that contains them in my containers this year based on reports from experienced container gardeners on this forum.

gorbelly - First, you seem like a nice sort, and I have no wish to be argumentative, so please see this message as trying to be informative in nature.

I happen to be the retired founder of a company (BioOrganics, Inc.) that packages and markets mycorrhizal inoculants nationally, and for more than 15 years I worked closely with university and USDA scientists who are recognized experts on the beneficial fungi. I'm not just expressing my personal opinions on the value of the fungi in agriculture and home gardens.

I'm sure you can read all sorts of anecdotal comments regarding mycorrhizae, ranging from terrible to wonderful, but unless people have actually inoculated plants with the right species and spore counts, they really haven't seen what the beneficial fungi can or cannot do.

The fertilizers that now say "Contains mycorrhizae!" are simply taking advantage of how these organisms have become popular. In every label I've examined, nearly all the spores are ecto-type, not the endo-type that tomatoes and other veggies use. You can add a billion ecto-type spores (literally) to a product very inexpensively, which is an impressive number - but those types mostly match up with conifers and a few other ornamentals. They are of no value whatsoever to garden vegetables - zero.

Endo-type spores like Glomus intraradices are far more expensive to propagate, so there are very few of them added to fertilizers and the species are those which are the easiest to produce, not necessarily the types best suited to tomatoes.

I've personally conducted hundreds of side-by-side controlled experiments with fertilizers, various soil additives, and mycorrhizae to formulate inoculants. I found that you can easily overdo fast-acting petroleum-based fertilizers, and that plants perform best with far less NPK than is usually applied, but respond strongly to having a broad spectrum of minerals (like from Azomite and greensand) present in the soil. A gradual-release fertilizer applied in smaller amounts is also useful (not necessarily all-organic, but definitely no fast-acting liquids, which can burn the sensitive hyphae/root-threads of the fungi).

For my own tomatoes, I blend compost and some peat into the soil over the winter, sprinkle a multi-species endo inoculant on the plant roots when I set them out, scatter a couple handfuls of minerals and fertilizer in about a two-foot circle around each plant, and then add a 2-3 inch of mulch. This feeds the plants for the entire season as worms and other soil organisms digest and transport the nutrients down to the root zone. This replicates nature's own way of fertilizing - from the top down.

You are correct that beneficial organisms are hampered in containers, and I might add they are of less value in cold soils - the same as plant root systems are less active.

Sorry for the length of this, but it's a subject that suffers from a lot of misinformation.

Good growing, my friend.

Sey,

Forget Aunt Ruby's and go for Green Giant... better tasting and much, much more productive.

You will love Cuostralee... one of my better growers and tasters here.

Yes to Black Krim... I know you tried to grow them last year, but I am not 100% that what you grew were BK from the pics you posted. Anyhow, I have had great success with them here.

Yes to Indian Stripe... much more productive than CP. Almost as good tasting.

SunGold... hell yes!

Delicious... I have never done it based on VERY poor tasting reviews... almost everyone that reviews it, hates it.

Black Cherry... Good one, but plant it on the edge of garden as it is a sprawler.

Kellogs Breakfast... heck yeah

Hillbilly... has not ben very productive for me, but tastes really good.

I need to send you some seeds of my unknown variety that my buddy and I have been growing for about 5 years now... if you remember from my postings last year... I had a ripe beefsteak tomato I believe in 56 days after plant out. This plant is vigorous, disease resistant, does not burn up in the heat like most do and fruits well into the late season, and sets fruit early. let me know if you want some seeds. When I get back home from the holidays, I will pull my notes and make other suggestions. Good to have you in NC.

ncrealestateguy: Forget Aunt Ruby's and go for Green Giant... better tasting and much, much more productive.

I have GG on my growlist for 2017, sey. We can compare results.

NC, you are on. I remember from last year that it was super early.

Anything I can give you in return ?

I have dropped about 6 from my original list and added 6 or so other/

Let me post my new list.

MYSTERY BLACK ( SARA BLACK ?)

DEKICIOUS

DIXIE GOLDEN GIANT

PRUDENS PURPLE

BROWN HEART ( MY OWN NAME)

COEURE DE BOEUF

STUPICE

HILLBILLY

GOLDEN JUBILEE

INDIGO CHERRY DROP

ESTERINA F2 (TASTE)

FRANCHI

BRANDYWINE SUDDUTH

GEORGE DETSIKAS IR

BRANDY BOY F1

KELLOGGS BREAKFAST

PURPLE BUMBLEBEE

BLACK CHERRY

SUPER SIOUX

CUOSTRALEE

TIGER GRAPE ( MY NAME )

BIG RAINBOW

BLACK KRIM

MORTGAGE LIFTER

BIG BEEF F1

INDIAN STRIPE PL

CREOLE

SUNGOLD

MAYBE LIST:

JAUNE FLAMMEE

OLD GERMAN ( was mule last year. I am fascinated with its color )

GREEN COPIA ( was mule last year. )

BIG BOY F1

AUNT RUBY'S ( would replace with green Giant if I can get seeds, or grow side by side)

KUMATO F4 (just for fun to take it to F5)

I have much bigger garden this year (500 sq-ft ). Bu I will also grow peppers, okra , eggplants, tomatillo plus more.

Sey

Green Giant can be bought at Tomatofest.com

Shoot me a PM with your address and I will get you those seeds. I dont need anything in advance, as many of your posts have been very helpful to me.

nc, PM sent , in a different way .

Check your messages, please.

Sey

So I put together my list of tomatoes I plan on growing this upcoming year. It's a pretty long list and I'm not sure where I will be planting them all, but I'm excited to try new varieties. Most of my seeds came from Johnny's and the rest I got from our local feed and seed store.

• Black Krim
• Cherokee Purple
• Cherokee Green
• Mortgage Lifter
• BeefSteak
• Creole
• Homestead
• Aunt Ruby's German Green
• 4th of July
• Pruden's Purple
• Rutgers (not sure which one, I got them from my local feed and seed store)
• BrandyWine (not sure which one, I got them from my local feed and seed store)
• Big Rainbow
• Favorita
• Sakura
• Esterina
• Indigo Kumquat
• Black Cherry
• SunGold

Johnny's Artisan Collection

• Lucky Tiger
• Blush
• Sunrise Bumble Bee
• Pink Bumble Bee
• Purple Bumble Bee

And a micro dwarf floragold basket from bunny hop seeds I got from garf_gw (I might try growing it inside under a 600w HID light, are they that small?)

Anyways, I look forward to learning more about growing tomatoes and will definitely be lurking around here to better learn about peoples experiences with these varieties. Any suggestions are welcome, as this is not a set in stone list.

Thanks,

Kevin

Sey,

I see Delicious is still on your list. Have you grown this before? Curious, as I was going to try it last year, but then I found that most reviews were terrible for its taste. Have you any inside information?

It amazes me that you guys grow 25 varieties of tomatoes. Are tomatoes all that you grow, or do you have a farm?

I hope that the folks who are growing such a long list of varieties will provide reports on them after harvest season. A 0-10 rating or Excellent-Very Good - Good-Fair-Poor judgement for both flavor and yield would be interesting.

nc, no I have not grown Delicious before. I think I will drop that one.

gor, I plant one or two of each variety. I am used to growing in small footage. Now that I have prepared almost 500 sqr-ft garden I can plant a lot more.. If I grow 45 plants and allocate 4 sqr-ft per plant that will be under 200 sqr-ft. Deducting walkways, I will have another 200 sq-ft for other thing. Then I will have room for peppers, eggplants, okra, tomatillo, bush zukes, and beans . I will do one row by stringing and lowering, spaced at 18". I will trim those to single stem. I will also plant some in containers. When it comes to growing tomatoes, I am greedy and want to try lots of new ones plus my faves.

Most pepper don't take as much space as tomatoes. Probably I will grow about 20 pepper plants, 5 eggplants, 5 okra...

Ah, for got the herbs. hehe. I will have Basil, parsley, chives, leeks, oregano, thyme, Swiss chard, and rosemary. AND lettuce., spinach. But they will have a short life down here.. I plant them between tomatoes.

Sey

Seysonn - You mention bush zukes. I usually grow only a light green Salman zucchini and an Early Summer crookneck, but this past season I tried Eight Ball for the first time and we loved it. It's a round green zucchini with wonderful flavor that grows on a very compact plant. One plant gave us and the neighbors all we could handle. We learned to pick them at baseball size. There's also a One Ball (yellow) version that I might try.

Donch, who sells these squash?

Peter, this is how I grow tomatoes, pruned to three stems, about 16 inches on center. Allows one to grow many varieties in a very small space. I can plant 35% more plants than I could using cages.

That looks like a squash to me!

Linda

ncrealestateguy - I got my Eight Ball seed from Pinetree, but several of the mail-order seed companies are now offering it. Jung Seeds also has the One Ball yellow and a pale green type called Cue Ball. I might try both of those this coming season. I can only vouch for the great flavor of Eight Ball.

ncrealestateguy - Thanks for the video, it is not just an issue of space but time... tending to 50+ tomato plants in addition to the rest of my garden would not be feasible for me.

Donch,

For some reason, your most recent post only came as a notification just now.

The fertilizers that now say "Contains mycorrhizae!" are simply taking advantage of how these organisms have become popular. In every label I've examined, nearly all the spores are ecto-type, not the endo-type that tomatoes and other veggies use.

I have no doubt that mycorrhizae in premixed products may be too small in number or not of both kinds (although you should check more recent products--many do actually contain both or only endo- these days a). And I do think my plants could probably benefit from additional mycorrhizae as a separate product. But, as I said, I'm probably getting some of the benefits already not just because of use of bundled products but also because I diligently add lots of organic matter to my beds, and, more importantly, I have other priorities for my gardening budget at the moment, as I'm still building beds and supports and buying plants, containers, etc. When I can, I plan to add standalone mycorrhizae to my practices. So I'm not trying to resist the use of mycorrhizae at all.

I found that you can easily overdo fast-acting petroleum-based fertilizers, and that plants perform best with far less NPK than is usually applied,

Sure, it's easy to overapply because many such products are more concentrated. But it's not really legitimate to discount something based only on the results when it's done wrong. And many organic amendments can be overapplied, too. We've all seen a lot of beginning organic gardeners kill plants with too much love by supplementing things that throw the soil out of balance. That doesn't mean those amendments are bad in and of themselves.

but respond strongly to having a broad spectrum of minerals (like from Azomite and greensand) present in the soil.

If the soil needs such additives, there is nothing mutually exclusive between "synthetic fertilizers" and these products. And many commercial products that may contain synthetic N, P, or K also have a wide variety of micronutrients and minerals included as well. A lot of people I know diligently test their soil and use a mix of organic and synthetic products to balance it. That's a far cry from someone who indiscriminately adds fertilizer in excess.

A gradual-release fertilizer applied in smaller amounts is also useful (not necessarily all-organic, but definitely no fast-acting liquids, which can burn the sensitive hyphae/root-threads of the fungi).

There are people who get tremendous yields and qualities from liquid fertilizers which are fact-acting. In fact, many people use hydroponic fertilizers and nutrients on plants grown in potting medium or in ground with tremendous success. The key, as always, is knowing what you're doing.

I find that arguments against synthetic fertilizers rely on a lot of conflation (e.g., assuming synthetic fertilizers can never include any other nutrients except NPK or are never used in conjunction with supplementary ingredients, only considering results of erroneous overapplication of synthetic fertilizers, etc.) and never address the question of which mechanism is being proposed for plants to be able to tell the difference between molecules they need which are created synthetically vs. those that are produced through less intervention or which are harvested/mined from the earth. That's because the answer to that is: they can't.

Once again, I am not trying to argue FOR synthetic fertilizers. I just don't agree with using fallacious arguments to make a case. I think paying attention to the sources of ingredients and what ecological impacts that can have is an important part of gardening. But this concern should also apply to those substances used in organic farming which are also damaging to the environment in how they're sourced.

Peter, I understand. This type of gardening does take a bit more time, especially during the first two months when the plant will be pushing out laterals fast and furious. I grew 70 plants this past year and that was just too much for me. I have two kids, a busy career and many other hobbies. I will keep the number to 50 from here on out. But, for some, it is a good way to be able to grow 35% more plants in a given space.

Gorbelly - These sort of back-and-forths never end up well on the Internet, so this will be my only response to you. I might suggest that you re-read my comments on mycorrhizal fungi sentence by sentence, think about what I actually said for a moment, and see if that doesn't result in a less belligerent reaction. I worked with the organisms and did testing on them for 15 years. I wasn't lying about how to best use them, and I fully understand that folks can grow plants with synthetic fertilizers & hydroponics. Have a nice day, and let's get back to discussing varieties of veggies, OK?

Donch, I am not being belligerent. I am disagreeing with your characterization of synthetic fertilizer use. I'm not really sure how I could have been more neutral in how I expressed my disagreement with your characterization.

Further, I understand that you know a lot about mycorrhizae and the only thing I've questioned is whether or not their use in containers is really better when only organic fertilizer is used. I provided a link to an explanation of the mechanism by which it is proposed that faster-acting, more immediately available nutrients are better to use in containers in general, including with mycorrhizae. If you have a paper about a controlled experiment that shows otherwise and proposes a mechanism for your results to the contrary, I would love to read it.

Until then, whether it comes from you or from anyone else, I will continue to point out when logic against non-organic fertilizers or methods is fallacious, just as I will continue to point out when logic against organic methods is fallacious.

Have a great day!

I will keep it under 50 plants, like nc also . but there will be close to 30 varieties. So I will just grow one plant of each 50% (15 varieties ) . Then from the other 50 percent (15 varieties ) 2 or 3 plants each. Those will be my work horses. If plants produce just 10 lbs, in average that will be like 500 lbs during the season. That being a very conservative estimate should be enough for us, the neighbor and some for canning/jarring.

sey

Added : BFBS , a mystery discovered by NC. It is supposed to be a real early Beefsteak. Can't wait to grow and see the tomatoes. might add Black Krim again , space provided. I will also grow Silvery Fir Tree. It needs just a 4 gallon grow bag. ... my list keep growing. hehe

sey

I will be starting seeds this weekend! It is time for 9A to start. I want first group of plants (I stagger) ready to set out first week of March.

Janice, I will hold on til Feb on tomatoes but will start peppers and eggplants in a couple of days. Per weather data we might get frost until April 6 ? 7 ?. That is more like 7b in Atlanta. With the 15 days forecast, I might be able plant out early. Now my garden is digesting the organic matter. I should till it in a couple of months from now.

sey

Say -- lay another layer of 1 inch wood ash now on top of your soil, and leave it alone. Its alkaline content gets rid of slugs and other nasties --- plus rain and moisture will make all the good stuff seep through till you are ready to till...two weeks before planting. Just a suggestion, since it works for me.

14tomatoes_md_7a,

Thanks for suggestion. In fact I have some more wood ash that I can spread. I checked the soil. It is coming along well w/ all the leaves and pine straw breaking down. We had few weeks of very deep frost, down to 16F. Now we are have a very warm trend w/ highs getting into 70s. That should help with composting the organic matter.

sey

My 2017 Tentative Grow List - Kansas - 6A

Still waiting on some swaps.

Afternoon
Delight

Amazon Chocolate

Ambrosia Giant

Arbuznyi

Awesome Purple Heart F2

Azoychka

Banded Amazon

Basinga

Beauty King

Black Magic

Brad's Atomic Grape

Brunete

Candy's Old Yellow

Cherokee Green

Chudo Zemli

Chyornyi Tarasenko

Couilles De Taureau

Delano Green Ripe

Don Camillo

Dora

German Queen

Grub's Mystery Green PL

Henryka

Indian Zebra

Kazachka

KBX

Makedonski

Malinovoe Chudo

Mikado Chernyi

Morado de Fitero

Napa Chardonnay

Nefertiti

Negro de Cuenca

Noire Charbonneuse

Owen's Purple

Pervaya Lyubov

Pork Chop

Sara's Galapagos Large

Summer Cider

Summer of Love

Sunrise Bumble Bee

SuperNova

Sweet Cream

Tarasenko 6

Uluru Ochre

Utyonok

Valencia

Virginia Sweets

Wherokowhai

Wild Thyme GWR

Shell

Today I planted seeds of 15 tomato varieties, 3 eggplant and 18 pepper varieties. I will start my second batch of tomatoes ( about 15 varieties ) in 2 to 3 weeks from today. If we get good late march weather with good 15 days forecast , It will be a perfect timing. Otherwise the first batch will go into garage, in cool temps, to prevent from getting leggy. I am shooting for mid June harvest at the latest.

Sey

For my 6A location, I'll start tomato seeds 3/1 ish. Plant out in mid-late April for July harvest. Starting peppers and eggplant 3/15 ish. Only growing (1) egg plant variety this year (Orient Express). Wow Sey that's a lot of pepper varieties. I've only got 6 varieties in my plan (Hernandez Hot, Nambe, Chichimeca, San Pedro Sweet, Aristotle and Cigarette Pepper of Lombardy).

Shell

Rural Kansas, 37 Raised Beds, Growing Vegetables for Family, Friends and Market.

I started seed for earlies: Sungold, Big Beef, Kosovo, and Azoychka. I also started a first batch of Brandy Boys and Prudens Purple as a trial to see which start time is better, now or a second start in two weeks.

Also started several peppers and eggplants: Carmen, Sahauro, Big Bertha, Socrates, Hungarian Wax, and Savannah Sweet. For eggplants, Ai Qwai (not certain about spelling), and Burpee's eggplant mix.

I have started most of my tomatoes already, and will plant out at various times times this spring. I'm not super organized yet, so we will see how it goes.

Brandywine, Big Rainbow, and Pruden's Purple were started 12/10

And I started a bunch of the other varieties on 12/18

The weather here has been warmer than past winters, but we still have the chance for low Temps and frost. I'll keep watching the weather and hopefully I'll begin planting by mid February, I'm gonna try to plant as early as I can, to try to beat the heat.

Kansas Farmgirl... it is amazing how long your list is, and yet I have only grown one or two of them. So many varieties and so little time!

NC .... you know it .... many varieties and so little time! What started years ago as recreational tomato use is now a full blown addiction. Though not yet in rehab, we focus on interesting varieties that might not be so common to most; saving and swapping seeds; supplying family, friends and co-workers with seeds, plants and home canned tomato products; dabbling in the local farmer's market and selling at the end of the driveway.

PcolaGrower ..... Very nice. That's a lot of plants. Saw your list earlier in this thread. Great selections including some classics. I applaud your grow out of the Artisan series side-by-side. We've grown them all and have determined we like Sunrise Bumble Bee and Blush best on a every other year rotation. Pink and Purple are OK but have not made our keeper list. Ahhhhh .... the large bi-colors. Big Rainbow .... a marvelous variety and moderately productive here. I've got some Virginia Sweets seed in our stash that I need to use up but now I'm thinking I might need to expand my list to include a couple of Big Rainbows ..... it's been a few years.

Kansas Farm Girl,..impressive list. I have grown 4 of them so far.

PC ,.. your seedlings are PLANTS now and look very healthy. When the danger of frost ends in your location.

UPDATE: My seeds, sown on 14th Jan, are germinating. Out of 15 varieties, 10 of them are already up. Not quite 5 days yet. The first one to pop was Sun Gold @ 3 and half days. That is a record for me. They were the tiniest seeds that I planted.

I will be growing them under light , at relatively cool temperature ( ~64F),. There is plenty of time ( almost 8 weeks ++ ). I don't want them to get lanky.

these are the ones I have planted :

ANANAS NOIRE

BIG RAINBOW

BIG BEEF

BRANDY BOY

** BRANDYWINE SUDDUTH

BROWN HEART ( unknown)

** BFBS ( nc's breed)

** BLACK CHERRY

SUN GOLD

KELLOGGS BREAKFAST

** HILLBILLY

MORTGAGE LIFTER

SILVERY FIR TREE

STUPICE

MYSTER ( drak/purple )

** -- Growing for the first time.

I will start 10 -15 more varieties in couple of weeks from now.

Sey

Sey .... I have grown most on your planted to date list. I see you have a mystery black. I have one as well that I call Obviously Not Green Zebra. Mine is a large beefsteak that showed up in a dedicated Green Zebra Bed. It looks similar to Paul Robeson and the taste was fantastic. I forgot about that one when I was making my 2017 list and your Mystery reference jogged my memory. I've got some pictures somewhere that I will try to post.

I've also got a F2 I call Awesome Purple Heart. One day last summer, my DH brought me a couple of heart shaped fruit but he couldn't remember which bed/plant he got them from. I did not intentionally grow any hearts last year. I grew 46 varieties last year and to date have been unable to figure it out. So I ate one (excellent) and saved the seeds from the other. I will be attempting to grow out at least 4 of these this year .... we'll see what I get.

"Sun Gold @ 3.5 days." That's quick. Have grown it side-by-side with Sun Sugar the last 2 years. As you know, both are excellent. They grow into quite the jungle for me; exceeding the limits of large texas tomato cages w/extensions.

Shell

Thanks for comment , Shell

Here is a picture of my mystery tomato.

My other unknown variety that I call BROWN HEART is the following

Sey

Sey .... Those are some beautiful specimens. Here's a picture of my Obviously Not Green Zebra.

Shell, that has no resemblance to GZ. I haves grown it once. What you have is a beautiful orange colored tomato. How does it taste. I like orange color better than yellow. There is a fire to it. I doubt that it is a cross.

UPDATE:

Of all 15 varieties that I have sown only Kelloggs Breakfast has not germinated yet. Strangely one of my peppers and one eggplant have popped..

Sey

Yep. Not sure what happened. I planted 6 GZ in one bed. I got 5 normal GZ plants and 1 of this variety. It was a real dark orange color almost brown. The seeds I started were from a well known source. I suspect a seed mix-up from my source. Nothing else I've grown in the past few years has resembled this one. I grew 46 varieties last year. "Obviously not Green Zebra" was in the top 5 for taste. Excellent flavor with a little earthy hint. That's why I saved seeds. Last year's tops for taste (excluding small varieties): #1: Purple Dog Creek; #2: Bear Creek, #3: Margaret Curtain; #4: Amazon Chocolate; #5: Obviously Not Green Zebra; #6: BW Cowlick's; #7: Cherokee Carbon; #8: Paul Robeson; #9: GGWT; #10: Liz Birt.

Shell