Nitsua(6b MO) Would love to see a pic of your light stand, Sey. I need to do something different from what I'm doing now.. -------------------------------- Here it is NitsuaIt is about 50" long ( 52" would be better) and about 38" high and 15" wide. From ch horizontal top one set of twin T8 fixture will be hanged. It is made from 3/4" pvc.. The trays will sit on the floor and the lights' height will be adjusted to accommodate the seedling height. In the beginning, when the plants are small ( in 12oz cold drink cups) I might just use 2 sets of lights. But when they are re potted into bigger pots, I'll bring my 3rd set into operation.There will be no load on the stand other than the fixtures hanging. Also I can group my seedlings by height and adjust each light accordingly. PS: It cost me under $20 and I put it together in about one hour, But I had a plan how to do it (size, cuts ..) . With T12 lights it should be made wider. Any more questions, be glad to answer. Sey

Hey everybody just checking in with a few pictures of the latest tomatoes. I also have about 5 other purple varieties, Fred Limbaugh's Potato Top, Ponderosa Red, Tim's Black Truffles, Anna Russian, Black Jade, Black from Tula, Pineapple, Pink Pioneer, Dr. Lyle, Stump of the World, and Burpee's Delicious. It is supposed to get down to 36 this next week, so I will have to move a bunch inside-sure wish they would start to turn or at least blush. I have gotten about 200 cherry tomatoes from Tiny Tim, SS100, Sun Gold, and Sweet Million and the Sweet Million are by far the best tasting one. I haven't gotten any larger tomatoes (4 oz or better) that have ripened yet. I have had a few fried green tomatoes from the Tycoon and they have a really good flavor for green tomatoes-hope to try a ripe one soon. How is everybody's winter tomatoes doing?

For the first time, I don't think I had what I would call a bad variety this season. I grew 20 varieties and was content with every single one of them. Certainly, some were better than others, but it was a fantastic tomato season for me. I tend to grow for as much production as possible because I can a ton of tomatoes, so several of the best tasting tomatoes aren't necessarily among my favorite for that reason. We all know some varieties are worth growing strictly for taste, production be damned. :) My list is below and ranked by flavor alone, but I also included notes on growth, productivity, etc. for people curious in more than flavor (1 best, 19 least best): 1. Dr. Wyche's Yellow - Productive, beautiful, huge, sweet, tropical, meaty and juicy - it's an amazing tomato that does almost everything right. It has become a staple. Will grow again in 2018. 2. Brandy Boy - The flavor is what I expected - very balanced, complex, sweet and meaty. Not as productive as I hoped for (Stump of the World remains my favorite pink beefsteak of all time), but a great variety nonetheless. Will grow again, but not in 2018. 3. Aker's West Virginia - Had a late start in the garden (planted early June), but once it got going, holy smokes. Huge red beefsteaks with amazing flavor, tons of flesh and almost no core at all. Many fruit over a pound. One of the more productive large varieties this season. On the tentative list for 2018. 4. Burcham's New Generation - See TCA at #5 below. Very similar characteristics, but a bit more productive. Flavor is balanced and delicious. I will grow this one again, but not in 2018. 5. Todd County Amish - Gigantic pink beefsteaks, smooth skin and meaty flesh. Very flavorful with little gel, but the least productive beefsteak I grew this season. Will grow again, but not in 2018. 6. Cream Sausage - Third season growing, third season loving. It is my partner's favorite tomato. Very mild, balanced flavor and very prolific. Makes the most gorgeous sauce with its pale creamy yellow flesh and looks amazing canned in the pantry. Most certainly on the list for 2018. 7. Heatherington Pink - Nearly perfectly shaped, huge round light pink beefsteaks. Very meaty with little juice. Reminds me very much of 1884 (which I will be growing again in 2018), but lighter in color. On the tentative plans for 2018. 8. Hartsack Yellow - Very nice balanced flavor with sweet notes at the forefront and some acid following closely behind. Gorgeous yellow/orange with red striations. Meaty and juicy, moderately productive. Will grow again, but not in 2018. 9. Aussie - Great true tomato flavor, huge fluted fruits with moderate productivity and gorgeous bright red skins. Had issues with shoulders ripening fully and many fruit had large cores. Will grow again in 2018. 10. Green Moldovan - Surprisingly good/sweet flavor given its color when fully ripe (dark green with light yellow tinge at blossom end). Like most of these types, extremely juicy with short shelf life. Ridiculously productive and makes for very interesting conversation when canned. Will grow again in 2018. 11. Woodle Orange - Amazing, true deep orange tomato with sweet delicious flesh. Extremely meaty, baseball-sized fruit. Least productive plant overall in my garden this season (only 8 fruit). Will grow again to see if I can get better production, but likely not in 2018. 12. TIE: Bush Early Girl/Paragon - Very similar fruit, about baseball-size with nice bright red color and almost zero blemishes or flaws at all. Both varieties are very productive and perfect sandwich slicers, but also make wonderful tomato products. Very good all-purpose with good balance of sweet/acid. BEG is on the list for 2018, Paragon is tentative. 13. Urbanite - I believe I received some incorrect seed, as it grew as a heart-shaped tomato for me, which Urbanite is not supposed to be. Regardless, this was a nice surprise and a very good pink heart tomato with excellent flavor and meaty interior. Somewhat wispy initial growth that filled in nicely as the season progressed. Will try to grow again hoping for true seed, but not in 2018. 14. Krasnodar Titans - My absolute favorite for various canning applications, fresh pico and salsa because of its thick skin and fully meaty flesh with little juice. Keeps easily for a week or longer on the counter when ripe because of thick skins. Fruits are rather inconsistent in size (2-14oz), but very productive and tidy. Will be growing several in 2018. 15. Yaqui - A very productive, large Roma-style paste tomato with good flavor. This is a perfect canning tomato as it contains almost zero juice and is very fleshy, much like KT but generally smaller. Thicker skin allows longer shelf life; about a week, but probably even longer. Very prone to BER (the only variety in my garden to get it the last two seasons). Will grow again in 2018. 16. Cuostralee - I think I have seeds for the correct variety, because the fruit looked right, but were very small based on product descriptions online. Quite flavorful, but forgettable in general and not among my favorite. I have read this is an excellent variety, so I will try again. It's tentative for 2018. 17. Red Rocket - See notes above at #12 on BEG/Paragon - a moderately productive, gorgeous, red medium-sized slicer with balanced flavor and little drama, but flavor is not as memorable as those above. I'll keep the seeds around, but it is not on the list for 2018. 18. Tatar of Mongolistan - I believe I received incorrect seed, as it was much smaller, less productive and didn't fit the proper physical description. With that said, flavor was perfectly fine for salads and various other dishes, but it didn't win me over. I'll keep the seed and hope to rule it out some time, but I won't grow in 2018. 19. Box Car Willie - See TOM at #18 above - basically the same thoughts. It was a highly productive golf-ball sized fruit with good flavor, but was not BCW. Will grow again to rule out issues with seed, but it is not on the list for 2018. Shule, as you mentioned above, making these lists is challenging because so many variables go into what makes a tomato someone's favorite. I lean toward the large, heirloom beefsteaks because they're not only among the most flavorful, but they're fun to show off, make amazing tomato products and are often just as productive. Of course, you only need 1/3 the number of fruit as smaller determinate types to make the same volume of product, so there you go. I truly had zero spitters in the garden this season, but made good notes as I went along, so I feel my list is accurate for my personal tastes and experiences. We all know we could grow the same varieties next season and have completely opposite results. :) I hope others will share their lists and faves, too. My season officially ended this morning with a hard freeze (23º), so now I will be reading forums all winter just waiting for next spring to come around to start it all over again.

@Tomatoe Lover I just saw your reply. I'm not sure why I didn't reply sooner! We used them for fresh eating, pizza toppings, burrito toppings, canning, and to give to neighbors and others. It was a hot year. The black plastic made the ground even hotter, and a lot of the tomato plants suffered from heat stress (but it improved the taste over all, I think, and some tomatoes probably did better in it). The stabilized Brandy Boy (which turned out to be a regular leaf accidental cross) and Sausage were the top producers (and provided most of the harvest), but one of the Mountain Princess plants, Cougar Red and some cherry tomatoes also produced a lot. Green Tiger was the sweetest, I think. The prolific cherries were Galapagos Island (which was a cross) and Husky Cherry Red F5 (which was a cross, probably with Sweet Orange Cherry). Porter (a volunteer) actually did amazingly well, too. We used black plastic in 2019, too. The plants didn't suffer from heat stress, this year (but that might be because they grew more foliage and shaded the plastic more; the extra foliage growth was probably due to a cooler and wetter spring than we've had in years). My favorites this year were one of my Brandy Boy cross F2s, Marion, Galapagos Island (not from the cross), Sweet Orange Cherry, and Porter (didn't do as well as the Porter volunteer last year, but it's still acclimating and that one last year had been grown on the land for more generations). Sausage could have been a favorite, but I grew 17 plants, which grew too big (due to the good tomato year) and smothered each other. One of my Brandy Boy cross F2s, Marion, Sheboygan, Polish Linguisa and Porter were favorites for taste. Early Girl F1 (the store-bought plant) also did very well, this year, and was quite sweet. I think Early Girl F1 is my favorite burrito tomato (followed by Mountain Princess, followed by Burpee Gloriana)—for the flavor they add (not for any lack of juice). I came to realize that the heat stress in 2018 might have been averted with extra potassium or other nutrients. The watermelons really do a lot better with the black plastic (they don't get bigger, but they ripen and taste better on average, and the weedy grass doesn't spring up all over them as much). Even though I grew loads of plants, it should be noted that I gave them drought conditions. Plus, the plants could have been more mature at transplant time (and been transplanted earlier) for a better harvest. And, I didn't do much in the way of soil amendments and fertilization. So, we could have had a lot more production, probably.