So which ones are you growing this spring?

After hours and hours and hours of debate, here is my final list. Last night I spent a long time documenting, mapping and starting seeds. The hardest part is over with now.

Aker's West Virginia
Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red
Aunt Gertie's Gold
Berkley Tie Dyed
Black From Tula
Black Sea Man
Brad's Black Heart
Brandywine, Red
Brandywine, Sudduth Strain
Bulgarian #7
Carbon
Chapman
Cherokee Green
Coustralee
Dr. Lyle
Druzba
Earl's Faux
Ethel Watkins Best
Gary O'Sena
German Red Strawberry
Grandpa's Cock's Plume
Green Giant
Green Grape
Indian Stripe
Kellog's Breakfast
Kimberly
Kosovo
Kroska Pink Bulgarian
Lime Green Salad
Marianna's Peace
Olena Ukrainian
Omar's Lebanese
Paul Robeson
Polish C
Prue
Red Penna
Russian 117
Stump Of The World
Sylvan Gaume
Tidwell German
Todd County Amish
Variagated
Wes
Zogola

Foolcontrol~ great list. You have many varieties that I am going to plant this year too. Funny how you say you spent hours of debate. That is exactly what I have been doing. I even went as far as drawing up my garden bed with my Adobe Illustrator program. Do I hear some of you saying OCD? LOL. Well, I guess I am a little when it comes to gardening. Anyway, 44 tomatoes? WOW, you must have a lot more room that I do. That is great. My DH keeps begging me to shorten my list each year but I don't. I actually think that I add more each year!! LOL

Here is my list for this year: (if I misspell, REMEMBER, I am terrible at spelling)

Aker's West Virginia
Aunt Gertie's Gold
Aunt Ruby's German Green
Black Cherry
Black Krim
Black Russian
Box Car Willie
Brandywine, Red
Brandywine, Sudduth's
Brandywine, Yellow ( platfoot strain)
Brianna (thanks to Aries44 for the seeds!!)
Cherokee Purple
Cuostralee
Delicious
Kellogg's Breakfast
Marianna's Peace
Mortgage Lifter (Estler's Strain) Thanks to Carolyn for the seeds!!
Noir de Crimee
Omar's Lebanese
Peacevine Cherry
Pink Ping Pong
Pruden's Purple
Soldacki
Sungold
Zogola

You are all probably wondering why I am going to plant Black Krim and Noir de Crimee. Well, I just want to see which strain I like the most. I just can't wait until I can plant the darn things!

Lissy

Looks like a pretty nice list. I actually said I am not going to grow more than 30 this year. I would really like to grow about 50 of them. I will be ripping out part of my garden. The peppers and eggplants will lose some space this year.

Here is my list. Much smaller than I'd like, but alas...

EB1: Mortgage Lifter-Estlers/Nyagous
EB2: Porters Pride/Tigerella
EB3: Aunt Ruby's German Green/Green Zebra
EB4: Cherokee Purp/Chinese Yellow Tomato

In-ground:
Delicious
Black from Tula
444

In 5gal pots or in-ground:
Jaune Flamme
Santa Sweet
Sungold
Black Cherry
Lime Green Salad

Michelle

Lissy,
I grew both Black Krim and Noir de Crimee last season. My BK's were a lot larger than the N de C's. The two tasted different but both were decent. The BK's need to be eaten quickly after picking as they don't last too long on the shelf. The N de C's last a lot longer. I harvested over 150 N de C's off of two plants - very prolific for me. I got about 20 good sized BK's.
Flip
(Did you get the seeds yet?)

Interesting - I've been told that they are the same tomato!

Interesting - I've been told that they are the same tomato!

J, the names mean the same, as in Black Krim, but the Noir de Crimmee ( Black from Krim) I got from a Frenchman in 1992 in a huge trade that brough many wonderful varieties to the US, and when I grew it, having grown Black Krim before, I did see differences which I mentioned in my book as to why I listed Noir instead of Black Krim:

Fruits darker in color
higher production
better taste

I didn't notice any significant differences in fruit size.

Different strains? Hard to tell but I wouldn't be surprised. After all, for any variety as it passes through many hands there can be some subtle and no too subtle changes.

An excellent example of this is the variety Indian Stripe which I offer in my SSE listings which is clearly Cherokee Purple that has been grown in isolation from the CP that Craig was given by John Green of TN. Craig was the first person I sent the seeds to and he also agrees it's a strain of CP, but it was known as Indian Stripe or Indian Zebra in that area for ages, so I just left the one name intact.

Indian Stripe is from Arkansas where the Cherokee also had a presence as well as in the nearby state of TN.

But the fruits of IS are smaller, lighter in color and more to the truss than CP.

Carolyn

Thank you for the clarification - now I will have to grow them BOTH so I can do my very own comparison! (Groan! I just never quit, do I?)

Michelle,
I only have 5 EBs to date, and have been considering using some 5-gallon buckets. Could you advise me how to plant the tomatoes in them?

ares44~ I am glad to hear how both of those tomatoes turned out for you. If you had to make a choice between Black Krim and Noir de Crimee based on taste which one would you choose, or are they too similar. I just got your seeds in the mail today!! I am way excited. Thanks so much!

Sequee~I understand the groan! Like I said earlier, I try and cut back on the amount of tomatoes I grow each year but I keep growing MORE! You gotta love compairing tomatoes though. It is so fun to do since everyone has their own likes and dislikes.

Lissy

Here's my list of the seeds I received already:

Red Cherry Sweet
Juanne Flamme
Green Grape

Sausage
Polish Linguisa
Marianna's Peace
Stupice
Super Italian Paste
Beefsteak

Big Zac
Rutgers
LaRoma

A few others are on order from Sandhill, so I'll come back when the order gets here.

I see several of you spelling it Jaunne Flammee, or similar, but it's really:

Jaune Flammee with the French accent mark to the right over the inner "e" on Flammee. LOL

Just thought I'd mention that. It was yet another one of the great varieties I got from that Frenchman, Norbert, back in 1992.

Carolyn

Lissy, I'd grow the Noir de Crimee. Better production, longer shelf life and better taste.
Flip

My list so far:

Chapman
Neves Azorean Red
Granny Cantrell's German Red
Mortgage Lifter Estler's Strain
Lady Lucy
Marianna's Peace
Black Russian - saved seeds from Lissy J who got them from me who got them from Critter who got them from a
friend
Black Russian - purchased from John Scheeper's
Russian Black - Purchased from Marianna's Seeds (experimenting with the last 3 to see how much they are alike)
Carmello
Black from Tula
Cherokee Chocolate
Cherokee Green
Cherokee Purple - yes, I know it's the same as Cherokee Chocolate. I'm conducting another experiment
Livingston's Magnus
Carbon
Nyagous
Black Krim
Vinson Watts
Crnkovic Yugoslavian
Bloody Butcher
Czech Select - Abundant Life Seeds - good early tomato
Stupice - Trying it again although it tasted like cardboard the last 2 years
Druzba
Caspian Pink
Aker's West Virginia
Soldacki - The deer ate all the green ones when there were ripe tomatoes next to it. That is a sign!!! I didn't get
to taste a ripe one myself.
Prudens Purple
Aker's West Virginia
Kellogg's Breakfast or Persimmon or Aunt Gertie's Gold
J.T.D. - Victory Seeds
Pink Ping Pong
Black Cherry
Sun Gold (at least 2 plants)
Peacevine Cherry
Jelly Bean Grape (2yrs ago it tasted great. Last year it was awful for everyone I gave a plant to. I'm trying again)
Pruple Price
Chianti Rose - Marianna's Seeds
Delicious
Anna Russian
Ananas Noire
Gold Medal
Brandywine Sudduth's
Brandywine Red
Break O' Day
Coustralee
Zogola
Box Car Willie

DH asked me not to plant as many tomatoes this year, so I narrowed it down to these!!!




This message was edited Jan 16, 2007 12:29 PM

Hi Linda...Nice Interesting List There.
You're Growing Quite a Few Black Tomatoes.

From My Grow-Outs of Cherokee Chocolate and Cherokee Purple...They are Different Tomatoes.
What is JTD?
and is ...Pruple Price...Purple Prince?

From My Grow-Outs of Cherokee Chocolate and Cherokee Purple...They are Different Tomatoes.


How are they different, for they shouldn't be except for CC having a darker exterior mahogany color. CC was a single step spontaneous mutant from CP that changed the epidermis color from clear to yellow. So other than a darker color for CC all else remains the same.

(What is JTD?)

A variety named for John T Dorrance who was with the Campbell Soup Co many years ago. It was either Craig or Mike at Victory seeds who got it out of the USDA a few years ago. My feeling is that it's primarily of historical significance in terms of it being used as a parent to develop many other tomato varieties back then. And both Mike and Craig are very interested in old commercial heirlooms such as the Livingstons, and others used as parents way back when.

(and is ...Pruple Price...Purple Prince?)

It should be Purple Price. Basically there is NO Purple Prince. A typo error was made in entering Purple Price, or as it's also known, Price's Purple, in an SSE Yearbook many years ago. And still folks insist that Purple Price and Purple Prince are the same variety.

Another amusing error in the Yearbooks is Brandywine ( Pawer's) and that came about because PA WE R ( SSE code name for Roger Wentling) was morphed into Pawer's by an SSE member when all Roger did was to list Brandywine. ( smile) So it's not a strain at all, just a goof which has been perpetuated. LOL

Tad Smith used Purple Price X Ozark Pink in breeding the variety we now know as Pale Perfect Purple. I've grown Purple Price, mainly b'c I wanted to see what went into creating PPP, but to be honest, it wasn't one of my fave so called blacks, but then there really are very few blacks that I do like.

I'd rather be part of the green when ripe variety fad than the fading now many years old black variety fad, but that's just my preference in blacks vs GWRipes as to taste. LOL

Carolyn

I'm sure you've stated it somewhere before, Carolyn, but what ARE your favorite blacks???

How many plants total, Linda?

arrrggg TGS is out of Chapman....Poo that is what I get for waiting. HUMF!

For Janice and Saint ( aranass)

I'm sure you've stated it somewhere before, Carolyn, but what ARE your favorite blacks???

*********

I don't think I have listed them before b/c the list is so short, LOL, b'c I'm just not all that fond of them and yes, I've grown lots of them, but these few might be my faves:

Black From Tula, pink/black
Cherokee Purple, ditto
Black Cherry, red black
Noir de Crimmee, ditto
Noir Charbonneuse, pink/black

....is all I can think of off hand that I would grow more than once. And the only one I'd grow every year is Black Cherry.

araness, Saint, isn't it, you aren't alone in waiting too long. Send me your address to cmale@aol.com and I'll send you a few seeds of Chapman so you can produce your own. They're seeds from 2004, the last large growout I did before I fell, so you should have no trouble at all in germinating them.

Not a general offer folks, just feeling expansive b'c I thought I was out of chocolate tonight and found a solid chocolate X mas tree I'd forgotten about and ate the whole darn thing. LOL

Carolyn

This message was edited Jan 13, 2007 10:19 PM

Ah, yes! The incredible diet chocolate Christmas Tree!!! (Can you believe it - I do not like chocolate, save for the very, very milkiest???)

I love Black Cherry; have not tried the rest on your list...I do have seeds for all of them, though, so I will add one or 2 this season to see how they taste. I really liked Southern Night last year - liked the Cuban Black and Black Krim the year prior, too, but the green shouldering and splitting made for alot of unused tomato waste.

I love chocolate in any form...must love me too...as it stays around on my hips, stomach, butt...

Sequee - I think it's about 48. I might double on the Pink Ping Pong, too. A big thank you for the Peacevine Cherry and Purple Price seeds. I am trying those two cuz Sequee says she likes them and we all know what good taste she has!!!

Carolyn - it was interesting to hear about Purple Price and the other funny mistakes that stick on the record books. Thank you very much for the Neves Azorean Red, Chapman, Granny Cantrell's and Mortgage Lifter Estler's Strain.

ZZ - J.T.D. was a good "workhorse" of a tomato that had a better than average flavor. It's Days To Maturity is listed as 85. It was way earlier than that in my 4b garden, so it was a big help in making salsa and spaghetti
sauce.

I do have a lot of black tomatoes. Carolyn said it's a fad that's going out which only goes to show you that I have always been a little behind the times. Two of my favorite tomatoes last year were Black Russian from Critterologist and Black Krim from Sequee (I think) so I decided to try more of them. I didn't like Poll Robson(there's also another way to spell it) or Black Prince. Japanese Trifele Black was interesting. It almost tasted like it had grown near a sage plant and taken on a little of that flavor. I have tried Cherokee Purple two years in a row and it was quite bland, but everyone loves it so much I have to try again--just like with Stupice. Someone did a thread on how good Nyagous was so I decided to try it.

I am trying to get into the Green When Ripe craze by trying Cherokee Green which Carolyn said was her favorite. About the time that fad goes out I'll have a garden full of them.

I am going to start my second batch of seeds in a few days. My list may be getting longer.

Hopefully mine will get to you before you get going. I just realized there's no mail service on Monday, so these won't get out until Tuesday...dang!

My list is really puny compared to what most of you guys are growing. But I don't have space for more than 20-25 plants. Well, here's my little list: From Johnny's I have Red Sun, Sun Gold, Matt's Wild Cherry, Tiny Red Currant, Estiva, Striped German, and Piriform. From TGS I only have Azoychka and from Victory I have Green Zebra. My new additions this year are Matt's Wild Cherry, Tiny Red Currant, Striped German, Piriform, and Azoychka. All of the others on the list are tried and true favorites. Sowed them all New Year's Day and they're up and growing. Had to improvise a plant light set-up to get me through the next several days of serious winter weather that's descending on us as I write this. My greenhouse is just too cold for seedlings. Hope all this nasty weather blows throught here quickly. We had a small tornado touch down a couple of miles from our house last night. The only building touched was the police station. It took part of the roof off and spread it around on top of half a dozen or so cruisers. No one was hurt, luckily. Paul

Hey Paul,
I only have room for about 15 plants so don't feel bad! Are y'all okay down there with the tornado that hit San Marcos? We got 4.25" rain yesterday and more today. It is 31.4 and raining...no church for us today. Getting colder tonight and tomorrow...lots of ice so be careful!

Your list looked yummy to me. I am also growing Green Zebra and have been told that it is a very vigorous plant and sets major amounts of fruit!

Michelle

I'm only growing 18 this time so I'm feeling left out too LOL and blacks might be a fad but the DH LOVES the taste of em so I'll be out of fashion as long as I can get the seeds. The neighbors whom are all older (70's and 80's) and they like and old fashioned red so I have to grow something like that...which leaves me with about 8 plants of my own to "play" with. Seeds are started now it's time to get ready for my transplant...ugggh hate having to cut the holes in the cups, I really need to buy a reusable system.

Most of my first batch have sprouted now. I am going to move them under the lights and start another batch tonight.

Michelle......I really liked the Green Zebra's taste as well as its production. Although, what with last year's early May hailstorm, it's hard to know how much better every variety might have done. Let's hope there's no repeat this year. I'm optimistic about the prospect for icy conditions not materializing to the extent that they're forecasting. It just doesn't have that "feel" right now to me. But who knows what the morning will bring. Hopefully, if there is ice, it won't hang around very long. I'm including a picture of a Green Zebra between a couple of Red Suns taken last June as an extra bit of inspiration for you. As if you needed it!!!! Have you had any experience with Azoychka? I've had this seed for a couple of years, but I never planted it 'til this year, I guess because I got the impression that it was a "cool summer" variety and wouldn't do well here. But after hearing so many rave reviews from other growers about its flavor and prodction, I decided to open the "complimentary" pack from TGS and give it a shot. Paul

This message was edited Jan 14, 2007 6:21 PM

This message was edited Jan 14, 2007 6:22 PM

Hi Paul,
Austin Mayor, Will Winn, is telling everyone to stay home tomorrow. My DH says "haha...have the Mayor call my boss who is from Israel and has tredged thru snow and ice to get to work before". there ya go!

I love the picture. Thanks so much. I have not tried the Azoychka yet.

Michelle

I really liked the Azoychka, but the gals I work with LOVED it. Got totally ticked off that I didn't grow it last year!

Don't ya love it when people start putting in orders for a type of tomato??? I'm waiting for them to start coming over to spray etc... NOT!

We aren't going to get as nasty as ya'll Chelle, but still picked up a cord of wood and going to make some soup. DH is having a time catching up at work so I know he won't take more time off no matter what the weather is.

Here's my list. Most seed purchased from SSE, Baker Creek and TGS.

A lot of varieties I haven't tried. Looking forward to what the year brings.

Dixie Golden Giant
Dr. Wyche's Yellow
Yellow Pear
Old Ivory Egg
Red Pear
Opalka
Brandywine Sudduth's Strain
Costoluto Genovese
German Red Strawberry
Box Car Willie
Cream Sausage
Green Zebra
Nyagous
Purple Russian
Green Sausage
Pink Oxheart
Paul Robeson
White Tomeso
Rutgers Select
Mortgage Lifter
Brandywine
Super Marzano
Pineapple
Persimmon
Kellog's Breakfast
Orange Strawberry
Juliet
Cherokee Purple
Large Pink Bulgarian
Striped German



BB

This message was edited Jan 15, 2007 6:50 AM

What does TGS stand for please?

Thanks!

~Sunny

What does TGS stand for please?

Tomato Growers Supply as in tomatogrowers.com

It along with Sandhill Preservation and the public SSE catalog/website and Victory Seeds and Baker Creek and Heirloom Tomatoes are perhaps the best places to buy tomato seeds. Lowest prices are to be had at Sandhill where it's possible to get a pack of lots of seed, way over the amount others give, for as low as $1.60/pack and no tomato seed sold there is over two years old, which is remarkable.

SSE, TGS, Victory Seeds and Baker Creek have pictures.

The most varieties are listed by TGS and Sandhill Presrvation.

Hope that helps.

Carolyn

Actually I DO love it when people put in orders, though I prefer it when they put in orders for seedlings! That way I get to sample what they are growing without growing it myself - for the moment anyway. Widens my horizons!! It's always funny, though, when several people LOVE a tomato I grow and I don't. Bar none, every single person I gave Azoychka to preferred it over the Manyel and Jaune Negib. It will be fun to see what this season brings!

Nice list ya got there, BB. How many of each will you grow? What else is on your list?

This message was edited Jan 15, 2007 8:53 AM

Now you've gone and done it, Sequee. I'm going to have to plant Azoychka again. What else do you have up your sleeve?

I have orders for seedlings from Alabama...got to learn to ship those little babies! LOL last year after he planted them (his first time with heirlooms) he had BER and went to the local extension service for answers...lol called me to tell me I had given him crazy seedlings!

Here's what I have on my list so far:

Australian Pink Oxheart
Azoychka
Bloody Butcher
Bonny Best
Marianna's Peace
Caspian Pink
Coyote
Mortgage Lifter
Moskvich
Tiger Tom
Tiny Tim
Stupice
Early Cascade
Jolly
Sungold
Sweet Baby Girl
Sweet Million
Juliet

Boel (pronounced Booel)

Thanks Carolyn for the info on TGS. I had my first home grown tomato this past year since I was just a kid (and I didn't like tomatoes then) and um, now I hate store bought ones! I'd like to expand my horizons but I have no idea how to go about it. SSE has some nice stuff so I plan to join this year. The other places I had not heard about yet, so I will be checking them out. I don't have a lot of full sun room, so I only need a few seeds of each kind. I think the seeds last a couple of years, so I should be okay. I want to try the Noir de Crimmee, a purple, and one of the Orange ones this year, in addition to my good results last year from Rutgers, Beefsteak, Santa Sweets and Golden Roma.

You guys are a wealth of information, thank you so much for filling in the blanks when we newbsters come along and don't know the standard verbiage!

~Sunny