Tomato Grow-Off.

[Le Poisson]

What is the biggest one posted so far?

20.1 ounces.

[Tom Bri]

This is the biggest I have gotten yet. It is one pound, 6.5 ounces, and as ugly a tomato as I have seen that wasn't rotten.
It is a volunteer and this type has been showing up the last few years. They are very soft when ripe, with green tops. They have distinct lobes, which ripen one by one, and often have what looks like scar tissue dividing the lobes.
Unfortunately, my camera can't get a clear enough picture of the scale to show the weight, so it will have to remain of unverified weight, so not eligible to win the prize. :-(

[Spog]

Oh no! I've eaten the biggest one that I had on the vines this year already. It was a misshapen one like the above-pictured and not the nicest tasting one the different bits ripened at different times...

[Tom Bri]

Oh no! I've eaten the biggest one that I had on the vines this year already. It was a misshapen one like the above-pictured and not the nicest tasting one the different bits ripened at different times...

More will grow! We need some hot, dry weather here.

[Knitwit]

May I present my entry: this is a (not quite ripe) Kellogg's Breakfast tomato, 1 lb 14.9 oz. A personal best. Had to pick it a bit early because the vine was really sagging.

[Tom Bri]

May I present my entry: this is a (not quite ripe) Kellogg's Breakfast tomato, 1 lb 14.9 oz. A personal best. Had to pick it a bit early because the vine was really sagging.

Excellent!

[Rural]

No entries to report, but supper was a cucumber and tomato salad with feta and couscous. Also, this means some tomatoes made it into the house. :)

[Le Poisson]

May I present my entry: this is a (not quite ripe) Kellogg's Breakfast tomato, 1 lb 14.9 oz. A personal best. Had to pick it a bit early because the vine was really sagging.

Your entry is entered. Congrats on being the current leader!

[Knitwit]

Thank you! I'll have lots of seeds available if anyone wants to swap.

[rockeTree]

Magnificent! Warms my heart to see!

Drowning in nine ounce better boys here, not a bad fate.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jordanread]

I just got 5 ripe Indigo's. And I may even have one still on the vine that could be a biggie small. The Cherokees are growing, but no tomatoes yet.

[FerrumB5]

My 1st batch of determinates finally died, so I transplanted my 2nd batch that I started a month ago in their spots. Indeterminate cherries send dozens of suckers, and this time I let them grow - 1 or 2 more on each vine. What do you think - should I keep more than 2 stems or stay the course? The old vines still produce good fruits

[Tris Prior]

Well, that all depends - do you care about knowing what variety of cherry you're picking at any given moment? :)

(I let my indeterminate cherries do as they will this year. I now have a huge tangle and often cannot tell which vines belong to which plant. The sungold in particular has busted out of its cage and I have vines running the entire length of my 8' bed, twining in and out of other tomatoes' cages. It's getting out of control, but everything looks more or less healthy and is bearing well....)

[FerrumB5]

Nope, just one variety, so I don't need to worry about flavors

[kudy]

All of mine are coming in tiny this year, but my usual bumper crop has started!

[RetiredAt63]

I picked my first tomatoes yesterday, 3 tiny Romas.  No point in weighing them, so tiny!  Hardly any cherry tomatoes, and none ripe, and usually they are the most reliable.  My peppers keep having flowers but no fruit, I think I have 3 peppers on 15 plants.  It has been a bad summer for vegetables.

[Tom Bri]

This was two days take. The yellow ones were purchased plants. All the others were volunteers.
Sadly, this year very few large ones. The one big one I posted a while back will probably be the biggest. We have been eating tomatoes until sick of them, and my wife has been cooking them into sauce for the freezer.

[Jon_Snow]

As I have long suspected, no GIANTS this year.

But there are still victories....one of which is the fact that my Roma's are not exhibiting any signs of blossom end rot like they did last year (my first year as a tomato grower). The thing is, I couldn't tell you what I did differently this year versus last. Whatever the reason, I am very pleased by this.


And more Sungold's than I can handle...I have made a mental note that ONE PLANT is probably enough for next year.

[Tris Prior]

Haha, I too am inundated with Sungolds and Super Sweets. Cherry tomatoes galore!

My Roma plant looks like complete shit. It's mostly a brown stick. But still making good tomatoes??

[FerrumB5]

To "This Prior" is Roma determinate? Just wondering if I should switch best boy to smth different and indeterminate next year, best boy (determinate) was almost a complete fail this year, as well as beefsteak. Cherries are good and still producing and sending new suckers.
Cucumbers are dying off - it's time for them to go :(

[RetiredAt63]

FerrumB5 - Roma and most paste tomatoes are determinate.  Determinates tend to ripen all at about the same time, which is great if you want to process them all at once.  Plus for those in short growing seasons, let's get some before frost!  Indeterminates give more yield but spread it out over time (and of course they take a lot more space).

My 3 ripe Romas are about 1/4 the size of J_S's, even though I thought I was watering like mad during the drought.  Guess not enough.

[FerrumB5]

2 RetiredAt63, thanks! I know how determ/indeterm work. I was fooled this year by "indeterminate beefsteak" that turned out to be may be 10-15 fruit total out of 5 plants and then over. WTH

[G-dog]

Maybe I am wrong, but I consider plum tomatoes to be paste tomatoes - and my Opalka, Speckled Roman, and Lemon Plum are all indeterminate.

I think you can get almost any type of tomato as ind or det, if you look enough. That's my guess, I haven't investigated.

Mostly, I see indeterminate varieties. One nice thing is that indeterminates can produce before and after any weather that suppresses production. If that hot spell happens during pollination or other key developmental point, your determinates may essentially get wiped out.  Maybe that happened to some here.

[RetiredAt63]

Maybe I am wrong, but I consider plum tomatoes to be paste tomatoes - and my Opalka, Speckled Roman, and Lemon Plum are all indeterminate.

I think you can get almost any type of tomato as ind or det, if you look enough. That's my guess, I haven't investigated.

Mostly, I see indeterminate varieties. One nice thing is that indeterminates can produce before and after any weather that suppresses production. If that hot spell happens during pollination or other key developmental point, your determinates may essentially get wiped out.  Maybe that happened to some here.

Yes and given my summers (unpredictable) I prefer them.  I have tended to grow eating tomatoes instead of paste tomatoes, and given this year's production I will be looking for an indeterminate paste variety next year.  I got these at one of the local plant sales, nice plants but not for this summer.

Carol Deppe has a nice section in one of her books of how to take a variety you like and switch its growth habit.

[G-dog]

So many choices - I got my seed at Seed Savers. I assume they ship to Canada, but I don't know how well adapted any seed would be to your growing zone.

[FerrumB5]

Maybe I am wrong, but I consider plum tomatoes to be paste tomatoes - and my Opalka, Speckled Roman, and Lemon Plum are all indeterminate.

I think you can get almost any type of tomato as ind or det, if you look enough. That's my guess, I haven't investigated.

Mostly, I see indeterminate varieties. One nice thing is that indeterminates can produce before and after any weather that suppresses production. If that hot spell happens during pollination or other key developmental point, your determinates may essentially get wiped out.  Maybe that happened to some here.

I believe, that is what happened here. Determinates were very very crappy. Next year ind's only, be it cherry (I'll try 'regular' and yellow) or boys. beefs - no, was so hurt this year :(

[Tom Bri]

Maybe I am wrong, but I consider plum tomatoes to be paste tomatoes - and my Opalka, Speckled Roman, and Lemon Plum are all indeterminate.

I think you can get almost any type of tomato as ind or det, if you look enough. That's my guess, I haven't investigated.

Mostly, I see indeterminate varieties. One nice thing is that indeterminates can produce before and after any weather that suppresses production. If that hot spell happens during pollination or other key developmental point, your determinates may essentially get wiped out.  Maybe that happened to some here.

I believe, that is what happened here. Determinates were very very crappy. Next year ind's only, be it cherry (I'll try 'regular' and yellow) or boys. beefs - no, was so hurt this year :(

This my current favorite thread on the whole forum! Learning a lot about tomatoes I never knew.

[G-dog]

Maybe I am wrong, but I consider plum tomatoes to be paste tomatoes - and my Opalka, Speckled Roman, and Lemon Plum are all indeterminate.

I think you can get almost any type of tomato as ind or det, if you look enough. That's my guess, I haven't investigated.

Mostly, I see indeterminate varieties. One nice thing is that indeterminates can produce before and after any weather that suppresses production. If that hot spell happens during pollination or other key developmental point, your determinates may essentially get wiped out.  Maybe that happened to some here.

I believe, that is what happened here. Determinates were very very crappy. Next year ind's only, be it cherry (I'll try 'regular' and yellow) or boys. beefs - no, was so hurt this year :(

If you are willing to buy plants from a nursery, try a grafted variety.

[jordanread]

Well, shoot. I'm probably out. With great weather, all of a sudden, hailpocalypse. It wasn't even the big one that caused billions of dollars of damage and completely missed me. This crazy small one destroyed my garden.

[Le Poisson]

Well, shoot. I'm probably out. With great weather, all of a sudden, hailpocalypse. It wasn't even the big one that caused billions of dollars of damage and completely missed me. This crazy small one destroyed my garden.

Bummer about your garden dude, but look on the bright side! At least now we know that Canadian tomato plants produce more tomatoes than Colorado plants covered in hail.

Your root crops and greens should bounce back, but the toms... well, it was nice knowing them.

[jordanread]

Bummer about your garden dude, but look on the bright side! At least now we know that Canadian tomato plants produce more tomatoes than Colorado plants covered in hail.

Your root crops and greens should bounce back, but the toms... well, it was nice knowing them.

That is definitive. I still have a couple of the Cherokee's inside, but they are so slow when not outside. But, I still have the rest of the seeds you sent. Next year, I'm doing soil blocks, and actually timing this stuff. It will be fun. Those Indigos did well, but they were very slow to ripen. I think it was mostly timing issues this year.

[Frugal Lizard]

Due to the drought I am out of the competition for sure.  My tomatoes are small, and not that plentiful but man are they tasty. 
Had to buy paste tomatoes this year for canning.  Hopefully I can make some salsa with my own heirloom varieties.

[RetiredAt63]

I picked my Mortgage Lifter tomato yesterday (2 tomatoes on the whole plant, on the same stem, and the stem broke, so that is it).  It was 305 gms, so no point posting a picture.  I ate it last night, tasted good but not amazing.  I think the high heat and dryness (even though I watered a lot) meant most flowers never set fruit.  I also have 3 more tiny Romas.  This was my worst tomato season ever, I should be drowning in cherry tomatoes now and there are none even close to ripe.  Normally I would be pigging out grazing in the garden and still taking a bowl of tomatoes to the house.

[Le Poisson]

Due to the drought I am out of the competition for sure.  My tomatoes are small, and not that plentiful but man are they tasty. 
Had to buy paste tomatoes this year for canning.  Hopefully I can make some salsa with my own heirloom varieties.

Do tomatoes take a pressure Canner?  What about the other ingredients in sauce or salsa (onions, peppers) I wonder what the net savings are on buying a flat of Roman and making DIY sauce are (health/flavour aside).

[horsepoor]

Yes, you can pressure can tomato products.  I've started doing that with my salsas because the approved water bath salsa recipes call for too much vinegar for my taste.  The new Ball canning book doesn't have times for it, but it says to PC pints of tomato soup for 50 minutes.  That much heat and cooking time is likely to break down tomato structure though, so I would still WB can whole and diced tomatoes.

[Le Poisson]

Yes, you can pressure can tomato products.  I've started doing that with my salsas because the approved water bath salsa recipes call for too much vinegar for my taste.  The new Ball canning book doesn't have times for it, but it says to PC pints of tomato soup for 50 minutes.  That much heat and cooking time is likely to break down tomato structure though, so I would still WB can whole and diced tomatoes.

I worded that wrong. We don't own a pressure canner, and I can't see us running out to buy another kitchen tool. So water bath is adequate even if you make "Mushroom & Zucchini Tomato sauce?"

[horsepoor]

No, you can't water bath a mushroom and zuchinni tomato sauce.  Tomatoes on their own are just borderline acidic enough to water bath can (and most recipes add a bit of lemon juice just to be safe), so adding in non-acidic ingredients such as mushrooms, zucchini and onions will raise the pH to an unsafe level for WB canning.  Pressure canning creates high temperatures that kill bacteria that can flourish in more neutral pH environments, like good 'ol botulism.  http://www.cdc.gov/features/homecanning/

[Le Poisson]

No, you can't water bath a mushroom and zuchinni tomato sauce.  Tomatoes on their own are just borderline acidic enough to water bath can (and most recipes add a bit of lemon juice just to be safe), so adding in non-acidic ingredients such as mushrooms, zucchini and onions will raise the pH to an unsafe level for WB canning.  Pressure canning creates high temperatures that kill bacteria that can flourish in more neutral pH environments, like good 'ol botulism.  http://www.cdc.gov/features/homecanning/

I thought not, and although I sometimes wish for death while at work, botulism is not on the list of preferred ways to escape the cube.

[horsepoor]

It really puts a damper on your FIRE plans.

[dandypandys]

WOOHOO GOT A FULL PLOT at a community garden. Got the manure in and planted lots this morning. Trying Jasper Tomatos this time, because here in FL blight is such a problem, and Jasper is supposed to be one of the tolerant ones. Shall see :) Exciting as the new FL growing season starts now. I just ordered some more seeds on ebay, it is pretty cool because you can get small samples of all sorts for 99c a pack. So I got another type of tomato on order- Floradade.. another good FL friendly one all our humid pests.

[Le Poisson]

WOOHOO GOT A FULL PLOT at a community garden. Got the manure in and planted lots this morning. Trying Jasper Tomatos this time, because here in FL blight is such a problem, and Jasper is supposed to be one of the tolerant ones. Shall see :) Exciting as the new FL growing season starts now. I just ordered some more seeds on ebay, it is pretty cool because you can get small samples of all sorts for 99c a pack. So I got another type of tomato on order- Floradade.. another good FL friendly one all our humid pests.

I wondered when the tropics and the Aussies would start planting... loks like the southerners have started up.

Good luck! You know your target.