What tomato varieties are you growing?

[oregonkat]

Rutgers, Cherokee Purple, Zebra, Pineapple, Mr Stripey, Brandywine, and Mortgage Lifter this year. Happened upon Mortgage lifter 3 years ago and like it the best of any tomato I have ever eaten. Once tomatoes start to ripen, every lunch is a BLT sandwich and every dinner includes mozzarella/tomato/basil/Bibb lettuce salad with a Balsamic vinaigrette.

So interesting that tomatoes can be so different in different regions. My neighbor down the valley from me grew Mortgage Lifter a few years ago and found it disappointing in flavor. I did not try it, I have to admit, but there must be something in your soil that brings out the best in that tomato. I love the summer BLTs, we look forward to them every year. Delicious! My Brandywine x black plum tomato goes into those sandwiches and boy are they yummy!

 

[oregonkat]

I think that would be part of the fun! I always loved genetics.

Yup, I agree wholeheartedly.

 

[Beer can]

I always grow Early Girl hybrid, tons of nice size early sweet tomatoes. I've tried a few open pollinated and am again this yr, Bloody butcher, Alaskan fancy, are a couple of them. Never been too impressed as far as quantity.
Would like to grow large open pollinated sauce tomatoes so am trying Goldman's Italian-American this yr. Been wanting to try Provenzano from Sandhill preservation center but they have been unavailable the last couple yrs, supposed to get 1-1.5 pounds.

 

[sourland]

So interesting that tomatoes can be so different in different regions. My neighbor down the valley from me grew Mortgage Lifter a few years ago and found it disappointing in flavor. I did not try it, I have to admit, but there must be something in your soil that brings out the best in that tomato.

I think that very likely the difference in flavor may depend upon the source of the plants. I do not save seeds so must buy started plants. Those from last year were not as good as previous years. We'll see what this year brings.

 

[Trish1974]

@oregonkat How do you hybridize two different varieties?

 

[deepbluesea]

This thread is giving me ideas for next year! I'm growing black krim, lemon boy, Amish paste, atomic grape and a cherry tomato that I grow for a friend from seeds I've been saving for four years now--I named it Lauren's Littles in her honor. I'm interested in Mortgage Lifter and maybe Stupice, hmmmm.

I grow cilantro, but it's more of a late fall/winter/early spring here--mine almost always bolts by April. If I plant often and use it weekly I can sometimes have it in summer. No tomatillos this year, didn't have the garden real estate, but I love tomatillo salsa and enchiladas verdes. Mmmm.

 

[townchicks]

I had a volunteer pop up a few years ago, that I think was a hybrid of early girl and sweet 100 as those were what I had grown the year before. The tomatoes were smaller than the early girls and larger than the sweet 100s, so that was my guess anyway. They were very good and did well in the part sun/part shade spot they came up in. I got volunteers from them the following 2 years. This year, no volunteers, I did try to save some seed, but that didn't go well, because I was very distracted. Going to miss those. This year, all I managed were a couple of early girl plants.

 

[oregonkat]

@oregonkat How do you hybridize two different varieties?

Tomatoes are self fertile, which is why you can grow a single plant and get lots of tomatoes from it. That being said, they are also very willing to receive pollen from other tomatoes via pollinators of any kind. I found the best way to cross two was to choose two open pollinated varieties (heirloom) because they are pure varieties, no crosses involved (F1, F2 etc.) and plant them next to each other or very close without any other varieties within about 50 ft. if you can manage it. I have an enormous (for me) garden so that was not a problem. I choose fruits from the top sections of the plants for seed. The flowers tend to be more exposed and more likely to have received pollen from the neighbor. You can also help the pollination process along by taking a q-tip and swizzling the tip in one flower and then into another. If doing this it is helpful to then take a piece of colored string and mark that fruiting stem so you know which fruits to look for when they ripen for seed.

When you have selected your ripe fruits squeeze the seeds and juice onto paper towels, fold up the paper towels into a smallish square, mark the paper towel with the varieties and place in the fridge. Done, until you want to sow them next year.
I know people like to go through the process of allowing the juices with the seeds to sit and ferment but I have not found this to be necessary. I get very good germination with my method and it is over and done very quickly.

 

[Beer can]

@oregonkat ,
I thought tomatoes were like beans, self pollinating, and pollinate before the flowers open so there is mostly no cross unless sometimes a bee might open them before they self pollinate.??

 

[oregonkat]

@oregonkat ,
I thought tomatoes were like beans, self pollinating, and pollinate before the flowers open so there is mostly no cross unless sometimes a bee might open them before they self pollinate.??

Yup, self pollinating but will accept pollen from a bee or an invasive q-tip . I was watching my bees today with my tomato plants because I am working on another cross that interests me and they really are quite forceful with the flowers. They know the treasure is in there!