What tomato varieties are you growing?

[Trish1974]

Has anyone grown Boxcar Willie? I've been wanting to try that one. I believe it's a beefsteak type.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Goliath is wonderful! It makes the kind of killer tomato sandwich my StepDad called a "Run-down-your-arms" sandwich"... because it was so juicy ... and so delicious!

This gives me great hope for those now!
If we like it I will certainly plant more next year.

 

[LittleMissCountry]

Have you ever tried bale planting? I keep strung straw bales around the base of my run all winter as a windblock/insulation. By Spring, they're pretty well broken down, and make really great planters.

You can use new ones, but older ones are better. To plant one, make sure the bale is sitting lengthwise, with the strings running around the outside (like barrel rings.) Figure out the spacing for mature plants. We have big bales, so we can fit three, sometimes four plants across.

Using a hand trowel, open up spaces along the top end, Drop in some good potting soil, just a bit if your bales are well broken down, more if they're new. Put in your plants just as if you were using a flower pot or garden bed. You may have to water them more than you would ground-plants, at least at first, but they should adapt easily.

This works really well for most vegetables and even flowers, although we learned the hard way that the bales aren't stable enough to support really big sunflowers. We didn't even have to stake the tomatoes We just planted one good plant in the middle and let it crawl over the top and cascade over the sides. It was pretty impressive.

At the end of the season, just haul the whole thing to the compost pile and break open the bales ... you'll have green matter, brown matter and "hot" matter all in one fell swoop!

Happy Gardening!

This sounds amazing! I would totally try it, but I don't think our HOA would approve. Grrrr.
Our backyard is viewable from the road. I have all my grow bags on and under the back deck, so no one can see them. We are going to build raised bed garden plots next year.

 

[dunnmom]

San Marzano, Sweetie Cherry, Cherokee Purple, and German Pink.

 

[oregonkat]

My mother in law, who lives in the town over from me, grows Legend and loves it. I grew it up here one year and it was absolutely tasteless. For her, my go-to fave Black Plum, is useless. Go figure. She also grows Medford which is a hybrid grown by University of Oregon especially for this area. It is a good solid slicer with typical tomato taste. OK but not a reason for too much real estate in my garden.
I grew Arkansas Traveller when I lived across the valley from my current house. It was fantastic over there, pink in color, medium to good production and great taste. Here, not so much!
When it really comes down to it, the plants that I grow from my own seed are the best tasting, biggest, most productive plants. Cheaper too!

 

[oregonkat]

Oh, I almost forgot... My favorite tomatoes have no name. Many years ago, they started as a mix of individual grape, slicing and plum tomatoes in my sister's side garden. The veggie garden morphed into a flower garden, but the tomatoes never went away. Tucked in between the Cleome, the Sweet Annie and a hundred other gorgeous flowers are the sweetest, healthiest little hybrid opportunists I've ever eaten. I always "weed" a few out of her flowers every year. They're really versatile. They can, they sauce, they slice and they salad perfectly ... and they taste amazing straight from the warm summer sun!

Your sisters garden must be beautiful. I love the idea of the tomatoes in with the flowers just doing their thing.

 

[MROO]

Your sisters garden must be beautiful. I love the idea of the tomatoes in with the flowers just doing their thing.

It is! She's a dairy farmer and her home is the 150 year old family homestead, so her plantings weave in and out of the efforts of many generations The best part about it is that, aside from her initial mini-layout, it's had very little overall planning into it. It has grown and developed slowly over the last 25 years, mostly based on happy accidents (like tomatoes) from her growing family. One year, the boys dumped their "pumpkin guts" at Halloween - and we all had free pumpkins for two years!

 

[Hamiam]

One of the Russian varieties that I have grown in the past is the Malakhitovaya Shkatulka green tomatoes. (I know, a mouthful right?) I don't grow a lot of greens mainly because I haven't found one that blows my door off flavor wise, but this Russian came pretty close. I may revisit her next year, perhaps with the idea of a cross . I seem to remember that the plants were big and healthy, production medium. Anyone else grown her?

I haven't tried the Russian green tomato. I'm trying a new heirloom named "Green Giant". Hoping to can a lot of green tomato relish.

Here is a unwanted guest to my green tomatoe plants!

 

[oregonkat]

For some reason, I have not had a single tomato caterpillar here. They are incredibly beautiful even though so destructive. Gotta love Mother Nature!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I grow san marzano. They get BER but we treat with calcium foliar feeding and that tends to fix it.
I like the SM because they out-grow everything. Weeds, diseases, munching animals, everything. Plus we don't eat a lot of fresh tomatoes, so canning tomatoes are best for us.