Heirloom tomatoes vs. other varieties

I usually have heirlooms going with a hybrid backup.

This year I have my Rutgers that I always plant.

I am trying marglobe, which is a heirloom determinate, for canning.

I planted Burpee's supersteak for backup and earlier tomatoes.

For my cherry tomato this year I planted Husky Red Cherry. It is supposed to be a smaller indeterminate. We will see how that goes in MM. I am betting it grows as big as the others

We all love eating them right off the vine and the kids would miss it.

I guess I prefer the heirlooms but also the open-pollinated varieties because I love saving seeds. I've got quite a list growing again this year so I can save more. They include:

Black Plum, Pasquebot Roma, Roma VFN, Red Zebra, Green Zebra, Mexico Midget, Great White, Super Marmande, Nyagous, Velvet Red, Romeo Roma, Gilbertie (children of seed from campr last year), Sausage, Early Cherry, Black Cherry, Beaverlodge Slicer, Red Robin, Taxi, and Chico III along with Goldie, a Husk Cherry tomato. Most are new to me but Black Cherry and Early Cherry I know to be delicious and productive in my zone 5a. I've already bagged a Super Marmande, Green Zebra and Pasquebot Roma to save seeds with more bags ready to isolate new blossoms on the other varieties.

If you have too many tomatoes, remember you can roast them and freeze them to use later in sauces, chili, and soups. They have a terrific flavor when roasted in the oven for 2 hours.

At what temperature are you roasting tomatoes for 2hours?

Roasted Tomatoes by Melissa d'Arabian on Food Network

Slice any whole tomatoes in half, place in large bowl, add olive oil, salt, pepper, crushed garlic and thyme. Toss gently to coat.

Place on baking sheet cut-side up in 275*F oven for one hour. Turn them all over so cut-side is now down. Roast another hour.

You can use these immediately for a side dish or cool and put in freezer bags to freeze. To use in soups and sauces, just toss them into a sauce or soup frozen and they will thaw while cooking. I make them all the time and the family loves them.

Note: If you'd rather the skins be removed in making a dish, thaw out the toms and just lift the skins off. The come off easily.

Thank You so much! Printed and saved to my cookbook.

camprn wrote: At the end of the season we can trade some seed, eh?

I would like that. I hope to get some interesting varieties out of the heirlooms for trade and for next year.

Squat_Johnson wrote:@Nonna.PapaVino - You sent me 4 Indigo Rose seeds, and they all are doing nicely. This is the first tomato I have seen that is dark purple when "green". I also have a couple Federle.

From Pattipan, I have WV '63 - I think there are 4- looking good

Dixie sent me Dixie's Sweet have several of those.

Also in the mix:
Brandywine,
Black Krim,
Cherokee Purple,
Husky Cherry,
Red Grapes,
Hillbilly,
Jet Star

What ever happened to Pattipan? I got my WV 63 seeds from her last year and they all germinated and have 8 planted in my SFG, also

Grape..from Johnny's

Brandywine

Mr. Stripey

But I am hearing a lot about the black crim so should try them next year

I have 'Better Boy', 'Lemon Boy', 'Yellow Plum', and 'Husky Red Cherry' tomatoes. I have to admit to not being a huge raw tomato fan which is part of the reason two of mine are cherry types. I love those for salads.

Brandywine, Black Krim, Green Zebra, and non heirloom Yellow Pear (which seems to be the most lively so far)

herblover wrote:I have 'Better Boy', 'Lemon Boy', 'Yellow Plum', and 'Husky Red Cherry' tomatoes. I have to admit to not being a huge raw tomato fan which is part of the reason two of mine are cherry types. I love those for salads.

Lemon Boy has always been a great producer for me. Love the color it makes for sauce or paste!

GG

Goosegirl wrote:

herblover wrote:I have 'Better Boy', 'Lemon Boy', 'Yellow Plum', and 'Husky Red Cherry' tomatoes. I have to admit to not being a huge raw tomato fan which is part of the reason two of mine are cherry types. I love those for salads.

Lemon Boy has always been a great producer for me. Love the color it makes for sauce or paste!

GG

Glad to hear it! This is the first time I have grown it. I do have flowers on all my toms.

I'm growing Brandywine and my all time fave, Sweet 100's. But I just saw a YouTube vid where the guy mentioned Sweet Millions...said they were bred to not crack, as sweet 100's can do with too much water. I've never seen them. He got his at Ace Hardware.

Has anyone tried Sweet Millions yet?

CC

I grow a mixture of hybrids and OPs (heirloom or not) but nothing like the variety some people do. I am still getting used to the idea of being able to grow anything but extra early hardy determinates.

SO far my favorite tomato is Big Beef, a hybrid indeterminate, mid season. It has wonderful flavor, produces well for me and what is not eaten fresh is sliced and baked and then frozen. TomatoFest has an OP of this and I want to try that next to the hybrid and see if they are the same.

I am searching for an heirloom OP that I like as well.

The cherry tomato Gardeners delight is a delight, so was Matt's Wild though it tryed to take over. This year I could not find the former and so am growing Sweet Million, a hybrid, that I had good luck with in the past.

I found Paul Robeson, a heirloom, mealy and not very tasty, but that was a cold summer. Suddoths Brandywine, a heirloom, was tasty but not as good as the Big Beef growing next to it. Silver Fir, a heirloom, is pretty but lacks flavor.

Juan Flamme is a heirloom, grows well and makes lots of golf ball size tasty fruits. It did not freeze well, was really sour when put into soups later. I wonder if that was my fault, late fruit is not as sweet and I did not bake these first. I plan to grow these again some day.

Peach tomatos are OP, were only useful for stretching tomatillos in making salsa verde. they are productive, just bland tasting.

Burpees Beefsteak, hybrid, poor yield and taste.

Early Girl, hybrid, good yield and poor taste.

Red Pear, heirloom, wonderful flavor and early and the excess baked and froze up a treat.

This year I am growing Big Beef, Cherokee Purple (heirloom, one caged and one trellised), Sweet Million, Super SanMarzano (it was a hybrid but they have stabalized it), Roma which i think technically is a heirloom determinate.

Amazing how important tomatoes are to us all.

herblover wrote:

Goosegirl wrote:

herblover wrote:I have 'Better Boy', 'Lemon Boy', 'Yellow Plum', and 'Husky Red Cherry' tomatoes. I have to admit to not being a huge raw tomato fan which is part of the reason two of mine are cherry types. I love those for salads.

Lemon Boy has always been a great producer for me. Love the color it makes for sauce or paste!

GG

Glad to hear it! This is the first time I have grown it. I do have flowers on all my toms.

Even tho' my original Lemon Boy was a hybrid, the volunteers I had from it the next year were the same size, color, and I could not detect any flavor change. I am sure that they cross-pollinated with something else, as that volunteer did before giving me the next season's volunteers, but they just keep on giving! It is so hard for me to justify killing a healthy-looking tomato plant that I grow some of my volunteers every year as extras. I love (good) garden surprises!

GG

I don't really care if it's heirloom or hybrid, I also don't save seeds. I just like to try new things. I love yellow tomatoes and am growing lemon boy, golden gem, Ildi (like yellow pear), and jubilee. I am also growing sweet 100, red delicious, tiny tim, better boy, and some container tomatoes.

Any tomato that comes out of your garden is going to be way better than one from the store!

I'm so impressed how you all follow your tomatoes - like wine tasters! Me, I usually forget my variety (even though I write it down); I just want lots of big red tomatoes or lots small red tomatoes. Cavewoman style of growing tomatoes...

this year we are trying heirlooms for the first time........

we have about 20 plants all in pots so far....all started by seeds

heirlooms by burpee

Brandywine

super italian paste....the smallest plants but first to have fruit

rainbow

marglobe

yellow pear

jubilee.... the only one we are having a hard time with....we have a couple of them

hybrid

sweetie....from ed humes

bradley....from ferry morse

from a volunteer from last years saved seeds

cherry type orange/yellow



we are trying differnt types to see how they taste, how well they produce in our PNW and try and save seeds

hugs

rose

squaredeal wrote: Cavewoman style of growing tomatoes...

Nothin' wrong with that! Since I am not a raw tomato eater, I don't go in for the taste/texture thing much, I just want prolific producers that make a tasty, not too acidy sauce. Also, if they have few seeds it is a plus for sauce-making! Colors make for a cool looking sauce or salsa as well. I love using purple, yellow, orange, and red tomatoes all in one salsa. So cool looking!

GG

If you want something meaty, few seeds, try:



Sausage is 3" or more meaty paste-type tomato.

These are so different, I thought I would show a picture. This is a new variety, "Indigo Rose". It was developed at Oregon State University. Looks like they are going to be the first to ripen.

Squat_Johnson wrote:These are so different, I thought I would show a picture. This is a new variety, "Indigo Rose". It was developed at Oregon State University. Looks like they are going to be the first to ripen.

Wow. that looks like those edible nightshades! I wonder how sweet they will be. interesting indeed!

Turan wrote:

Squat_Johnson wrote:These are so different, I thought I would show a picture. This is a new variety, "Indigo Rose". It was developed at Oregon State University. Looks like they are going to be the first to ripen.

Wow. that looks like those edible nightshades! I wonder how sweet they will be. interesting indeed!

Well, tomatoes ARE an edible nightshade crop, so it stands to reason they would look similar! Love the dark color - May just need to try some of these just to have black sauce (other than when I burn it )

GG

Squat_Johnson wrote:These are so different, I thought I would show a picture. This is a new variety, "Indigo Rose". It was developed at Oregon State University. Looks like they are going to be the first to ripen.

wowzers!!!.....those are so cool looking!!....keep us posted on how they taste.....so very neat.....would love to grow those next year!!

hugs

rose

I wonder what color the insides will be????

Squat_Johnson wrote:These are so different, I thought I would show a picture. This is a new variety, "Indigo Rose". It was developed at Oregon State University. Looks like they are going to be the first to ripen.

OOOOOOOooo-la-la, Are they OP? wanna trade some seeds>