Notes on heirloom tomatoes
Jun. 27th, 2010 13:29![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillI'm trying out several new varieties this year, and I've got a great growing season (finally), so I thought I'd make some notes. I know I'll be able to find them later if I put them here, and I kept it unlocked in case anyone out there wants my observations. I'll cut-tag all future posts on the topic.
- Noir de Crimee is, supposedly, similar to its cousin Black Krim. I've grown Black Krim, though, and the plants are rather different. NdC wilts desperately in the heat, I find -- it's 85 degrees in the shade so far today, and I watered just my NdC plants because they looked very drought-stressed. Not the variety for a hot dry summer; go with Black Krim instead, which seems to cope with heat well and keeps setting fruit into the mid-90s.
- Jaune Negib appears to have the "wilty" gene. Not a big problem, it just curls in bright hot sun. I have so few regular-leaf varieties this year I'm not seeing many other rolled leaves, and it stands out.
- Jaune Negib was also the first variety to set, at about 90 days [edit: 45 days post-transplant. Whoa nelly.] Startling. Usually Vorlon beats out the other indeterminates, but JN beat it to the punch by about two weeks.
- Vorlon doesn't usually give me fruits bigger than 4", but one of the first ones out there is at least 6". I guess extra food and water really pay off. It doesn't seem to be blooming in the profusion of earlier years, where it was absolutely covered in flowers by this time of year -- it must be putting more energy into vegetation. I approve. We're getting into mite season, and the more vigorous the plants are, the better.
- Dr. Carolyn cherry has brittle stems, as always. I've snapped several while trying to tie it up. It also has bigger fruit than usual, at least 1" long.
- Dorothy's Green took forever to set fruit. I didn't mark the exact number of days, but it was close to 110 or 115 days, very late. It was the last one to set in my garden by a significant margin.
- The older Yellow Brandywine seems to have a semidwarf habit; it's only half as tall as its seatmate, which I seem to remember is Mortgage Lifter (not a giant itself). It's too early to tell about the younger plant... sometimes individuals end up expressing a dwarfing phenotype without an actual mutation. I'll keep an eye on them.
- The plants that seem to get very tall very fast: Little Lucky, Earl's Faux, Brandywine OTV, and (oddly) Brandywine, Sudduth strain. Sudduth is setting fruit well, so its just vigorous in general this year... I look forward to a bunch of fruit from it.
- My Abraham Lincolns may both be dark horses; one is determinate (so it's not even a cross, it's a seed contamination issue) and one is setting fruit on flat trusses, like a cherry tomato would. We'll see how big the fruit get, and what color they turn, but very few non-cherries have long flat trusses like that. The determinate is loaded with fruit, which will hopefully be decent quality. I should figure out whether I want to start another short-season tomato (Jaune Negib?) to plant in its place when it fizzles out.
- First transplant (of the older plants, three rows worth): March 29. Second transplant, of the next row plus one bed: around April 30. Last transplant, of the remaining two beds: May 16. That should help me calculate DTMs as I start to get ripe fruit. I believe I started seed around Valentine's Day and the end of February this year, so most of these had four to six weeks as seedlings. Dr. C and Stump of the World were the only younger plants put in the first three beds with the older plants.
There's a ton of green fruit out there, with a few turning that odd translucent green that comes before yellow. I'm still hoping to get fruit by July 4, but we'll certainly have it by July 10. Then comes the flood.
- Noir de Crimee is, supposedly, similar to its cousin Black Krim. I've grown Black Krim, though, and the plants are rather different. NdC wilts desperately in the heat, I find -- it's 85 degrees in the shade so far today, and I watered just my NdC plants because they looked very drought-stressed. Not the variety for a hot dry summer; go with Black Krim instead, which seems to cope with heat well and keeps setting fruit into the mid-90s.
- Jaune Negib appears to have the "wilty" gene. Not a big problem, it just curls in bright hot sun. I have so few regular-leaf varieties this year I'm not seeing many other rolled leaves, and it stands out.
- Jaune Negib was also the first variety to set, at about 90 days [edit: 45 days post-transplant. Whoa nelly.] Startling. Usually Vorlon beats out the other indeterminates, but JN beat it to the punch by about two weeks.
- Vorlon doesn't usually give me fruits bigger than 4", but one of the first ones out there is at least 6". I guess extra food and water really pay off. It doesn't seem to be blooming in the profusion of earlier years, where it was absolutely covered in flowers by this time of year -- it must be putting more energy into vegetation. I approve. We're getting into mite season, and the more vigorous the plants are, the better.
- Dr. Carolyn cherry has brittle stems, as always. I've snapped several while trying to tie it up. It also has bigger fruit than usual, at least 1" long.
- Dorothy's Green took forever to set fruit. I didn't mark the exact number of days, but it was close to 110 or 115 days, very late. It was the last one to set in my garden by a significant margin.
- The older Yellow Brandywine seems to have a semidwarf habit; it's only half as tall as its seatmate, which I seem to remember is Mortgage Lifter (not a giant itself). It's too early to tell about the younger plant... sometimes individuals end up expressing a dwarfing phenotype without an actual mutation. I'll keep an eye on them.
- The plants that seem to get very tall very fast: Little Lucky, Earl's Faux, Brandywine OTV, and (oddly) Brandywine, Sudduth strain. Sudduth is setting fruit well, so its just vigorous in general this year... I look forward to a bunch of fruit from it.
- My Abraham Lincolns may both be dark horses; one is determinate (so it's not even a cross, it's a seed contamination issue) and one is setting fruit on flat trusses, like a cherry tomato would. We'll see how big the fruit get, and what color they turn, but very few non-cherries have long flat trusses like that. The determinate is loaded with fruit, which will hopefully be decent quality. I should figure out whether I want to start another short-season tomato (Jaune Negib?) to plant in its place when it fizzles out.
- First transplant (of the older plants, three rows worth): March 29. Second transplant, of the next row plus one bed: around April 30. Last transplant, of the remaining two beds: May 16. That should help me calculate DTMs as I start to get ripe fruit. I believe I started seed around Valentine's Day and the end of February this year, so most of these had four to six weeks as seedlings. Dr. C and Stump of the World were the only younger plants put in the first three beds with the older plants.
There's a ton of green fruit out there, with a few turning that odd translucent green that comes before yellow. I'm still hoping to get fruit by July 4, but we'll certainly have it by July 10. Then comes the flood.
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no subject
Date: 2010-06-28 19:17 (UTC)I had a bunch of heirlooms last year, but they didn't do very well despite how big the plants grew. What *did* do well were the random yellow pear cherries that grew out of nowhere. I suspect the previous tenants had them the year before. Now I can't get rid of them. I probably have a dozen plants growing in various places and they grow like weeds. (and I don't even like tomatoes, but I'm growing romas for canning)
no subject
Date: 2010-06-30 06:13 (UTC)Cherry types are the most bulletproof... I could hand you Doctor Carolyn Cherry, Gardener's Delight, or even a currant tomato, and they'd all go great guns for you. It's the larger varieties that really get finicky.
I think heirlooms are the tomato equivalent of an old Camaro -- you tinker with them and optimize things because you have a taste for something a little beyond the standard. They probably aren't for everyone, unless you have an avid tinkerer who lives just down the street that can tell you exactly what does well in your immediate area.