"Lee Hall" wrote in message
om...
Below is my report from 5/14/2003 with the mid-season update
afterward.
----------------------

Okay, folks, while it's too hot to hang out in the garden, let's hear
the lowdown on what is happening in your tomato patch.

Lee Hall
Zone 6B

USDA Zone 8b
NW Florida

Here's my report:

Brandywine: This variety just don't seem to produce well for me, but I know
from last year that its fruits are truly delicious. The local rodents got
the few fruit it made, just as soon as they started to blush. Then the plant
succumbed to some sort of blight and I have removed it.

Brandy Boy: This is new Burpee hybrid that is supposed to taste like
Brandywine but be more productive and disease resistant. Well, it did
produce more fruits, but the rodents (and fruitworms) got *all* of these,
too. I swear they know which tomatoes taste best - they always eat my
favorites and leave the others alone! I finally got one small fruit, which I
had to ripen on my counter. I'll try it today or tomorrow. Both of these
plants succumbed to blight and I have removed them.

Empi A hybrid variety I got a couple of years ago as a "bonus" from
Totally Tomatoes. Red, juicy beefsteak tomatoes, very good balanced flavor.
Some green shoulders. Very little cracking. My biggest tomatoes this year.
Plant produced a nice early crop, and produced so many at once in its first
flush that the rodents only got half of them. :-) The next flush contained
fewer and smaller fruit (since the plant was already fighting the blight).
The small fruit were still just as tasty, though. A definite repeat,
although it succumbed to the blight earlier than the other tomatoes.

Rutgers Improved: I give up on this variety. It either doesn't like me or
doesn't like my climate. It starts off promisingly each year, then fails to
yield much fruit. Lots of cracking, and the taste is nothing special either.
I did not particularly mourn it when the blight took it.

Top Sirloin: I got these seeds as a "test product" from a gardening club. A
red beefsteak which produces large fruits. Some cracking, but not much. Some
green shoulders. Excellent flavor - a close second to Brandywine, IMO. This
plant also caught the blight, and I pruned it very hard. I thought it was
going to recover until yesterday - now it appears to have some sort of wilt
or root problem. I'm taking it out today or tomorrow, as soon it has given
its last strength to put a blush on the ten or twelve sizable green tomatoes
left on it. I am very sad to see this one go, and kicking myself for not
starting seeds for a replacement plant in May.

Floramerica: I bought this as a seedling. It's a variety developed by the
University of Florida specifically to grow in hot, humid climates. In my
climate, this is an incredible grower and producer. It is *supposed* to be a
determinate variety, but it had been planted out in late March, producing
ripe fruit since late May, and it was still blooming and setting fruit
heavily in July. It reached over six feet tall, and was incredibly thick and
bushy before the blight got it. Actually, although it *had* blight, blight
didn't actually get it. I killed it. It produced heavily, and the fruit was
tasty, medium sized, and red, but it was the worst cracking variety I have
grown, with green shoulders to boot. I don't think I got a single
unblemished fruit! Given that this has been an extremely wet season, maybe
I'll try it again next year.

Roma: Another variety I give up on. The plant got huge and made lots of
fruit, like the Floramerica. It seemed to be competing with it, in fact, and
also refused to believe that it was a determinate variety. Unfortunately, I
don't like the flavor. Bland. I did not mourn when the blight took it. I'll
find another paste tomato to plant next year.

Floralina: Another University of Florida variety, also determinate. This
plant was direct-seeded in April, in a container. By the time it got to
fruit-setting size, the blight had already started on my other plants, and
soon spread to it. I got no fruit (the rodents got the few small fruit it
made before it expired). I have not given it a fair test, so I'll try it
again next year.

SunSugar: A yellow-orange cherry tomato, very sweet, almost tropical in
flavor: delicious! Both of these plants still live, though they have blight.
So far the new growth is keeping pace with the disease, though I have
denuded the poor plants up to four feet above the ground. I don't have any
replacement seedlings (kicking myself again!), so I am going to try to keep
them alive as long as I can. They have not been very good producers, but
they have cause: several weeks before the blight started, DH was using
Roundup around the garden and a little drifted onto these plants. They
became very ill, but survived. It set them back a great deal, and the blight
started soon after they recovered from the Roundup. So, it's impressive that
they live and produce at all! I think if they'd had a decent start, they'd
be rampant and I'd be drowning in little orange globes. A definite repeat -
but hold the Roundup!

Ruby: A red grape tomato (smaller than catalog described them), excellent
sweet but real tomato flavor, thin skins, I've had maybe 10% of them crack -
not bad for such a wet, wet year. And there are a lot of them! I have two
plants, and I'm giving tomatoes away constantly because I don't know what to
*do* with them all. Rampant is an inadequate description for these plants.
They too have the blight, but are easily outgrowing it. I will definitely
plant these again next year. But only ONE of them!


New Plants: I just bought and planted these as large seedlings within the
last week; with any luck they'll produce by the end of September:

Atkinson: Don't know anything about this variety except that it's supposed
to be good for the South. The tag didn't say, but its habit suggests that
it's an indeterminate variety. Buds forming.

Bush Goliath: My first try with an ISI variety. Very sturdy-looking.
Blooming already.

Patio: A new variety for me as well. Very stocky and dark green. Buds
forming.

I am also giving Mom two new seedlings this week: Sweet Chelsea, a cherry
type, and SunMaster, a slicer developed for hot climates. I have not tried
either of these varieties.