On Sep 29, 10:04 pm, Billy wrote:
In article , EV
wrote:



I ended up with 2 dozen tomato plants by happenstance. I normally have
half as many or less. Too many tomatoes, but more varieties than usual.
We had a very hot, very dry season in southern Ontario, Zone 6. I had to
water a lot.

The Brandywines did well and produced a good crop, maybe about ten on
each of the 3 in the tomato bed, mostly in August. Last year and the
year before they each produced about 30 in all. So their numbers are
down, but the fruit is bigger this year. They're working on ripenening
their last half dozen big green tomatoes now, if the squirrels don't get
them. The tomatoes are sweet, juicy, and tasty and make fantastic tomato
potage, a recipe I found in this group years ago. Very easy, very tasty,
freezes really well in individual portions. It's like defrosting
sunshine in the winter months, or even on chilly fall nights.

Got one of Stokes' Health Kick tomatoes. Supposed to have extra
lycopene. Looks a lot like a Roma, but much more firm. Is good in soup,
but not all that tasty fresh. It's a short bushy plant that would do
well in a container. I won't plant this next year.

Tried Stokes' Ultrasweet. Terrible tomato. I've never seen tomatoes
crack that badly. They were rotten before they were ripe. OK flavour,
but not the best. I will not plant this next year.

Before I knew that I'd have a handful of cherry tomato volunteers in the
compost, I bought a Stokes Sweet Million. Interestingly, the seeds that
the cherries in the compost grew from were Stokes Sweet Million seeds
I'd started myself last year. But the tomatoes from the Stokes plant I
bought and the ones in the compost are completely different. The ones
from the storebought plant suck. They're smaller, less sweet, and, like
the Ultrasweet, really prone to cracking. I will start these from seed.

I have two kinds of San Marzanos, and both are solid, sweet and tasty. I
wash them and pack them into ziploc bags, and pop them in the freezer.
You can run the frozen tomato under hot water, or dip it in hot water,
and the whole skin slips off intact. Great for winter sauces, stews,
roasts, and pan fries with meat. A bit bulky to store in the freezer, so
when we have time, we cook them down 4 bags at time (about 120 tomatoes)
during fall and winter, into less bulky tomato sauce and chili and the
like and freeze it again in individual size portions. Very convenient
when work runs late and you come home starving.

How did your tomatoes do? Were there varieties that you really liked?
Any other amazing heirlooms out there that you can recommend?

Happy harvest, fellow food gardeners!

EV

Tomatoes just north of San Francisco, had a very bad year. Cool temps
during the summer. They and the cucumbers are just starting to produce.
I've seen nothing of the early ripener "Jaune de Pech", the "green
Zebra" has produced a few tomates. The "Stupice" was the first to ripen.
Then came the "Striped German" and a couple from the "Mortgage Lifter".
Zip from the Brandywine and the Rose. It has been an odd year north of
San Francisco.
--
FB - FFF

Billy

Get up, stand up, stand up for yor rights.
Get up, stand up, Don't give up the fight.
- Bob Marley

Tomato problem:

I'm entirely new to gardening, and am doing it indoors under
fluorescents beside a North-facing window - the only direction
available to me.

Two store-bought tomato plants, Better Boy, Window-Box-Roma,
produced 1 and 3 small fruits respectively, when they were only
about 12 inches high. Better-Boy even produced with a bent/broken
main stem, and it's tomatoes tasted absolutely super!

Since then, no flowers or fruit despite all kinds of fertilizer,
misting, flooding, withholding water. (They did go nuts after I
added Miracle Gro, and moreso with Fish fertilizer, but no
flowers; They began growing (3+ feet) right into the fluorescents,
But no flowers.

Peppers (California Wonder) treated identically, having
produced nothing previously, now have dozens of new buds
and flowers each.

Should I just chop/toss the tomato plants? They (and
the peppers) are blocking-out a LOT of light to my herbs.

Please advise

Don H.