On Mon, 07 Mar 2011 10:56:52 -0500, Ohioguy wrote:

I've decided to use the south facing side of the house to grow tomatoes
this year. There are no trees giving shade, so it gets full sunlight
all day long. In the spring and fall there is a small amount of "heat
island" effect due to the angle of the sun. There are also two
downspouts, and I'm sure I can figure out a way to capture water from
those in some manner, so that I can water them without having to use
tapwater.

The area is roughly 25 feet long, and I can install a lattice or
fence of some kind to support climbing plants.

My main focus is something prolific, with a second desire for disease
resistance.

I would also like to have some low acid plants, some large
sandwich/beefsteak types, and then something smaller for the kids to
snack on. (like the moby grape my sister grew last year) I might also
be up for a plant or two that is an unusual color or heirloom variety.

I bought loads of "tomato soil" on closeout last fall at Lowe's, and
I'm ready to start working up the soil. I just need to make up my mind
on varieties, order them, and then get the plants started on a
windowsill so that I can get them planted in a couple of months.

One question that I have is this: how close to the foundation/wall
should I place the tomato plants? If I place it within 2' of the wall,
I could potentially plant another entire row of lower growing plants
over by the property line. However, I'm not sure if this would be too
close.

Anyway, I'm open to suggestions on varieties this year. I should
probably order within the next 5 days or so.

I posted this list last fall, here it is again

1) Sun Gold Cherry
Hands down the best tomato I've ever tasted, it's practically candy. I
took a selection of my small tomatoes to a BBQ today, this was everyone's
favorite. Each plant is producing hundreds of tomatoes. The
Sun Golds are orange in color. I'll definitely plant these again.

2) Sugar Snack Cherry
A very tasty tomato but not as good as the Sun Golds. These are even
earlier, started producing at the end of July, and the volume of tomatoes
is even greater than the Sun Golds. The sugar snacks are red, slightly
bigger than the Sun Golds. I will plant them again.

3) Yellow Pear
These look much better than they taste. These really look like very small
bright yellow pears. The taste is bland, and the production is much less
than the Sun Golds or Sugar Snacks, however they are in a different
location so it might just be that they are getting less light. I'm
undecided about doing these again.

4) Cherokee Purples
A large tomato. They are just starting to ripen now so it's a race with
the weather. If we have a couple more weeks before it gets to cold I
should have a lot of them. The plants are heavy with tomatoes but they
are mostly still green. The taste is decent, not exceptional.

5) Cosmonaut Volkovs
I grew these from seeds. It's the same story as the Cherokee Purples, the
plants are loaded with green tomatoes. It's a very pretty looking tomato,
medium sized an more pink then red. The taste is decent, I think they
will make excellent sauce. I'll probably do these again.

6) Black Prince
Also grown from seed. These really are red and black which is a little
disturbing because the blackish parts look like they are rotten, but it's
just the way the tomato is. Mostly still green like my other large
tomatoes. I don't think I'll do these next year.