Growing early tomatoes that taste good and productive

[maxjohnson]

Okay I admit the title's description is a dream for any tomato grower.

A normal thing that happen is each new growing season I give away tomato plants to relatives and strangers. These plants tend to be indeterminate, which require lots of space, experience, and resources to grow. I started to realized people I gave the plants to generally don't have as much success as I do for the various reasons above.

I want to dedicate next few years to discover more early variety that are productive and grow well in smaller containers (3-5 gallons). The idea though isn't to specifically grow dwarf plants only, or plants of specific height, but as long as they're relatively early and can be productive in smaller containers. I actually don't spend very much effort trying many new variety each year, as I tend to pick what performed best for me over the years and keep growing them, the goal is to do the same here.

My list for 2024, but I wouldn't mind recommendation for other open pollinated variety:
Clear Pink 58 days
Matina 58 days
Glacier 58 days
Siberian 58 days
Stupice 52 days
Coastal Orange Pride (midseason, but it's my favorite)

Dwarf project tomatoes. I admit didn't grew them much because I didn't have great success with them in the past and I simply liked bigger plants. I admit I need to take it more seriously. Sub-70 days variety that I'm considering (I know this number varies in reality), though there are too many that are 70 days, so please add your recommendation:
Dwarf Arctic Rose 60 days
Dwarf Pink Passion 65 days
Dwarf Saucy Mary 65 days
Dwarf Uluru Ochre 65 days
Dwarf Waratah 70 days

Curtis's Renaissance Farms catalog have a lot to consider as well, but it's too much for me to look through.

The area I will be growing the plants. Cleaned up this messy path behind my raised beds that I left neglected for the past few years, it's enough space for 10 containers. And space for another 10+ on the deck. Not only that, I want to germinate a second batch of tomatoes by mid-July in order to grow them into the fall. So I can fit 20 variety (2 containers each) within a year, although I probably want to stick to around a dozen to have other containers for peppers.

PXL_20230929_210522794.jpg

[Tim DH]

Stupice is a bit of a benchmark for early varieties, but be careful! There seem to be many different cultivars being distributed under that name!! There is quite a lot of discussion about the stupices on that ‘closed to new members’ tomato forum.

The Stupice I’ve grown suffers somewhat from Greenback (AKA Yellow Collar) So I’m trialling Matina next year. Matina is supposed to be a Greenback resistant variety raised from Stupice. (I wonder which Stupice it was raised from!!) To add to the confusion Tamina may or may-not be the same thing as Matina.

Consistently, the earliest tomato in my greenhouse is Latah, very closely followed by Imur Prior Beta. Latah is a straggly bush, its the only bush I grow. I forgive its untidy nature because it is so early AND productive. There is a sister cultivar, Shoshone, which is determinate, but I haven’t tried it.

I would query the ‘days’ rating for Uluru Ochre. It was the second to last tomato for me this year, out of 18 varieties.

[PlainJane]

Maglia Rosa is fairly early for me, and is a reasonable sized plant.
I know some have mentioned lack of flavor but I have found the opposite in my conditions.
Plus it looks cool.

[rossomendblot]

EM Champion is pretty early, very productive and good tasting.

[wodehouse]

I had excellent luck with Kimberley this year, produced two ripe tomatoes at 47 days and continued bearing throughout the season with reasonable health and a very pleasant taste. Made for some excellent salads with early lettuce and arugula! Plant was indeterminate, and managed nicely in a five gallon gro-bag.

[habitat-gardener]

Bush Early Girl is listed at 54-59 days. I grew a couple plants this year (among other nematode-resistant varieties) and it outproduced all of them. It has been consistently productive the whole summer; our heat waves don’t seem to have slowed it down. Taste is ok. Stays compact.

[JosephineRose]

Bush Early Girl is listed at 54-59 days. I grew a couple plants this year (among other nematode-resistant varieties) and it outproduced all of them. It has been consistently productive the whole summer; our heat waves don’t seem to have slowed it down. Taste is ok. Stays compact.

What was your seed source for Bush Early Girl? Mine were amongst the latest of all my plants, stingy, but have had good taste and texture under bizarre weather conditions this year. It has been frustrating, and I'm think I need to try another source before I throw in the towel with this variety.

[AKgardener]

Glad I’m not the only one doing this I’m doing the early to mid season that tolerates our cold snap think will be better planned out thus time

[maxjohnson]

Might as well shill my mostly final grow list for 2024:

Early
Clear Pink
Glacier
Matina
Moskvich
Siberian
Stupice

Dwarf
Arctic Rose
Pink Passion
Roselle Crimson

New
Gigante Farina (2 pounder aim)
Rebel Starfighter Prime
Queen Aliquippa
Spencer

Old
Copper River
Green Giant

Cherries
Ambrosia Orange UBX
Isis Candy
Pink Princess
Unknown prolific grape possibly Juliet
Nectar F1
Sakura F1
Sungold F1

If space allows
Karma Pink
Karma Purple Multiflora
Orange Russian 117
Paul Robeson
Zapotec

[Shule]

@maxjohnson
Cool.

Matina has a big plant.

[Labradors]

Like Plain Jane, I LOVE the taste of Maglia Rosa. In fact, it usually tastes as good or better than the larger tomatoes that I grow.
I start them in mid-Feb and grow them in 3-gallon containers that are easy enough to move inside or out, depending on the weather.

I also really love Taste Patio, another variety from Artisan Seeds. The tomatoes are double the size of M.R. I did the same thing with them this season.

My large early favourite is EM Champion, which does well in a tomato cage. It's determinate, so I plant it in the garden in the middle of a row so that I will have more room when it is done.

That said, I LOVED the taste of Orange Strawberry this year. However, It's on the late side. I wish I could find a variety as tasty, but with an earlier DTM.

Linda

[maxjohnson]

Yes I have grown Maglia Rosa twice last two years, it is very prolific, although I notice the stink bugs love it too. Just want to give it a break as I try to grow my favorite saved seeds once every 5 years or so to update their viability, so I have to cycle through them.

[Moth1992]

I had excellent luck with Kimberley this year, produced two ripe tomatoes at 47 days and continued bearing throughout the season with reasonable health and a very pleasant taste. Made for some excellent salads with early lettuce and arugula! Plant was indeterminate, and managed nicely in a five gallon gro-bag.

Same for me. I had one in the dirt in a more sunny garden and one in a 4gallon grow bag in colder and less sunny balcony and both did great. The tomatoes are a bit bigger than cherry size and they have a lovely traditional red tomato flavour.

[AKgardener]

I’m still working on my list for next year I thought I had it down but it’s finding the balance of fun and also having some sort of production and the same time trying something new but also what works best for your area still figuring it out but I got it narrowed down

[Gthegardener]

I also love maglia rosa as a semi-determinate, productive, early, and very tasty tomato! I've had really good luck with lucky tiger as a very productive, extremely tasty tomato that seems to be my first to ripen every year that I grow it. I grew Limmony in 2021 and it was insanely productive with great flavor for a yellow beefsteak and was very early on a semi-determinate plant. Biskaya rosa and rebel yell are also up there in early and good producers with outstanding flavor - they were also shorter plants for me! For dwarfs, I grew rebel starfighter dipper's delight which I liked for production/flavor/relatively early tomato production and I had great success with Grinch Cherry Dwarf which was by far my most productive GWR tomato ever grown.