So Texans, Where do you Stand on Tomatoes?

[karstopography]

Missouri Pink Love Apple: 05/04 first pick. Not what I expected, but that’s not a bad thing because I really like this tomato. Second most productive plant to date at about 4.5 kilograms. Average size is about 6.5 ounces. The fruit tend to be somewhat triangular in a few cases, smooth, crack free, blemish free, pretty, flattened. These aren’t globes or have globe type internal structure. Sort of odd, mini-beefsteak types. I’ve come to realize that sometimes a delicious six ounce fruit serves better than a fourteen ounce one. We’ve gotten 25 fruit inside already. There’s plenty more on the vine even after it too got blown over in our recent storm. I noticed the plant was struggling yesterday in the sun. I’ll see if it can hang in there to produce more, but that storm might have dealt a mortal blow. Certain return in 2025.

[karstopography]

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Screen shot of my 2025 likely grow outs. Varieties highlighted in color are the front runners/most likely.
15 plants, +/- seems to be a happy number to check the most amount of boxes. Much over 15 plants and the work load to care for the plants becomes overwhelming and the plants ultimately suffer. 8 plants would likely be enough to supply our needs for fresh fruit plus the extended family, but it’s nice to have a good surplus for give aways and some additional variety.

About half from the list will be returning types and half new to me which is typical of my recent efforts.

Piennolo vesuvio giallo Should be highlighted in yellow.

[PlainJane]

@karstopography if you can make room for either Cowboy or Vorlon I don’t think you’ll regret it.

[karstopography]

@karstopography if you can make room for either Cowboy or Vorlon I don’t think you’ll regret it.

I could see switching Cowboy for Abraham Brown and Vorlon for Gary ‘O Sena. I read about each of those. Vorlon has Cherokee Purple and Pruden’s Purple for parents and Gary ‘O Sena Cherokee Purple and Brandywine as parents. Cowboy looks great. I might already have Vorlon seeds, but I don’t think I have Cowboy. Still, plenty of time to find some.

I’ll put them on my list. Both my darks, Black from Tula and Black Krim, sputtered this year with various issues. I need to add at least one more dark tomato in 2025 just to ensure I have at least dark tomato available at any time during the season. Cowboy looks like a hard to categorize tomato, not exactly red or a dark. Flavorwise, where would you put Cowboy @PlainJane ?

Black Krim is so good I’ll grow it again in 2025 in spite of the issues this year. If it bombs next year, then maybe not, but one bad year isn’t a deal killer.

[PlainJane]

@karstopography Cowboy ‘tastes’ more dark than red to me. It’s very rich. I’ve been letting them get to a burnt orange/brown hue before cutting. For such a hefty tomato it’s stayed healthy and no ber or cracking.
Vorlon has also held up well against cracking or splitting. A touch smokier taste than Cowboy.

[TomatoNut95]

I'm about ready to give up gardening. After these next round of storms my garden will probably be underwater. Actually, my whole house might be flattened after tonight.

[karstopography]

I'm about ready to give up gardening. After these next round of storms my garden will probably be underwater. Actually, my whole house might be flattened after tonight.

I truly feel for you. Totally unfair what your part of Texas has experienced recently. I’ve only gotten a tiny taste of it and the storms have been awful.

[TomatoNut95]

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Saved seed from my runt German Queen today.

[TomatoNut95]

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After the crummy storm went over I went out and whacked tomato plants. How my 7 grandkids (yes, there's a story behind that) didn't wash away, I don't know. Above are their photos. Buttercup is the tiniest. ❤ Picked a lopsided German Queen to enter in the Ugly Contest.

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[Wildcat82]

I'm about ready to give up gardening. After these next round of storms my garden will probably be underwater. Actually, my whole house might be flattened after tonight.

I Know the pain. I got hailed out 2 years in a row a few years ago. After that I promised myself to always make sure I grew a few plants in containers so I could move them under the porch if need be.

If you get some clones you can try for a fall harvest. My Fall harvest has actually done better for me than my spring harvest in 3 of the last 4 years so there is still hope for this year.

[karstopography]

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Went out to survey the storm battered tomatoes. Red barn lost a main stem, but many of the remaining tomatoes appear to be on the surviving stem.

MPLA has all kinds of broken branches, but has turned a corner and looks like it will make it to ripening the remaining fruit.

Cowlick’s got more fruit and no sign of BER.

The rest of the lot have various amounts of fruit. Now the challenge is caterpillars and leaf footed bugs. As soon as the threat of rain subsides, spinosad will handle the caterpillars. I’m personally crunching every leaf footed bug I see.

[TomatoNut95]

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My potential for the contest. . Westerlund I-26

[karstopography]

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Playing around with my 2025 grow out list. Dropped Rebel Yell in favor of Aunt Ginny’s Purple.
Dropped Abraham Brown and Black Krim and added Vorlon. Added Pink Berkeley Tie Die and Pork Chop and dropped Creamsicle Grape.

15 total plants on both lists. One less small fruited and one less dark with new revision. Added two multi colors.

I doubt this is the last revision.

[PlainJane]

It’s looking good @karstopography.

[GVGardens]

Your list looks good! Jealous because most of those would die of disease here. We survived the wind, rain, and hail but not the fusarium. Top performers this year were:

Alice’s Dream (still very healthy)
Bloody Butcher (ok flavor, 47 days to maturity, good harvest before killed by fusarium)
Cherokee Purple (decent harvest before dying of fusarium)
Dwarf Saucy Mary (Died of fusarium but good harvest before that)
Mountain Magic F1 (good flavor for a hybrid! still alive!)
Punta Banda (Prolific. Re-trying as fall tomatoes. Think flavor will be better with less rain/water)
Queen of the Night (lots of tomatoes before disease)
Sarah Black (still very healthy)
Valentine F1 (no fusarium resistance listed but still mostly healthy, tastes like a grocery store tomato unless you let it get super dark red and then it’s very sweet)
Wherokowhai Dwarf (good harvest before disease set in, good flavor, harvested at 70 days and not the listed 90)

Anyone planting fall tomatoes? So far....
HYBRIDS
Cherry Bmb, Estiva, Galahad, Jolene, Mountain Merit, Sunrise Sauce
OP
Ciudad Victoria, Louisiana Dixie, Punta Banda, Texas Wild Cherry, Wickenburg-Prescott Heirloom

[karstopography]

Your list looks good! Jealous because most of those would die of disease here. We survived the wind, rain, and hail but not the fusarium. Top performers this year were:

Alice’s Dream (still very healthy)
Bloody Butcher (ok flavor, 47 days to maturity, good harvest before killed by fusarium)
Cherokee Purple (decent harvest before dying of fusarium)
Dwarf Saucy Mary (Died of fusarium but good harvest before that)
Mountain Magic F1 (good flavor for a hybrid! still alive!)
Punta Banda (Prolific. Re-trying as fall tomatoes. Think flavor will be better with less rain/water)
Queen of the Night (lots of tomatoes before disease)
Sarah Black (still very healthy)
Valentine F1 (no fusarium resistance listed but still mostly healthy, tastes like a grocery store tomato unless you let it get super dark red and then it’s very sweet)
Wherokowhai Dwarf (good harvest before disease set in, good flavor, harvested at 70 days and not the listed 90)

Anyone planting fall tomatoes? So far....
HYBRIDS
Cherry Bmb, Estiva, Galahad, Jolene, Mountain Merit, Sunrise Sauce
OP
Ciudad Victoria, Louisiana Dixie, Punta Banda, Texas Wild Cherry, Wickenburg-Prescott Heirloom

Alice’s Dream, is it very tasty?

[TomatoNut95]

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Today I picked the Nicky Crain twins! I was very disappointed that the bigger of the two didn't reach a pound but very good variety that's good for keeping!
I feel like I wont even make it to a pound this year.

[GVGardens]

@karstopography Yes! Good flavor. I think it would be even better in a drier year. The citrus notes that the listings talk about weren’t very pronounced. But most of my tomatoes with complex flavor seemed muted this year.

[karstopography]

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Saved seed for 2024, so far. I saved plenty of Hoy and Sart Roloise. I would like to save some more of the other three. We’ll see.

[Wildcat82]

Your list looks good! Jealous because most of those would die of disease here. We survived the wind, rain, and hail but not the fusarium. Top performers this year were:

Alice’s Dream (still very healthy)
Bloody Butcher (ok flavor, 47 days to maturity, good harvest before killed by fusarium)
Cherokee Purple (decent harvest before dying of fusarium)
Dwarf Saucy Mary (Died of fusarium but good harvest before that)
Mountain Magic F1 (good flavor for a hybrid! still alive!)
Punta Banda (Prolific. Re-trying as fall tomatoes. Think flavor will be better with less rain/water)
Queen of the Night (lots of tomatoes before disease)
Sarah Black (still very healthy)
Valentine F1 (no fusarium resistance listed but still mostly healthy, tastes like a grocery store tomato unless you let it get super dark red and then it’s very sweet)
Wherokowhai Dwarf (good harvest before disease set in, good flavor, harvested at 70 days and not the listed 90)

Anyone planting fall tomatoes? So far....
HYBRIDS
Cherry Bmb, Estiva, Galahad, Jolene, Mountain Merit, Sunrise Sauce
OP
Ciudad Victoria, Louisiana Dixie, Punta Banda, Texas Wild Cherry, Wickenburg-Prescott Heirloom

Nice tomato list. Curious how Ciudad Victoria will do for you.

For the Fall garden I'll probably clone Prescott, Miel de Mexique, Juliet, and Sun Gold.