Earliest tomatoes to set fruit this year are ...

[KathyDC]

The first to set fruit for me was an unstable cross, but the first one other than that was Grosse Cotelee, which I"m growing for the Carolyn tribute. The plant is very vigorous, among the most vigorous in my garden.

[root_grow]

[mention]Bower[/mention] where did you come across Oaxacan Jewel PL? I've read so many of your raves about it that I was so excited to try Oaxacan Jewel this year, but of course mine is RL and not showing any signs of earliness! We just moved closer to the coast and the clouds never seem to part here, so earliness is suddenly even more attractive than before.

[bower]

[mention]root_grow[/mention] I got it from a seed seller in Quebec, whose name escapes me, it was a long time ago. I've never seen it anywhere else. Would be happy to share fresh seeds in the fall if it's okay to with the new rules about tomato seeds into US? But if that's a problem, Tormato may have some seeds - I know he grew it as he mentioned how early they budded up.
The other thing I love about this plant, it is really healthy - disease resistant I would say. So I think you'd do well with it in another rainy climate.

[EdieJ]

Not counting Red Robin or Patio Yellow, my first slicer coming on, which I just discovered this morning, is Pink Ponderosa.

[root_grow]

Thanks [mention]Bower[/mention] ! I'll keep that in mind when it's time to gather seeds for next season. It really sounds like such a perfect plant for this climate, and such beautiful fruit too!

[bower]

[mention]root_grow[/mention] I found it difficult to find a bicolor that was early enough for our short season, so many of the best known ones are late. We have also grown Northern Lights here and they were very good and, for us, end of season fruit in the greenhouse (about the same as Indian Stripe or other "midseason" varieties). OJPL is quite a bit earlier, and so reliable... I'm stuck on it.
One thing I would love is to try KarenO's new bi and tricolor hearts too. Midnight Sun and True Colors look sensational and are reported to be relatively early as well as super tasty.
I'm also very curious about Joseph's Big Hill bicolor line, which is a determinate. His area is short season but dry climate, cold nights but sunny days. I think you and I are more similar in being cloudy, damp and cooler. But you never know until you try, whether a plant will quickly adapt or not.
So there are a few good possibilities to try.

[mikestuff49]

My first was a Big Beef. Delicious. I suffer from early blight without the ability to rotate plants. While my other varieties suffered in varying degrees, the Big Beef has a ton of green tomatoes with little blight. Why do I ever plant anything else?

[Paulf]

Zeke Dishman a large red beefsteak when it was grown a couple of years ago, set a fruit June 12. I have only glanced at it a few times lately, so when I noticed this thread I went out to take a photo. Looks like what I have is a non-Zeke. He is beginning to ripen at the salad sized stage. Now at least ten other varieties are setting on and catching up in size. Oh well, my wife wanted a salad sized this year anyway.

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[Labradors]

Interesting about Oaxacan Jewel, Bower. Tania says it's late, but it doesn't look as if she grew it herself. How big does it get for you?

Linda

[Shule]

[mention]Bower[/mention]
Speaking of bicolors that aren't super late, have you tried Isis Candy? It's 75 days. It set fruit in good time for me, this year. I wouldn't be surprised if it were much earlier.

Supposedly, it's a cherry (and extremely sweet), but the description I read for it says 1 to 2 oz, which is bordering on a small size. The plant handles cool weather well. I'm not sure how much it produces, yet. I haven't checked up on it in a while, either.

[Sue_CT]

Plants under stress will start to ripen early and stop trying the increase fruit size. I have found many times that late in the season when I have a lot of disease that they start to ripen before reaching full size. That might be part of what you experiencing also.

[bower]

[mention]Shule[/mention] I have grown Isis Candy, once. It didn't like the greenhouse environment and didn't set well at all, until I got fed up and stuck it outdoors. It did endure the outdoor weather pretty well Very tasty cherry, and pretty. They were small cherry sized for me, and they weren't early to flower compared with others that year, so would have been late for a cherry even if they did set at the first opportunity.

[bower]

Interesting about Oaxacan Jewel, Bower. Tania says it's late, but it doesn't look as if she grew it herself. How big does it get for you?

Linda

I think the RL is late, Oaxaca Jewel PL is something else. IDK if it crossed with something at the place it was grown, or if it was a PL sport, but it is certainly early. Size of fruit is variable. Sometimes there are large clusters with fruit all different sizes. Smaller clusters produce bigger fruit. If it's horribly hot, they sometimes produce seedless fruit, and those tend to be small, so there may be a few of those in a big cluster. Since I don't care for huge tomatoes I'm happy to take the variety of sizes instead of pruning. At their largest they were the same size as Northern Lights, Indian Stripe and other such beefs.

Now I remember it was Solana Seeds I got it from. Described as having leaf variation some RL some PL.
https://www.solanacom.com/TomatoesM-R.html

[Shule]

[mention]Bower[/mention]
You inspired me to check on my Isis Candy plant to see its progress. Fortunately, it's doing very well! It has set at least 36 fruit, and there's at least one that's well over an inch in diameter. A friend gave me the seeds. I'm not sure where she got them, but TomatoFest is a possibility.

I think I did give it some potassium sulfate earlier in the season. So, that could be why the fruit are getting a good size. It didn't get any wood ash, however.

[root_grow]

I've been paying close attention to KarenO's tomatoes since she is in the region and her tomatoes are just stunning from pictures and reviews! I'm so happy to have Midnight Sun and Tundra in the garden this year, along with 3 of the KARMAs, thanks to Marsha. The first flower on Midnight Sun was enormous. All of them are so vigorous they're quickly catching up to the plants started almost 2 months before them. Actually I'm most looking forward to Tundra this year, of all the 70-some varieties out there

Northern Lights just got added to the list to consider for next year, thanks! Maybe it'll depend on how Oaxacan Jewel RL does.

The Big Hill tomatoes look interesting too. Large tomato on a small vine has its own appeal. I'm trying his landrace butternuts this year - maybe they can tell me something about how well short season plants adjust from sunny daytime heat to no heat and no sun.

[Gardadore]

Update: most plants are now setting tomatoes. Third after Rosella Cherry and Esterina was Esmeralda Golosina followed by Blush. First regular sized was Green Gables, then Heart of Ashgabat, my yellow Russian heart from Tatarstan, Russia and Orange Minsk. These 4 have the largest tomatoes so far. Amazing how they grow overnight. The Karmas are now setting nicely. Most prolific in terms of flowers is Girl Girl’s Weird Thing with a couple of nice tomatoes starting- will be quite a bounty if all flowers set tomatoes. Only one not settling well is Big Cheef which is unusual. Now see some buds starting but plant was smaller than rest so may be putting energy into growing first. Very curious to see which regular ones ripen first after the small ones!

[Toomanymatoes]

My first to set fruit were Glacier and Frau Hager Klein. The rest followed soon after. My Azoychka was much later than the rest and just set it's first fruit yesterday.

I am sure you are all well aware, but just in case, this is a great resource for those looking for seed sellers for specific varieties in Canada:
https://seeds.ca/sw8/web/diversity/seed ... ex?psp=317

This Quebec company also sells the Oaxaca Jewel PL
https://www.lasocietedesplantes.com/pro ... u-doaxaca/

[ddsack]

Just ate my first ripe tomato in my lunch salad. It was called Cherry Linda (red, there is also a Cherry Linda pink.) It's not what I consider a true cherry, the plant stays dwarf short and has saladette to cherry sized tomatoes. Kind of a cheater, because it was seeded March 13th, and grown in pots in the greenhouse. Taste was good for a greenhouse tomato, but I'm still waiting for my in-ground tomatoes to size up and start ripening.