Tomato Update Time

[GoDawgs]

It's tomato update time. It's been a long summer for them and they're winding down fast. These are what the garden tomatoes looked like mid June:



They got twice as tall as that. But after fighting the funk with Serenade and Daconil and having infected foliage cut off piece by piece, this is what they look like now. Just about nekkid! Three have been cut down completely. The one full plant in the middle is Bella Rosa and she looks pretty resistant! Beautiful tomatoes too. She'll be back next year. Next to her with all the tomatoes but little foliage is German Johnson, thanks to seed from Farmer Shawn. The old German fought the funk valiantly until just recently so he'll be back too.



The plants up at the house aren't much better. This is one half of the row. L to R: Camp Joy (cherry), Stump Of The World, Golden Girl and Rio Grande. Camp Joy funked up pretty fast but the others are hanging in there pretty good and still producing. They'll be back next year.



In the rest of the row, the center plant with the golden tomatoes is what we're calling Fake Annie. We started two Early Annie plants. One was the real deal with regular foliage and this was the other one with potato leaf foliage! Nice flavor, though. I'm still trying to figure out if I accidentally put some KBX seed in that pot but I was so darned careful when seeding, checking off names as I went. Still, anything can happen. To the left of Fake Annie is the fall eggplant and Early Girl, to the right is the real Early Annie.



A few of the garden plants are showing new foliage emerging down low so I've cut those plants back down to about 2-3' tall, hoping the new foliage will stay clean, hurry up and maybe put out a few fall tomatoes. We'll see. I've never tried this before but nothing ventured, nothing gained!

So far, the tomatoes that have shown the best disease resistance out of 20 varieties have been Bella Rosa, SOTW, Rio Grande and Rosella.

Tomatoes which for a variety of reasons won't be back next year include Santiago, Super Sioux, Ten Fingers Of Naples, Rebel Yell, Brad's Atomic Grape, GGWT. The fate of the rest is undecided at this time.

[Whwoz]

Thanks for the report GoDawgs, always nice to hear how plants are going elsewhere.

[EdieJ]

[mention]GoDawgs[/mention] I don't believe your Fake Annie is KBX. We grow them and they tend more toward beefsteak size. Are you saving seeds from it?

[MsCowpea]

What was your opinion of Bella Rosa, taste-wise? Do you like it better than other well known hybrids like Better Boy or Big Beef?

[goodloe]

What was your opinion of Bella Rosa, taste-wise? Do you like it better than other well known hybrids like Better Boy or Big Beef?

I'm curious about that, too. A quick googling says it's determinate, with good disease resistance (but not to 'todes...?) How was its productivity?

Also, what are your reasons for giving Rebel Yell the ax? I grew it this yr in 5 gal buckets...not ideal, and they didn't produce many fruit, but the taste was pretty awesome. I think I'll find room to grow it in-ground next year...

[GoDawgs]

@GoDawgs I don't believe your Fake Annie is KBX. We grow them and they tend more toward beefsteak size. Are you saving seeds from it?

I saved some seeds from it just yesterday. The first four or five FA's were large like KBX but then the rest weren't so big. I have a KBX down in the garden that consistently is growing tomatoes bigger than this impostor.

[GoDawgs]

What was your opinion of Bella Rosa, taste-wise? Do you like it better than other well known hybrids like Better Boy or Big Beef?

I have a hard time tasting differences unless they're pretty different. It's like "a carrot is a carrot is a carrot" unless one's really strong tasting or markedly sweet. A few tomato exceptions this year are BAG (maybe hints of chocolate?), Rosella (deep tomatoey flavor) and KBX (milder, less acidic). Otherwise they taste pretty much the same to me. I can hear the groans out there but that's just the way it is!

That said, I like Bella Rose but I haven't grown Better Boy in about four years so memory of that is gone and I've never grown Big Beef.
Productivity was decent. The one I picked yesterday was 7 oz and the size of a baseball, somewhat smaller than the first ones set earlier in the year.

[mention]goodloe[/mention] , 'todes aren't a worry for me now with tomatoes as they are being grown in buckets off the ground on pallets. As for Rebel Yell, it didn't produce much at all. Average flavor in my growing circumstances. However... after baking and suffering in full, all day hot sun last year, the garden tomatoes were in a new location this year and in too much shade. No doubt that had an effect on all of the garden tomatoes so several will get a do-over next year in more sun. I just have to find that perfect balance between scorching sun and too much shade. Maybe move the do-overs into the better situation up at the house.