Great haul today. I recognize the juliets but what are the others? How many Juliet plants do you have?

I have mainly been picking off of 5 plants in my pics. In the beginning I was getting pounds and pounds off of just 2 EB.
DH has Juliets that he picks that didn’t get as much sun.
I have many more in the raised beds and big containers that are starting to ripen but I haven’t counted total.

WOW! Quite the haul!

Yesterday:
Juliet in a regular container. Picked off the diseased leaves to see what was underneath. Plant didn’t get tied up properly so it is also sprawling
Into its neighbor in a raised bed. You want to keep it tied to the cage otherwise those branches will kink.

Today:
More Juliets. This is the top of an inground plant— it is on the left in the pic. Lots of new little tomatoes. Monster plant. For fun next year I am going to do a 10 foot cage and keep it tied to it so it doesn’t flop all over. This cage is 6 feet and it is way beyond that. The one on the right is in a container.

This container was blown over by the wind several times. Kind of ignored it. Picked off some bad leaves and there was a lot of Momotaros. Should have taken better care of it.
I never had tomatoes eaten on the ground before , only had bird pecked ones. Every day I see birds in and out of cages. But last few days see tomatoes eaten on the ground as well. I know people will say rats but this guy has been spotted a couple times always under the tomatoes. Wonder if he is a tomato loving lizard. He is at least 16 inches, maybe longer, with very long green and teal tail.

Those Juliets PRODUCE!!! I bet the lizard is your culprit. This is a fun thread. Do you grow radishes? Also, do you put drainage holes in your kiddie pools? The greens I had from you were the best I have ever eaten.

I wonder if you started seeds now or cloned a Juliet now from the healthy part of the plant if they would produce in the summer. I grew it once and had TONS of tomatoes too. Even Juliet would beat Everglades which are too small - plus dehydrating them would be awesome.

How many Juliet plants and Momotaro plants do you have?

Yes, Juliets are amazing on production and disease resistance (though eventually even they succumb). I just don’t like eating them raw all that much. And I would sure never take them as my entry in a tomato tasting contest. They are firm too, though I have been thinking about just marinating them with sliced onions in oil and vinegar and a tad of sugar. They’d be raw but dressed up.

By the way, I only like Juliets blood red. If they are only red orange they aren’t ripe enough and they are sour to me.


I grew the worst tasting radishes this year. In years past I know I have to make sure they don’t get too old so this year I kept pulling a few up and checking size and suddenly they went from tiny to inedible. They did grow in the worse part of the hotter weather. Destined for the compost pile.

Yes, lots of drainage holes. Though the greens you had were in a round raised bed , open at the bottom. I haven’t done a pool in a while. Lettuces and Asian greens really must have cooler weather so my lettuces I started a couple weeks ago must be loving These new cooler temps.

For some odd reason my radishes did the same. Don’t think it was the weather as all my cole crops did well.

Barb, I have about a dozen Juliets. DH has a separate garden that doesn’t get full sun—he has some as well but the production has been poor.
We won’t grow tomatoes there next year. I have about 10 Momotaros. Next year I am off cherries completely. I was really liking them when they first came in and people I gave them to loved them but I can’t stand picking them.

University of Fl. did an experiment where they extended the season of green peppers into the hot and rainy summer. They did really well.
But by that time April rolls around we are ready for a complete break and we let the rain, humidity, heat, and bugs take over during the summer hiatus. I do have to keep some peppers alive and free of disease. Thinking of growing them on my patio away from the garden and maybe one Mt. Magic from a cutting. But I am afraid of all the rampant disease infection that is present.

MsCowpea wrote: ↑Fri Feb 28, 2020 4:25 pm I grew the worst tasting radishes this year. In years past I know I have to make sure they don’t get too old so this year I kept pulling a few up and checking size and suddenly they went from tiny to inedible.

If the roots don't taste goods, let them bolt. They produce green pods, about 1" or more, and when the pods have just gotten fat but before they're woody, pick them. They taste just like radishes.

Have not had the time to check in on this thread for a bit, some absolutely beautiful tomatoes, love the Peacocks but glad we do not have them roaming here by the sounds of it and LOVE that lizard. I take it Juliets has it origins as a paste tomato?

I tried to find out the history behind Juliet. It is larger than a cherry- one site called it a saladette. It won AAS award in 1999. I am not sure
it has paste parentage or not . Do all grape tomatoes come from a paste? One place said it was a big sister of Santa which was a popular grape cherry- but smaller. Johnnys Seeds has a grape tomato they say tastes better than Juliet.

Thank you for the response

MsCowpea wrote: ↑Mon Mar 02, 2020 1:50 am I tried to find out the history behind Juliet. It is larger than a cherry- one site called it a saladette. It won AAS award in 1999. I am not sure
it has paste parentage or not . Do all grape tomatoes come from a paste? One place said it was a big sister of Santa which was a popular grape cherry- but smaller. Johnnys Seeds has a grape tomato they say tastes better than Juliet.

This is my 2nd season growing Johnny's 5 star grape tomato. I already pulled my plant that was in the earthbox after the late January storm that pushed the fruits to the back. However, as an experiment, I made my own coir slab in a trough and let a 5 star grape sprawl over the ground (weed barrier). After your pictures, when you had me wanting Juliet, I started taking cuttings from it for the spring/late spring/early summer crop.

The tomatoes are exactly like described by Johnny's but your Juliet looks much larger.

For next year, I'm going to stick with SunGrape as I think that is even sweeter.

The thing is, though there may be better tasting grapes, I actually want it larger- don’t want it cherry size. I find with dehydrating cherries you end up with a little bag of skin.
Plus any alternative to Juliet would have to have that robust growth, disease resistance, and phenomenal production so I always check to see what it says about that.

This was the one I saw at Johnnys comparing it to Juliets. Larger, better flavor BUT it also has some disease resistance to Early Blight (plus other diseases). Larger is good for me, considering how I use them. And better flavor? That would always be good.

https://www.johnnyseeds.com/vegetables/ ... 8&start=55

Sorry, I didn't even have the right tomato. Johnny's has a bunch of grape tomatoes and from the description, the flavour is excellent down to good. They must really be terrible.

Juliet is listed under 'paste'. I never knew that; I would give it some slack if it is a paste tomato.

---
For dehydrating, try just blending them all; it saves so much time and they taste great. I will try to post a picture

I just sort of semi- dehydrate them-they are still moist but condensed. If using right away they are best with olive oil and garlic. My friend in Barbados who gets most of them uses them in all sorts of way. Tomatoes In Barbados are very expensive but she can use these all year.

I don’t really think of Juliets as much of a paste though I have heard of people making sauce with them. I am a peel and de-seed
sauce maker (no blender) so I do prefer much bigger tomatoes. I use a tomato press to get out the seeds and skin.

Johnnys list Juliets under a couple different categories- one is specialty tomatoes.

They describe it like this:

‘Delicious, rich tomato flavor for salads, great salsa, and fresh pasta sauce. ‘ Not sure I would go as far as that glowing description but
it has many good points. I still ordered Verona just to compare.

Barb_FL wrote: ↑Mon Mar 02, 2020 2:27 pm DSC_0995.JPG[/attachment

[attachment=2]DSC_1005.JPGDSC_1004.JPGDSC_1001.JPG

So cool Barb. Your using the silicon sheets in your Excalibur, right? Love this idea because it's easy. I might actually talk myself into doing it too. What temp do you put your dehydrator on, and approx how many hours?

MsCowpea wrote: ↑Mon Mar 02, 2020 3:50 pm I just sort of semi- dehydrate them-they are still moist but condensed. If using right away they are best with olive oil and garlic. My friend in Barbados who gets most of them uses them in all sorts of way. Tomatoes In Barbados are very expensive but she can use these all year.

I don’t really think of Juliets as much of a paste though I have heard of people making sauce with them. I am a peel and de-seed
sauce maker (no blender) so I do prefer much bigger tomatoes. I use a tomato press to get out the seeds and skin.

Johnnys list Juliets under a couple different categories- one is specialty tomatoes.

They describe it like this:

‘Delicious, rich tomato flavor for salads, great salsa, and fresh pasta sauce. ‘ Not sure I would go as far as that glowing description but
it has many good points. I still ordered Verona just to compare.

Moist chewy with olive oil and garlic, oh yummy! Bruschetta! I have to look up a tomato press. Are they hard to clean?