westside bengal wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 12:01 am NEW VARIETIES:

1) Dwarf Project tomatoes. I have seeds from 21 varieties and trying to whittle the list down to 12. I hate making decisions about which tomatoes to grow so I will probably start a couple of all 21 and decide on planting day. And embarrassing to say, but more than once I have planted a tomato and within a day or two changed my mind and pulled a plant out and put another variety in its place. My wife says I have Tomato Issues........

2) Ramapo F1. I have heard good things about this tomato. It was developed in 1968 and was quite popular in New Jersey area. After a while it fell out of favor and dropped by all the seed catalogs. It was reintroduced a few years ago and I plan to give it a try.

3) Rutgers 250. My Dad taught me how to garden and always had Rutgers in the garden and so did every old time gardener I ever met. It was used commercially and had good fresh eating qualities. I have read a few times that for a lot of years Rutgers was the benchmark for new varieties. The newer tomatoes were either sweeter than Rutgers, more acidic than Rutgers, bigger, smaller, more productive, etc. Rutgers 250 is sort of a reintroduction of the original. Seeds from the original parents----J.T.D. and Marglobe were found at Campbell's storage vault, crossed and selected at Rutgers University and released on the 250th anniversary of the school. In honor of my Dad who was trying out heirloom tomatoes long before heirlooms became cool I am going to give this a place this year.

4) Federle. I have always grown Amish Paste and Opalka as my paste tomato. I have seen good reviews on Federle and is on several grow lists over the years so I decided to try this one.


SECOND CHANCES:

All my second chances are from seeds found in my saved seed box and were last grown in 2008 or 2009. I do not remember any issues with these, they all performed well, tasted good and at least reasonable production. By that time I had jumped on the Heirloom Express and with a limited space garden and every year thinking I had to try the hot new thing I just never got around to growing them again. Did I tell you my wife said I have Tomato Issues?

1) Gardeners Delight (AKA SUGAR LUMP and 2) Riesntraube. I am growing both of these red cherries tomatoes this year. Sungold and Black Cherry have been and still are my cherry tomato champions. Every year I seem to try a new red cherry. A lot of them are good but something always seems to be lacking. So I am changing direction a bit and going to germinate these old seeds. Although Gardeners Delight is a bit sweeter both of these cherry tomatoes have what I call full tomato flavor. I have friends that grow one or the other and I think that flavor profile is lacking in a lot of newer cherry tomatoes.

3) Goat Bag or Goatbag. IIRC back in 2006 or 2007 I stopped at our local farmers market looking for some late season sweet corn. A gentleman had a pickup and as I walked closer realized he selling peaches. I bought a few pounds and we struck up a conversation about my favorite topic, tomatoes. After a few minutes he asked if I had ever heard of a tomato called Goat Bag? I said no and he proceeded to tell me that another man came up from Kentucky to cut some lumber on his farm and brought a few tomatoes plants named Goat Bag. He said he got them from an old farmer in Kentucky. The man at the farmers market told me they were really large tomatoes and said he grew them in cages and had to put sticks sideways though the cages to support the stems. He opened his truck door, reached in and pulled out this giant heart shaped tomato, holding it with both hands. He said I could have it for 50c. I gave him a dollar bill. I took it home cut it open. It tasted good with few seeds. I saved the seeds to grow for the next season. I grew it for a couple of seasons. It was healthy, fairly productive and while large I never had any two handers. I just never got around to growing it again. It is on the list for this season.

4) Wessel's Purple Pride. My first time at CHOPTAG a man brought some tomato plants that everyone was talking about. He had a cross between Sausage paste tomato and Cherokee Purple. I grew it that summer and produced a paste tomato the color of Cherokee Purple including the green shoulders. It was productive, tasted good and was a great addition to salsa. It was on many grow lists for a few years. I have not grown it since 2009. I don't know why.

This is my list new or redo list and I am sticking with it.....maybe.

karstopography wrote: ↑Fri Mar 05, 2021 8:43 am ....
Moneymaker is supposed to be a 4-6 ounce round type and prolific indeterminate open pollinated tomato variety that handles heat well and resists disease.

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