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Help me pare it down
Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2020 7:38 am
by TXTravis
I had 32 plants last year, and it was WAYYY too many. I'd like to keep it to 16-18 this year, but am having trouble narrowing it down. I'm in Central Texas, and it gets HOT, so that's a factor. I'll start these all this weekend for a late Feburary (hopefully) plant. There are 18 on my list, but at least one (Andiamo) will have 3 plants. Are there any of the others I should disregard? If you were to cut 2-3, which would they be? Here's the list:
Black and Brown Boar
Black Cherry
Green Zebra
Jubilee
Rio Grande
Tycoon
Indian Stripe
Chico III
Chocolate Stripe
JD's Special C-Tex
Black Krim
Gary O'Sena
Hillbilly
Kellog's Breakfast
Kosovo
Andiamo
Big Beef
Marzano Fire
Blush
Of these, Black and Brown Boar, Black Cherry, Tycoon, Andiamo, and Big Beef are repeats. The rest are new to me. I also may seed some Cherokee Carbon in case some of the others don't germinate.
Re: Help me pare it down
Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2020 8:09 am
by Labradors
I would skip Green Zebra because I didn't think it tasted great.
Linda
Re: Help me pare it down
Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2020 1:49 pm
by Tormahto
I'll add, you subtract.
Porter, Charles Herring strain
Re: Help me pare it down
Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2020 2:15 pm
by TXTravis
Tormato wrote: ↑Wed Dec 16, 2020 1:49 pm
Porter, Charles Herring strain
I tried Improved Porter that I go from Totally Tomatoes this Fall, and was underwhelmed. They produced well (given the relatively short growing period) but were pasty and not very flavorful. For a paste tomato, I'm having a hard time moving beyond Andiamo, which gave me ~30lbs a vine last year and taste great. But, I'm also trying Chico III, Rio Grande, and Marzano Fire this year just in case.
Re: Help me pare it down
Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2020 7:23 pm
by wykvlvr
Wasn't impressed by Blush, Green Zebra is one of my favorites but is not everyone's cup of tea. The best have a spicy flavor but unless you have experience with GWR they can be hard to tell when ripe and many inexperienced folks tend to let them get over ripe and that messes with the taste
Re: Help me pare it down
Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2020 7:47 pm
by karstopography
I’m growing Kellogg’s Breakfast, that’s the plan, a new one for me. Hillbilly is a nice tomato, I grew that last year. Not the absolutely most productive, but tasty.
Good luck, roll the dice, win some, lose some.
Re: Help me pare it down
Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2020 12:36 am
by Shule
TXTravis wrote: ↑Wed Dec 16, 2020 7:38 am
I had 32 plants last year, and it was WAYYY too many. I'd like to keep it to 16-18 this year, but am having trouble narrowing it down. I'm in Central Texas, and it gets HOT, so that's a factor. I'll start these all this weekend for a late Feburary (hopefully) plant. There are 18 on my list, but at least one (Andiamo) will have 3 plants. Are there any of the others I should disregard? If you were to cut 2-3, which would they be? Here's the list:
Black and Brown Boar
Black Cherry
Green Zebra
Jubilee
Rio Grande
Tycoon
Indian Stripe
Chico III
Chocolate Stripe
JD's Special C-Tex
Black Krim
Gary O'Sena
Hillbilly
Kellog's Breakfast
Kosovo
Andiamo
Big Beef
Marzano Fire
Blush
Of these, Black and Brown Boar, Black Cherry, Tycoon, Andiamo, and Big Beef are repeats. The rest are new to me. I also may seed some Cherokee Carbon in case some of the others don't germinate.
I've never gardened in Texas, but I would probably cut from among these (some people love them, though, of course):
* Green Zebra
* Kosovo
* Rio Grande
In my own soil, I would also cut these, but they'd probably do better for you:
* Indian Stripe
* Chocolate Stripes
Re: Help me pare it down
Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2020 7:08 am
by rossomendblot
Blush was a good producer and the tomatoes are beautiful, but for me the taste was never there at any stage of ripeness. It's a similar story with Maglia Rosa, great grower but the flavour just isn't assertive enough for my taste buds. Plenty of other people seem to really like them though so don't let me alone put you off.
I concur with [mention]Labradors[/mention] about Green Zebra. Good looking tomatoes but not much taste.
Re: Help me pare it down
Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2020 9:35 am
by Gardadore
I plant Blush every year to make oven dried tomatoes. They become very concentrated and sweet. Last summer was very humid so had to pick them earlier before they cracked.
Always liked Green Zebra but ran out of seeds. Will be substituting Zebra Rita, which is supposedly sweeter and larger. Otherwise looks like a great list!
Re: Help me pare it down
Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2020 9:47 am
by TXTravis
Looking back at my list, I notice that Black Krim, Indian Stripe, Chocolate Stripe, JDs, and the alternate Cherokee Carbon are somewhat similar, so that category (black, large) seems overrepresented. I could easily cull one or two of those without missing much. Probably Chocolate Stripe, but would be open to suggestions.
General consensus droppers AND keepers are Green Zebra and Blush. I think I'll put off Blush until Fall, and try GZ for Spring.
This has been very helpful so far. The REAL solution is a bigger garden, but that's some years away.
Re: Help me pare it down
Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2020 4:01 pm
by MayaAndTomatoes
I would keep black cherry and Kellogg’s breakfast. First one is my cheery to go to and second is my orange one.
One comment about older black tomatoes is that I used to be obsessed with them. The colors are magnificent. But in the past years I started noticing that pinks have a lot better flavors.
I also love green when ripe as they seem to be both sweet and sour I my garden.
Re: Help me pare it down
Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2020 4:20 pm
by Natural
I would keep Indian Stripe over Black Krim. Black Krim always has radial cracking issues for me whereas Indian Stripe does not.
Bill
Re: Help me pare it down
Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2020 4:38 pm
by TXTravis
Natural wrote: ↑Tue Dec 22, 2020 4:20 pm
I would keep Indian Stripe over Black Krim. Black Krim always has radial cracking issues for me whereas Indian Stripe does not.
Bill
I was thinking about this for a different reason--from what I've read, Indian Stripe and Black Krim are really similar but BK tends to produce less. Also JDs is from an Early girl/Black Krim cross (or so I've heard), so that's double redundancy. I may ditch BK for this year and put Wisconsin 55 back in the lineup--it was a great producer and had great flavor last year.
Re: Help me pare it down
Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2020 11:21 pm
by AKgardener
[mention]TXTravis[/mention] I had 53 tomato plants last and I way over whelmed with all the rain and moving pots don’t get me started:) I’m doing 3 varieties next year 4 of each and getting the rest at a green house and yet again I’m going big again just not 53 I do like your list I never tried any of those .I’m going to try the Kellogg breakfast I heard good things about it so my 2 cents my sister lives in Texas she had a lot of problems last year with her tomatoes. Good luck next year
Re: Help me pare it down
Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 1:41 am
by Gardadore
Kellogg Breakfast is excellent but many people find KBX, the potato leaf variety even better. I include that in my garden every year.