It's early but I imagine some people are starting to plan their 2020 gardens anyway. I bought some tomato seeds today and hopefully I'll have a place to plant all of them and more next year.



You can rest assured if I knew I'd have the area, I would have just bought their entire lineup of tomato seeds

Next week I may begin to think about it again.

PaulF said:Next week I may begin to think about it again.

It's never too early to start planning

First round of tomato seeds I bought, I'm sure there will be more.

repentantslide said:

First round of tomato seeds I bought, I'm sure there will be more.

What a nice selection!!

I just ordered some tomato seeds today.

I had already ordered Red Pride and Sungold elsewhere.

At Totallly Tomatoes I ordered
Country Taste
Ball's Beef Steal
Chef's Choice Pink
Orange Zinger
Bella Rosa

I start my tomato seeds early March so I have my own plants to put out in the Spring.

Newyorkrita said:

What a nice selection!!

I just ordered some tomato seeds today.

I had already ordered Red Pride and Sungold elsewhere.

At Totallly Tomatoes I ordered
Country Taste
Ball's Beef Steal
Chef's Choice Pink
Orange Zinger
Bella Rosa

I start my tomato seeds early March so I have my own plants to put out in the Spring.

Do you have any preferences for tomato characteristics when you're looking for seeds? Color, size, shape?

Personally for me, the bigger the better. And anything really interesting in color catches my eye, like that Terra Cotta you can see in the picture. It looks like it has an interesting shade of orange.

So many varieties, I'm sure I'll find crazier shapes and colors yet.

I like a selection of sizes.

Can't do without Sungold Cherry types all the way to large Beefsteak types.

I still have to try Sungold, tried them last year and some kind of evil wilt microbe got into them and took them out before they even got started.

repentantslide said:I still have to try Sungold, tried them last year and some kind of evil wilt microbe got into them and took them out before they even got started.

Sorry that happened to your plants.

Sungold really is very good.

Sungold, Red Robin and Country Taste are on my list. Haven't ordered yet.

Deeby said:Sungold, Red Robin and Country Taste are on my list. Haven't ordered yet.

Repentant, I have Black Beauty, Cherokee Purple, and Brandywine from the same seller.
I have Sungold, and Bumble bee from another seller.

SoCalGardenNut said:Repentant, I have Black Beauty, Cherokee Purple, and Brandywine from the same seller.
I have Sungold, and Bumble bee from another seller.

We'll have to see how they do in each of our climates! I'll be back in Minnesota probably so it'll be a very different climate in the summer compared to California, especially the South.

Repentant, I like your choices! I will be ordering some of the same ones for my sale. Check out the bumblebee series; can't beat them for production. I do the purple every year. I have thought seriously about that Thornton's tomato, I love different colors and bi- colors. I grew Brad Gates pork chop last year; not a huge producer, but one of the best tasting tomatoes I have ever put in my mouth! (See pic). I haven't ordered yet; waiting to hear from my mg members about what seeds they have left over. I am a Master Gardener; we have a plant sale in May and grow plants for sale from seed.I hope to be ordering soon, I will post my list here.

Repentant, oops! See that you already ordered the bumblebee. Good choice!

gardenfish said:Repentant, oops! See that you already ordered the bumblebee. Good choice!

That was SoCal actually, I haven't bought that one yet.

Good one to have! My personal favorite for a cherry.

At the first snowy cold spell with nothing else to do, some time was set aside to go through the tomato seed inventory and make the 2020 decision. What used to be 35 varieties has been cut to 20 since age has been increasing and ambition waning. Asked or not here is the list:

Pinks:
Rosovyi Kilogram Movyi
Giant Belgium
Mortgage Lifter (no idea the strain but last time it was great)
Rebel Yell
Joe's Portuguese
Paul's Pink Pride (friend finally found this one for me and shared seeds)

Red:
Zogola
Blake's Magnum (one of my own named after a grandson)
Delicious
Italian Sweet

Black:
Clear Lake Heirloom
Cherokee Chocolate
Black Bear

Heart:
Fish Lake Oxheart
Canadian Heart
Anna Margaret Heart (seeds from another tomato friend)
Japanese Oxheart
Nolan Boy's Russian (renamed for a grandson from No-Name Russian from USDA seed bank)

Yellow/Orange:
Orange Russian #117
Kellogg's Breakfast or KBX

Paul, a good list for sure.

As far as ambition goes I know what it is like to want to grow everything but only have energy for growing the best tomato varieties.

PaulF said:At the first snowy cold spell with nothing else to do, some time was set aside to go through the tomato seed inventory and make the 2020 decision. What used to be 35 varieties has been cut to 20 since age has been increasing and ambition waning. Asked or not here is the list:

Pinks:
Rosovyi Kilogram Movyi
Giant Belgium
Mortgage Lifter (no idea the strain but last time it was great)
Rebel Yell
Joe's Portuguese
Paul's Pink Pride (friend finally found this one for me and shared seeds)

Red:
Zogola
Blake's Magnum (one of my own named after a grandson)
Delicious
Italian Sweet

Black:
Clear Lake Heirloom
Cherokee Chocolate
Black Bear

Heart:
Fish Lake Oxheart
Canadian Heart
Anna Margaret Heart (seeds from another tomato friend)
Japanese Oxheart
Nolan Boy's Russian (renamed for a grandson from No-Name Russian from USDA seed bank)

Yellow/Orange:
Orange Russian #117
Kellogg's Breakfast or KBX

@PaulF Is Blake's Magnum sold commercially? I see a beefsteak called Magnum, but not sure it is the same.