My starts that I do from seed will be one flat tray of 6 cellpacks so as to make 36. That will break down to
6 Country Taste
6 Balls Beef Steak
6 Chefs Choice
6 Amys Sugar Gem
6 Bella Rosa
3 Oranger Zinger
3 Red Pride


And I will have 8 Sungolds in another tray.

Sounds good, Rita. Everyone talks about this country taste. Where do you get the seed from?

There are multiple places that have Country Taste. I got mine from Totally Tomatoes. I got most of my seed there this year.

My 8 sungolds go in with my eggplant tray.

Rita--what color of the Chef's Choice are you growing? One of my gardening acquaintances always says it's her favorite tomato, and she grows the red, yellow and orange varieties.

Nice list!!

mom2goldens said:Rita--what color of the Chef's Choice are you growing? One of my gardening acquaintances always says it's her favorite tomato, and she grows the red, yellow and orange varieties.

Nice list!!

Thanks. I feel I will have some really nice tomatoes this summer.

I ordered the pink Chef's Choice. If I love it like I hope I will then I can get one of the other colors also next season.

Rita--I forgot about the pink--she grows that one, too.

mom2goldens said:Rita--I forgot about the pink--she grows that one, too.

Seedlings seem to be doing very well, the least leggy I've ever seen them. Can't wait for this season, I have high hopes.

White Tomestol doing everything in its power to die, I had the same problem with Great White last year, I think these white tomatoes were bred purely for the color with not many other considerations, leading to a weak variety that isn't very good at surviving. But that's just a guess.

Started tomatoes for 2020 a couple weeks early since spring is on the way:

Tomatoes:

Rozovyi Kilogrammovyi
Giant Belgium
Mortgage Lifter
Rebel Yell
Joe's Portuguese
Paul's Pink Pride
Zogola
Blake's Magnum
Delicious
Italian Sweet
Clear Lake Heirloom
Cherokee Chocolate
Black Bear
Canadian Heart
Nolan Boy's Russian
Fish Lake Oxheart
Orange Russian #117
Kellogg's Breakfast
KBX
Gift From the Woods
Moravsky Div
Erdie Family Oxheart

After two days we have ten sprouts. Had to get the lights and timer set up. Replanted peppers for the first time ever so now they are two weeks behind, so plant out date will be mid-May. Maybe this will be for the better.

Let me know how the Kellogg's Breakfast tomato turns out, mine were alright, they made much better sauces than fresh eating tomatoes IMO, the tomato flavor was a bit weak, though good nonetheless. That was in a garden with extremely limited space and not quite full sun though.

repentantslide said:Let me know how the Kellogg's Breakfast tomato turns out, mine were alright, they made much better sauces than fresh eating tomatoes IMO, the tomato flavor was a bit weak, though good nonetheless. That was in a garden with extremely limited space and not quite full sun though.

This will be at least the fifteenth year for Kellogg's Breakfast and at least ten or more times growing KBX, the potato leaf cousin/brother/sister of Kellogg's Breakfast. Every time they have been outstanding in my gardens (starting in Iowa and then in our current home in Nebraska). The tomatoes have always been large, juicy, sweet with a fruity overtone. Fresh eating has been the best but we also made sauces and froze chunks for adding to soups and stews.

My first KB came from a guy called Darrell Kellogg and KBX from Martha (gardenmamma for the old timers out there) who grew out a potato leaf version found in her garden. Since then I have purchased new, fresh seeds of each from my favorite vendors. I have kept the original line going and saved seeds from them just for the heck of it.

I have a feeling your part of the country may not be as conducive to the same success as here. Sunshine and temperatures may affect your growth habits. We, me and my wife, consider KB or KBX a must grow every year. While the plant and leaf are a little different, there is very little real difference between them. I think KBX produces more and larger fruits, but statistically that is a +/- less than 1%. Flavor is the same for me.

Kellogg's Breakfast is good for us here, as well as Hillbilly.

Rita, are we planting tomatoes tomorrow?

I'm trying to crawl back into the saddle with my garden after laying by for a year. The first year's tomatoes were a bust...every single one rotted, if you recall...very strange and a very, very frustrating year for me. I think I might have found one tomato out of a 50' row that I managed to get a single bite from...very sad...great looking plants, lots of blooms, lots of fruit,...but all rotted. I wanted to save seed so had planted all open-pollinated varieties. Desperate to have edible tomatoes the second year I planted mostly hybrids with a very few OP plants. The hybrids gave me edible (and lots of them) tomatoes. Not all were perfect but compared to the previous year it was a bumper crop! The OP plants did not perform well at all. Thus, though saving seeds and tailoring successive plants to my garden and climate I came to the decision that I'd rather make a decent crop of edible tomatoes than strive for seeds saved from the garden. So, henceforth I will be investing heavily in hybrids. Here is my list for this year. Everybody grab a biscuit and a cup of coffee...it's a long read.

Big Beef Hybrid - This variety was my #1 producer in 2018. Lots of tomatoes. Damage was mostly from bird peckings. Very little mystery rot.
Beef Master Hybrid - Not quiet as productive as Big Beef, but performed well...will keep it for variety.
Bella Rosa - This variety is new to me. I have some seed for this variety. I think I bought them on recommendation/good-feedback from conversations in the forum. Will be interesting to see how they perfom
Cupid Cherry Hybrid - These were planted as an afterthought and uncaged. They rambled far and wide, battling with the zipper cream peas and producing tasty morsels of tomato everywhere!!! These will be cages this year and I expect will do much better.

There may be one or two more varieties and I may stick an open-pollinated variety in there to act as a canary.

I'm behind on things so this will be similar to the first year planting...a bit late.

So, wasn't this thrilling? I hope you enjoyed your biscuit! ....oh, you're still eating, eh?
Ed

I will be growing my usual mix of ops, heirlooms and a few hybrids.
Country Taste, because everyone on this thread raves about it, porkchop and purple bumblebee , better boy, because they will produce a decent harvest no matter what and they taste pretty good, and two heirlooms I haven't chosen yet. I'm considering Prudens Purple, Mr. Stripey, Green zebra, and Hillbilly. May throw another cherry into the mix.

Anana's Noire off to the best start, healthy color and structure and the first plant to start sprouting true leaves.

Last year I was sent a package of Black Vernissage tomato seeds. They did well and tasted wonderful. So this year I decided to try an assortment of black tomatoes.

Seeds started for black tomatoes... Carbon, Black Vernissage, Black Cherry and Cherokee Purple. All germinated and developing.

Last year I also tried Sleeping Lady which did well in large containers. I plan on doing five of these again snd intend to get them started this weekend.

I have a total of 4 tomatoes. Set plant of Super Sweet 100- seeded directly into the garden are Opalka- (I love Prudens Purple, but I also love the Opalka) Cherokee Purple, and Ruby Crush. I also used sets for peppers so far- Coolapeno, and 1 jalapeno. I need an Hungarian Paprika pepper, but haven't decided which one yet. (Anybody with opinions on that paprika?) I am not sure I will have a decent tomato season, temps are bouncing from 40 at night to near upper 70's already- I am not sure that it will cool enough to get tomatoes yet.

I love carbon, I think the taste is better than Cherokee purple, and it bears more tomatoes, too. I may switch to that. There is another black I may try, called Sarah's black.