Dontcha just HATE it when the post you're working gets “lost” becausde you accidentally hit some key or another on your keybard, and you have to start alllllll ovewr?? Being an atrocious typer, this happens often: yesterday, on my SECOND attempt to add “my two cents” to this thread. . .. I wz ALMOST done when WHAM!! it vanished!!! I quit..so TODAY, I'm composing my post in a program that I've set to automatically save, every 2 minutes! (Seems too short, eh? Just during this short amount of typing, the dreaded mis-key vanishing struck 3 times!!)
I've redently downloaded a little ap that allowed keyboard keys to be changed (their resulting action changed, that is). . . only to diwscover that the dreaded caps lock (in particular)could not be changed. . And the ap waas limited to PRE-windowqs7 !
But I digress.
This is a review of the hybrid tomatoes I grew last year. I grew one plant for each of 7 varieties, in various sized containers (held off my concrete patio by either wheels or sections of 4x4 lumber). **Plus one unknown plant, in a 5-gal bucket directly onmy patio!
My best (earliest, most abundant, continous) producer was Fourth of July (above in the front, 18” grey plastic container). It produced from the last week of June until it succumbed with all my plants to late blight in mid September. Although the fruit IS small (4 oz), a typical day's harveast was 3-6 and quite tasty and juicy! (I just used more fruit for each 'mater sammy!!
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8-10-15 production
A close runner-up was Baxter's Bush Early Cherry, grown in a 5-gal shop bucket. It also was abundant and produced continously from June (soon after Fourth of July) and was the last to succumb to late blight. (Half these seedlings were already in flower several days before transplanting outside.) The tiny morsels look JUST the right size to pop in your mouth while harvesting, but resist! These 1 oz wonders were PACKED with tasty juice!
one day's production: 4 oz. Fourth of July and 1 0z Baxter's Bush
Ace 55, Rutger's and Bush Big Boy were all in first-year Earthboxes: almost all their early production was lost to BER. . . then they had flower drop for the hottest weeks in Aug....then the late blight stuck shortly after they started setting fruit again. What few fruit DID ripen was . . . unremarkable, tast-wise.
Super Sioux was the fourth plant in the Earthboxes. It was not as badly afflicted by BER (Bush Big Boy was the worst), but it grew and grew and grew: it had a vining habit and it was like an octopus, reaching out and laying on top of 4 other plants. (This earned it the designation of being the second vector, spreading the late blight.) The plant topped its Earthbox's support (5') and its arms were fom 3' (the shortest) to 4' (the two longest). It, too, had flower drop but it recovered earlier than the others and produced some ripe fruit before succumbing to late blight (the second, but also the closest , to the first and worst affected plant: the original vector Big Beef). Its fruit was good, better than store-bought. . . but nothing that special.
My last, known variety, was Big Beef, grown in a 5-gal shop bucket. It produced 4 big tomatoes in the first 18” of its stalk. . . then grew and grew: to 5 1/2feet with “arms” reaching out and laying on 2 other plants. These tomatoes were so big that one slice fully covered a slice of bread; the tomatoes were meaty, tasty and remarkably juicy. The 2 arms both had almosdt full-size green fruit on them when the late blight struck. As the worst hit, and the original vector for spread of the disaease, ALL of its fruit was lost.
In summary:
Big Beef and Super Sioux should not be grown in containers. (I will not grow them again because of their “arms”).
Ace 55, Rutgers and Bush Big Boy were all disappointments.
Although Baxter's Bush was excellent, I prefer a smaller currant-size cherry.
Fourth of July was stellar and I plan on growing it again this year and until my seeds won't germinate any more!!
This year, I will be growing Fourth of July, 5 late blight resistant hybrids (Mountain Merit, Celebrity, Jasper, Legend, Defiant) and 2 dwarves ( Mano and Cyril's Choice).