All this is wonderful info, as I've been trying for years to "correct" what I'm doing wrong here with my heirlooms. We are going to the store today, and hopefully there's tomatoes left. I'm going to buy one hybrid, and compare.

Making cuttings from favorite Tomato plants that have proven to be good producers works here of course in Florida. Still need to use the little greenhouse in Winter to yank them trough, and they produce throughout the Winter in that situation.

I believe in collecting seeds from great producers once grown and proven over several seasons. They adapt and the babies are tolerant of what the parents have survived.

Tomatoes will hybridize if you try too many sorts. I am now sticking to the one I've grown several years that produces incredibly well; is acclimated and am not trying to go exotic any longer.

And that's where we are too, David. I have beentrying out many, many varieties and have settled on about four 'must grow.' I will still try new varieties but not as many each year.

For us, Stump of the World is hard to get a tomato that doesn't crack but it is such a good tasting tomato to us, we will always grow that one. This year I actually remembered to bag blossoms of our heirlooms to save seeds!

I do not have it this year, but Boxcar Willie(heirloom)was excellent here and out performed Early Girl(hybrid) hands down!

texaskitty111 said:All this is wonderful info, as I've been trying for years to "correct" what I'm doing wrong here with my heirlooms. We are going to the store today, and hopefully there's tomatoes left. I'm going to buy one hybrid, and compare.

I can tell you that a hybrid tomato that you buy at the store will not taste the same as a hybrid you went out and picked fresh from the garden.

Claudia said:I do not have it this year, but Boxcar Willie(heirloom)was excellent here and out performed Early Girl(hybrid) hands down!

Claudia, Early Girl is a staple in my garden and I always plant some each year. Taste to me is good. Not the greatest but not a bad tasting or bland type either. And it produces really well and those tomatoes never seem to crack or split. Lots of fruit production. All in all a winner for me.

Has anyone here bought seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds? I really want to be sure I am getting seeds that are organic, not GMO or treated in any way with ant chemicals.

This is the first year I not had Boxcar Willie in 7 years. I always had both.

I have bought many seeds from Baker Creek except I have not bought tomato seeds. But all sorts of other types of veggies. Don't hesitate to order from them. A very trusted source of seeds.

@claudia, I meant a tomato plant, not a grocery tomato. Baker creek is great, get most of my seeds from them

Last year we apparently had perfect tomato growing weather. I had 8 plants, eight different varieties, one of them hybrid (Early G.) And all 8 plants produced well, 30-50 tomatoes each. The early girls were OK, but probably the least flavorful, they were not any earlier than a couple of the others and they were smaller than most. Prudens purple were the least productive, but there were still plenty of them, since I use them for fresh eating only.

I also start from seed, 6-8 weeks before planting out. I don't supply the neighborhood with tomatoes, but I do give away about 20-30 tomato plants.

I usually can't plant out until the first week of June - and don't get ripe fruit until mid-late August (its WI). This year we had a very cold wet June, and I have had to remove a lot more blighted leaves from the plants than last year, but the plants in general are looking healthy, with good fruit production and lots of new flowers right now. Kellogg's Breakfast has the most fruit on it so far. I am really really looking froward to my first BLT of the season.

MMMMMMM BLT's from a fresh tomato out of the garden, nothing beats it, but it's not good unless you have tomato juice running down to your elbow!!! I limit the amount of bacon I eat, but there's no way I'm going to miss having a good BLT.

texaskitty111 said:@claudia, I meant a tomato plant, not a grocery tomato. Baker creek is great, get most of my seeds from them

LOL...a plant would be good! Gald to hear another yes for Baker Creek.

I am reading, reading, reading and I am seeing where I need to plant some that will have a more staggered production time. By doing that can maybe enjoy more types of tomatoes over the season.

Does anyone grow Stupice or Glacier and how did they do? I have read to use these as the first ones since they can tolerate temps that are a little cooler.

Around here I plant my tomatoes out in the garden early.I put them out by the very end of April already so they get a nice early start, Used to plant around May 5th but last few years going earlier and earlier.

Claudia, I have found that Early Girl is really not so early in my garden. But just a great all round tomato so I plant them.

This year I did try some really extra early types of tomatoes. Beaverlodge Slicer and Beaverlodge Plum. Nothing memorable able either one. I tried Oregon Spring, nothing to get excited about. And I tried Glacier. Really, really early tomatoes on that one and not so bad tasting. Early tomatoes on all of them but the darn things are so small, not too much bigger than a cherry tomato type.

Claudia, I tried Glacier a number of years back and wasn't too impressed by it, thought I might as well buy tomatoes in the store...

Although I don't have Bloody Butcher this year I've grown it several times and it was always the earliest to ripen for me, ahead of 4th of July. It's OP, with tomatoes about the size of a ping-pong ball, and quite flavorful. (hope I'm not repeating myself here, I know I mentioned this recently but pretty sure it was a different thread)

Sandy! I am jottings notes down for next year.

>> Does anyone grow Stupice or Glacier and how did they do?

I bought a few 'Stupice' plants the first year I tried to grow tomatoes. I potted them up right away, then carried the pots in and out every day since nights still went down to 50 or a little lower.

Then I planted them. Nights still usually went down to 55-60. Daytime highs might have been 70-80, with few days over 75.

I got a lot of green tomatoes and a few weeks of ripe ones, with the "unimpressive but OK" flavor that 'Stupice' usually has. But then I had 2-3 nights in a row of colder weather, but I'm not sure how much colder. 50? 45?

Anyway, after that the 'Stupice' tasted like oatmeal at best, cardboard at worst. Neither sweet nor tart. They still produced and ripened, but they tasted even worse than tasteless supermarket tomatoes!

A friend I had wanted to show off to declared they must have "gone bad", though the 'Sungold' right next to the 'Stupice' continued to taste great.

I think 'Stupice' loses what flavor it has in cool weather. It might be early and cold-tolerant, but you need at least minimal warmth during the ripening season to keep any flavor at all.

Thank you very much!! The more I read it looks like hybrids may be better for "early tomatoes". I just get so hooked on trying to figure out which ones for next year!!! Very addicting..... for me anyways!

I hated the flavor of Stupice! There are better early tomatoes.

I grew Sophie's Choice this year as a small, determinate tomato. It was my earliest producer by a long shot, and the tomatoes were amazingly large for such a small plant, and the flavor was great for an early tomato. I will definitely grow this variety again.

I think it is an OP tomato (or possibly an heirloom). We've probably harvested at least 15 tomatoes off of a plant that is barely 2' tall, and there are still several more ripening.

I've also grown Silvery Fir Tree--also an early producer, but the tomatoes were much smaller and not as flavorful as Sophie's Choice.

Linda

Thanks Linda! I has both Sophie's Choice and Silvery Firm on my list as possibilities. SC will stay on the list for consideration.

Anybody grown Kimberly or Early Wonder?