It was a beautiful November 1 afternoon. There were only a few tomatoes left on the vines so this day was chosen to pull out all the remaining plants, do the math and write a year end report. This is the eleventh year since retiring to Nebraska from Iowa where the numbers would have been different for sure. But you get what you get and don’t throw a fit (Thanks to granddaughters Emma and Willow)
Out of thirty-five plants grown, only 30 are included in the report. There were three cherry varieties and even I do not weigh and measure those. There were two salad sized and the same was true there. There were two dwarf varieties from the dwarf project that were included but one dwarf variety only produced salad sized fruit…it was an F-1 so maybe next year or so .
Thirty plants produced just over 636 pounds of tomatoes; 21 pounds per plant average. The ten year average here in Nebraska is 431 pounds for 30 plants + or - a couple. The high production years were 2016, 200 and 2008 and the low were 2007, 2014 and 2010.
Top producers: Kolb at 341/2 pounds, Helen’s German at 33lbs and Reif Red Heart at 33lbs
Largest single tomato: Orange Russian #117 at 29 oz., Kellogg’s Breakfast at 26 oz., Giant Oxheart, Helen’s German and Provenzano each 24 oz.
largest average size fruit variety: Helen’s German-16oz., Provenzano-14 oz., Dixie Golden Giant-13.4 oz
Top varieties for flavor (which for us is the most important part of growing tomatoes) Remember, this is our personal taste from our neck of the woods.
scale of 10; 9/10 varieties: Mortgage Lifter (which of the many ML strains, I do not know), Willow’s Bulgarian ( from a SSE variety called No-Name Bulgarian, renamed for our use only), Kolb and Joe’s Pink Oxheart.
8/10: no special order: Emmy T-115 (dwarf project), Italian Sweet, Virginia Sweets, Amana Pink, Reif Red Heart, Giant Oxheart, Hungarian Heart, Dixie Golden Giant.
You may notice I like sweet large tomatoes and the list is heart heavy. Never met a heart I didn’t like. Sorry for the length…I only get this long once a year.
