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
