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Now Tomato.

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

I started from Seed: Brandywine, Purple Branywine, Pineapple, and Caspian
Pink. I am fairly sure these are all heirloom varieties. (they were given to
me so please correct.) I also started Kada, Spectrum,  Juliet, Santa, and
Sweet 100s. Two, small (cherry), yellow, pear were a mislabeled surprise from
the nursery. I purchased and grew the mislabeled, Early Girl's (they could
have been anything). I also purchased what turned out to be a stunted Roma
with a big spirit. Several lanky Delicious plants were give given to me by a
friend from a local college.

Of the medium to large tomatoes:

The March planted, Early Girls turned out to be mislabeled plants and they
were a large determinate variety. Since I do not know what they were, it is a
moot point but they tasted wonderful were great for slicing abut unfortunately
they would quickly rot on the vine if left past the time they gained full
color. (not blossom end rot, just turned soft and mushy). They produced late
into the fall.

Of three Delicious tomato plants, I got one tomato. I knew something was
definitely wrong here. This is the variety that inevitably produces the
"largest tomato" at such contests in this area. Two and a half pounds (+/-).
These grew good foliage but few flowers, and yet they had the same soil and
fertilizer as other plants. Same light. When I dug them up I found knarled
roots that looked like nematodes. I can't recall if this variety is supposed
to be resistant to them. Anyone?

The Heirloom Pineapple was prolific but did not have much taste. It appeared
in mid summer to have fusarium wilt, but it produced well until late summer.
These tomatoes also got mushy if left on the vine too long. Because of the
light yellow color, I don't think I was checking them soon enough for
ripeness. Not worth growing again.

The Caspian pink produced at level 5 on a scale of 1-10. They were just ok
tasting, lacking something, sort of a watered down taste. The purple
Brandywine fell into this same category, a bit disappointing. As stated in a
previous post, I am confused about the various varieties of "heirloom
tomatoes" and perhaps this lack luster purple variety of Brandywine tells us
something. Anyone else have better luck with this tomato?
The real winner here was the Brandywine. It was a healthy bush, semi prolific
(7), tasty and I couldn't keep them around. Everyone wanted them. A large (1
3/4lb.+) fruit, prone to some cracking from the stem, but inconsequential
compared to the taste. I was very happy with Brandywine, it lived up to last
year's hipe and I will grow it again. I did not have a chance to taste
Mortgage Lifter, but it was grown at the experimental garden I volunteered at
and the results were very positive, lots of tomatoes! 

As for the paste tomatoes:

Roma was just its normal self, prolific, but not as healthy a plant as I have
had in past years. It appeared stunted (the frost?) but was still overloaded
with fruit. I grew Spectrum, having been told that once I tasted it I would
never grow Roma again. It was "all that" but the Kada were "all that and a bag
of chips" (to borrow my daughter's slang) I preferred both the Spectrum and
the Kada to Roma for size and taste, but truthfully, had the Roma been
healthier I think all three may have been neck in neck. Both Kada and Spectrum
were larger fruit than the Roma usually are. Neither was as prolific, (but
close) they had more flavor than Roma but the Kada, (great for stuffing) which
produced late into the fall, became a bit dry in the late season. Can anyone
explain this? It is hard to pick between Spectrum and Kada. San Marzano and
Vita Gold were also grown at the experimental garden, people were very happy
with the San Marzano but the Vita Gold seemed to suffer from a lack of taste
and the sigma of just being yellow. 

Of the cherry tomatoes:

Sweet 100 is a standby these days, I had heard raves about Juliet and Santa so
I tried all three. I had two bushes of yellow pear that were supposed to be
medium sized tomatoes but they turned out to be cherry.
These were planted in March and smirked at the April frost. Both plants were
prolific to the point that I couldn't keep up with the harvest, 15 on a scale
of 1-10. I gave the neighborhood carte blanch  on those plants. They were
sweet, excellent in salads and kept well in the refrigerator. These were
strong, healthy, indeterminate plants that I would much more aggressively
prune back if I grow them again (and I might if I can find out exactly what
they were!). The only person who didn't love these was my husband who
proclaimed them "the wrong color!" They are a beautiful bright yellow. The
Sweet 100s lived up to their reputation definitely out shining the Juliet, who
had much less flavor and was not as sweet. The real star was the Santa. A
small "grape" tomato that grows in bunches (as do the Juliet). It would
definitely be my choice if I can only grow one cherry tomato plant. Not as
prolific as the yellow pear but enough to feed a family of four. Very sweet
and tasty, a real winner for salads or relish trays, I couldn't keep them on
hand.  

What I learned:
When you plant heirloom tomatoes you have to be prepared to accept the fact
that they are not resistant to many problems (no VFN on the labels). Also, I
was reminded from this year's tomatoes that if I do not start them myself from
seed, I can not be sure of what I am going to get. I really missed my Early
Girls, they are a nice medium sized tomato, prolific, indeterminate and I was
planing on growing them into an arch. Also, the little yellow pear, and the
Brandywine are very large indeterminate plants that will need aggressive
pruning to fit in my square foot garden. I trellised my Early Girls one year
and they grew up a six foot support, over 18" and back down again. I had
tomatoes into December that year.

In closing, I should say that we had an odd weather year. Only a few of the
usual 100*+ temps and dramatic changes from hot to cool weather a few times.
That may explain the poor performance of the usually reliable Delicious tomatoes.

This is the end of this novella. These are only my observations from this past
summer and do not reflect a lifetime of experience with any of these
varieties. Your mileage may vary so additional comments are welcome and encouraged.

Christy
Fresno, Calif.
(The armpit of the San Joaquin Valley)
no biscuit from the Chamber of Commerce for me this morning!


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