The 2018 Tomato Array

[hrj]

 Hey, I have to record what tomato varieties I planted this year somewhere so I can keep track of what they are when summer comes. So here we go: 18 plants starting from the corner of the tomato beds nearest the door to the house. Three plants in each row, six rows from nearest to farthest. The are arranged in thematic groups just because I'm that sort of person.

We start with the cherry/pear types and the standard size yellows.

1. Brandwine Yellow (standard)
2. Juliet (red oval cherry)
3. Sun Gold (my favorite: yellow round cherry)

4. Golden Jubilee (standard, yellow)
5. Red Cherry (what it says on the label)
6. Yellow Pear (what it says on the label)

Next are the six standard-size plain reds.

7. Phoenix (supposed to be heat-tolerant, not that I've run into a tomato that wasn't)
8. Mortgage Lifter
9. Big Boy

10. Seattle's Best of All (I'm guessing that this is meant to be tolerant of cooler weather, so I suppose it will balance out the Phoenix)
11. Goliath
12. Early Girl (which I always plant for the promise of early fruit and it never actually delivers on timing)

The last bed has the roma-types and the mixed colors.

13. Amish Paste (roma)
14. Roma (roma, duh)
15. San Marzano (roma)

16. Green Zebra (yellow with green streaks)
17. Big Rainbow (red with yellow streaks)
18. Berkeley Tie Die (Red with various streaks)

I didn't plant any of the black/purple varieties this year. In the past I've found then pretty but bland. This time I'd like to adjust how much water I'm giving them and see if I can go for volume production and put the surplus away.

Comments

[hairmonger]

Jealous! It snowed yesterday here in Kentucky. Tomorrow is supposed to have highs in the 70s, but I can't trust it enough to plant broccoli yet, much less tomatoes and peppers.

Mary Anne in Kentucky

[hrj]

I was thinking that I was planting later than usual this year, but when I checked my blog, I put the tomatoes in almost exactly the same time last year. I could have put them in earlier this time, but my weekends have been busy and I haven't had a chance to sort out the irrigation yet, which is critical.

[catherineldf]

It sounds lovely! We lost our tomato patch years ago when the tree in the backyard took over, but I love buying heirlooms at the farmer's markets.

[hrj]

I really missed growing tomatoes for the quarter century(!) I lived in the Oakland fog belt. I think I tried one year and it was just heartbreaking. But Concord has perfect tomato weather. I was looking back at the last couple years of variety lists and it looks like I tend to overlap by half a dozen varieties from year to year. But other than the Sun Gold (my absolute favorite and highly prolific) I'm not entirely certain that my "core set" are necessarily the best producers. I'm never quite systematic enough in my shopping, even though I usually blog my taste-test reviews at some point.