Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Central Coast Tomato Trials - part 8

At this point in the trials, I have picked over 30 lbs of tomatoes. The heaviest producer is Stupice, with an average of 47 tomatoes per plant, totaling 3.61 lbs.

Following closely are:
Glacier (58 tomatoes totaling 3.68 lbs),

Sungold F2 (185 tomatoes totaling 3.50 lbs), and

Paul Robeson (10 tomatoes totaling 3.39 lbs).
Some notes on the cool-summer varieties that I'm growing:
Camp Joy - a small red tomato; the first to set fruit; good flavor
Early Girl F2 - 2 plants vary wildly. One has jumbo tomatoes and regular leaves; the other has several small-medium tomatoes and potato leaves.
Glacier - a compact plant that's only 4 feet tall and rather narrow; it has potato leaves and is a heavy producer of small red tomatoes; good flavor
Lahman Pink - the latest to produce ripe fruit; light red tomatoes of various sizes; ok flavor
Nepal - slow to produce fruit; red tomatoes of various sizes, some large; good flavor
Paul Robeson - slower to produce ripe fruit; multi-color, from maroon to green to orange; medium and small fruit; BEST flavor so far
San Francisco Fog (F2?) - slow to produce fruit; leaves curled upward; light producer
San Marzano F2 - slow to produce fruit; red paste tomatoes, most are quite large; good flavor
Stupice - first to produce ripe fruit; smallish-medium red tomatoes; meaty, good flavor
Sungold F2 - 2 plants vary wildly. One has small red cherry tomatoes, but very few. The other is fantastic with loads of delicious, large, orange cherry tomatoes.
Sweetie - not growing well or producing well; small red cherry tomatoes

4 comments:

Jan said...

Hi Jackie, On 1 of my plants, there is 1 red tomato on the vine right now...which I'll pick today. It actually had 2, but one was taken by a critter. On the other plant, there is 1 tomato, not yet ready to pick. I did something horribly wrong in the spring when I planted them...I know I did not put them in deep. That is part of the problem as well as the fact that I did not take care of them and feed them well. It's so nice to see the massive amount you've collected from yours!

Stefaneener said...

This is so valuable. I'm glad we have lots of sun and therefore lots of tomatoes, but anything that adds to the general knowledge base is useful.

Wendy said...

That Paul Robeson is gorgeous! Glad to know it was nice tasting too. I may try that next year. I love a dark tomato!

Jackie said...

Jan, I hope your tomatoes pick up. I don't actively "feed" mine...just a healthy dose of compost and manure.

Stefaneener, glad you think this info is valuable. I like hearing about other people's veggie experiences. I'm more likely to trust info from a fellow blogger than a description on a seed-seller's website ;)

Wendy, Paul Robeson is great. It's the only "black" tomato I've grown, so I can't compare it to others...yet!