I'd picked out the tomatoes we were going to grow this year back in February. My original picks were Early Girl (earliest tomato available, 52 days),
Rose (heirloom, organic, good eating, 78 days), and Opalka (heirloom, good for
saucing, 84 days).
The supplier we use just sent out a PDF of 60 new varieties they're trying out this year. Some of them sound really cool. And I've got space for 2 "new" picks, I think, possibly more (my plan is at home). Should I get 2 of the same or 2 different ones?
The Bali sounds interesting (sweet spicy flavor), so does the Chile Verde (bet it makes excellent green salsa) and half a dozen others. Anything catch your eye? Would you replace any of my original picks with one on these lists?
Oh. We're not big cherry tomato fans. We primarily dice them up for cooking or salsas, and I sauce a LOT for marinara and roasted red pepper & tomato sauce (great for pizza sauce). Last year I made "sun" dried tomatoes as well.
Re: 60 new tomato varieties! Help me pick!
I would get Power's Heirloom, Italian Sweet, or Evergreen.
I would get 2 of the same. That's just me though! I don't like my plants to not have a friend!
And interestingly enough, I love how your supplier has a totally different selection of heirlooms than mine! We have totally different plants on our lists!
Chile Verde would probably be my pick but I have a salsa addicted family and they would go gaga for a good green salsa
I almost got the Italian Sweet (beefsteak) this year but ended up with a different beefsteak variety. The Master Gardner club really talked it up.
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Ooh, the Bali does sound interesting, but sometiimes I really hate the more unusual tomatoes. There's a green and red one here that I just hate, HATE! And tomato is my favorite food! I don't like Cherokee purples either.
I'm all about the raw tomatoes though, and I bet I could like even those in stuff.
The Canestrino 1 would be good for cooking. And I think the chili verde would be really interesting for salsas and sauces.
I would have to plant Dagma's Perfection! I am going to keep my eye out for those here! Ooh and Golden Girl for me.
I think the Evergreen would be a really good choice, I say that instead of Chili Verde.
Mortgage Lifter is really popular here. Delicious, huge tomatoes.
The Vorlon sounds like it'd be good for cooking too.
Ok, I say Vorlon, and Evergreen.
So far I have three plants in: Sweet Million, Sungold, and my fave heirloom, a big yellow tomato mottled with red. I forget its name.
From the descriptions, that's why I chose Evergreen vs. the Chili Verde.
And it's really amazing to me the different types of heirlooms you can get! Really wow!
We got White Wonder, Mr. Stripey, Lemon Boy, and some others. I can't even remember what we got and it was only this past Saturday! But none that I remember at our green house were on your list. Different strokes.
The scary thing is that's not even including the tomatoes in their normal brochure. This is in addition. They have 10 pages of more tomatoes in their normal catalog.
They have a big celebration at the end of the year called Tomatomania, where you can come and taste-test all the varieties they grew that year and vote for your favorites.
And now I'm hungry....
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I agree--some of the most novel varieties I've tried planting were awful. I have, however, tried Chile Verde and it was excellent. Great for salsas.
Sungold is very good. And Dirty Boy.
How many plants and what kinds do you already have?
I'm a big fan of odd colored tomatoes. I had pretty good luck with them last year. I grow them in addition to sauce tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and beef steak tom.
They look really good in chutneys, salsas and on burgers.
I vote for Purple Russian or Pink Beauty...Maybe something gold in color also. Purple Russian is juicy and VERY HEAVY yielder.
Krim (didn't see on the list) is another variety of a Russian heirloom and produces large, steak fruit (black in color).
We don't have any yet. Way too early to plant them in WI. We're probably buying/planting this weekend though since the 10-day forecast shows overnight lows in the upper 50s.
I had planned on 2 of each the Early Girl, Rose and Opalka. And I just added Sioux (a new heirloom in their main catalog). So, that's 8. It's a nice spread of maturity dates, so we'll have tomatoes from mid- to late-July thru the end of the season.
I believe I have room for possibly 4 more, but not 100% certain since the diagram's at home.
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So what did you pick?
I got new tomato plants this weekend. I bought Limmony (a yellow heirloom), Taxi (another yellow heirloom), Green Zebra Grape, 4 new Sweet 100s (in a hanging planter, they're already huge!). I already have a Sweet Million, a Big red stripe or Mr Stripey, I forget! and I think a yellow cherry tomato?? Not sure!! haha.
I got Evergreen, Vorlon, Illini Gold, New Girl and one not on that list called Marianna's Peace at the recommendation of another shopper.
In addition to Early Girl, Sioux, Rose and Opalka.
15 plants in total! Eeek! I'm predicting a LOT of salsa.
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