We love tomatoes and a good part of my year is spent dreaming of the day the first ripe one in our yard is picked and eaten. Some years they do better than others, but once all is said and done, we will have 80+ quarts of red sauce put up for the winter by the time the last of the plants freeze out at some point in October or early November here. They are our main fruit crop, producing several thousand pounds here over the course of the summer. Many of our neighbors bring by buckets and boxes from July through September to fill their own winter red sauce needs, and no one that is a friend is unwelcome to pretty much as much as they can take away with themselves. Generally, we give away several hundred plants every spring as well.
So this is the weekend I am getting my main season tomatoes for my yard started. Snow is still deep in the yard over the gardens, and I do not think I will be planting outside anywhere near as early as I did last year (March 28th, a record for me) but I am still shooting for April 15th-30th for my regular plantings, and as soon as the ground is thawed, the lake is ice-free, and there is no more morning frosts the plants I stated a few weeks ago will get plugged into the ground. They are under the grow lights in the basement.
So this is my tomato list for the yard this year:
Joe Lauerer – Thin skinned, pink, eating or paste tomato, 2 oz
Terhune – Thin skinned, pink brandywine type slicing tomato, 1-2.5#
Rumi Banjan – Thin skinned, yellow or orange starburst colored, beefsteak, 2-4 oz
Nyagous – Medium skinned, dark colored, perfectly round eating tomato, 4 oz
Black Trifele – Medium skinned, dark w/dark green shoulders, processing or eating, 6 oz
Cherokee Purple – Thin skinned, dark brandywine type, 1-1.5#
Stupice – Heavier skinned, red eating or processing tomato, 2-4 oz
Siberian – Heavier skinned, red eating or processing tomato, 2 oz
Christopher Columbus – Medium skinned paste tomato, .5-2.5#
Sasha’s Altai – Medium skinned eating tomato, 4-8 oz
San Marzano – Medium skinned paste tomato, 4 oz
Nell’s Sweetheart – Medium skinned Amish Paste selection, .75-1#
Pink Claire – F5 Lauerer cross, selecting for pink medium beefsteak types, about 4 oz
Kenosha – Paste from Carolyn Male I am trialing
Mlinovyi Rog – another paste from Carolyn Male I am trialing
Sheboyagan – Medium skinned pink paste tomato, 6 oz
Long Keeper – Hard skinned greenish storage tomato.
The Siberian, Stupice and Sasha’s Altai are waiting to go in the ground already. They are just setting their first true leaves and I suppose they should be potted up soon. By May 1st (weather permitting) I will have about 90 plants in the ground here, with backups if we get a late frost out here. 3 years ago I had to use them as we had a hard freeze here about a week into May. Not uncommon on the mainland gardens, but only the second time for me here since I started growing on the island back in 2002.
