This morning I had the luxury of not rousing kids out of bed before I had to leave for work. I just wish I had spring break! My job is slow enough as it is... just waiting for the ice to melt off the lakes.
I took the time to go through my tomato seed stash and whittle the list down to 12 varieties to plant for the year. I had maybe sixteen or seventeen varieties, and I bought one new one which of course I will plant this year. So after much deliberation, the list is as follows:
Polish Linguisa 73 day paste (the one I bought new this year)
Grandma Mary's 68 day paste
Opalka 83 day paste (anything over 80 days is risky here)
Rose 80 day slicer (had really good luck with these the first year I had a garden here)
Black Cherry 76 day cherry (good luck with these two or three years ago)
Yellow pear 82 day pear (very prolific, and good)
Beaverlodge plum 55 day plum (I'll try anything under 60 days!)
Matina 75 day slicer
Siletz 70-75 day slicer (anything under 80 might work for me)
Brandywine over 80 day slicer...but it's always worked, and it's worth it
Sub Arctic Plenty- 50 day small slicer (we'll see)
Stupice 50 something day slicer that has always worked for me.
So 12 varieties means maybe 6 beds devoted to tomatoes. Which means I need more beds, although I may be cultivating part of the old horse pasture this year.
4 comments:
I think Brandywines are well worth it, too! Always grow them! Have you tried Bellstar as a paste tomato? It's really early and produces well in our short Summers. You can get it from Johnny's Selected Seeds. I'm trying Amish Paste this year for the first time. Do you have any experience with them?
Spring is in the air!!!
Oh my gosh, I grow about two varieties.
Amazing.
Denise- I've grown Brandywines along with Pruden's Purple, which is supposed to be like a Brandywine except earlier, and they both ripened about the same time, and of course the Brandywines were better.
I haven't tried Bellstar- I'll have to look it up in my Johnny's catalog. I have grown Amish Paste, in fact I think they are one of the best overall tomatoes, I just decided this year to give something else a try. But...you've got me thinking...maybe I'll plant a few of them just for insurance!
One of the reasons I like to start my own seed: In the two or three years I have bought Amish Paste seedlings from my local greenhouse, which does carry a good selection of heirloom varieties, the "Amish Paste" have turned out to be some beefsteak shaped variety. I don't know if it's their fault, or if they get them from suppliers.
Oops, itchy trigger finger.
FC- I guess I'm a tomato fanatic! Although I think one year a long time ago I planted twice as many varieties. I ended up mostly forgetting what was what.
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