davood's tomatoes and peppers 2023

[davood]

Some peppers.

Jimmy Nardello:

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Shishito:

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Ring leader jalapeño:

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Cayenne sweetness:

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Bell pepper and giant ancognagua slow to fruit.

[davood]

General notes:

ISPL averages the most fruit per plant. 6 plants, 64 tomatoes, 10.6 pp average.

GGWT: 5 plants, 32 tomatoes, 6.4 average.

KBX: 4 plants, 25 tomatoes, 6.25 average.

Earl of Edgecombe: 3 plants, 15 tomatoes, 5 average.

Rebel Yell: 3 plants, 11 tomatoes, 3.66 average.

Fish Lake Oxheart: 4 plants, 13 tomatoes, 3.25 average.

Vorlon: 3 plants, 7 tomatoes, 2.33 average.

Dester: 3 plants, 7 tomatoes, 2.33 average.

I can't count the # of Tommy Toes, but Matt's Wild is kinda bare, weirdly!

[davood]

So far...

Production:
ISPL 273.47oz, 29 fruits
KBX 192.12oz, 9
FLO 133.64oz, 6
GGWT 124.27oz, 10
Dester 73.85oz, 4
All others less than 3
Several ARGG plants have zero tomatoes.

Largest fruits:
KBX (31.35oz, 29.45oz, 28.30oz) and FLO (28.46oz, 27.15oz)

Flavor:
Dester, Rebel Yell, and KBX are superlative. Surprised that ISPL and GGWT taste a bit bland for me, but it's also been very rainy lately. FLO is pretty good too.

Cosmetics:
Many fruits have been affected by cracking from too much rain. It has rained maybe every other day. Vorlon, Rebel Yell, and FLO seem most crack resistant. KBX to a lesser extent.

A relatively high number of GGWT have fused blossoms. ISPL also, to a lesser extent. Rarer on other tomatoes.

[rossomendblot]

Daniel Burson and GGWT both taste a bit bland to me this year, with none of the usual deeper black tomato tasting notes. Our July was very overcast with a lot of rain. Both plants are in the greenhouse but the rain does eventually soak in to the greenhouse borders from the lawn outside.

[davood]

Daniel Burson and GGWT both taste a bit bland to me this year, with none of the usual deeper black tomato tasting notes. Our July was very overcast with a lot of rain. Both plants are in the greenhouse but the rain does eventually soak in to the greenhouse borders from the lawn outside.

Are other tomatoes faring better in this weather for you? July was very wet for us so that is probably not helping the taste here either.

GGWT does seem to have less skin issues like cracking after heavy rains. Of all the tomatoes, KBX, Fish Lake, Tommy Toe and GGWT experience the least cracking. Fruit from all other plants have been severely affected by the storm we had on Monday, which is a different result than with rains earlier in the season. Rebel Yell for example which previously showed little to no cracking had several fruits split on Monday.

[rossomendblot]

Yes some varieties have done much better than others. Mat-Su Express, GGWT and Polaris have done very well growth wise. Mat-Su is especially dependable for me, it is always the first to reach the top of the greenhouse. Rosedale, True Colours, George Desiktas, Daniel Burson and Longhorn have all been very sluggish and basically stopped growing for now at only 3ft or so tall. These are all in the greenhouse. My outdoor plants have actually done better this year, except now they have some late blight.

Fruit set hasn't been as good as last year, though maybe I'm being a bit pessimistic as the cold, cloudy July slowed a lot of of things down. I track yields on a spreadsheet so we will see at the end of the season. Taste in most tomatoes has been lacking until recently. No sun and too much water, not a good combination for flavour!

The outdoor cherries have been splitting quite a lot, Reinhard's Purple Sugar and Goldkrone in particular, so I have been picking them at first blush.

[davood]

Taste in most tomatoes has been lacking until recently. No sun and too much water, not a good combination for flavour!

I had the same problem in July. Now in September it's getting very dry with no rain for a while and the tomatoes are turning out beautifully. So many issues with splitting in July. ISPL is doing much better now, less splitting. But on balance, I think I will eliminate most varieties for planting next year and focus on KBX as everyone loves it and it doesn't have many issues with disease or splitting, and other tomatoes that have a reputation for not splitting like Crnkovic Yugoslavian and oxhearts.

Yields so far, some clear winners.

ISPL- 177.62 oz per plant (many thrown out due to severe splitting and radial cracks)
KBX - 139.55 oz per plant (very few splits or cracks)
Fish Lake Oxheart - 109.66 oz per plant (a bit more cracking/splitting than KBX)
Dester - 100.15 oz per plant (high amount of splitting)
Rebel Yell - 86.28 oz per plant (moderate to high amount of splitting)
GGWT - 71.55 oz per plant (moderate amount of splitting, fruit is softer than other tomatoes)
Vorlon - 53.79 oz per plant (beautiful but sparse)
Earl of Edgecombe - 52.43 oz per plant (very few splits or cracks)

[rossomendblot]

Much better than me - 400 oz from the 8 greenhouse plants. GGWT last year 213 oz alone, this year 37 oz! Very strange year. I am looking for more dependable varieties too but realise that the perfect combination of yield, flavour, earliness and disease resistance is rare in OPs.

What is the flavour of KBX like?