Mad Poet's Garden 2024 (kenny_j at T'ville)

[TheMad_Poet]

Tomatoes I grew this year, some new to me, some standard faves. My opinions, premised by the fact that one never knows if their seeds are true. Happens way too often me thinks. I 1st joined t'ville in sept 2011, and what a journey its been. Participated in the Dwarf project one year, and got to know a lot of great tomato people online, and benefit from their sharing of knowledge. Tomatoes this year:
1. Brandywine Cowlicks, one of my faves for a long time. Little earlier than Sudduth. Flavor fades when too ripe.
2. Brandywine Sudduth, a revisit of this variety. My apologies on this one. For years I touted Cowlicks as the better tomato. I was wrong, on flavor anyways. I now believe I never had true seed. Bought seeds from Johnny's. Exc flavor, and big surprise? Flavor seems to NOT fade when really ripe. Big plus over cowlicks.
3. Kimberley, old fave. Early, great flavor, but fades when too ripe.
4. Sungold, old fave. Arguably the greatest of all time in tomatoes, certainly for hybrids.
5. Orange Banana, old fave. Great tomato, sweet and fruity with a touch of tang. Makes a great sauce when seeds and gel stripped out. Painful process, but worth the effort. Otherwise takes too long to cook down, and flavor gets too intense.
6. Amish Paste, only growing this for a couple years now. Made a small batch of sauce last year that seemed really good. 9 plants this year, so a big batch planned.
7. Eva Purple Ball, decent flave, kinda brandywine like. Will not grow again. Fades when fully ripe, and the Brandys are better.
8. Solar Flare, will not grow again. Flavor seemed mostly sour, and off to me.
9.Tasmanian Chocolate, a disappointment. I had heard they were really good. Not for me. Haven't grown that many dwarfs, but yet to taste one that I thought was great. In the project I grew out Rosella Purple. Never cared for that one either. Sorry Craig, but my honest opinion. Pulled the plants early.
10. Daniel Burson. Talked about this one in another post. Maybe the seeds I got in a swap were not true. A spitter and I pulled the plants early. Never had a cherokee purple I was crazy about either. Best black for me was Vorlon some years ago. I favor the pinks on flavor profiles.
11. Virginia sweets, another spitter. Not sweet at all. Traded seed, so who knows.
12. Ananais Noire, will not grow again. Very uneven ripening, and withstood diseases poorly relative to others. A decent green when ripe type of flavor.
13. Pineapple. Really sweet and fruity. I like this one. I dehydrate thick slices of Brandywines and Pineapple. Flavor is intense this way. Pineapple great for this. Munch as a snack or add to sauces.
14. Lucky Cross PL. One of my wife's faves, sweet and fruity. Been a few years since I grew. Production not great compared to others.
It was a poor season with way too much rain and humidity. Diseases struck, and I was late to take action, so list a lot of leaves. A few plants had no leaves left at all. I always try to stay organic, but this is the second worst year on tomatoes I have ever had. Used some Daconil, and that stopped the spread, but was late in doing so. Next year I will use it from the start. I am betting that will make a huge difference. I ended up cutting all the green fruit off the plants the last week, hoping to get better fruit that was already ripening. Threw out a lot of fruit this year. Very few high up fruit. Diseases killed the new blossoms. Heat and excess rain started around July 8th. Had almost 5" in the rain gage one morning. Yikes!!!!

[MissS]

I too think that I had the wrong seed for Brandywine Sudduth"s'. My fruits were more fluted and I they did not match the flavor of Brandywine or Brandywine Cowlick's by any means. I never did go back and revisit it with new seed. I suppose that I should. Johnny's has Quisenberry in right now but not Suddoth.

Ah ha, now I know who you are. Thanks for the hint! I've been trying to figure it out.

[Ken4230]

I too think that I had the wrong seed for Brandywine Sudduth"s'. My fruits were more fluted and I they did not match the flavor of Brandywine or Brandywine Cowlick's by any means. I never did go back and revisit it with new seed. I suppose that I should. Johnny's has Quisenberry in right now but not Suddoth.

Ah ha, now I know who you are. Thanks for the hint! I've been trying to figure it out.

According to Craig LeHoullier, Johnny's has the original Suddoth strain but call it Quisenberry because the seeds actually came from Ben Quisenberry and he got them from Dorris Sudduth Hill. Miss Hill grew up in Pennsylvania near the Brandywine River and later moved to Tennessee. She sent BQ seeds and the rest is history.

[PlainJane]

Thanks for the notes! I love Solar Flare so sorry it didn’t do well for you. Ditto Daniel Burson.
I grew Vorlon for the first time this season and loved it.
Seed sources are definitely tricky. I’m now restricting to a couple of vendors as I’ve had many off types over the years.

[TheMad_Poet]

Thanks for the notes! I love Solar Flare so sorry it didn’t do well for you. Ditto Daniel Burson.
I grew Vorlon for the first time this season and loved it.
Seed sources are definitely tricky. I’m now restricting to a couple of vendors as I’ve had many off types over the years.

Glad you answered this. Is your avatar a Solar Flare? I have 3 SF plants. On 2 the red stripes are a deep almost brick red. On one they are much lighter in color, Orangish or pinkish red. The lighter colored one tastes pretty good, much sweeter. The 2 dark ones are way more sour. All from the same packet from a swap. I was thinking the lighter one was a different variety, but it is labeled solar flare. Genetic variation? or crossed seeds? I have no idea. Sometimes I wish there were more hybrids that were really good, like Sungold. I would be more than happy to buy the seed and let someone else worry about crosses and such. Been so very busy lately. Will try to get photos taken showing the 2 color phases side by side.

[TheMad_Poet]

I too think that I had the wrong seed for Brandywine Sudduth"s'. My fruits were more fluted and I they did not match the flavor of Brandywine or Brandywine Cowlick's by any means. I never did go back and revisit it with new seed. I suppose that I should. Johnny's has Quisenberry in right now but not Suddoth.

Ah ha, now I know who you are. Thanks for the hint! I've been trying to figure it out.

According to Craig LeHoullier, Johnny's has the original Suddoth strain but call it Quisenberry because the seeds actually came from Ben Quisenberry and he got them from Dorris Sudduth Hill. Miss Hill grew up in Pennsylvania near the Brandywine River and later moved to Tennessee. She sent BQ seeds and the rest is history.

Once again my brain remembered wrong. I dug out my seed packet and the Sudduth were from Tomato Growers supply, not Johnny's. I got walla walla onion seeds, and others from Johnny's. Think I will order some of the Quisenberry also, just to see how they are.

[TheMad_Poet]

On the Lucky cross PL, I have 2 plants. One produced 7 tomatoes, the other 9. Early sets, as upper blossoms got destroyed on all varieties by septoria. Are they normally that stingy? Tatiana's site says they are productive. Seed again from a swap. May order some, but by the color and looks and taste, they seem the real deal. And they were the last variety to give me ripened fruit. The Brandies all had 15- 20 early sets.

[PlainJane]

Yes, @TheMad_Poet, that’s a Solar Flare as my avatar.
True that it’s not a wildly productive variety, but I love the flavor and appearance.

IMG_0453.jpeg

A couple from this year.

[PlainJane]

I’ve tried Lucky Cross twice with lousy results. But after what happened this year with GGWT I may get new seed from Delectation and try once more in future. My list for the coming season is pretty much set.

[Ken4230]

[quote=PlainJane post_id=132645 time=1723917043 user_id=80


All from the same packet from a swap.


A seed swap kind of reminds me of Forest Gump and His Box Of Chocolates. You just never know if the person that originally provided the seeds was meticulous in their seed saving. Or even if they had the correct variety to begin with. That's one reason why I grow so many tomatoes such as" John's Ugly", a decent tasting large pink with an excessive amount of catfacing. I think I know what the variety is, but just thinking is not enough.

I have several others labeled Unknown Possibly ......... Several of them are good tasting and productive but there is no way I could label them as what I think they are and then swap with someone.