You’re in two different hemispheres and you can collaborate, and educate people, and have fun.”. The effort is always get everyone to garden, and if you have a few hours of sun in a particular place, grow a tomato there—but not an indeterminate, because it will get too tall and unwieldy. I think our dwarf project has helped some of the smaller companies get something special that they can offer. One plant is enough so we grow two … So I am up to Lot Number T16-186—I have saved seed from 186 varieties this year, which is a really good year. It is an oxheart, wispy leaves, it needs staking and tending. Large slicing type tomatoes: Red ‘Aker’s West Virginia,’ ‘Andrew Rahart’s Jumbo Red;’ pink ‘Brandywine,’ ‘Dester;’ yellow ‘Hugh’s,’ ‘Azoychka,’ ‘Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom;’ orange ‘Kellogg’s Breakfast,’ ‘Yellow Brandywine,’ ‘Aunt Gertie’s Gold;’ purple ‘Cherokee Purple,’ ‘Carbon,’ ‘Black from Tula;’ brown ‘Cherokee Brown;’ green ‘Cherokee Green,’ ‘Green Giant;’ white ‘Great White;’ striped ‘Pink Berkeley Tie Dye;’ swirled ‘Lucky Cross,’ ‘Little Lucky,’ ‘Regina’s Yellow.’, Cherry tomatoes: red ‘Sweet Million;’ pink ‘Rose Quartz;’ yellow ‘Galina,’ ‘Egg Yolk;’ white ‘Dr. Dwarf Tomato Project. When you get involved in a breeding project, that makes your numbers explode, because you are trialing different tomatoes, but they may not have a name yet. It has been just remarkable the explosion of tomato varieties, and there are so many factors for that. I have some interesting thoughts about those. I’ve noticed that in Tomatodom [laughter] we have some really interesting work. Maturing in about 65 days, the fruits are relatively large, often growing as big as tennis balls. Prolific and tasty deep-red cherry tomatoes. But this summer I’ll be getting a small green house which will give me the capability to try some new varieties. The fruits are bright yellow. Your Price: $2.95 Learn how your comment data is processed. There is one obvious exception. Boronia - I’ve had average tasting and superb tasting Boronia plants in my garden. Sometimes, we have thousands of tomato plants just because we can’t help ourselves! I’ve rounded up the best tomatoes … I garden zone 6a, NW Ohio, have high humidity, midsummer temps can go 90’s, 2020 was a 3 week drought, or it can rain a lot all summer. The first think I would do is think about how heart-shaped tomatoes actually have the same meatiness of paste types, but often have better flavor. By the end of the season I have 8’+ tall plants with woody, 1″ diameter stems and ~1/2 bushel of tomatoes/plant. But you know, some of these tomatoes that have been around 100 or 120 years really can’t be improved upon. The fruits come in red and yellow varieties and range from more acidic to sweeter, with less acid. There are the dwarf tomatoes, which are just now starting to get into some of the smaller, more unique and interesting companies. But its taste is like none other—rich, smoky and earthy—a taste that led Baker Creek to call it its “best tasting tomato!” Large, one-pound fruits appear mid-season. These little tomato plants pack a big punch. It takes about 70 days to mature. The Small Fry tomato is a dwarf variety that grows bright red, 1 inch fruits in clusters of 7 or 8. Disease resistant and producing big crops of large yummy tomatoes … Time flies for gardeners, and I would expect time for us maybe goes by faster than for anyone else. Welcome! A. A. Dwarf tomatoes are popular for growing in hanging baskets, containers and anywhere garden space is limited. When I looked at the Seed Savers yearbook, I think trying to choose tomatoes has become as simple or as complex—depending how you see it. What I am waiting for is to see if the Johnny’s or Burpee’s or Totally Tomatoes think, “Hey, who are these guys?” I don’t want to push them at them; I want to see if they’re serious enough. Sharing the purple color with Dwarf Wild Fred and Rosella Purple, it tends a bit smaller, bears a bit more heavily … Margaret's weekly public-radio show, from Robin Hood Radio in Sharon, CT, the smallest NPR station in the nation. Craig is also cofounder of the Dwarf Tomato Project (those are some dwarf types sliced open up top), which gets back to the issue of how many tomatoes can be squeezed in, since small is good. They are on a journey toward being released, or to the compost bin, because they simply don’t make the grade. I was thinking, waiting for your call for our chat, that a gardener’s year really isn’t a straight line with a start and a finish, but it’s a circle—and it’s wherever you are in the circle. And you mentioned what you called the “tomato times 10 flavor.” [Laughter.] You also mentioned ‘Black Cherry,’ and then a yellow one I forget—‘Egg Yolk.’. Several varieties are widely grown and relatively easy to raise at home. I did a second planting, and picked a lot of them green before the first frost. I grew up on Big Boys in Virginia in the Sixties, but moved out west 30 years ago and the Big Boys do not do well here. And many more! Time will tell how many of these become true heirlooms, because if people love them they will share them—they will share them through the years. My picks of garden gear, books, and mulch, mulch more, all things I use myself. Copyright Leaf Group Ltd. // Leaf Group Lifestyle. Q. Listen locally in the Hudson Valley (NY)-Berkshires (MA)-Litchfield Hills (CT) Mondays at 8:30 AM Eastern, rerun at 8:30 Saturdays. You have to be tough, because with so many great tomatoes out there you have to be willing to say, “I’m sorry, this one will get spit out when somebody’s not looking, because it doesn’t taste very good.” [Laughter. So there have been a lot of inadvertent slight changes that get worked into some of these varieties through the years. In a perfect world, they wouldn’t, but it isn’t a perfect world because gardeners save seeds in different regions in different ways and different bees buzz he garden at different times. They grow to about 1 inch in diameter and are red cherry in color. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here). TO ENTER TO WIN a signed copy of “Epic Tomatoes,” Craig LeHoullier’s book, simply comment below, answering the question: OK, go ahead: Tell us your top tomato (or tomatoes)–the one you always grow–and also whether any in Craig’s list might find a place in your garden this year? Paste types (in which Craig includes heart-shaped due to their meatiness): red ‘German Red Strawberry’ (heart), ‘Opalka’ (paste), ‘Reif’s Red Heart’ (heart); pink ‘Nicky Crain’ (heart), ‘Mikarda Sweet ‘(paste); yellow ‘Yellow Oxheart’ (heart), ‘Yellow Bell’ (paste); orange ‘Orange Strawberry;’ purple ‘Cherokee Purple Heart’ (heart), ‘Purple Russian’ (paste); white ‘Orange Cream’ (paste); striped ‘Speckled Roman’ (paste). So between 2005 when it started and now, in 2016 at the end of it, we now have 66 stable, open-pollinated varieties—meaning you can grow them and save seed from them and share them. We’ve used all kinds of parents to get really good diversity. It is one of the best early ripening tomato varieties (55 days … Back to all those 12,000-plus others, and how we choose. A. What’s interesting is—and this is where you will find a different approach recommended for a novice gardener versus someone who a real tomato-obsessed nut like me—I’ve been with the Seed Savers Exchange right from the beginning of their explosion of tomato varieties, and I got a lot of my favorites early on, so I can tend to know if something isn’t as it should be. Q. I suspect you’re going to be emailing me a little list to post…[see below]. Q. The Tiny Tim tomato is a very small dwarf determinate variety that grows to about 16 inches. They actually have been around since the early 1860s, and they came over to the U.S. as an unusual variety called ‘Chateau de Laye’ from France. Listen live at 8:30 AM EDT Mondays, to the replay Saturday morning, or stream the podcast anytime. Celano. (Photo credits: All from Craig LeHoullier except ‘Hugh’s’ taken by Kip Dawkins and ‘Speckled Roman’ taken by Stephen Garrett.