My Tomato Addiction

I went a little crazy with tomatoes this year - I usually grow about a dozen different varieties, and I have my mid- and late-season favorites that I just can't give up, like the Sudduth strain of pink Brandywines, Cherokee Purple and Black Krim, but this year I've also started Mark Twain (which didn't do well last year with all the rain) and Rose de Berne (a Swiss heirloom), good old Rutgers and Grandma Mary's paste for canning (or fresh eating), and the popular Gardener's Delight and SuperSweet 100 cherry tomatoes.

But the long winter spent reading seed catalogs got me lusting after some different colored cherries and some early-season tomatoes (besides Cosmonaut Volkov that I tried for the first time last year, and have again this year).  I probably waited too long to order, since I just got seeds at the beginning of April, but April 6th I started some early determinate tomatoes (that might end up in pots if I don't have enough room in the beds!) including Latah (that I only had a couple of last year), Sandpoint, Kootenai,  and Gem State salad tomatoes, a larger slicer called Sophie's Choice, a red grape tomato called Cheeseman's, a red cherry called Camp Joy, 3 different yellow cherries, and a green-when ripe cherry called Green Doctors.

Then more indeterminates - Bloody Butcher and Moravsky Div early salad tomatoes, a yellow slicer named Golden Queen, and Orange Minsk.  Most of them germinated after a week but Orange Minsk, Moravsky Div, and Sophie's Choice were lagging.  I gave them another couple of days but then on the 17th I popped in a few more Sophie's Choice and Orange Minsk.  Orange Minsk gave me 2 more within a week, which is good since it's a midseason indeterminate and it was really getting too late to start more.  I can start more Sophie's Choice and Moravsky Div (if I do it this week) since they're early varieties, and Sophie's Choice can be grown in pots, but so far only 1 more has sprouted (after 10 days, of course it's not on a heat mat).  I may just have to live with 6 Moravsky Div since it's pretty similar to Bloody Butcher, I'm growing both for comparison.

I've got seeds for 4 other varieties of early determinates that I'm going to trial next year - just had enough "salad" tomatoes this year, and I'm trying to keep the number of (tomato) plants to under 200 this year so I have room to grow other things LOL.  But as you can see, tomatoes are kind of an addiction.  I love to try new (or old!) varieties, though I try to stick with open-pollinated (if not heirloom) kinds to preserve genetic diversity.  I hope others will discover new favorites by trying some different kinds not available in a grocery store - hey, I got my dad hooked on Brandywine last year (though I did start some Best Boy hybrids for my mom, who likes "regular" tomatoes)!