From 54 to 28 to 7 Tomato Varieties
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- čas přidán 30. 10. 2021
- Last year I grew 54 different varieties of tomatoes as part of a large variety trial, to try to find tomatoes that grew well in this context, and that we liked to eat. I decided to do another variety trial again this year, growing 28 varieties (23 from the previous trial, three others that had been left out, and a last minute donation of two more varieties from a friend). After another season of growing, tasting, observing and evaluating, the list has now been reduced to 7 varieties that I want to grow next year, but I might include some more!
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I have got to say, your level of presentation, clarity and the sheer wealth of data in those graphs is amazing.
And getting better by the video.
I am preparing to start a market garden, and specific data like this is invaluable so I don't have to run as broad a variety trial.
I'll pitch some in for your service when its all up and growing :)
Thank you for that really supportive comment! Glad to know I am getting better :-)
Best of luck with your market garden! Where are you located?
@@REDGardens In terms of taste, flavour and quality;How is cuor di beu tomato in comparison with brandy wine yellow tomato, saint Pierre tomato and san marzano tomato .??
Seems I've gone in the same direction; from 21 varieties of tomato to one! This year the garden is dedicated to heirloom varieties for seed saving - the state of the world being what it is. My one cultivar is Black Krim.
Bruce, I love how you always keep track and actually presenting us the data. I'm just a home grower with very different cilmate on the other side of the world. I gained so much from you videos.
Also, I rarely see it mentioned but thank you for making the closed caption available right away.
Thanks, and glad to know people are reading the closed captions, so definitely worth the effort!
Take a shot each time he says 'context' 😂 (i love your videos seriously)
Ah, yes, the Context Drinking Game!! Guaranteed to get you drunk!
Wow! So much information and it is all so satisfying and easy to understand! One of my favourite video's ever! Thank you so much!
Ah, thanks. Glad you liked it!
You have put an INCREDIBLE amount of energy and efforts on your channel. Definitely my favorite one among with Charles. Thank you for everything you have shared with us.
Wow, thank you!
Brandywine and big rainbow are my favorite heirlooms for flavor. Big rainbow is one of the sweetest and very productive. Sungold are definitely very yummy.
Thanks, what state do you garden in?
Yes I am starting 34 which is 5 times more than I ever had.
Just last season found just how good they can be.
Looking for favorites again
Wow, 34 is a lot! Should be some fantastic tasting tomatoes in with that. Enjoy!
Have you considered reducing your irrigation on the plants from aug onwards. If your having issues with splitting it might make a difference. I've grown Sakura every year for 15yrs+ and it performs well everytime no matter what. I'd really recommend it. Great video, thanks.
Agree with this comment. It may explain why some of them performed poorly. It could be an experiment for next year where you could compare the same variety but with a different water schedule.
I was thinking that irrigation may be an issue. I have had issues with irregular irrigation causing splitting in the past. In this polytunnel there drip line was set on timer for every night, thinking that a little-and-often approach would be better, but perhaps it wasn't 'little' enough. Thanks for the Sakura recommendation !
@@ahfgebla5379 That would be an interesting experiment, to help understand what is causing this.
I have also heard (maybe even here?) that water stress in the latest stages of vegetable / fruit development can increase flavour on quite a few species.
Of course not leafy greens, but I can see the logic in having smaller fruits with the same nutrient/flavour content.
Basically dilution, very over-simplified.
@@REDGardens we tend to stop irrigating from mid aug onwards. Lots of water every 2 days during fruit set then small amounts every 2 days once harvest starts. Splitting is a varietal tendency as well.
This was so in depth and yet clear at a glance!! Thank you!
🙂
We love the Belarusian Heart variety and it does extremely well here in Arizona with epic harvests. Thank you for another in depth analysis and thank you for sharing.
It is a great variety, and I imagine it will do well with more heat! Do you use it as a sauce tomato?
I love the thoroughness of these videos, thankyou!
Glad you like them!
I have already viewed and shared this several times. Trying a couple of new varieties each year makes my heart happy, along with old favorites.
Thanks for watching - several times!! New varieties are always great to try!
Oh how fun! I'm in short-season cool-summer northern BC and got tired of growing in the greenhouse, so I did a 55-variety tomato trial in my south-facing field this year. I was surprised at how well some of them did -- and how unrelated cool-weather performance was to days-to-maturity. Origin was more indicative (for instance, anything from Russia did well). I now have roughly 20 tomatoes to carry forward into field production next year for further tests, seems like a similar structure to your trial. My season is short enough that determinates win out in production, with the added bonus that that don't need staking or management.
If you're looking for fun, tasty tomatoes that will work in relatively cool climates (?) I'd recommend Karen Olivier's Taiga and KARMA miracle. They have a lot of colour and flavour, and Taiga at least is indeterminate for you. They might get you some of that variety you're looking for.
Wow, that sounds like a great trial!. I think I need to explore growing tomatoes outside next season, and a focus on the determinates makes a lot of sense. I agree that varieties from Russia (or at least the former USSR) are definitely worth trying for their cool season adaptability. There seems to have been fantastic breeding programs there in the past, and I wonder if they are continuing? Thanks for the recommendations.
Perhaps try some of the varieties of the Dwarf Tomato Project along the walls of the tunnel because they require less space. There’s over 100 varieties to select your preferred fruit colour and size!
amazing data, thanks!
Outstanding video!! & Thank you for sharing your results!!
Here in Northern California people grow 'dry farmed tomatoes' planted in Spring and not watered through the growing season, our rain peters out in early April and resumes in October, ideally. These tomatoes are very intensely flavored akin to dehydrated tomatoes and are quite delicious.
Last week I harvested some tomatoes from my garden and as the were somewhat muddy I put them in a bowl of water to clean them, and got distracted. When I got back to them hours later they had all split.
I am entertaining the idea that tomatoes are especially sensitive to water and watering, and that impacts not only splitting, but also the intensity of flavor.
I hope you incorporate this as a factor in your ongoing explorations.
I love your videos and appreciate the upgrade in the graphics recently, they really help to communicate the information.
Thanks.
That sounds very interesting about the dry framed tomatoes. I can imaging that they will be quite intensely flavoured. Something I might try at some point, or at least experiment with different amounts of watering with different plants to see how the flavour changes and the impact on splitting. Glad you like the graphics!!
As someone born and raised in Northern California, can you please explain how you keep anything alive without watering throughout our 100F+ summers? 😅
@@WR_CTorch The dry farmed tomatoes in California are grown in the Pescadero area I think, so that is pretty close to the coast and doesn’t get those hundred degrees Fahrenheit temperatures. I think it would be challenging to grow them in that kind of heat you would have to get them started early enough so they were deep rooted before the hot time of year started and then mulch very deeply. I think the technique was brought over from Italy which is quite hot, and there might be some specific cultivars that are more suited to that technique.
@@declanbanfield4348 Ahhh I see! I’m guessing the much lower temperatures, along with some regular fog rolling in would make this possible. Thanks!
Wow! I really appreciate all your graphs with yield comparison weights and harvest times. Amazing documentation. I love seeing it all laid out in such a clear presentation. I know that was a LOT of work. Thanks for sharing.
I really like this video Your methods of recording data are very clear, presented both orally and visually with clear explanations of each tomato variety. With limited space, I have already selected the varieties (only 4) to grow this year, but am already looking to see which ones to try in 2023: There are so many to choose from!!
Spectacular video thank you for sharing
:)
"Nepal" for slicing and "Supersweet 100" for cherry tomatoes is what I've landed on here in Montana. Huge yields, amazing flavor, very early yielding and deal with the variable weather here well.
Sungold are amazing, but just like you I've had hugely variable yields. Not worth the climb for me when Supersweet 100 are so good
Thanks for the recommendation.
such efforts ! it was so informative thank you for your hard and precise work
👍
Another well thought out and delivered video
Thanks!!!
Great video, such a wealth of information. I especially appreciated the mention of Black Krim, which I will be growing for the first time this year. Thank you! Angela
😀
Lol! Feo de Rio Gordo - Ugly from Fat River 😂 I was surprised reading that cultivar on your chart!
Yeah, a very strange name!
What a massive effort on your part. Very helpful. Thanks - you offer something very different on your channel.
Thanks, glad it was helpful!!
Most informational and advanced tomato variety video on youtube! Thank you
Awesome!! Thanks!
I really do appreciate videos like this, comparing yields of different varieties. This is a really good example of how different tomato species grow well in different areas. I live in TN in the US. Brandywine doesn't survive long enough to fruit because of the different leaf spots we have, but Paul Robeson is durable and keeps producing until the temperature drops in September. I grow tomatoes in raised beds in my backyard, too hot to put them in the greenhouse in the summer.
Yes, it seems that different varieties can do really differently in different contexts. I still have Brandywine fruit ripening on the plants!
Fascinating trial, and on such a scale. It's odd you mentioned dehydrating, and I wondered how they did. It is such a good way to prevent food waste too. Some stunning tomatoes among those, and I took some notes for next year. I'm quite astounded about the failures too. So many people seemed to have problems with bought in seed the past couple of years.
It was also interesting seeing the ones that split, I can't wait to see next years trial too. Thank you! Always look forward to what you are doing.
Thanks! I like the dried tomatoes, and have been semi-drying a lot of them and putting them in the freezer. I think they are more useful. I really like making a type of pesto out of them.
@@REDGardens that's a good idea, they don't go so squishy then I suppose, and must have great flavor!
I recently visited a test garden in Prince Edward Island that was using marigolds as companion plants for their tomatoes. I would love to see your take on companion plants and soil nutrition.
I have heard of marigolds being used like that, to control problematic nematodes in the soil. I am not sure if that is an issue here in Ireland, and I haven't noticed that to be an issue in my gardens, but worth looking into.
They also help with weeds, which is what I mostly use them for.
I alway appreciate your content a lot, please keep it up!
Thanks, will do!
I've only grown 5 varieties this year and they were late as my new polytunnel was delayed. My father grew 'Gardeners Delight' and they were always the most tasty. The same name now applies to a F1 as well as an open pollinated one. It has lost its RHS award as it is not considered a 'cherry' any more as they grow too big. I am certainly disappointed with its flavour these days.
My 'Golden Cherry' tomatoes are very flavourful and don't seem to split like 'Sungold', not that I've grown them together.
My 'San Marzarno' plum tomatoes are very slow and would have been better without the delay. Last year they grew well and the trusses all ripened together, ready for batching in sauce.
My 'Costoluto Fiorentino' did better this year in the ground but I'm not sure that the flavour is as good as it is cracked up to be. It certainly benefits from stopping the trusses at 4 or so tomatoes. They do continue fruiting up the length of the vine and have done better with firm support.
My final variety is 'Ailsa Craig' which has grown larger fruit than previously and I haven't reduced the trusses. It is supposed to be a standard type and fruits throughout the season. It was the best available for my Caprese salad, being tasty and a good size. It was also good in my Greek salads, but I had to substitute cucumber for the green peppers as the peppers were delayed too.
It was my first year of growing cucumbers and they have romped away producing too many cucumbers for me. However a better balanced salad production next year I hope, and I've already bought some different tomato varieties, 'Atomic Rooster' and 'Black Russian'.
The watering, when you grow so many different varieties together, fine tuning watering for 1 variety is not possible. The variety that splits, sticks out. Several 'Sungold' growers have stopped growing it due to the splitting problem.
I'll have to watch this video again so I can study the graphics on a larger screen, I appreciate them and acknowledge the work that all that data gathering represents.
Regards from Anglesey.
Thanks for the comment, and all of that valuable information about your own tomato growing explorations. The point yo make about not being able to fine tune the watering for different varieties is an interesting and important one. I would love to get to the point where my knowledge and care of the the different varieties is developed enough to be able to make that kind of refined management adjustments!
Hell yeah, I've been waiting for this video to come out ever since we talked of its potentiality earlier in spring of this season! @RedGardens
Excellent, hope it didn't disappoint!
@@REDGardens It did not, brilliant work. Keep up the variety trails please.
Wow. As always, yours is far and away the most useful gardening channel I'm subbed to. Just think of all the new gardeners trying out tomatoes for the very first time and all the frustration they'll be avoiding because they know what to expect from these varieties. Thanks!
Thank you for that supportive comment!! I do hope my videos help!
Great content! Good job.
Thanks!
Good video!
Thanks!
Well… I had taken the “Gardeners Delight” off of my list of 16 tomato plants to grow this year.
I may put it back on.
I am going for production mostly… with added plants for flavor.
Celebrity. Bella Rosa, and Red Snapper for production of wave after wave of tomatoes.
Sungold, Supersweet 100, and now Gardeners Delight for a sea of small flavorful tomatoes for snack.
Then several Chefs Choice Pink and Black Krim for extra flavor and color.
I want to try and make a few messes of canned and frozen spaghetti sauce for my family.
Awesome reviews!!!
That sounds like a great list!!
I lost all my Brandywine to blight. My main consideration for both indoor and outdoor tomatoes is resistance to blight now. I grow in a cool, damp valley bottom with many others and blight ravages us.
I am glad that blight isn't so much of an issue here - or at least it hasn't been in the last few years in the polytunnel.
If you like a sturdy general sandwich slicer for your area I'd recommend Early Girl Bush Tomato. You can even grow it in a large pot and keep it indoors until June which would help avoid the early blight. Best of luck.
Great video. The diagrams are always the best. I would just watch an hour of statistics. Top notch mate!
Thanks! Glad to know at least some of the people watching my videos appreciate the stats! I suspect a lot of people skip over those parts, but perhaps I am wrong.
@@REDGardens inspired by you I'm currently putting together a temperature and brightness tracker for the glass house to better understand the growth. However, I will never be able to track the yield with you dedication
@@derlange44 I have found that any data or regular observation helps to understand what is going on, or at least to confirm or question ideas I have received form elsewhere.
This year I will be spraying a foliar feed of "Cal-Mag" - a hydroponic product made by General Hydroponics - for splitting problem. That and a gradual lessening of soil moisture toward the end of the season.
Thanks for sharing your experience with tomatoes - you have given me some ideas for varieties to try along with my old favorites (mostly in your discard list!) this year. One variety that I would not be without that does not fit into any other category is Wild Argentinian (available from Brown Envelope Seeds). Tiny flavour bombs on a sprawling (or hanging) unfussy plant, with a long season. I sprinkled them onto salads and freeze for use on pizzas and other dishes over the winter. I hear you in terms of reducing the variety count, but there is always room for one more...
Hi Phoebe, yeah, there is always one more! Sounds like an interesting variety, I'll have to try it out some time. Thanks
You are a scientist of note!
Ah, thanks!
Hey man, I have been following your channel for a while now: keep the good job :) I was wondering if you would be interested in trying some varieties of tomatoes that were bred to be able to be stored during the winter? I don't know if they are grown elsewhere but in Mallorca and Catalonia we have "Tomàques de penjar" means literally "tomatoes for hanging-up" [in Catalan] that are grown with that purpose in mind. Probably they are similar varieties elsewhere also. Cheers!
Thanks! I definitely want to explore growing tomatoes for storage. I have read a few variety descriptions that suggest this possibility, but have never tried it. Perhaps next year. Thanks for the suggestion, sounds interesting, and I will look into finding seeds.
I also grew one such tomato this year that is very famous and you can save the seed. Piennolo Del Vesuvio Tomato is a quality sauce tomato that I thought tasted fine for fresh eating as well. I took a picture when I hung a large quantity of them and it was a beautiful sight. They are worth trying to over winter. For me I live in a small space with a small garden so I try not to over winter what I can preserve in other ways. In my sauce tomato trial it was the first to ripen and had a beautiful flavor but I didn't like the large seeds so I ultimately chose the San Marzano tomato for frozen spaghetti sauce as it had the freshest and brightest flavor and I could dispose of seeds easily.
@@j.reneewhite915 Sounds like an interesting variety, I will keep an eye out for seeds.
yeay Bruce!
:)
Hi. Sorry to make a remark, but tomato leaves are screaming at you about the deficiency of phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and calcium. The deficiency of all these elements simultaneously indicates a too acidic or alkaline reaction of the soil, in which all these elements pass into a form not assimilated by plants. Check the soil with litmus paper.
Your statistics are next level. I always try, but get lost half way. I have no advice to give. I can only share and I learn from you guys. I grow Roma tomatoes for sauces. Moneymaker and little wonder for House consumption. In South Africa where I live it gets crazy hot. Up to 35 Celsius.
Sometimes hotter. I usually get split tomatoes when I change or alter my watering habits. My tomatoes want the same amount of watering through the start of fruit development. With my last batch of tomatoes I remove the tops and stop watering the plant. This I found helped getting the last green tomatoes to ripen. Thank you for sharing your experience with us, buddy.
God bless and I hope you have a great season.
Thanks for the lovely comment! I have tried Roma type tomatoes in the past but never got a lot out of them, though I should try again. You are definitely in a very different climate to me, that kind of heat can be a real blessing for growing this hat loving crops, but I also realise it can be a struggle in different ways. I really need to look into my watering habits, especially about cutting back on watering towards the end of the season.
@@REDGardens thank you. I really have a deep appreciation for what you do and for taking the time to reply to these comments. Stay safe and may the powers that be bless you with a fantastic harvest season.
I like to grow lots of varieties of tomatoes for the same reasons you gave. I usually give a tomato three years to convince me to continue growing it. I had heard so many glowing reports about Paul Robeson, I grew it for four year, trying to get it to produce a nice crop. It never did. So, I stopped. I know that everybody has different soil and different weather conditions. Because of those variables, what does well for one person, can be a waste of time for another. Several years ago, I grew 45 varieties. Over the years, I have whittled that list down. This year I grew 15 in raised beds and 7 in containers. I think I might still grow 15, but five of them will be new varieties.
I like your 3 year policy! I realise with some of these varieties it can be just chance that they don't grow well, or I don't know how to grow them well. I still want to grow a lot of varieties, and try retry some of the ones I dropped this season and last, but I am a bit conflicted about it all. If I don't keep track of harvests and make notes about it all, and just enjoy growing and harvesting the diversity, then I would be willing to grow many more varieties, but then the benefit of the harvest data becomes really useful.
I had similar issues with Paul Robeson - was very disease susceptible, will not grow again. What is your top ten list?
Paul Robson...no doubt a "Red" tomato.
to the core.
I struggled with sun gold this year, in the West Country uk. You’re right that nothing beats the flavour so I’ve always grown it. One thing I’ve always noticed with it is that it always is the first to fruit, so I wonder whether the cold spring this year affected it more than other varieties. Worth persevering with I’d say
Yeah, it is very tasty, and I know other people have had a lot of success with it. I need to look into possible reasons for the unusually small tomatoes.
Less variety means you can o more plants of each, then select the best from those to save seeds from. I'm trying to adapt some to my conditions this way. I have done it with some Heirlooms selecting for shape.
I grow a lot of indoor tomatoes, and just want to second tte suggestions that the splitting can be managed with irrigation conrol. More frequent but much smaller amounts of water can pretty much eliminate it. A couple of suggestions, "Black Cherry", great taste, sells very well. "Principe Borghese", bred for drying but great salad tomato and makes fantastic fresh tomato sauce.
Thanks for the recommendations, especially about the Principe Borghese! The watering issue is an interesting one, as I have used a timer in this polytunnel all season, watering a little bit every night, and still had splitting of some varieties, but not others. I am thinking that these varieties might prefer generally dryer soil,
I’m quite new to gardening. I don’t know why, but my tomatoes are growing TINY. Like the size of beans. They’re supposed to be about 1.5-2” diameter. I know my dirt isn’t very good, but I don’t know if could be that bad.
Apparently the small tomatoes is a sign of stress, or that the plant was struggling in some way, but not sure what ti could be in your situation.
RED Gardens
They were planted in the hottest part of the year, but the fruit didn’t show up until the heat had passed. I’m contemplating just pruning off all of the small ones that are there and seeing how it goes for the rest of the season (first frost: Dec 11)
Growing here in western Washington, sungolds are my go to cherry tomato variety. I swap and try out other cherry tomato varieties each year, but I always make sure to have at least one sungold. I was shocked your sungolds did so poorly. I grow mine unprotected and let them grow much more wild, because I get more fruit out of them that way. Also, and this may be both variety and the bushy way I grow them, sungolds keep producing for me well into October. I can generally get one last harvest out of them on Halloween, which is fun to bring it something orange on halloween that isn't a pumpkin. This year, my sungolds hung on until the 5th of this month, with my last harvest on the 3rd. I love the flavor and they are actually really tasty as a fresh sauce with some herbs. Later in the season, most split from the huge amount of rain we get here, so I tend to make a lot of sauce. I also haven't found a cherry tomato variety that is more resistant to pests and disease than sungold.
Well said. I live in Aurora Oregon zone 8b and I grow all my tomatoes unprotected as well. The Sun Gold was a good performer. I ate to my hearts content. It was my first year with this variety so I grew 8 plants. lololol live and learn. I had plenty to share!!! And share I did.
I was just checking the difference in typical weather between Western Washington and the midlands of Ireland, and notice that you have quite a bit more warmth in the summer, which would definitely help with growing tomatoes outside! Still something that I want to explore, as it would be great to be able to get some crop outside.
I find this site very useful to better understand the conditions other people are growing in. (I am based close to Birr Ireland)
weatherspark.com/compare/y/33067~913/Comparison-of-the-Average-Weather-in-Birr-and-Seattle
Is impressive how do you keep track of all that data while being so busy with so many diferent cultures and diferent gardens.
Thanks. It is a lot of work!!
Each year I end up growing more and more hybrids. I do keep the classic black krim, cherokee purple, pink brandywine, etc, but in the USA, we just have so many wonderful choices of F1 Hybrids that have favorable characteristics, I can't help but move toward them. Like the classic san marzano/roma/amish paste gets beat by varieties like Burpee's Gladiator/Big Mama/Super Sauce (though I still grow san marzanos). I'm still producing Big Daddy, Big Beef and Better Boy into November so it's hard to say when my heirlooms are long gone (Minus my Kellogg's Breakfast). Sun Gold is great but I've moved to Sun Sugar due to the cracking issues. I keep trying to drop my trial numbers down but I seem to collect seeds at a pace that keeps me growing 40+ unique tomatoes per year. I love seeing your results because you break it down to production times, taste and weight per plant which I rarely have time to do.
Tha is intersting. I have not really gotten into the hybrids yet, only a few of the cherry type, but there is so much to choose from! Your comment has me thinking that doing a hybrid dominated trial would be interesting. I know what you mean about wanting to drop the numbers but keep adding new ones. I would love to keep growing a huge number, butte effort of keeping track of everything is a bit much at times. Although I value having all that data, and it does make for better videos, it would be nice to just grow them and enjoy them! It is a bit of a paradox, the less data I collect the more I will be interested in growing, but then the more valuable the data becomes!
I tried several varieties this year, including the Brandywines you grew. in my experience, their shape was often so irregular/involuted they seemed encourage insects and fungus, although they were very tasty. I was growing these exposed, out in the garden, so I'm wondering if they may be better suited to growing under cover or in a polytunnel/greenhouse. Thanks as always, Bruce, for your thorough exploration and sharing of experience. You've given me a few new varieties to try next year!
I find that Brandywine can be a bit irregular, but I suspect it is less so in in the shelter of the polytunnel. I don't grow tomatoes outside, so don't really know.
I grew Paul Robson last year too and although the tomato was delicious I got maybe 5 tomatoes off of each plant so just not worth the space in my small garden
That is interesting. I am impressed with the tomato but don't know why the plants were so problematic.
I imagine you collect the data for your gardens in a spreadsheet then use that to create these graphs. Could you create a video or link to some resources for this data collection and presentation? That'd be fantastic! Love what you are doing.
Thanks. I did a video a while ago about my use of data, and hopefully it answers some of your questions. czcams.com/video/z8-Lvapzgyk/video.html
wow, what a dataset
🙂
My friend bred a sungold/yellow pear hybrid and it was fantastic! The very high productivity and soft texture of the yellow pear with the superior sungold sweet flavor.
That sounds lovely!
@@j.reneewhite915 they really are! They were volunteer plants too, a very fortuitous accident. Many seeds will be saved and with a little luck this hybrid will be stable.
That sounds really cool. I would love to get into a bit of breeding!
@@REDGardens that would be fantastic and would make some great videos. I'd be happy to send some of these hybrid seeds your way if you're interested. Free of charge of course!
@@joefization Thanks for the offer. That would be very interesting to try. Where are you located?
Thank you soo much. I appreciate the effort and time you put into your work. I just liked and subscribed. I live in Ghana and I will like to have dorenia and Feo de rio gordo tomato seeds. I have been searching online but can't find any store that ships to Ghana. Please can you send me a few seeds. Thank you.
Sungold cherry tomato is a hybrid and from all the garden videos I've watched.... You can not save the seed and have a good tasting tomato the next year. You have to purchase seed. Even the growers are struggling to maintain the quality. Last summer (2021) I focused on finding the best paste/sauce tomato. I grew 5 varieties and 6 plants each. I made the exact same recipe of tomato sauce and spaghetti sauce from each variety. There were so many factors that I had to take into consideration when making the final choice but San Marzano is the cooking tomato that I'll grow each year in my very small garden. Here is the list of tomatoes I'm growing in 2022.... Dwarf Marlinga, Dwarf BrandyFred, Dwarf Rosella Purple, Early Girl Bush, Orange Peach, Kellogg's Breakfast, Striped German, Pink Brandywine, Ananas Noire, Large Barred Boar, Berkley’s Tie-Dye Green, Black Krim, Black Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Carbon, San Marzano, Isis Candy Cherry, Black Cherry, Sweetheart Cherry, Sun Gold Cherry, Sun Sugar Cherry Tomato. I no longer purchase any "Zebra" or "Bumble Bee" because the peeling is way too tough however they are beautiful and would travel to market well. Each year I'll be culling out any indeterminate tomato that is hard to grow (which is most of them) there is one I can't bare to give up even though I'll be lucky to get a dozen edible fruit and that's Berkley's Tie Dye. I can not even describe the unusual and intriguing flavor. Some how it packs a different flavor in each of the 3 colors through out the fruit. There isn't another tomato that I've tasted so far to even compare with it. I can say it has a bit of tart in the mix of the complex flavors. My mouth waters just thinking about it. It would be fun if you had a taste test festival with your friends and gave the names of the top 3 at the end of it all. Thanks for all your hard work.
that is an interesting list of tomatoes you are planing for next year! The Berkley's Tie Dye sounds very interesting, I will have to see if I can get seeds over here to give it a try. A taste test festival would be great! I was hoping to do one these last year with the tomatoes, but with covid restrictions and me being too busy, I never got around to it.
sick data! that is how i start every spring and eventually just cannot spend the time on it.
I run into that a lot, start strong and then trail off as the season progresses.
We have 29 feo de rio gordos in this year. They are still cropping, but we had a frost last night. We estimate that we will finish at around 5.2 to 5.4 kg/ plant. But they are in our small tunnel, 10 m x 4.3, that is only 8 ft at the ridge. Next year this will be repeated, but we will do another 30 in our big tunnel, using lower and lean, to see what they can really do when given the space to do so. We love the feo. Great robust plants, and a lovely tomato for sauce. Plant spacing was a double row, going up to a single wire, 45 cm between plants, 1 m between rows, under cropped with basil
Wow, 29 Feo plants owed produce a huge amount of tomatoes. Good to hear that you have had success with them and like the sauce they produce. Thanks.
Very interesting tomato varieties, few of them available in Ontario. I might try Brandywine next year. I tend to stick with the same three varieties . Thanks for the info
Brandywine and Bloody Butcher are easy seeds to get here and Bloody Butcher has been a regular for years, second week of July for ripe salad size tomatoes in Hamilton, consistently the first tomatoes.. Brandywine great tasting but i found productivity pretty inconsistent but that could be just me.
@@davec1117 yeah, I have seen Brandywine available from various seed suppliers. Have not seen Bloody Butcher, where do you buy yours. Thanks Dave.
@@Tomhohenadel My last package came from Cottage Gardener in Ontario who are no more but Incredible Seeds on the east coast show them out of stock at the moment, happily dealt with them before, Casey's Heirloom Seeds in Alberta have them, not dealt with them and a US company i've dealt with previously and will use again for next year, slow (2021) but good stuff, Renaissance Seeds, have them. I've chased them from company to company in the past.
Thanks, usually get my seeds from Vesey (PEI) or High Mowing (Vermont). Hope we have another good year in the garden.
@@Tomhohenadel Dam Seeds is local so usually shop them in person but not an option for the last two years so it's been coast to coast on line, I'll check out High Mowing.
I love your graphs! What softwer did you use to colect the dsta and elaborate the graphs?
I use a spreadsheet to collect everything, actually many spreadsheets, and use the spreadsheet program to generate the base graphs. And often amend the graphs in an imaging editing software.
Hi Bruce. Good content!! Thanks for doing the job. I grew Sungold F1 this year, 10 plants and they looked different than yours! The tressels were smaller with fewer fruit than the ones I saw on your video, and the fruits never became orange. Uniformly 70% of my Sungold split therfore I will not grow more than 2-3 next year. My favorite year in year out is the red cherry tomato "Annies Singapore", great taste and no splitting! + the vine is manageable. (my sungold f1 went bonkers and grew huge, impossible to manage) I could send you seeds of Annies Singapore if you like? Best regards Per from Norway.
I do find it fascinating the the same variety can behave so differently in different contexts.
@@REDGardens Lets ask Monsanto/Dow/Beyer why? or mabye not :-) (I think we have gotten different seeds or strains of seeds/plants.)
I've not seen that Milka variety before. Based on your review I'd love to try it next season. What was your seed source?
Sungold is more productive thsn gardeners delight for me, but i dont have a greenhouse but we do have lots of sunhours each day.
Ive noticed even tho my plants seem bigger this year than the last foilagewise and tallness, but seem to set less fruit. My conclusion is that sungold is not the most heatloving tomato.
The charts are perfect. Please consider growing popular north American varities as european varieties are hard to get (such as feo de rio gordo)
But I am in Europe, so can only use varieties available in Europe.
@REDGardens lol yes. Can you please move to Canada 😂
Sungold is a classic in my garden can't not grow them! Surprised by results though saying that quality is my goal quantity doesn't really worry me
I wish they did a lot better, and hopefully they will be as productive as I had expected next year.
Large tomatoes are almost never used for sauce here in Italy. We prefer small plum size tomatoes, like San Marzano and similar ones. Personally that’s all I grow, because they are good for sauce, for dehydration and for fresh salads as well
I have tried San Marzano here and didn't have much success with it. I really should try it again.
I would love to send you some seeds of tomatoes for next year if you are Interested. I grow outside, in a small greenhouse and hanging from the balcony. But mostly small in size. I decide by taste and durability in the short northern-german summer
Why not just dry the top 2 of that or any category instead of having Dorenia just for that when the taste of others is better?
I am not sure how tomatoes in a poly tunnel split. Normally, they do that after an abundant rain after a drought period, which I'm going to assume is not happening in a tunnel?
So, maybe group the splitting tomatoes in an area getting less drip irrigation?
It still might be because the irrigation isn't frequent enough, but I suspect that some of the varieties are just way too thin skinned.
I hate growing tomatoes...but i love their fruit. I *ALWAYS* get bites taken out of them by pests...especially tomato hornworm. I won't use pesticides, so I cut my yields easily in half or even less. I could cut off the bitten portions if the rest of the tomato was sound, but many rot on the vine. I think if i lived in an arid climate suitable to tomatoes, then i'd have a better yield etc. I feel the massive heat and humidity encourages slugs and snails and other pests.
I am so glad we don't have that pest here.
@@REDGardens I hear you! Even though wasps lay eggs in their backs, the Hornworm can defoliate and wreck your tomato crop virtually overnight. They cling to the branches and stems with their multiple feet so you have to cut off the portion they hang from. Crushed they exude a foul smell. They are visually quite beautiful green with black and white horns. Attractive little bugger.
Looks like your plants need more water.
Possibly, but they were watered every night, and I think more likely over watered.
I had a huge amount of split fruit this year too, it's so disappointing when you don't have the time to cook or use them immediately and they go in the bird feeder. I only grew the usuals, Moneymaker, Alicante, Sungold, Gardeners Delight and another whose name escapes me. They were the 89c seedling pots from Lidl but grew and produced a huge amount all season and are still on the grow. There was 1 extremely windy night at the start of May I think, that blew my trellis off the wall because it wasn't attached good enough. About 2ft was cracked at the top of the stems so I ended up with N shaped plants where I restabilised them, not ideal but it worked. My final harvest was combined with a variety of chillis to make a hot ketchup, similar to Franks Hot Sauce except hotter, and the consistency of regular ketchup. Overall I'm happy with the results but definitely windproofing my grow area next year!
Thanks for sharing your experiences, always good to hear about how other people grow and manage plants like these in other contexts. I would love to try to grow tomatoes outside again, the last time I did was against a west facing wall in a fairly shelters urban back garden. I don't have any place like that at the moment, just big open spaces ... and polytunnels.
@@REDGardens Where I live I have winds up to 15 mph weekly and 30 mph about once a month during our growing season and the bush variety with a heavy duty square support has always been enough for the Early Girl Bush variety which grows about 2 1/2 feet tall and has always out produced all my other plants. I get an average of 60 to 80 baseball sized fruit that are perfect looking and tasting for a tomato off of 1 plant every single year now for the last 8 years. It's the one tomato that I feel I can count on and I still give away about 1/2 the harvest. I eat them fresh, on sandwich, I've cooked many a recipe with them very successfully. You might throw one to your wide open spaces next year just to see how it does. P.S. Our climates are similar and I plant my tomato in the garden with protection at the end of April. The weather is still rough and not warm enough but I find the tomato puts down some amazing roots and stays strong.
@@j.reneewhite915 Sounds like an interesting variety, and so great when you find one that just does what you want it to do every year!
I swear I've heard your voice before. On CBC news Canada doing a journalist piece, perhaps?
Nope, this channel is the only place you will hear me.
@REDGardens Okay then, you're so well spoken and have the perfect voice for TV, radio, or podcast. Anyway, I always enjoy your show.
I am interested in the Milka but when I search I only find a red variety under that name. Are you sure it's called Milka?
I noticed the same thing when I searched. The one plant was given to me by a friend who got the seeds from a local family friend back in Austria. And the label said Milka. So I have no idea if that is a mixup, or the name of a very local variety, only found in that area.
How sunny was it this season over there? Wouldn't that be a factor in the difference from last year?
It was a bit less sunny than usual this year, but it was warmer than usual for the past few months, which would have made a difference. It would be interesting to know how differently some of the varieties would do in different conditions.
We put calcium chloride on our tomatoes to keep them from splitting
Interesting!
RED "context" Gardens
Yep!!
The splitting is from too much water at once.
That is what I thought, and why I switched to watering a bit every night on a timer, so I am confused by the splitting of some varieties and not others.
It's odd that you get such poor yield from Sun Gold. It's one of our best and earliest producers, in a similar climate.
Yeah, it is odd, and I don't really know why.
I get loads of fruit from Sungold, but because they are small I wonder if the harvest weighs less than the crop from varieties with bigger fruit?. I only grow a couple of Sungold plants, just enough to put a few on a salad "whole", whereas the other varieties I grow are cut up, juiced, or used for cooking where my aim is that bigger-is-better
@@kgarden8960 I definitely find them to weigh less, but I grow them more for the flavour and use in the house, and grow the larger varieties to produce the bulk for cooking and preserving.
Do you save your own seed?
If so, how much crossing do you end up with?
I did save seeds from a lot of the varieties last year. As I haven't grown them yet, I don't know if there is any crossing, but according to books I have read it is only with the varieties with the larger flowers where there is an increased risk of cross pollination. But I also didn't have a lot of bees or other pollinators in the tunnel, so I think it will mostly be fine. Or at least I hope it will be.
I posted a comment on root pressure, minimum evaporation needed to avoid deficiencies, and effect of too high humidity. Copy pasted the text a few times because of minor layout changes, then come back to the channel to see it has disappeared. I thought I was being helpful, and don't understand why it would have been deleted. Maybe it was marked as possible spam, up to be reviewed by by the channel owner?
That is very strange. I haven't deleted anything, and there isn't anything in the Spam or 'held for review' section. I would be interested in reading that comment if you were able to recreate it.
Seems strange you consider big tomatoes for making sauce. Professional growers use small sized (usually pear shaped) tomatoes bred specifically for sauce making. They are very fleshy with minimal seeds and not watery.
I was forgetting that those are grown in open fields and are small sized plants so not the best for tunnel cultivation.
Yes, it is a very different issue growing in a polytunnel rather than open field cultivation.I want to do a lot more exploration into growing tomatoes for sauce.
Hello, I'm also based in Ireland and wondering where you source your seeds?
Any help would be great
I have been getting a lot of seeds from Bingenheimer in Germany 9which has an English version of their website. I also get some from Green Envelope Seeds and Seehaholic.
@@REDGardens thank you for the help. Just purchased a large polytunnel. Your channel is invaluable
Is there a good place to purchase these varieties in the US?
I hope someone else can answer that, as I don't have any ideas.
Paul Robeson is supposed to be really tasty.
It was quite tasty, but I liked other varieties better.
@@REDGardens It's amazing to be you could water everyday and still get split tomatoes. Maybe late morning hits the spot.
@@BlackJesus8463 Perhaps, or it might just be some varieties in our climate.
Any blight or pest issues?
There was some aphid issues, and a bit of blight but not so much to worry about. I had wanted to comment about these issues in the video but it was getting way too long!
Sir you are agriculture graduate
Thanks!
To have that many split tomatoes in a poly tunnel, you really need to look at your watering program. My guess would be less water more often.
These plants were watered with a drip line set on a timer to water a little every night, but perhaps it was too much.
@@REDGardens We never send our plants to bed with wet feet. We water a few minutes every hour throughout the day and let them dry out a bit before dark. We have a much hotter climate here, so context for sure but it might be worth thinking about. Take care mate.
@@bradcarby3765 Definitely worth thinking about, thanks!
Can you please make different videos, for example what to look for when buying land / a house to grow food.
What foods you should Not ever eat.
Those would be interesting videos, but things that I don't have any experience in.