June 30, 2010: A Tomato, By Any Other Name....Part 1



A tomato, by any other name, would taste as sweet. I'm still waiting for my first sweet taste, if you don't count the two rather sour Minigold cherry tomatoes I've already sampled. Following are photographs of all of my tomato plants, on the last day of June. I'll be publishing this in two parts, due to the numerous photos. And it's time to cook dinner ;-)

The Dwarf and Miniature Tomato Plants
(14 plants, all grown in pots)

Dwarf Champion------------Husky Red Cherry


Sibirskij Stambovyj-----------Golden Dwarf Champion


Clear Pink Early----------------Minigold


Golden Dwarf Champion------------Dwarf Champion ?


Husky Red Cherry--------------Gartenperle


Mr. Granny's Gartenperle----------Sibirskij Stambovyj


Dwarf Champion-----------------Minigold


To be continued.....



15 comments:

  1. WOW! That's is a big variety of tomatoes and (red face) I have not heard of most of those variety. I wish you could offer us a taste test. Looking forward to the next batch of pictures.

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  2. Just look at all those healthy container tomatoes! Come on over and check out my Death Day container tomatoes, LOL! My fault though, I will never again try to contain heirloom indeterminate tomatoes in a pot in 100 degrees!! Maybe some of your smaller varieties though... see, I'm already willing to try again!

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  3. It looks like they are all thriving! Can all tomatoes be grown in containers, or are there any specific varieties that just do better in the ground?

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  4. All ding well in the pots huh? Do you feed them?

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  5. I love the containers you planted the tomatoes in. I did not plant more like that because I had heard that tomatoes need at least a 18 inch container. What is your experience with that? I could perhaps roll on and get more if that is not the case...

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  6. debiclegg, I will be taste testing, you can be sure of that! I'd never heard of any of them either.

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    Erin, I'm still holding my breath on these. Many of these pots are also bottomless (the first five that are over the fence posts), but some are not.

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    thyme2garden, I wouldn't even try to grow any but the "dwarf" or "patio" varieties in containers. I've never grown any of these varieties before, but I'm looking for one that could travel south with us for the winter, and keep right on fruiting.

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    Kelly, I gave them some fish emulsion when they started blooming. Most of them look pretty healthy, but I think some of them are due for another feeding. They also had a bit of slow release fertilizer in the potting mix.

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    Jason, most of these containers are 2-1/2 gallon size. All of the plants are dwarf or patio types, I would never try any other varieties in them. Many of my regular heirloom indeterminates are in 5-gallon buckets, but they are bottomless, so there is no root restriction. I tried some of them in buckets with the bottoms last year, and every one of them became root bound.

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  7. Whenever I tried tomatoes in pots I always got BER. So glad they work for you. I may try again soon. I'm getting a lot of cherokee purple in and my first really big beefsteak will be ready tomorrow!

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  8. Looking good! I hope all the potted tomatoes do well for you. Can't wait to read the second installment.

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  9. Thanks a lot Granny.:) Now I have to copy all these names down for next year as we are also getting more into the smaller stature varieties. The only one that you and I both have in common is Husky Red Cherry.

    You might like "Red Alert" (a cherry/grape cluster style determinate tomato) as well. Even ours are producing already. I'm excited to see how it tastes...soon I hope. Your tomato plants look great.

    Mr. Granny must have a green thumb, look at all the tomatoes on his plant.:)

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  10. The dwarf and patio varieties are great candidates for container growing. Your plants all look really healthy and happy. I am missing having some Stupice plants this year - because they are such early and prolific producers of little saladette sized tomatoes.

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  11. Ribbit, My CPs are really getting a lot of green tomatoes right now, they are definitely the first of the indeterminates!

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    Rachel, the pictures are giving me fits! There's too much greenery around the tomatoes, it's hard to distinguish them from trees, bushes, corn, raspberry bushes, etc!

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    Mr. H., I sure would be interested, if it's a sweet one! I'm having a terrible time finding a sweet cherry tomato for some reason. I do have some hopefuls I'll mention in my next blog.

    Mr. Granny has not even looked at that tomato plant! And would you believe, it's going to give us the first red tomato. Probably within the next day or so.

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  12. Wow! All of your container tomato plants look amazing! Ours our tiny and not growing so well.

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  13. meemsnyc, I hope mine continue to do well when the weather gets hot. I'm not too sure how well they'll handle those black pots. I do have a lot of in-ground plants though, just in case.

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  14. I have not heard of most of the varieties that you have planted. I'll be waiting to see what your taste test comes up with. That's sort of what I'm doing this year, only in the beds. I have one variety that I planted last year, Big Mama, a paste tomato, and then I'm trying 5 other new ones. We shall see what comes of it all!
    ~~Lori

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  15. Lori, I've not tried any of these small varieties, either! I hope to find some good ones, because the plants don't take up much room at all.

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