Posted on 04/03/2012 6:58:11 PM PDT by Former MSM Viewer
Are heirlooms really as good and tasty as good old hybrids like Better Boy or BeefMaster?
I am growing Old German, Cherokee Purple, Boxcar Willie and several yellows...
I've dedicated the majority of my small garden to heirlooms.
Hope they are all they are cracked up to be.
If you decide you don’t like them, send them my way. They make the best sauces and are fantastic on sandwiches and in salads. Yummy!
Try some of the siberian, Alaskan and russian varieties. They were designed for colder seasons. I grow them in the late fall and winter here. No freezes in the San Fernando Valley. They grow well, quickly and are very hardy. Do a google search on Tomatoes for Cooler weather.
I went to OSH and g0t a 6 pack of heirloom tomatoes.
I did just what you suggested and have many varieties for colder climates. Many are the cherry varieties though. Last year I only got Cherokee Purple (not a cold variety) that I dug up and put in a container inside. The others all got frozen on an early fall night when it was supposed to get down to 38F, but actually got down to 25F. I have started indoors a month earlier to try to get a harvest on some things like tomatoes, squash and peppers.
Brandywine Pink, a taste you’ll never forget.
Have built a cold weather box? I’m not in a cold area so I don’t know how effective they are. http://www.savvygardener.com/Features/cold_frames-hotbeds.html As a boy when I lived in Michgan our neigbors used something like them (not as sophisticated) to get a start on their veggies. It worked.
Burpee apparently sells them. I did a search for “yellow pear tomato” and came up with a lot. I should have done “yellow pear tomato seeds”
Lots of places sell Yellow Pear tomato seeds, but I am looking for a strain that has some flavor. Somewhere along the line, flavor seems to have been bred out.
Oh!!! those black Russians are incredible!
A few years back I saw some starters and tried them, didn’t get much yield that year but they were excellent!
I remember when I was a kid and a tomato really tasted like a tomato. Most these days taste like cardboard.
I’m prepping my garden now with alot of lime and compost.
Went out and turned over some of my compost pile, man, I must have A BILLION of the little red worms. Pile is mostly coffee grounds, eggshells, various salad greens that went funky on me, orange peels, all that kinda stuff...
Save your own seeds. Get one of the biggest tomatoes and take the seeds for the following year. Eventually you will have tomatoes that are acclimated to your specific area.
There are various ways to save seeds. Some people put the seeds and fruit around them into water in jelly jars and let them ferment. Eventually the seeds will fall to the bottom.
oh, ok, try this place..... http://www.heirloomseeds.com/tomatoes.htm
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