Does anyone here have a favorite tomato (besides Roma) with good shelf life? I tend to like tomatoes a bit tangy, tho’ not as tangy as Lemon Boy’s.* If tangy and sweet, so much the better. Resistance to bruising need only be average - I’m not shipping the tings. The idea is to extend having fresh tomatoes as much as practical after the 1st killing frost.
Note that I’m also going to attempt keeping at least one Patio Tomato plant in a fairly large pot and give it plenty of light and ~ 70 deg. ambient temperatures over next winter. (The light “should” make the plant think it’s a little warmer than the air temperature.)
*I had a Lemon Boy overwinter surprisingly well, last winter, esp. given that I had it in way too small a pot. The taste judgement was from last summer. A Mortgage Lifter that I’d started very late indoors also overwintered, moderately in terms of survival, but produced quite small fruits - cherry size, and few of them. My guess is that ML’s need a BIG pot to do well.
Suggestions welcome!
No favorite in particular. I grow camparis every year with seed from ones at the store. They do last log and are bigger. I read last summer - someone posted a link here - about picking tomatoes early after they have had their first blush. I am going to do that this year.
Kind of late to get them started now, but here’s a listing of tomato varieties that are grown commercially and/or for market, so you know they have a long shelf-life. You can probably get seed for some, but maybe not all. Big John and I always grew ‘Celebrity’ for market and local restaurants, and they now have some additionally improved strains of the plant.
https://custommapposter.com/article/the-best-commercial-tomato-varieties/1342
Also, make sure the tomatoes you are harvesting are stored properly once picked for the longest shelf-life you can get out of them. I try not to pick too far ahead of what I’m going to use in a day. They stay fine on the vine in my experience.
https://www.farmstandapp.com/20317/methods-for-extending-the-shelf-life-of-tomatoes/
Also, in my experience, the mid-sized tomatoes last the longest and cherry-types the absolute longest. Any of the big slicers tend to have a shorter shelf-life because they are usually so wet.
https://www.farmstandapp.com/20317/methods-for-extending-the-shelf-life-of-tomatoes/