Tomatoes! If you promise not to tell, I'll share the list of tomato varieties that I have. But please don't tell anyone; it's embarrassing...
Red Siberian
Silvery Fir Tree
Jelly Bean Red and Yellow
Zapotec PleatedTigerella
German Lunchbox
Christel's Plum
Tumbling Tom
Cuore di Bue
Harbinger
Gardener's Delight
Minibel
Red Zebra
Polish Linguisa
Principe Borghese
Kenilworth/King George
Losetto
Piccolo
Atkin's Stuffing
Mortgage Lifter
Nepal
Maja
TOGI
Giant Plum
Sweet Pea Currant
Cream Sausage
Yellow Stuffer Millefleur
Goldkrone
Golden Sunrise
Golden Queen
Black Cherry
Cherokee Purple
Lime Green Salad
Hillbilly
Pink Plum
Snow White
Black Truffle
French Black
Green Velvet
Brad’s Black Heart
Blue OSU
You see what I mean? But I love tomatoes and I really love heritage tomatoes...their names, shapes, colors. It makes it very hard to choose which ones to grow, so before I even looked over my list, I capped it at 10. The varieties I chose are:
Piccolo
Losetto
Goldkrone
Blue OSU
Red Siberian
French Black
Black Truffle
Yellow Stuffer
Zapotec Pleated
Silvery Fir Tree
Snow White
And if you're better at counting than I am, you will have noticed a problem with that list. Oh well.
These varieties are all new to me this year. I've put aside a few old favorites (such as Black Cherry and Cream Sausage) to see if I can find some new old favorites. A bit risky, but I'm hoping it pays off. I chose these particular varieties so that I would have a mix of colors and shapes and also a few of them (namely Red Siberian and Silvery Fir Tree) are supposed to do well in shorter growing seasons.
I sowed them all the same way I did my eggplants (both plants needing similar growing conditions): in a yogurt pot using peat-free compost mixed with vermiculite. The pots have all been sealed into bags and will stay there until they germinate.
So, if you're growing your own tomatoes from seed this year (and you really should -- it's so easy and there's a much greater choice than if you buy them as plants from a garden center -- or even as tomatoes from a grocery store), you'd better get sowing because they need a long growing season to do well.
How many varieties will you have in your garden this summer?
hey heather...
ReplyDeletei'm new to this but was wondering if some tomatoes are easier to grow than others...like u, im a huge tomato lover, especially heirloom! there's this amazing french bistro in montreal that has the most beautiful tomato salad, with red, yellow, orange and purple tomatoes that is to die for...looking forward to a tutorial in the near future;)
Hi!
ReplyDeleteThey all have the same requirements, but some take less time to mature, which is a major benefit in this country (where the growing season is not as long or warm). You can certainly grow tomatoes of all different colors. I always do and also turn them into a rainbow tomato salad. Now my mouth is watering...
I'll take some Red zebras, and Hillbillys please! ps: when is the next batch of honey due ?! pps: You can borrow my wife anytime to help schlap and plant those tomatoes :-)
ReplyDelete