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I believe this would be about the right time, here in the cold states, to set up the plant lights, pick out the seed packets, and start germinating transplants for the coming spring. Except I don’t start my own seeds, so I can’t properly illustrate that process. (Be more than happy to front-page photos and/or explanations from more dedicated gardeners, hint hint, if you email me at AnneLaurie @verizon.net or click on my name near the top of the right-hand column.)
Instead, I’ve been combing the internet, making up lists of tomato plants, trying to balance my rapacious greed for summer’s bounty versus my severely limited ‘garden’ space and personal energy. There’s a couple new varieties I’m really curious to try: the anthocyanin-rich Indigo Rose (a blue tomato!), Berkeley Tie-Dye (which I’m hoping can replace the Vintage Wine I haven’t been able to locate for the past couple years), Cherokee Chocolate(love Cherokee Purple, adore most ‘black’ tomatoes, am curious as a cat about the combination), and Azoychka (I like the citrus tang of yellow tomatoes, but they don’t grow well for me, and this variety is supposed to be relatively fool-proof). Also 4th of July and the grape-sized Cabernet for earliness, and Sioux for heat-resistance, if we get another stretch of 90-degree weather when nothing else will set fruit.
My personal go-to sites for tomato plants are Territorial Seeds and The Tasteful Garden. I’m also planning to order from Heirloom Tomato Plants this year, because they have Isis Candy (my second-favorite cherry tomato) and Opalka (which is hella prolific for me, and the most flavorful roasting tomato ever). Recommendations for other sources always welcome — especially if anybody has a source for Sweet Treats or Ramapo plants…
Here’s the rest of my current list:
Cherry / grape (small): Black Cherry, Golden Honeybunch (orange), Golden Pear, Sungold, Sweetheart, White Currant (my favorite – no bigger than Skittles, and much the same flavor profile)
Yellow-orange : Kellogg’s Breakfast, Old German, Pineapple
“Black” (brown/burgundy): Black Krim, Black Prince, Japanese Black Trifele (these fruit in sequence here), Cherokee Purple, Sara Black
Reds/pinks: Carmello (for reliability & profusion), Momotaro, Oxheart Rostova, Rose de Berne (for deliciousness), Stupice (the earliest in my garden last year, even before the first cherrys)
And since we’ve got a good local nursery nearby, I can count on picking up another half-dozen Old Reliables — Roma, Eva Purple Ball, Juliet, Matt’s Wild Cherry. Which would be, yes, a ridiculous number of plants for a two-person household, if I expected more than a dozen or so fruits from any of the full-sized plants over the course of the season. (My fault, not the plants’ — I crowd them too close and don’t fertilize often enough.) I’m lucky enough to be doing this for flavor, not frugality; hey, some people don’t understand why there are so many craft breweries when Coors sells 24-packs at a discount, amirite? Thank goddess single plants are so widely available these days; even a decade ago, trying to find homes for all those six-pak ‘orphans’ drove me nuts!
So… what are everybody’s 2012 garden plans looking like, right now?
Raven
Like the gardening season in Georgia is six weeks early (at least). Flowers are blooming like mad and the peach growers are in a sweat over the possibility of a late freeze that would hammer the crop. Our collards, kale and mustard greens are going nuts and there are even skeeters around already. Like the boys up the street say, “It’s the end of the world as we know it. . .”.
SuperHrefna
Fellow North Easter here! I’ve got my seedlings sitting out on the kitchen counter – no grow lights or anything, they seem perfectly happy and they’re sprouting away! For tomatoes I’ve got Golden Pear, 4th of July, Boy Oh Boy and Mortgage Lifter (my Mortgage Lifters were just blissful last year, so yummy) and then various peas & beans, herbs & flowers. I’m looking forward to the runner beans especially.
I’m thinking of planting another tray of seedlings, if I do I’ll add a few Brandy Boy seedlings to the mix. Last year I had a huge success with my tomatoes, growing them in Earth Boxes which are self-watering self-fertilizing troughs on wheels: I planted two tomato plants in each one & had a bounty of huge, delicious tomatoes for the whole season.
HeartlandLiberal
South Central Indiana, Bloomington. Where we just pretty much seem to be over the winter that was NOT. Mildest I can remember in 27 years we have lived here. Almost no snow to speak of at all. Only a couple of times temps got into the teens for just a few days at a time. Not a real winter.
My backyard vegetable garden has grown to nearly 1,700 sq ft over the years. I am now retired, and going to pay someone to cut our big lawn, so I will be devoting more time to my garden.
It is only the first week in March, but it feels like April. I am starting to lay in composted soil and manure and bales of peat moss. I will be tilling up the whole garden in the next couple of weeks as soon as the weather and soil moisture content allow. I plan to start early greens by the end of the month.
I am also going to invest in a small hoop frame with plastic covering “greenhouse”, that I can snug up at the base of our second story deck, which faces south and will get the sun, and this year start seeds myself for most of what I am going to plant.
Lost in America
My 2012 plants? My eggplants and pablanos look like pots of soil with no green on the window sill so far. I’m overwintering a serrano that has several inches of growth on it since I pruned it back.
Frank
Check out Italian Heirloom tomatoes sometime. Large, tasty and very productive.
Linda Featheringill
I just took a tour through Heirloom Tomato Plants. Oh, my! I want this and I want that and . . . .
The site is not as user friendly as some commercial sites like Burpee but the varieties are amazing.
KyCole
My backyard has literally gone to the dogs, and the front is tiny. I plant one cherry tomato by the front door, and pick and eat them as I pass. Otherwise, I cross the street to the Farmer’s Market and get all I need there.
Katherine H
does securing one’s share in the local organic CSA count ? our gardener started tomato seeds in December / the plants are flourishing / he hopes to have tomatoes for the first Farmer’s Market / we live in the SW desert / personal gardening is a challenge / i will have a few tomato plants and expect last year’s kale to have wintered over / i do have cherries, peaches, plums, and strawberries !
chopper
since my 3 year old daughter’s favorite color isnpurple we’re planting the garden all purple this year. it’s amazing how many purple cultivars there are out there.
imonlylurking
As luck would have it, the garden committee I am now co-chairing (ahem!) had it’s first meeting last week. It’s a bit of a bummer-I had this fantastic plan all laid out, with (eventual) 3 season growing and some mighty fantastic succession planting, if I say so myself.
The garden has some structural issues-an oddly severe erosion problem in parts and a slope that is crying out for terracing-and they don’t think we should ask for the money to do the infrastructure work. (Last year was the first year and the person in charge knows nothing about gardening. They spent lots of $$ getting it set up. I’m desperately trying not to blurt out, “But you did it all wrong!”)
Anyhow. Seeds. Last week somebody pointed me to Cooks Garden and Pinetree Garden. I have already ordered from Cooks Garden-I’m putting together an order for Thompson and Morgan right now, and I have a list ready for Pinetree-I’ll probably run that order through the garden committee, since I am paying for the tomatoes myself. (MINE!)
I bought two packets each of two Heirloom mixes and a mix of hot pepper seeds from Cooks. I found a garden forum for Minnesota-apparently hot peppers need to be started sooner than sweet, which I did not know.
I will be setting up a seed starting space soon-I’m clearing things out this weekend. The plan is to start the hot peppers by the 15th of March, sweet peppers a week or two later, and tomatoes a week or two after that. I can try taking pictures and I have a bunch of links on it all, also.
The Heirloom tomato mixes I bought contain these varieties:
Flamee Orange (orange color, succulent flavor)
Green Zebra (striped dark green, zingy)
Yellow Pear (prolific mini pears)
Tigerella (red striped orange)
San Marzano (red plums for sauces)
Black Krim (greenish-Black beefsteak, incredibly tasty)
Costoluto Genovese (red beefsteak, weather-tolerant)
Omars Lebanese (red)
Dutchman (pink)
Djena Lee’s Golden Girl (orange)
Golden Sunburst (yellow)
German Green (green)
Black Russian (purple)
I have a friend who has been doing Heirloom tomatoes for a while-she is going to give me (or swap me-we haven’t worked out the details yet) some Hawaiian pinks, and I have a packet of Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes, which I grew a few years ago.
klokanek
Downtown York, PA. This will be my third gardening season with my “yarden,” a patch of yard that a previous owner turned into a garden.
The first season, I grew a gazillion things from seed, even gave seedlings away to friends and colleagues, planted potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and had great plans to plant seeds for corn, cucumbers, chard–and I discovered that once the trees leaved, I had a tee-ninesy and shady garden. *sigh* My seedlings did better in everyone else’s gardens.
Last season, I simplified to planting tomato, pepper, and cucumber transplants and joined a CSA that started that year. Discovered that I had a bunch of volunteer tomatoes that sprouted up and did super well, though the transplants did not always produce as nicely.
This season, I’m expecting those tomato volunteers and only planting peppers (hot and sweet) in containers, eggplant (even though I have bad luck with them, they’re my favorite), and cucumbers (I had the best luck with Renee’s container cucumber seeds–WOW were they good and prolific!). I’m going to get a neighbor to chop down limbs so that my west-facing “yarden” gets more and better sunlight, and my Super-Secret weapon is getting my mom here at the beginning of May to help me get it all ready to go.
Thank you for providing me a space to discuss my experience and plans. :)
Constance
A couple of friends and I have had fun with this seed catalog. The greens and basil have been great. Don’t remember the tomatoes. The last couple of years haven’t been good tomato years in my garden.
http://www.growitalian.com
kerFuFFler
Brandywine tomatoes are the sweetest, tastiest tomatoes I have ever tried. But I think I’ll have to get them at the farmers market since the deer around here ravage anything I plant. They even venture onto our deck to devour my potted plants! Unfortunately fencing is not a workable option in out yard. But good luck to all of you growing veggies this year. I’ll stick with peonies since deer are not interested in them.
BH in MA
I have a small 12 foot by 2 foot raised bed that I’ve been using for an herb garden for the past few years. It is awesome for a home cook to have rosemary, oregano, parsley, sage, thyme, basil, etc. available. Late fall was so mild I was still picking fresh herbs into the first week of December.
This year I’m making room for a tomato plant. Probably an heirloom famous for flavor. I’ll be at the mercy of the garden center.
All I want right now is a burger with lettuce and tomato-tasting tomato.
BH
KS in MA
Not quite on topic– I’ll be replacing a sweet little Japanese maple that, sadly, got smashed in last Halloween’s snow/ice storm. I don’t think it was getting enough light where it was, anyway, so I may have to look for something that can do well in light that’s not super bright. Any ideas?
Cat Hair Everywhere
West Coast here, and even though it is still in the 40s at night, I planted some peppers and a couple of my tomatoes yesterday. (this is actually reminding me to go out and uncover them for the day) I planted goliath jalapenos, a 6pack of multicolored bell peps, and for the tomatoes, a Pineapple and an Arkansas Traveler. I have seeds starting in the bathroom for Isis Candy, Juliet and an odd one I grew last year, Indische Fleishe. When the Farmer’s Market lady from whom I buy my plants has more plants ready, I will add sweet 100, Mortgage Lifter, Black from Tula, and I think I am going to try Persimmon this year, since she doesn’t have Flaumme.
I have had the Cherokee Chocolate, and they are yummy. For some reason the Cherokee purple and chocolate plants don’t do all that well here- probably too hot.
waratah
I had far too many containers in the drought heatwave last year, so I am going to cut back this year
The mild jalapenos are a must. They were great picking early and fresh slicing with seeds into many things. They were terrific in scrambled and omelets. They took away some heat but did not take away the flavor.
I loved the flavor of the small Canary yellow tomatoes. My husband ate them as quick as they ripened. The Red Robin were great too. They are small plants and can be added to flower pots.
Kristine
I have seed packets, at least. I order from Tomato Fest for no other reason than I tripped over them during an internet search for heirloom seeds. Bought too many varieties for my 4×8-foot raised bed, but I will be happy with one plant per: Black Cherry, 2 varieties of Heinz (not heirloom, but tasty and prolific according to friends from eastern Canada), Sunset’s Red Horizon, and Arkansas Traveler. The company threw in a packet of German Striped Stuffers, a stuffing tomato which I doubt I will attempt because I don’t particularly care for stuffed tomatoes.
Tomatoes and herbs, especially basil. That’s all I’m trying for this year.
Mildest winter in NE Illinois for decades. I read somewhere that we’ve been adjusted upwards to Zone 5.5 from Zone 5. Need to confirm, although I don’t think the extra half-step matters much…except to highlight the fact that things are, ahem, changing.
Had robins all winter long. First time I recall that happening.
debit
I don’t think I’m going to go with any of the tomatoes I had last year (Brandywine, Bonnie Best, Campbell, Lemon Boy, Yellow Pear, Black Pearl) except for the cherry variety whose name I cannot remember. That one was a monster, took over the entire garden and just would not stop producing.
This year I’m going back to basics. The aforementioned monster cherry variety, some Sun Golds (if I can find any), a beefsteak, and a couple of early variety types. If I can find or put together a raised container, I want to try some early cold weather lettuce. Other than that, there will be my herb garden, which I suspect will once again be basil, basil, and more basil.
kindness
Last year I picked out a mini yellow pear/bell and several heirloom plants. I want a wider selection and I want one that has big tomatoes. Out here in the Central Valley you’d think I could grow any of ’em. The Big Girl’s and Beefsteak’s I’d previously grown got big but didn’t have the flavor I wanted. Any suggestions?
r€nato
I’m in Arizona and just planted a bunch of seeds, including tomatoes but right now all I’ve got are pomodori costoluti (Tuscan Heirloom tomatoes). I cannot wait for them to bear fruit. Supermarket tomatoes are to tomatoes, AFAIAC, as Chef Boyardee is to pasta.
I would like to highly recommend the mail-order catalogue Seeds From Italy as a great resource for, well, seeds from Italy.
Kristine
@r€nato:
Thank you for this!
debit
@kindness: I had a Carnival one year and just loved it. They weren’t big like beefsteak big, but they had great flavor.
Cat Hair Everywhere
@kindness: By Central Valley, do you mean CA? If so, see my comment at #16 for ideas. Sungold does well here, too , as do Snowberry and Black Cherry. I make sure my plants get shade after about 3:00, because the heat just gets too intense for them then.
Cat Hair Everywhere
Has anyone grown Black Sea Man? It looks really interesting. The grower said that they don’t like being crowded, so they may not work for my garden.
A great source for tomato descriptions and pictures is http://www.heirloomtomatoplants.com
A.J.
For Anne and all of us who love great tomatoes – read the book, “Tomatoland”, by Barry Estabook, who also great loves tomatoes. After reading it you will know why that tomato in your $9 salad in a restaurant is there only for color, is totally without flavor, and any nutrition. You’ll be thinking of growing your own about half-way though. The economics of tomatoes, not to mention the actual slavery of tomato workers, put you over the edge. A great read but to sum it up: Once tomato season is over, stop eating them.
Jess
If you like yellow tomatoes, I recommend Lemon Boy–easy to find, fresh, sweet, citrus-y flavor, great in salads. I managed to grow a very healthy crop in my first attempt at gardening, up here in chilly north-central Massachusetts. I figure if I can do it, anyone can. I’m a total neophyte when it comes to gardening.
Kristine
So now I’ve ordered from Seeds from Italy. Tomatoes: Costoluto Fiorentino, Principe Borghese, San Marzano 2— Certified Organic, Red Pear, and St. Pierre. Basil Italiano Classico— Certified Organic.
I have always wanted to try to grow Italian tomatoes, but never thought to search for US seed vendors. Silly me.
Please let them come up.
jnfr
I ordered my pepper plants from Tasteful Gardens this year. I haven’t used them before so I’m glad to see your recommendation there, AL. I ordered tomatoes from Laurel’s Heirlooms. My local nursery carries heirloom but they had a virus last year and I don’t really trust them any more.
I have four plants coming: Black Cherry, Costaluta Genovese, Paul Robeson, and Sun Gold. Peppers will be Anaheims and Anchos. I’ll start some squash from seed. I’m thinking I’ll try a butternut squash this year, and maybe give the yellow crooknecks one more chance. They didn’t produce very well last year. I get most of my seed from Johnny’s.
I have two small raised beds and plan to start another this summer. They work well for me here, in full Colorado sun and wind everything tends to dry out really fast.
Anyway it’s still been bitter cold so far. This will be the first week with any warm weather at all so I hope to get out and put my shallots in and start some Tuscan kale.
currants
Oh I’ve been waiting for this thread, and I’m so late I’ve missed it all. But if anybody’s looking, I’ll check in later. Here’s my question: my garlic came up and was 3 inches tall by Christmas, and is a solid 6 inches already. (Except for one variety, just sprouted and 2 inches.) It’s Massachusetts, and doesn’t usually even come up until late March. Anybody have any ideas on whether this means it will be ready early (before July)?
AL–where do you put them all?? I thought I was bad, putting 16 tomato plants, 8 pepper plants and 8 eggplants in a 4×8 raised bed…. This year, I’m cutting back. For real. One bed of nightshades, and the rest all winter vegs–I have to be in VT for classes all summer, so whatever grows will have be on its own.
currants
@Kristine: Yes! That’s where I found seeds for Tuscan kale (laciniato).
r€nato
if you guys are really nice to me…maybe I can go hunt down some seeds when I return to Italy later this year. Seeds are light and easy to transport. I don’t know if Customs cares that I’m bringing any back – let them find them first and we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
I’ll look for requests here and make a note.
Dan Preston
I’ll be interested in any varieties good at resisting tomato blight. Here in Princeton (as with much of the Northeast) has had a very mild winter … and I’m worried that it hasn’t been cold enough to kill the blight spores, so they’ll have a major head start this year. Any suggestions for blight-resistant varieties, or are my concerns misplaced? Thanks.
currants
@r€nato: Ah! I got some great parsley (weird, right?), San Marzano, and roquette seeds there (on a trip while living in France). The kale seeds I ordered last summer when I couldn’t find them anywhere else.
Anne Laurie
@kindness:
The gold-and-green centerpiece in the top photo is an almost-two-pound Kellogg’s Breakfast, so-called because ‘one is enough for a whole breakfast‘; they are yummy but not as ‘tangy’ (acidic) as the classic reds. Standard recommendation for big beefy flavor is Brandywine, which I gave up on here in New England; my Midwestern friends said I didn’t have long enough days or hot enough nights, which should not be a problem in your part of the world.
The big flavorful red varieties that work for me are Cherokee Purple (at the far right in the photo — they’re prone to cracking), the oxhearts (which look like organic trucknutz), and my last year’s discovery Sara Black. Best pure tomato flavor, IMO (& that of my supertasting Spousal Unit), are the Rose de Berne, which grow exquisite perfect rose-red globes (top front left in the photo) but are not very large or prolific for me. But if you want the classic ‘burger topper’ tangy flavor & don’t mind lumpy sometimes-blemished fruit, I’d recommend trying one of the ‘black’ dark-skinned varieties.
Anne Laurie
@Dan Preston: Last year, when we were all worried about big-box-store-spread blight, some scientist commentors recommended Serenade as a preventative. I was not as consistent about using it as I should’ve been, but it did save a couple tomato plants I had been thinking about pulling up, and the fungus didn’t spread to the other plants.
As a side note, those of our lilac bushes that I sprayed just once in mid-July didn’t develop powdery mildew all summer, which is a first in the 20 years we’ve lived here. Powdery mildew doesn’t hurt the lilacs, but it’s unsightly, so this year I’m going to use it on all our lilacs (and try & stick to a proper schedule, too).
artem1s
I got my seeds from Tomato Bob’s last year and was successful at getting plants from all of them despite the excessive rain. I chose their beefsteak sampler this year (last year the heirloom sampler) for tomatoes; and I got some early tomatoes and some varieties I really liked from last year.
the beefsteak sample included…
Pink Ponderosa, Watermelon Beefsteak, Mammoth German Gold, Amana Orange, Giant Belgium, Delicious, Azoycha, Aunt Ruby’s German Green, and Supersteak.
I also got their sweet pepper sampler which included
Purple Beauty, Corne Di Toro Rosso, Orange Sun, Golden California Wonder, Tolli’s Sweet Italian, and Yolo Wonder.
and the lettuce sampler…
Grand Rapids, Black Seeded Simpson, Ruby Red, Buttercrunch, and Romaine Cimmaron.
just started the seeds and can’t wait for planting time!
jnfr
@currants:
The one year I grew garlic I fall-planted. Here they are coming up in March. And here in June. At any rate you’ll know they’re done when the inner leaves turn brown and the whole top starts to fall over. Here’s my lovely harvest in late July of that year. Make sure you dry and cure them well, out of the sun with plenty of air circulation so they don’t mold.
jnfr
@currants:
I have a garlic reply in moderation. It’ll show up eventually!
stinger
I love Azoychka. Slice it into a salad or pasta with Stupice and Jaune Flamme for great color and taste. My very fave varieties are Black Krim and Brandywine-Sudduth Strain. Other must-haves are Kellogg’s Breakfast, Eva Purple Ball, and Rose (which I prefer to Rose de Berne). Eva mostly just to have a round red flawless tomato that tastes good; the others taste spectacular!
I get heirloom seeds from Seed Savers Exchange.
Kristine
@r€nato: I would love some seeds if you can manage it. Any kind, but salad tomatoes preferred over paste.
My dream is to sign up for one of those cooking tours of Italy, where you go to an area for a week or so and cook with local cooks and chefs. I want to walk through an open air market where the smells of the fresh vegetables knock me back.