My Cocktail tomato trial
 

I did a trial of 5 cocktail tomato varieties this summer, which is still in progress. The varieties I have for trial are:

Mountain Magic F1 from Johnny's selected seeds (100 seeds)
Temptation F1 from Osborne Seeds (25 seeds)
Campari F1 (25 seeds) and Annelise F1 (25 seeds) - bought by my swedish friend from Lindbloms in Sweden (They do not ship outside EU)
Adoration F1 (25 seeds) - got them as a sample at a vegetable growers conference in Culiacan Mexico from a rep.

The plants are being grown on a V-trellis, single stem, on black plastic mulch outdoors. Irrigation is through T-Tape. Initial fertilizer regime consisted of solution grade AN 2 weeks after bedding out, switched to Calcium nitrate at first cluster set, then switched to 50% potassium nitrate, 50 % monopotassium phosphate - injected by a dosatron fertilizer infusion pump.

Performance wise - Adoration was tops - fairly consistent ripening pattern, long life on the vine, good cracking resistance. Weight averaged about 50 grams, brix was 10.2 on August 17th. Good sugar acid balance. Second place was a tie between Annelise (9.1 brix) and Mountain Magic (9.7 Brix). Both averaged about 50 grams. Ripening on Annelise was very consistent, but was somewhat less consistent on Mountain Magic clusters. Tempation was third place - 8.2 brix, but fruit was larger than what I would like to see for a cocktail tomato - as high as 70 grams. Saw some slight cracking. Dead last was Campari (8.1 brix) - showed some greenback and a tough woody pith.

As for next year, it is a toss up between Adoration and Mountain magic. Adoration's high cost (Quote from Uniforce is $1328 per 1M), while Mountain Magic's cost is $205 per 1M, but a lesser proportion of Mountain Magic can be cluster harvested. Annelise and Temptation are priced at roughly $850 per 1M, while Campari sells for around $1500 per 1M. Campari is a no-go - it cannot take large day/night temperature fluctuations. Adoration is recommended for non-heated cultivations, while Campari is only for heated greenhouse cultivations - but Adoration has a more pleasing sugar/acid balance than even store bought Camparis.

gg - Thank you for posting all that helpful, detailed information about your trial - the comparisons of varieties, growing techniques used in your trial, etc. Good stuff. 8-) A bit surprised no one has replied yet, but then a lot of folks (and especially mkt gardeners) are busy with their own gardens this time of year...

Even though you got your seed as a sample from a conference and have also referenced bulk prices for it above - would you happen to know if Adoration F1 seed is available to home growers and/or in non-bulk quantities for the smaller mkt grower? If it's better than Campari (which is pretty darned good IMO and my favorite "store bought" tomato of those that are actually labeled with a specific var name), must be a pretty good one.

I thought adoration was better hands down than Campari, and so did a lot of my customers think it clearly beats store bought Camparis. Check this out at [url]http://www.timingtaste.com/Products/[/url] - Adoration ranks at 68 points, while Campari is at 60 points. Adoration is newer than Campari, and has more disease resistances as well, but cosmetically, it is almost indistinguishable. You might want to try paramount seeds, but the minimum will probably be 250 seeds - which will set you back about $350.

GG, you grew the varieties outdoors. What kinds of disease pressure were they subjected to, and how did each variety cope?

GG, thank you for the interesting comparisons. Were your injection formulas (and timing) based on a soil analysis, or is that a standard commercial application regime for field grown tomatoes?

Also, have you trialed any OP tomatoes? If so, what were they lacking in comparison to the F1s? Production? Disease resistance?

Steve

[QUOTE=travis;231883]GG, you grew the varieties outdoors. What kinds of disease pressure were they subjected to, and how did each variety cope?[/QUOTE]

Campari showed the highest disease incidence by far. Had some minor disease problems - some late blight, but Mountain Magic, Adoration, and Annelise seemed pretty resistant to whatever you could throw at them, but because of the high cost of the seeds, I made sure I was covered using Quadris fungicide. Campari showed the least resistance to cracking, sunscald, and green shoulder from high fruit temperatures. In the spring, because I had problems the prior year, I fumigated my soil with Vapam. My worst nemesis this year was mosaic virus disease from aphids from a nearby cherry orchard - and this year being the year it was, I just couldn't seem to get rid of the aphids - used Admire (neonicotinoid) , then Beleaf, and finally Matador (pyrethroid) which cleaned them up. But the virus didn't seem to touch any of my cocktail varieties - it only got my pink grape tomatoes.

I tried mountain magic last year and liked it. I'm curious how the varieties you tried compare to jolly f1. That's been my favorite in that size class for what seems like a long time. Adoration sounds interesting. Where can seeds be purchased?

Another that is particularly flavorful, though not necessarily high yielding, is halley's purple comet.

[QUOTE=Heritage;231904]GG, thank you for the interesting comparisons. Were your injection formulas (and timing) based on a soil analysis, or is that a standard commercial application regime for field grown tomatoes?

Also, have you trialed any OP tomatoes? If so, what were they lacking in comparison to the F1s? Production? Disease resistance?

Steve[/QUOTE]

Basically, I have an early spring pre-plant soil analysis - make sure your lab tests for molybdenum as well - even a slight deficiency of molybdenum can have a dramatic impact on your yields! I like to amend my soil with Gypsum - it buffers the soil, as well as provides an excellent source of calcium throughout the growing season. I base a lot of my injection formulas on knowledge I gained from Dr. Mohyuddin Mirza when I took his greenhouse crops at university. My soil tends to be a fairly sandy loam, so nutrients tend to leach rather quickly. After transplanting, I give my tomatoes 10-52-10 after transplanting through a Dosatron injector - with a system of Toro Drip-in line (which I can re-use for up to 10 years). At first bud set, I get a leaf analysis done - this is where I want to get my micro-nutrition pretty much dialed in - B, Zn, Mn, Fe, Cu, and Mo. After that, there's pretty much no set formula - reading my plants daily, and choosing between generative and vegetative steering - high N favors vegetative, while high P and K favors generative. The basics I use are AN, KnO3, MgNO3, MKP, NH4SO4, and CaNO3.

As for OP tomatoes, I will run, not walk away from them. First most, if not all have only one disease resistance trait or none at all. Second, most OP tomatoes do not have parthenocarpy genes - meaning they will not set very well at times. Third, OP tomatoes lack any sort of shelf-life. Just to give you an idea, this is the varieties I am growing in addition to my cocktail tomatoes: Cobra F1, Arbason F1 (Trial), Pitenza F1, Solid Gold F1, Loranne F1, Beorange F1, Tomatoberry F1, and Sakura F1.

[QUOTE=swamper;231951]I tried mountain magic last year and liked it. I'm curious how the varieties you tried compare to jolly f1. That's been my favorite in that size class for what seems like a long time. Adoration sounds interesting. Where can seeds be purchased?

Another that is particularly flavorful, though not necessarily high yielding, is halley's purple comet.[/QUOTE]

Probably the minimum of Adoration you could buy would be 250 seeds, unless you found a supplier in Europe. Evergro used to have a minimum of 500 seeds, but because of their new contract with Enza Zaden, this minimum has been brought up to 1000 seeds. I would try Paramount Seeds. I certainly wouldn't discount Mountain Magic - the only problem for me was lack of consistency in fruit size, but flavor was excellent - just below that of Adoration.

GG, you mention you run from open pollinated varieties, and why. I understand your reasons.

However, I have found one open pollinated variety that sets well under all conditions, is resistant to more than one disease, and has a fairly long holding life both on the vine and the shelf. That's Neptune, a fully determinate, 4 - 6 oz., red, slightly flattened globe, with balanced flavor.

I have never grown tomatoes indoors or under cover, but Neptune did very well outdoors, completely unpruned, in containers, supported only by short stakes or a two and a half foot tall wire cage. The skin was not tough, though it resisted bursting or cracking. The appearance was flawless. The gel was tart enough to balance the modest sugar content, and impart a distinct tomato flavor.

For all practical purposes Neptune is an open pollinated variety that resembles a modern hybrid, field culture tomato, and I thought market growers might be interested in giving it a try. I found the seeds at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange for which IFAS originally produced the variety.

The only negative I found with Neptune is that some plants lagged behind others in DTM, and were not as productive as the earlier maturing plants. So, I was very selective in my own seed saving.

Great info... thanks!

Check out my pictures in the photo gallery section.

I thought our hybrid seeds were costly at 10 cents each - UNTIL I read this thread and discovered that some heirloom open-pollinating seeds sell for over $1.00 each (250 seeds for $350 if I read right). All I can say is they better have a pretty darn high germination rate!! LOL

Jack

For everybody who likes Campari - Seeds of Change is selling Annelise. It ranked just ever so slightly behind Adoration in my trial. It is about 8-10 days earlier than Mountain Magic.

[url]http://www.seedsofchange.com/garden_center/product_details.aspx?item_no=PS20980[/url]

In my trial, I did notice some changes over time. On Sept. 1 Mountain Magic was no longer on top, it had sunk to near the bottom, just above Campari. Fruit size started to get larger, and by Sept. 10, the brix had fallen to 6.9. Temptation fell slightly also down to 8.0. Adoration and Annelise remained relatively constant until September 21 - in fact Annelise spike at 10 from August 25th to September 15th. Fruit size did not increase on Adoration and Annelise until the rain on September 28th. Pitting was noticed on September 18th on Campari and September 22nd on Mountain Magic, October 4th for Temptation, October 12th for Adoration, and October 15th on Annelise. Btw. Pitting is injury due to chilling - dependent on variety. Radial cracking was observed on Mountain Magic on September 26th. Fruit size actually declined sharply on both Annelise and Adoration by October 15th (Light is a limiting factor to net photosynthesis as the angle of the sun gets lower. Lost a lot of fruit to black bears on October 10th. First frost was on October 26th, about 5-7 days earlier than normal. Problems experienced were typical problems experienced in any non-tropical growing area, showing the limitations of late season tomatoes. Annelise and Adoration show their ability to cultivation in non-heated greenhouse, poly tunnel, and open field. Unfortunately, Adoration will not be distributed by Enza in North America this year. but Annelise will. The Enza rep stated that both Annelise and Adoration are newer varieties in the Campari segment that are more disease resistant, and are displacing Campari in Europe, and even they feel are better. Adoration is for the conventional segment while Annelise is targeted to the organic segment. Also, they had the best cladosporium resistance.

Very interesting stuff. Interesting that they're discontinuing Campari in Europe. I wonder if that means they'll make them available in the US...

Europe is always 4-5 years ahead of us in varieties. Usually the breeders (Enza Zaden, Rijk Zwaan, De Ruiter, and Hazera) consider us a second tier market, Mexico third tier, and places like India, China fourth tier. A lot of the Campari acreage is Europe has been replaced by Adoration, Arlinta, Baylee, and Annelise for the organic segment. Campari was never a restricted club variety in Europe, so any grower could have it - in fact I've seen it offered to the small hobby growers - but it is hugely expensive - $1560 per 1000 seeds, $1250 per 1000 for 5000 seeds and up, and in small quantities of 25 seeds it sells for 30 euros.

As for being available in the US, I doubt it. The Campari Cartel which formerly consisted of BC Hothouse (A Co-op of growers), Eurofresh, Houwellings, Sunset Produce (Mastronardi), and Village Farms - Houwellings and BC Hothouse foods have since bowed out - making it the big three. Other breeders have come up with comparable offerings - Rijk Zwaan (Tastery Rz, Amoroso Rz), DeRuiter (Red Delight).

You can purchase Annelise seed (same breeder as Campari, newer variety) from Seeds of Change, and Red Delight from DeRuiter from Paramount seeds.

While I can appreciate the potential need for market growers to have seeds like Campari, Annelise, etc.. available for mass plantings in their F1 forms, I just can't justify the expense of $13 for 10 seeds of Annelise or similar, especially when I multiple forums have shown that saving seeds from a campari tomato results in plants that are remarkable close to the F1 fruit... or when I can buy Stupice or Kimberly for $3 or less for 30 seeds..

Nevertheless, thanks for the info. I'm sure there's value for growers like yourself.

Bejo is also a Euro breeder and they offer a lot of their seed to US markets. I grow many of their varieities (not just tomatoes).

The things people forget is that disease pressure is very different based on where you are in the country. For me, being in Wisconsin, Bejo is sort of ideal. They are at a very similar latitude so their breeding is designed for the climate I have in my area.

I am going to be trying mountain magic next year as well. Early blight AND late blight are always problems in my area. The two varieties I grew last year were Sweet Million and Tami-G (agriset).

Sweet million is not a good looker. It is red, but is not a show winner. What it lacks in color was made up in taste. I had people buy 100 or more pounds at a crack and they kept coming back for me.

Tami-G is a grape tomato. It is firmer, but still sweet. It was a HUGE setter. At the end of the season I had vines almost 10 feet tall. We had to top them to get the rest of the fruit to set before frost. We still lost some though.

Tami-G seemed to be more suscepibile to Early blight, but they kept setting fruit even when the lower third of the plant was defoliated. Sweet Million seemed to have more of a sudden death. I am hoping mountain magic will allow me a larger harvest, later in the season.

I am also looking for a golden cherry tomato this coming season. I am thinking sungold. My chefs want a little color.

I grew only beefsteaks last year and I lost over 90% of them due to the weather being too hot. That was my second year with tomatoes and the first time I lost so many of the big toms. This year my seedway rep is recommending the following:

BHN-589
Mountain Fresh Plus (He said not great taste, but guaranteed set)
Red Bounty

Those are the three I am thinking of planting. I would love to plant more, but toms are a secondary crop for me. Melons and corn are my two main crops.

New cocktail tomato varieties I have tried:
Red Delight
Bellini
Kierano
Mai Tai

Bellini is an orange Campari type tomato. Flavour was outstanding. Plant vigour low. Kierano is by far the best red cocktail - beats Campari and Annelise. Mai Tai fruit was like a large cherry, but outstanding flavour.