2017 year in review
 

For the umpteenth year, maybe fifteen, this is the year-end wrap-up of the tomato season, this one for 2017. Several categories will be discussed to give an idea of the growing season as compared to past years. Most of this is for my own benefit so this whole thread can be skipped. I still will publish.

Most productive variety by weight:
Marianna’s Peace 51lbs 2 ounces
2. Russian Bogytar 47lbs 12 ounces
3. Kellogg’s Breakfast 43 lbs 13 ounces
4. Big Cheef 43 lbs 10 ounces

Most tomatoes by number:

1. Big Cheef 133
2. Russian Bogytar 128
3. Marianna’s Peace 115

largest average size:

Heatherington Pink, Cowlick’s Brandywine, Kellogg’s Breakfast all about 11 ounces

Yearly production of all varieties: 565 pounds by 26 plants=21.7 lbs per plant. This is about the same as last year and in the top 5 years in the past 15 years.

Now the most important…flavor ratings. This year’s winner as judged by my wife and me is Daniel Burson, scoring 9.5 of 10.

These varieties all were in the 9/10 range, the most considered nines in many years in no particular order:
Rebel Yell, Heatherington Pink, Ernesto, Cowlick’s Brandywine and Ludmilla’s Pink.

To indicate the flavor quality of this year these were considered 8/10:
Big Cheef, Brad’s Black Heart, Orange Russian 117, Kellogg’s Breakfast, Blue Ridge Mountain, Earl’s Faux, Joe’s Portuguese and Wes.

To recap, this was a fun year with no real catastrophes but with a fairly average production year. September production was off the scale high with almost 50% of the ripe fruit happening after September and well into October. All plants were pulled before the first hard freeze (tonight, 10-27 will be 27 degrees) because the plants just wore out.

Next year will be all blacks with a heart or two and a yellow or orange tossed in.

Paul

Excellent documentation, and congratulations on a great year!

Darin

You certainly had a very good year. Thanks so much for your reviews. They will be helpful to many folks here. I too am a fan of Daniel Burson, so I am quite glad that it did so well for you.

~ Cheers ~

Well done Paul! How was production of Daniel Burson for you?

Daniel Burson stats:

Planted outside May 6. First ripe tomato July 21. (eighty-one days). 43 tomatoes at 358 ounces..22 pounds 6 ounces. Largest fruit 16 ounces. Season's average 8.3 ounces. Produced early and stopped early. Pulled plant on 9-17

Great report to share, thanks, Paul. DB dis well for me too, great strong flavour.'I also like Rebel Yell.
How do you like Marianna's Peace's flavour? I grew it one year, big beautiful fruit,but tasted really bland, so I did not try it again.

Looks like you aren't a cherry tomato fan. I too love Daniel Burson, and Big Cheef, 2 years I could not get KB to grow without severe disease. KBX grows very well here. Have you grown them side by side? I wonder if the fruit are different.

I always enjoy your stats, Paul! Thanks again for sharing. :yes:

[QUOTE=NewWestGardener;669700]Great report to share, thanks, Paul. DB dis well for me too, great strong flavour.'I also like Rebel Yell.
How do you like Marianna's Peace's flavour? I grew it one year, big beautiful fruit,but tasted really bland, so I did not try it again.[/QUOTE]

I have grown Marianna's Peace on and off for fifteen years and it has always been one we enjoy. Some years are better than others, mostly because of weather conditions. I always go back to it.

[QUOTE=ginger2778;669716]Looks like you aren't a cherry tomato fan. I too love Daniel Burson, and Big Cheef, 2 years I could not get KB to grow without severe disease. KBX grows very well here. Have you grown them side by side? I wonder if the fruit are different.[/QUOTE]

Since getting KBX from Martha a long time ago, most years I do grow both KB and KBX the same year. When compared without labels I have a difficult time distinguishing between them. For some reason I think I like potato leaf varieties better than regular, but there is no real reasoning for that. Statistically there is no difference in production and my old tired taste buds can't tell the difference.

This year we grew three cherries, Ambrosia Red, Black Cherry and Pearly Pink Cherry, but I do not include them in the report since there is no reason to try and weigh the ton of fruit they produce. Besides, I don't like cherry tomatoes much. I will admit Black Cherry has very good flavor and the others were OK. My wife thought they were great. Next year only one plant of cherry tomatoes.

Also enjoy your very excellent reports Paul. You say your not a fan of cherry tomatoes, and I'm sure you have grown many, but my first question would be have you grown Maglia Rosa? I have yet to have a single person (that eats tomatoes) not love it.

Sounds like it better be on next year's list for my wife to judge.

Great report and with excellent detail. I used to try to keep up with mine like that but always seem to lose steam by mid season; but I usually have around 30 different varieties and anywhere from 75 to 100 plants. Although that is a lot of plants when they are kept to a single stem it doesn't seem like nearly as many.

I have never grown Daniel Burson but have grown some of the others in your list. Cowlick's Brandywine is always gets several spots with some other favorites of mine.
Congratulations on a great year.

My year started out great and finished with a whimper due to some new disease that hit all my fall tomatoes. I had never seen it before but it caused all the plants to start stunting and yellowing of the new growth. New production ceased and fruit remained small and also stunted looking. Seeing 60+ healthy young plants just stop and wither like that was really disheartening after all the effort of planting out in the late summer heat. Next year I will probably be cutting back more on my numbers of plants as it is getting harder and harder to do the work needed to have successful plants down here in this disease and pest ridden area. My problem is there are at least 20 different varieties that I just have to have each year and dang if someone doesn't always seem to lure me into trying a few new ones each year. This addiction is hard to control.

Bill

Bill, you are describing tomato Yellow Leaf curl virus. Do you have white flies? Do you have a photo of the yellow withered plants?

I love Marianne Peace but it is late for me almost not worth growing. What are you times for planting it?
Also for those ones? How late are they? Heatherington Pink, Ernesto, and Ludmilla’s Pink?
Am glad to see someone else loves RUssian Bogatyr, I too love this one and grows well for me at reasonable midseason times.