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Old January 18, 2016   #23
JLJ_
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Wyoming
Posts: 759
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Few thoughts from the other side of the mountains -- east slopes of the Big Horns, between 5300 and 5400 ft.

Indian Stripe does great here, in any of its incarnations -- much better than Cherokee Purple -- and I think it would be a market-popular name.

Moravsky Div and Burpee's 4th of July perform similarly here -- but not necessarily in the same year -- several years one has done great, while the other loafed. I first tried 4th of July because there was a study done in Idaho a few years ago comparing varieties for this region, and 4th of July rated extremely well, both for early performance and for flavor.

Sophie's Choice is an unusual type tomato -- small, round bushy, early fruiting plant, fairly large tomatoes if it's happy -- that grows well here. Great container plant, but likes to grow in the ground, too, if voles aren't too dense.

I'd suspect that many of the released dwarf project tomatoes would sell well, there are so few good container plants. I'm particularly hopeful about Arctic Rose this year.

An early tomato I haven't grown, but am planning to this year because of favorable recommendations, is Latah.

I'm planning to try Daniels this year -- partly because of Fusion's frequent recommendations and partly because it is the probably other parent (with Indian Stripe) of Daniel Burson, and I want to see how they all compare in similar conditions here . . . but I'm afraid Daniels may be a little long season to be a good producer here.

If Delicious sells for you, then obviously you want it, but I think it's a little long season for us, here. If it does grow there, than you may be fine with Daniels, and perhaps with some Brandywine. I'm planning to try several Brandywines for comparison this year -- Joyces Brandywine is supposed to be a little earlier than some. Sandhill says it is similar to Sudduth's but matured about a week earlier, there.

Sweet Ozark Orange matures late season here, but it certainly a very good, and somewhat different orange, with what I'd think would be a good marketable name. A second choice orange for me would be Podarok Fei -- gift of the fairy -- good producer, latish, here, not as special as Sweet Ozark Orange, but differently good.

I have much better luck with Marglobe than with its child, Rutgers. Other Marglobe children, of which Break O Day is one, also do better than Rutgers for me, but not, usually, as well as Marglobe. A selling point with Marglobe is that it was a -- probably the -- top commercial tomato in the 1930's -- meaning that it was bred to be a rugged, somewhat disease resistant, productive tomato, in the days when no one was interested in growing a commercial tomato that didn't taste good. It was the *only* tomato my grandmother liked to grow -- good for eating, good for cooking, good for sauce, good for canning, she'd say, why grow anything else? However, while it's also my "main crop" tomato, it works for me here, most years, because I grow a lot of plants. A 75 DTM tomato, here, is more late season that mid season, so I grow enough to get a year's supply of tomatoes (when combined with the others I grow) put up from what is produced right at the end of the season.

For something hearty, Anna Maria's Heart has done well here. Also Fish Lake.

And George Detsikas was a *great* tomato, last year, in a bad tomato year. Now on my *always* list.

Cherries that do well for me are Super Sweet 100, Snow White, Sun Gold, and Ron's Carbon Copy looks promising, if it can get a year with at least normal-for-us weather.

Must run, but hopefully there's something useful there.

Kip says to tell Roy that if he hear's AwoooOOOoooo that isn't quite the wind, it's Kip, sending Malatalkative greetings your way.
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