New to growing your own tomatoes? This is the forum to learn the successful techniques used by seasoned tomato growers. Questions are welcome, too.
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November 15, 2007 | #16 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: NY
Posts: 2,618
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Around here in NY, I think people are not as interested (or knowledgeable?) in varieties. They buy based on impulse.
HD in the spring sells : small plant at about $2.50 each. small plants with blossoms at about $3.50 each. 8" plants with small fruits at about $6.50 each. The nursery not far from HD sold 18" plants with good size fruits on them at $25.00 each. They got sold out quickly. dcarch
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November 15, 2007 | #17 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Utah
Posts: 675
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I know a lot of people who garden like to preserve their harvest and can or make sauce from their tomatoes. I would include a couple of paste types, latinos especially tend to lean towards them. Some good/productive varieties I've grown have been Heidi, San Marzano, and Rio Grande. Yellow Bell is very productive also---I don't know how well it would sell, but I'm sure there are a few people out there who like to try new things. Also including some dwarf/determinate varieties for gardeners who have limited space would be good, the first ones that come to my mind are New Big Dwarf and Lime Green Salad. I agree that having some photos and information on the varieties would be helpful in helping people decide what they want to try. I'm going to try and sell my left overs next year. I usually give them away, but I think I'll try selling a few next Spring.
Tyff |
November 15, 2007 | #18 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Carmichael, CA
Posts: 42
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Sorry its taking so long to reply. We've been sick and my son doesn't let me write very long e-mails. I'm reading everything and getting my replies together now since he is taking his nap.
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November 15, 2007 | #19 | ||||||
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Carmichael, CA
Posts: 42
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November 16, 2007 | #20 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Carmichael, CA
Posts: 42
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I was just thinking if I can't sell them then atleast they would be ones I liked. Both of the farmer's markets I go to they sell heirloom tomatoes. 10 to 15 varieties seem reasonable. |
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November 16, 2007 | #21 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Carmichael, CA
Posts: 42
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November 16, 2007 | #22 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
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are that the buyer needs to know that is what they are buying ("roma-like", not juicy, with tiny seeds, meant for cooking) and that roma-derived tomatoes tend to get BER easily (soil needs plenty of calcium and to stay moist; possibly a side-effect of decades of selection in chalky Mediterannean soils rich in calcium, where BER just didn't happen unless there was a drought and they were not irrigated.) Odds are people that select paste tomato seedlings will already know enough about tomatoes in general to know that, though. Korney posted a list of "great paste tomatoes" in a thread here a couple of months ago: http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=6302&page=2 Another one that Earl particularly liked was Andes Horn (also called Cornue de Andes, IIRC). The thing to remember about pastes is that they rarely compete with slicers, canners, and salad tomatoes for fresh flavor. It is the cooking or drying of them that concentrates the flavors, and there is a lot less juice to reduce, so less cooking time. (Something to tell customers that ask "What is a 'paste' tomato?)
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January 17, 2008 | #23 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Carmichael, CA
Posts: 42
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This is my list so far. Do you think I have too many similar varieties? My list consists of mostly what you suggested, but some of the ones suggested I didn't think would do well in my climate. I looked them up on the cultivar finder on Dave's Garden website. So this is it, let me know.
Cherokee purple Aunt Ginny's Purple Eva Purple Ball-Tomato Seeds Stump O' The World Cuostralee Marvel Stripe San Marzano - for paste (had already gotten it so that is why I decided to sell it) Caspian Pink Chadwick Cherry(for a regular cherry) Brandywine Siletz - For a determinate variety Illinois Beauty - couldn't find Redfield Beauty Pineapple Isis Candy The ones below I'm including, but are mostly for my own use Delicious Arkansas Traveler (for my dad) Flame (Hillbilly) Wapsipinicon Peach Aunt Ruby's German Green Sungold (my only hybrid) |
January 17, 2008 | #24 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: WV
Posts: 38
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Last year I sold seedlings at a charity benefit sale. I thought it would be good to have different colors & unusual varieties, to provide different things from what you can buy at the local nurseries & big box stores. Not too wild - things like Caspian Pink and Red Zebra. Wrong! The number one question, all day, "Do you have Better Boy?"
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January 17, 2008 | #25 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
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Those seem like fine varieties to me, but you do
need an answer to the "Do you have Better Boy?" question. One answer is "Yes." (Start a packet of them and have them ready, and hope that the locals that grow big-box store hybrid reds do not prefer Early Girl. Maybe start a packet of those, too, just in case.) Another answer is "We actually like these {Marmande, Rutgers, Jet Star, ...} better for a mid-season red tomato. They grow just as well and seem to have a lot more flavor."
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January 17, 2008 | #26 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Carmichael, CA
Posts: 42
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Thanks for the advice. I will definately keep that in mind. Do you have a recommendation for something similar to the Better Boy and Early Girl that would do well with 95-105 degree heat all summer? Maybe I can tell people that ask for those varieties that these other varieties are recommended, have more flavor etc. and then tell them I will give them a refund or a different variety next year if they don't like what they buy? That seems fair. And atleast they have "tried" a new variety. Yeah know.
Thanks. |
January 18, 2008 | #27 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
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I wouldn't offer a refund to someone who may not
know how to grow a tomato. What you could do instead is offer a bundle, your mid-season round red (or pink) and something else that you have lots of seedlings of for the price of a single seedling (two for the price of one) to people that ask for some well-known red hybrid that you do not have. Mule Team and Jetsetter (one mid-season op, one early hybrid) are two reds that both have a reputation for better-than-average heat tolerance. Laurel (Laurel's Heirloom Tomatoes, or something like that) flags Rutgers in her catalog as doing well in most climates, but not as exceptionally heat-tolerant. Jet Star is recommended in an Iowa State Univ. publication as a good cultivar for Iowa farmers growing for fresh market (it gets pretty hot in mid-summer there, too, but I do not know whether they try to keep Jet Star growing all summer). I find a lot of kudos for Marmande for flavor and production, but no mention of how it does in 90-100F temperatures. One that you already have listed, Arkansas Traveller, might outperform any of those in the kind of mid-summer heat that you have in the California central valley. It is actually a pink, but people who simply ask for BetterBoy or something like that may not notice the difference between a true red and a ripe pink once the tomatoes are ripe. The tomatoes will be smaller, but there will be more of them, and most people will find that they have better flavor. Maybe Jetsetter instead of Early Girl and Mule Team or Arkansas Traveller instead of BetterBoy?
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January 19, 2008 | #28 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Florida
Posts: 55
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I also am growing tomatoes to sell (trying to start a nuresry actually). I have sold tomatoes in the past years and foud that people want selection and the odd ball tomatoes. I have never had one person ask for any thing "boy" or "girl" but have had loads of requests for cherokee purple, anything that's green when ripe, black cherry, brandywine, and pear shaped tomatoes. Most people I have dealt with have trusted my advice and go with what I tell them will work in our heat and humidity rather tan asking for some hybrid like bigboy or better boy.
As for your selections they look good although I would add more selection. I would have at least 2 of each color my favorties for our climate by color being black/purple: cherokee purple, black krim, and black brandywine rl Yellow: aunt g's gold, wonderlight, and golden egg white: snowball, Big white Red: Creole, market mircale and smokey mountan red pink: county agent, pink potatotop, heathering pink Green: cherokee green, evergreen bicolor: luckycross I would also do atlest 2 paste, 2 cherry and 2 beefstakes my favorites being paste: banana legs, amish paste cherry: golden egg, smokey mountain red beefsteak: cherokee purple, pink potato top hope that helps macmanmatty |
January 19, 2008 | #29 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Carmichael, CA
Posts: 42
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macmanmatty - Thank you. I will make sure I have green tomatoes and another yellow. I think I have 3 cherries already so I think I'm covered there. You must have more knowledgeable people coming through buying plants. I can only hope that it is that way here with the people I meet. |
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January 19, 2008 | #30 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
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PS:
Jumbo Jim Orange might be a hot item in your area this year, at least among GW readers: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/l...452423903.html Marianna's Heirloom Seeds has it (hopefully still in stock): http://www.mariseeds.com/2005catalog/yellows.html
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