Cherokee Purple or related varieties

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by tam91

Ami, I DO need a surrogate garden. I was actually thinking about that - I need an old lady with a big sunny yard, who doesn't want to garden but loves tomatoes (I share well). Haven't found her yet though...

I have no choice but to grow in containers, unfortunately, I'm infested with walnut trees. I do use 18 gal containers though, and all the plants seem to do ok in them, even the really big heirlooms. I probably don't get the yield some of you do, but I get enough to eat and share.

Well I'm an old lady with a sunny back yard who wants to garden, but can't and has someone else do the gardening including tomatoes in gro-bags. And this old lady loves her tomatoes.

I'm posting just to let you know that old lady's like myself do exist and suggests you put up some flyers around where you live and you could even put a WANTED item in your local newspaper.

You know.... something like young woman seeks old lady for tomato growing, will share..... you know what to do.

And now I'm laughing a bit b'c I'm currently reading a book by David Sedaris, a wicked humorist, and his next one to read, which I have, is called Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk.

Each Xmas I give a few stress reliever books to my orthopedic surgeon who also has a wicked sense of humor and the fastest firing neurons from his brain to his mouth. I've known him since Dec of 2004 thru the severed quads in my right leg and two new hips and all the X-ray followups. So I know him well.

Now that I think of it perhaps I should also send the same kind of books to my ophthomologist who just gave me back my sight with two new eye lenses, and it was my ortho surgeon who suggested the specific eye doc anyway since my ortho surgeon was Chairman of the Surgery Dept for quite a few years and is a good one to consult on finding good surgeons.
They both have suggested the same cosmetic surgeon to get my right eyelid lifted, aka ptosis, but when I look at the ads in the paper for THAT surgeon he has these pictures of beutiful curvacious "babes" and there's no amount of money that could make me a curvacious "babe", and besides, nether Medicare or my Medicare Supplement would pay for it. The eyelid surgery yes. A couple of others have said he's arrogant, but I can handle arrogant. I just want someone with technical expertise. After teaching med students for most of my professional life I want docs in the top 5-10% if you get my drift.

So go find an old lady.

[tam91]

I wish I lived next door Carolyn, we'd have a deal for sure!

While I myself am healthy, I seem to be a medical disaster/idiot magnet for those around me, so I've spent lots of time around doctors. I haven't figured out if the arrow on my t-shirt next to the words "kill this person..." points left or right, so people aren't sure which side of me is safe to stand on.

However, having cultivated a circle of doctors who are competant, I do especially appreciate those with a sense of humor, of which we have a pretty good collection.

Technical expertise is good, in a surgeon, for sure. Arrogant isn't my favorite, but I suppose more expected/tolerable in a surgeon than someone you have to put up with long-term. Somehow, Carolyn, I suspect you might find a way to put him in his place, should he get too far out of line

Not sure about this next year, but I actually will think about seeing if there's someone who would like a garden, with someone else doing the work. Would be kind of a nice deed anyway - good for all.

Kinda like holiday dinners - I absolutely love cooking, but don't have any family other than my husband. I'm sure there must be some lonely people around (elderly, new to the area, etc.) but I haven't happened to hook up with any. Maybe next year.

[piegirl]

Carolyn - I am laughing way too hard over your commets! Thank you!

Tam - why not take a walk around your neighborhood, go down the alleys and see if someone has an abandoned garden site or whatever. We had a nice big plot across the alley - so move to Linoln, to my block and we will take to Mike. piegirl

[Worth1]

Speaking of old ladies I have my eye on a really prime garden spot with nice sandy loam soil.
Every year she tries to grow tomatoes but to no avail.
If she will listen I might be able to help us both out.
The plus side is she lives something like 1 mile from my house.
I have been debating talking to her for 5 years now.

This thread might have given me the inspiration to do it.

Worth

[tam91]

Haha I don't have quite that type of neighborhood to walk around, it's a bunch of fancy houses, or farms. There was a little old lady with a perfect garden plot, but someone else already has it.

Poor me... I'll just have to move across the country I guess.

Worth - go for it. Worst she can do is chase you away with a broom or something.

[DuckCreekFarms]

Here's is my experience with Indian Stripe, I think it's a winner


http://www.duckcreekfarms.com/pdfs/T...esults2001.pdf

gvs

[tam91]

Interesting, you've brought up a few others for consideration as well.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by DuckCreekFarms

Here's is my experience with Indian Stripe, I think it's a winner


http://www.duckcreekfarms.com/pdfs/T...esults2001.pdf

gvs

Nice summaries.

I wanted to note that Sara Black is not a german heirloom. It was bred by Joe Bratka here in the ole USA, the same person who bred Isis Candy, Ghost, Rabbit, Snowwhite, a whole bunch of Marizols, although only two are heirlooms, Marizol Purple and Marizol Gold, the others were given fictitious histories, as well as all of the Sara colored ones, all of which he bred, and then there's Purple Brandy, which he passed off as an heirloom and I convinced him to change the name to Marizol Bratka but he'd already sent out seeds as Purple Brandy so that one exists with two names.

And it was Joe who found seeds in glass jars in a toolshed on the property, already named, as bred by his father. he couldn't germinate them, sent them to me and I was able to germinate:

Box Car Willie
Mule Team
Great Divide
Pasture
Red Barn

...... and I think Red Barn has been greatly overlooked and is one of the best of that group, BCW and MT not being that different from each other.

I didn't mean to write as much, but once I got going I couldn't stop.

I'll always remember Joe's comment to me when he said......if folks want heirlooms, I'll create them, and he did.

And now back to my original comment; I love Indian Stripe and not just b'c I was the person who first received the seeds from my friend Donna, when she was visiting relatives in Arkansas and saw it growing in a friendi's garden there. And heaven known there's many threads here at Tville about Indian Stripe, so let's just accept it for what it is , and for me it's a great variety.

Edited to add that Sara Black was translated to German language Schwarze Sarah by someone and that translated name appears at several seed sites so folks just assume that it's German in origin, but it's NOT, as I just noted above. A nice US bred variety.

[rxkeith]

i have grown cherokee purple a couple times, and indian stripe once, but in the U.P. in my limited experience, i would give the edge to indian stripe for productivity. most had to be picked green due to frost though. i haven't done a side by side grow out yet.

for additional growing space, if you are associated with a church that has green space, you might inquire about starting a garden there. if other members are interested it could become a community garden. tools, labor, expertise, seeds can be shared. if that isn't possible, there will be members that do garden or would like to garden, but cant, or have the space to grow a garden. my wife and i have the same thought whenever we drive by a church thats surrounded by lawn. what a waste of space. put a garden in there. grow some food for themselves or for a food pantry.

or do like ami does in germany. he has a surrogate garden at work. where there is a will there is a way. or put another way, problem equals opportunity.


keith

[tam91]

I'm pretty convinced I want to try Indian Stripe - it sounds great.

I'm still figuring out how many plants I can wedge in here, but I may be hunting for a surrogate garden one of these years.

One of these... or maybe two... and two of these... and...

This was easier, when I just went to the nursery and picked from what they had. However, the local nurseries have quite a few heirlooms, so the addiction was born.

[camochef]

I've grown Cherokee Purple for many years now. I thought it to be a great tasting tomato the first few years I grew it, but found it to vary in taste year to year. This past season I didn't grow it at all, as I found the Brandywine/Cherokee Purple crosses to be much better tasting and have much better production. I'm talking about Bear Creek, Liz Birt, Dora and Gary O'sena. All four are fantastic tasting tomatoes, which produce much better than Cherokee Purple, and unlike CP, seem to have a longer shelf life too.
I'm also fond of Dana's Dusky Rose, Amazon Chocolate, Blackmaster, Swisher Sweet, and some years JD's Special C-Tex which seems to vary from year to year like CP.
I've grown Indian Stripe for a couple years now, and found it to be a great producer, but this year didn't compare to last years in taste or size. Still much better than Vorlon, which produced some really large tomatoes but they just didn't have much taste at all and I had planted 7 of them in two seperate gardens. Probably my biggest disappointment of this years crop.
Many varieties change drasticly in taste from year to year, even in the same gardens,depending on weather, especially rain and tempertures. but there are others that seem to do very well be hot or cold, dry or wet. One should grow a variety of tomatoes to find out which ones do the best for them where they live and fit their criteria for what they consider to be the best, be it taste, production, size, disease resistance, or stability. After all, everyone has their own favorites, especially if their trying to get you to purchase from them.
Enjoy the search, and the time spent finding your favorites.
Camo

[duajones]

Cherokee Purple has been consistent in growth and taste since I started growing the variety from seed I got from Craig and Suze. Before that the storebought seed didnt produce as well. It is still one that I wont be without as long as I have a garden.
I have it in my fall garden along side a couple of hybrids and it has more fruit than the hybrids do.

[camochef]

Originally Posted by duajones

Cherokee Purple has been consistent in growth and taste since I started growing the variety from seed I got from Craig and Suze. Before that the storebought seed didnt produce as well. It is still one that I wont be without as long as I have a garden.
I have it in my fall garden along side a couple of hybrids and it has more fruit than the hybrids do.

Duane,
I'm so glad that you've found a tomato that does exceptionally well for you. That's what we all seek. Although, I must say that even favorites have off years. Most years Cowlick Brandywines are my tomato of choice out of the hundreds I grow each year. Last year they didn't fair near as well as they usually do. The normal P.L. version dropped to about #20 in the pink tomato listing. The rarer R.L. version did better at #2 in the pinks. Barlow Jap, Liz Birt, Mrs Benson and a few other Brandywine and Brandywine crosses were much more impressive. Just a year to year change. Different weather patterns.
I must admit, I haven't grown hybrids in years, (except for a must try adventure into burpee seedless a couple years ago, which was a total waste of space IMHO).
With the thousands of varieties available, your going to have thousands of different opinons. Those opinons will vary throughout the years with changing weather conditions, disease resistance, and many other changing conditions, including tastes. The challange is to keep up with the changes and to always have a few "favorites" doing well in your gardens. Hopefully CP will be one of yours. I didn't grow it last year, and I don't plan on growing it next year. It was my #1 choice back in 2006 or 2007. Enjoy!
Camo

[Structure]

Growing in cooler summers (70s most days, mid to low 50s at night), I find Cherokee Purple and Indian Stripe to be unbeatable for taste. I fondly remember growing Brandywine from when I lived in the Midwest, but here on the coast it just doesn't develop much flavor. Of course, this may be a personal taste thing. I like sweet and tart tomatoes. Quite a few of the larger beefsteak varieties don't seem to develop much sweetness under cooler growing conditions. Thank goodness CP and IS do so well!

So many varieties. So many climates. So many seasons. So many tastes. It does keep it interesting.

[tjg911]

i have grown cherokee purple for many years, it was one of the 1st heirlooms i tried. other than 1 year when it was not good, cp is usually very good to fantastic and this is in 2 different gardens over the years. i grew spudakee for the 1st time this year and it was ok but not close to cp for taste. a nice tomato but it did not gain access to my top favorites list.

the problem is a variety can taste different from year to year so just 1 year is not necessarily adequate to know if you like it. i always dropped a variety if it did not impress me the 1st year but now i realize that may be jumping to conclusions. unfortunately i don't have the desire or ability to grow several plants of each variety in a given year and to do it 2 or 3 years. so if it doesn't impress i move on. the varieties i rate as the best, and cp is in that group, have proven to be excellent that 1st year and that's why i grew them again. the only way you'll know how cp or any tomato tastes is to grow it yourself. your taste buds, soil, weather, sun exposure, potential for disease, etc is not the same as mine and except for taste buds probably not the same as anyone else that is not in your immediate area.

i'm going to grow some tomatoes in a community garden this year cuz i need more space, do you have access to one?