Obviously confused, trying for certainty...help!

[ddsack]

I only grow Azoychka in a pot these days. It's a nice, tart earlier mid-sized yellow for me, but I lose interest in it after the other large tomatoes with a more complex flavor start coming in. So growing it in a pot which I can put out earlier than planting in the cold ground, works out just right for my timing the enjoyment on this tomato.

[camochef]

I'm probably not the person to be giving such advice as I used to be guilty of the same. Your list is very impressive, both in containers and in the ground, but it is labor intensive. Not only planting but maintaining. from watering, fertilizing and worst of all weeding.
I've gone from planting hundreds each year to less and less with each passing year. I thought I did very well last year getting down to just 80 tomato plants, but this year I cut it to 16 plants.
It wasn't easy but it should give me all the tomatoes I need and allow me to have a life of my own instead of being a slave to the gardens.
As time goes by, you can select those that are your favorites and concentrate more on them. They don't have to be grown in one year.
My best suggestion is to keep a yearly journal that you can refer to each year as far as starting seed, transplanting dates, daily activities, harvest dates, yeilds, taste, etc.
Also wishing you the best and Happy Gardening!
Enjoy!
Camo

[janezee]

I've been away for a few days, and am glad to see some more answers.
Thank you!

dice, thanks for the advice. I'll be planting DMB and Chernamor for a taste comparison
to the F2 & F3, and Bosu and Plum Regal as comparison for blight resistance.
I'll put them all in one bed together, to see how it goes.
I'll gladly switch out those other tomatoes, too.

dd, that's good to know about the Azoychka, too. I'm looking forward to it.
So many have mentioned it here. All my tomatoes go in pots or in raised beds,
to get a better start in our cool, damp climate. I wish I had heat under the beds!
I know I like lounging on my electric blanket in cool weather.

[janezee]

camo, thanks for the compliment, and the warning. Fortunately, I have nothing better
to do with my time than tend to my garden,
for both my health, and theirs. I spend 3-5 hours in the garden every day. It's my fun, zen time.
I find the more time I spend there, the better I feel, so labor intensive is just up my alley.
Weeding is not an issue in my raised beds. I spend less than 15 minutes a week weeding.
Pruning is another story, though.

Since I've not tasted most of these varieties, this is a trial year, as will the next 2-3 years.
I hope to get it down to only the best tasting for the foggy, soggy weather on the island, and most
late blight resistance, too, if possible. We get it every year, between Labor Day and Halloween,
usually, though it can be earlier. Thus the emphasis on early maturing varieties. I'm hoping the HH
will help with the later varieties, and how to plant them.
I think that the journal is essential, but more painful and time-consuming by far than the
weeding ever has been. <sigh> I hate record-keeping of any kind, but I have set up a spreadsheet
for inventory, and another for planting, harvesting, and tasting.
I depend a lot on the opinions of
more experienced growers than I, who are mostly regulars here on TV.
I'm also on the lookout for a scale. That never occurred to me in previous years.

Do you keep your journal in a book, or on the computer?

[dice]

It is good to plant Dice's Mystery Black with those crosses and
late-blight tolerant varieties. Then you have a plant that you know
will fall once late blight hits your garden. If something is afflicting
those plants but Dice's Mystery Black is not showing obvious
late blight symptoms within a week, then it is not late blight (yet).