2014 Toughest Tomato Plants

[jmsieglaff]

Thanks again Dutch! The EPPxBB seedlings are two of my most vigorous. I'm excited to see them progress. I usually plant out May 10-20, depending on the year.

[tnkrer]

Very interested in the EPBxBB cross. Is the size just smaller than tennis ball? I am looking for a tomato that will have a size range between those foamy stress balls and tennis balls. From the pictures it looks the right size. Will keep an eye out for this one for next year.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by jmsieglaff

Thanks again Dutch! The EPPxBB seedlings are two of my most vigorous. I'm excited to see them progress. I usually plant out May 10-20, depending on the year.

Great news Justin! I just want to remind folks that I had received my seeds from Margie of Lazy Ox Farms and that this was a selection I made from a single plant that gave Coyote a strong challenge to be the last tomato plant standing in the 2014 growing season. Because this selection may not be stable, we will have to grow it out a few more times and see what we get.
No seeds from this selection will be distributed by me or the folks helping with the grow outs until it appears to be stable. At that time we will send seeds back to Margie and she can grow them out and name them whatever she wants to.
Thanks for helping grow them out Justin. And thanks to Bower too, as she is growing some of them out this year. The plan is for A Sunny Day to grow some out in Australia following our growing season.
Good luck to all!
Dutch

[bower]

The seedlings are looking good, Dutch. They were started a bit later but are catching up to the others.

I wondered if you had any clues as to the generation of the seeds you grew last year... were the fruit the same or very similar in all plants you grew? Were they all red, or were any pink?

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by bower

The seedlings are looking good, Dutch. They were started a bit later but are catching up to the others.

I wondered if you had any clues as to the generation of the seeds you grew last year... were the fruit the same or very similar in all plants you grew? Were they all red, or were any pink?

Thanks for the update Bower. Yep they are strong growers.
No I don't know want generation I received. I'll email Margie and see what she says.
The fruit on all four plants looked similar. They all looked red which to me means they are either pink or red. I didn't peel back the skin to see if it was clear or yellow. My original intent was to use these for breeding because of their vigor.

Dutch

[Tracydr]

Matt's Wild Cherry made it through summer and winter for me in AZ the last time I grew. Carbon Copy and Golden Sunburst ( a hybrid cherry) birth made volunteers everywhere, as did a few of my dwarfs.

[loeb]

My winner for 2014 is a voluntary seedling from some kind of cherry I was growing the year before. It sprouted in a soil that is mostly sand, growing in a full sun all the time, having not much water, than making fruit, staying quite healthy trough late blight, and in the end surviving first frost somehow.. So I digged it up and placed on southern window sill.. Not hoping much for it to survive winter. But, it was growing there happily and started to set fruit as soon as sun started to shine harder.. Now it's still there, and first fruits are turning orange [its a red cherry]. So, I will use it in breeding this year and I will plant few seedlings from it, and I will make a scions and plant them as well [actually I have already planted out one few days ago]. It will be fun to see what I can get with this one. I love gardener-proof plants

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by Dutch

Thanks for the update Bower. Yep they are strong growers.
No I don't know want generation I received. I'll email Margie and see what she says.
The fruit on all four plants looked similar. They all looked red which to me means they are either pink or red. I didn't peel back the skin to see if it was clear or yellow. My original intent was to use these for breeding because of their vigor.

Dutch

Bower, you are growing out F5 or F6 plants. Margie wrote, “I am crazy busy in May” and I am too, so more on this later. She also wrote this about sending the seeds back to her and naming it, “Awesome! But, if you are doing the work, I think you should name it.”
I think before we consider giving this selection a name, we should first see if we get some plants that have the same frost tolerance, disease resistance and vigor. So please no suggestions on names yet and please don’t pull any of these plants that appear to be what we are looking for until after the first really hard freeze. Good luck and thanks for all the help.

And thanks to all the folks posting in this thread about their own “2014 Toughest Tomato Plants”.

Dutch

[bower]

check! frost tolerance, disease resistance and vigour... test pending! I have five seedlings, three have been #1 from the get go, two went to triage after an unknown stress (cold? wet? fungus gnats?) affected a tray of seedlings, but are now doing well.

Best wishes for your busy May, Dutch. Me too!

[jmsieglaff]

So I planted one plant into a 5 gallon bucket today, I will see how it does in a container that sized, likely pruned to one or two main stems. The other plant will go into the garden, but I'm going to wait until Tuesday night passes, which looks rather cool at this point. The seedlings are very healthy, I planted it fairly deep.

[Gardeneer]

My LEAST favorite plants, with respect to disease, were those with Potato Leaves .
Coincident ? I am talking in particular about molds.

So this year I am growing just two PL variety. 30 other have RL.
I remember, Cherokee purple and Ananas Noire were the most healthy til the end of season.

Gardeneer

[jmsieglaff]

Dutch,

Both of my plants are very healthy and doing well. The one in the bucket had its first flower open this morning, the one in the garden isn't very far behind. Both plants exhibit fairly dark green foliage and heavy foliage as well. Looking forward to trying them later in the summer.

Justin

[Dutch]

Thanks for the update Justin. It's still early in the season so I don't have much to report on mine. I'm crazy busy this time of year and will probably miss quite a few posts here at Tomatoville. A hydraulic line blew out on my skid-loader (some folks call them Bobcats, but mine is a New Holland) Saturday and my lower legs and shoes got soaked with oil. So between trying to get the garden in and repairing old equipment, its been nuts. But I wouldn't trade this life style for anything because its all a labor of love.
Thanks again.
Dutch

[bower]

hey Dutch,
Wishing you well, and no more mishaps with the old machines.

I'll post some pix later of the MEPBBBX. Another frost trial tonight!

[jmsieglaff]

Ugh, bad news about your New Holland. I liked when I got to drive that around the golf course I worked at. We used it to deliver more sand bunkers and smooth gravel cart paths. The garden plant opened it's first flower today. The summer crops are enjoying our 80s.