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Old January 24, 2018   #31
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Default Italian Heirloom

Italian Heirloom is a delicious, meaty, flavorful tomato. It's heavy in the hand and a medium to high producer depending on the year. Makes wonderful, flavorful sauce but also is good for fresh eating.

I'm also going to to Opalka and Amish Paste since everyone seems to like these two.

Best of luck!

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Old January 24, 2018   #32
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CC,

I also have BER which translates to wasted fruits, but when I grew Incas Jewels F1 from Renee’s in a 7 gallon container two years back I didn’t have BER. That one plant kept me busy as it keeps going until frost.

I also grow Hard Rock from Jungs in the garden soil, (O-P), which is an absolute determinate. It flushes red with roma’s and that is the end of production.

I’m also gonna growing Marzano Fire this year, though San Marzano’s are the worst for me with blossom end rot. I’m also growing Siberische Appel Tomat from J and L this year for something completely different.
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Old January 25, 2018   #33
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I cannot thank you all enough for this wealth of information and advice. I am taking it to heart and am hoping this will be the year of success. Fingers crossed!
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Old January 26, 2018   #34
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Like others, regular watering and regular fertilizing pretty much eliminates BER in my garden. Only time if see it these days is in any I have in grow bags that might not get watered or fed as frequently as they should.
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Old February 4, 2018   #35
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Thank you! They were suggesting grow bags at a local garden supply shop last year. I read mixed reviews about them so I was hesitant to try them. Wind was a top concern. I was afraid they woukd fall over. Instead, I went with the 10 gallon nursery pots. I still have interest in the bags, though.
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Old February 4, 2018   #36
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Quote:
Originally Posted by simmran1 View Post
I’m also growing Siberische Appel Tomat from J and L this year for something completely different.
This variety name sounds really funnty to me, because it is a German-English translated mix name for the famous Russian variety Sibirskoe Yabloko (=Siberian Apple in English). This is a very good mid early to midseason variety: indet. plant with green>milky>pink 120-200 g globe fruit of great flavor.
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Old October 18, 2018   #37
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Originally Posted by BigVanVader View Post
Planting paste varieties very deep will pretty much eliminate BER. I let mine get leggy and plant about 12 inches deep. I've had no issues since, but I do water on a regular schedule.
Great tip. I already plant a little deep but not 12”. Will definitely try this. Thanks.
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Old October 18, 2018   #38
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My record for productivity is Rio Grande at 32 pounds per plant in one year, but much less in some others. They are a somewhat larger (3.5 oz) oval shaped red paste tomato and are unusually firm. Great for sauces!
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Old October 18, 2018   #39
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How did Marzano Fire work for you, relative to the other pastes you tried?

Quote:
Originally Posted by simmran1 View Post
CC,

I also have BER which translates to wasted fruits, but when I grew Incas Jewels F1 from Renee’s in a 7 gallon container two years back I didn’t have BER. That one plant kept me busy as it keeps going until frost.

I also grow Hard Rock from Jungs in the garden soil, (O-P), which is an absolute determinate. It flushes red with roma’s and that is the end of production.

I’m also gonna growing Marzano Fire this year, though San Marzano’s are the worst for me with blossom end rot. I’m also growing Siberische Appel Tomat from J and L this year for something completely different.
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Old October 20, 2018   #40
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How did Marzano Fire work for you, relative to the other pastes you tried?
Marzano Fire is probably the best paste I have ever grown, large and meaty, great taste, disease resistance and pretty productive... Oh and no BER! I'm replacing Olpalka with Marzano Fire next year.
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Old October 20, 2018   #41
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That's a great recommendation pmcgrady! I was wondering if I was missing out on some of the well-known pastes.

I grew Marzano Fire this year and, although they did get a little BER at the beginning of the season, they soon grew out of it and were very productive and absolutely beautiful. I'll be growing MF again next year .

Thanks again Fred!

Linda
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Old October 20, 2018   #42
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I am glad Marzano Fire seems to be generally be doing well. It seems to be one of those OP varieties that doesn't have too many flaws, and is a pretty consistent producer of high quality tomatoes.

Our customers are starting to catch on too (it's hard to get a reasonable price for paste tomatoes, when the paste tomato is the commodity tomato in Calif). Early in the season we had a backlog of the variety (good thing it stores well). But as the season went on, we could not keep up with demand.

It is turning out to be a very good oven-roasting tomato (cut into strips, and dry/slow roast at "low" temp).
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Old October 20, 2018   #43
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In my opinion, Roma VF is the best. I also like the Romanian variety Romec, an Autumn tomato you should be patient with.
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Old December 23, 2018   #44
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We haven't grown any paste tomatoes for the last three years but in that time we've gone to growing all tomatoes in buckets instead of in the garden (nematodes) and results have improved tremendously. So we're thinking about growing another paste this year. Someone else posted about canning Juliets and we've done that too as they're so darned prolific.

This thread and a few others have been very helpful with suggestions. It seems these pastes have the most mentions: San Marzano Fire, Oroma, Santa Maria, Heidi, Opalka, Amish Paste. Of course it's all subjective with everybody having their favorites and I don't have room but for two more tomatoes in the 2019 plan.
I thought Carolyn's suggestion of using half pastes and half hearts for making sauce was interesting so maybe I'd like to try one heart and one paste. Never grown a heart tomato before as I'm just starting to branch out more into the tomato world. It seems Fish Lake Oxheart has a lot of fans.

My biggest question is what will do best here in the Southeast. Most replies to these paste threads seem to be from up north with one or two southwest or CA replies. In my experience any veggie I've grown that doesn't have a blurb about "does well in the South or in heat" just doesn't perform well for me.
Thanks for any advice!
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Old December 23, 2018   #45
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With regard to Marzano Fire in the south --

We develop our tomatoes under disease pressure in California, Ohio and Mexico and in general they often seem to do well in the American south.

So, I think Marzano Fire is worth a shot. It does fine in heat, and I think it will probably be fine in Georgia humidity. It seems to be better than average at resisting diseases where we grow it.
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