Cold Set Tomato - Anyone have any experience with it?

[bower]

Last year in the cold of early spring, Cold Set came in 9 days later than Stupice. The plant is really very small and suitable for containers - I may try it indoors winter some time. Although it is parthenocarpic, and set fruit in cold weather, the fruit produced normal seed. I was pleasantly surprised that the fruit was tasty. (I am not a big fan of Stupice either, and curious to hear what you think of Bloody Butcher.) Cold Set was very subject to splitting in the greenhouse conditions - maybe 90% of fruit split, could be due to the extreme heat on sunny days, small container had to be watered. The plant also suffered a lot of foliage disease from the beginning, as many of the determinates did. Maybe better attention to heavily feed them might alleviate some of the foliage stress - overall though my impression is that Cold Set was stressed by the chronic cold conditions and was susceptible to foliage disease because of that.

If you haven't tried Alaska I would recommend it for outdoor growing. It was best tasting of the lot, and withstood frosty temperatures outdoors late in the season. Wouldn't set in my greenhouse but loaded up when it was put outside. Very tasty, I liked it better than Kimberley, although K was better than most.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by bower

Last year in the cold of early spring, Cold Set came in 9 days later than Stupice. The plant is really very small and suitable for containers - I may try it indoors winter some time. Although it is parthenocarpic, and set fruit in cold weather, the fruit produced normal seed. I was pleasantly surprised that the fruit was tasty. (I am not a big fan of Stupice either, and curious to hear what you think of Bloody Butcher.) Cold Set was very subject to splitting in the greenhouse conditions - maybe 90% of fruit split, could be due to the extreme heat on sunny days, small container had to be watered. The plant also suffered a lot of foliage disease from the beginning, as many of the determinates did. Maybe better attention to heavily feed them might alleviate some of the foliage stress - overall though my impression is that Cold Set was stressed by the chronic cold conditions and was susceptible to foliage disease because of that.

If you haven't tried Alaska I would recommend it for outdoor growing. It was best tasting of the lot, and withstood frosty temperatures outdoors late in the season. Wouldn't set in my greenhouse but loaded up when it was put outside. Very tasty, I liked it better than Kimberley, although K was better than most.

Determinates are notorious for foliage disease down here and I think it is just because of the recommendation of no pruning. They get so thick and bushy the diseases and aphids have a field day on them. I started pruning them so they were more open and found they did just as well disease wise as my indeterminate plants once more light and air could get to the foliage. I'll gladly give up a few tomatoes to prevent diseases which quickly spread to other plants causing much more foliage loss than the pruning does. I don't try to limit the number of stems on determinate plants but rather just try to open up the middle of the plant more so air and sunlight can get in.

Bill

[Fusion_power]

Coldset is a tomato with slightly enhanced stress tolerance. This means it can take both cold and heat a little better than average. Unfortunately, this comes with loss of flavor and quite a few other compromised traits. IMO, Sub Arctic Plenty would be a better choice caveat that the flavor is still pretty low. Jagodka is a very short season variety that is worth considering if you want golf ball size fruit.

The genes for very high levels of cold tolerance are present in at least 2 wild species of tomato, S. Lycopersicoides and S. Habrochaites. There may be some genes in S. Arcanum worth pursuing, but that requires more work than I am able to put in at this time.. TGRC has LA3969 - an interspecies hybrid - which has been tested to survive cold temps better than all but the pure wild species. I am growing it this year and expect to make a few trial crosses to varieties with better flavor and agronomic traits.

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by b54red

I grew an indeterminate hybrid that was the fastest tomato to set in colder temperatures that I have ever seen called Jetsetter. It had decent taste not quite as good as Big Beef and the fruit might have been slightly smaller but it was almost as productive. The weird thing about it and the reason I stopped using it was that it wouldn't ripen well when it got really hot. They would just sit there and take forever to ripen in the heat yet would ripen rather quickly in the cool of early spring or late fall.

Bill

I found that to be true of Jetsetter,too. No ripe tomatoes. Spring ended too soon for it.

[Zone9b]

Originally Posted by b54red

I grew an indeterminate hybrid that was the fastest tomato to set in colder temperatures that I have ever seen called Jetsetter. It had decent taste not quite as good as Big Beef and the fruit might have been slightly smaller but it was almost as productive. The weird thing about it and the reason I stopped using it was that it wouldn't ripen well when it got really hot. They would just sit there and take forever to ripen in the heat yet would ripen rather quickly in the cool of early spring or late fall.

Bill

Sounds like my experience with Bush Champion II. Grew nice size tomatoes as the weather warmed up but just set there, turned white, and never ripened. Maybe they would do better in cold weather. However, had good success with Jetsetter this spring. I am growing it again in the fall.
Larry

I grew Coldset twice, from seeds from Sand Hill Preservation Center.

In 2016, it had pretty bad conditions (poor, clay-type, compact soil, and overwatered). It got one or two miscolored, small fruit.

I tried it again in 2018 from a new seed packet (same company) in much better soil with drought conditions and black plastic. It grew large fruit that began to mature in the early part of the midseason or so. I don't know how a tomato that large would be seen as a salad tomato. It would squash a salad easy. The plant was not large. Production was decent. The fruits were all smooth and well-formed without cracks or blemishes. The fruits had decent texture, but were not very tasty. They didn't taste bad. The flavor was just very weak. No acid taste or sweetness that I noticed. No tang. I think it might taste better in another spot. There could be a lot of potassium in that soil.

A similar variety to Coldset, in my experience, is Celebrity F1. I grew Celebrity F1 in the ground, without black plastic, and it was watered a lot. It grew fruits about the same size, shape, flavor, and texture as Coldset did in drought conditions with black plastic. Production was maybe similar; Celebrity F1 probably produced more. Plant size was the same. Celebrity F1 was likely earlier (but it wasn't what I would call early).

I've tried Kimberly. It wasn't true-to-type, since it was regular leaf. For me it was a late cherry. Not remarkable. I'd like to try the real variety some time.

I've tried both Jetsetter F1 and Bush Champion II F1. The latter was earlier, but the former didn't suffer in the heat. Jetsetter F1 was more prolific and had smoother, more uniform fruits. It wasn't my best variety, but I thought it was nice. I was only impressed with Bush Champion II F1 before the heat set in; it probably needed more potassium/calcium.

I've tried Sub Arctic Plenty twice. I liked it better in a large container with two other plants than in the ground with black plastic. It wasn't early either year. In the container, it had good texture and taste was fine; it had thick walls; small fruit, but not a cherry. In the ground, the taste and texture was different, but not bad. It was more prolific in the container. It's very different from Coldset.

My favorite early* season tomatoes are these, so far:

*These were early for me, I mean. They may or may not be early for everyone.

* Galapagos Island (said to be S. cheesmaniae; mine is a very early yellow/golden prolific cherry that produces all season; fruit split easily when removed from the calyxes; very hardy plant)
* Sweet Orange Cherry (similar to Galapagos Island with somewhat larger fruit, a larger plant, and not quite as early, but still remarkably early; taste is somewhat different)
* Marion (great taste and vigor; fruits are a good size)
* Bloody Butcher (good production; meaty; decent taste)
* Matina (if watered well; early, prolific, all-season, and tasty)
* A Brandy Boy cross (F1) I grew in 2018; it's hard to say if the F2s were early, since they got a late start on a year when several early tomatoes weren't early. The F1 had large fruit, was prolific, produced all season, and had pretty good taste (I prefer the best-tasting of the F2s to it).
* Early Girl F1 (this is an old reliable; very productive; early in my garden)
* Mountain Princess
* Nodak Early
* Frosty F. House
* Manitoba
* New Yorker V
* Maybe Sasha's Altai (mine might not have been true-to-type; I loved the taste and how it continued to produce all season, but a more dense production was desired; I want to try it from a source besides TomatoFest to see if it's a lot different; my fruits were smaller than advertised)
* Husky Cherry Red F1