2014 Tomato Varieties

I thought I would write a post about all the tomato varieties I am going to be growing this year. Tomatoes have become my obsession and I now have over 300 varieties of tomato seeds! I am not able to grow all 300 varieties in my gardening space, so I narrowed it down to around 80 varieties. Some of the varieties I will be growing this year are not available from any seed companies. I belong to a Tomato Forum and I have received a lot of varieties that have been created by some of the members. I can't wait to try my tomatoes this year, almost all the varieties I am growing are new to me. I plan on doing a lot of seed saving, so I will have a lot to offer other gardeners for next year.  I will list the varieties by type.

Cherry
Isis Candy
Sweet Linda
Snow White
Black Plum
Melanzane
Clackamas Blueberry
Sun Sugar
Black Cherry
Matt's Wild Cherry
Sweet Sharon

Plum/Paste
Sweet Casady
Carol Chyko's Big Paste
Cow's Tit
Darth Mater
Prue
Speckled Roman
Roughwood Golden Plum
Kalman's Hungarian Pink

Hearts
Orange Strawberry
Brad's Black Heart
Siberian Pink Honey
Little Lucky Heart
German Red Strawberry
Dark Copia Heart
Monomakh's Hat
Danko
Granny's Heart

Small
Mason Dixon 22 F3
Kamatis Tagalog
Black & Brown Boar
Butter Apple
Slava
Rumi Banjan
Psamathe
Fuzzy Wuzzy

Dwarf Tomatoes
Cherokee Tiger Black
Rainbow Dwarf
Sleeping Lady
Dwarf Mr.Snow
Tasmanian Chocolate

Medium/Large
Black Star
Mrs. Benson
Crnkovic Yugoslavian
Copper River
Big Cheef
Arkansas Traveler
KBX
Purple Hillbilly
Serendipity
Sara Black
1884 Purple
Aunt Gertie's Gold
Grandma Oliver's Chocolate
Horton's Purple
Flathead Monster
Kozula #125
Captain Lucky
Vorlon
Rose
Wildthyme Bicolor
Solar Flare
Azoychka
Lucky Cross
Red Barn
Rebel Yell
Brandywine Crazy Guy
Dora
Not Purple Strawberry
McKinley
Grandpa Charlie
Turtle Purple
Chocolate Stripes
Dester
Cherokee Lime
White Tomesol
Brandywine OTV
Indian Zebra
Kozula #24
Girl Girl's Weird Thing
Ferris Wheel
Aunt Ginny's Purple
Purple Elgin
Gail x Everett's Rusty Oxheart cross
Mystery Stripe (seeds from Homer Fike's Oxheart last year that was not true)

Rain, Rain Go Away!

I was really looking forward to spending some time at my garden this weekend, but Mother Nature had different plans. I guess I should be happy that it isn't snow. I spent some time this afternoon admiring my seedlings under the grow lights and took some pictures of their progress. All but a few varieties of my tomatoes have germinated and some of them are getting their first set of true leaves. I have noticed this year that my tomato seedlings look a little leggy compared to previous years, I think it is time to buy some new grow lights. Since my last seedling update I have transplanted my eggplants and ground cherries into individual cups. Overall everything is growing nicely. I have been putting my broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage seedlings outside during the day and bringing them in at night. Here are some pictures of my seedlings from today.

Eggplant

Peppers

Tomatoes

Dwarf Tomatoes



Spring Cleaning

I took advantage of the beautiful 61 degree weather today and went down to my garden plots to do some spring cleaning. I trimmed back my butterfly bush, raked my strawberry patch and planted some green and yellow snow peas. I noticed my spring bulbs are popping up all around my garden. My strawberry patch doesn't look too healthy, I think I lost a lot of plants over the winter. I am going to wait it out to see if they perk up and start growing new leaves, if not I will clear the patch and turn it into another growing bed. My indoor seedlings are growing nicely. I put my cold crop seedlings outside today to get some sun and fresh air. The tomato seeds I sowed last Saturday are all starting to germinate, I am still waiting on a couple varieties to germinate. Tomorrow I plan on planting some onion sets down at my garden and doing some more clean up.

A very bare garden, for now.

Front view of garden plot

Dwarf Tomato seedlings

 

Grow light shelf view of Dwarf Tomatoes & Peppers

in the background.

Ground Cherry seedlings on the left and Eggplant on the right.

Broccoli & Cabbage seedlings starting to get first true leaves.

Tomato seedlings (72 varieties)

 

Tomato Tuesday

Eva Purple Ball

Eva Purple Ball is a variety that I can always count on in my garden for productivity and health. Brought from Germany in the late 1800s by the family of Joseph J. Bratka of Elmwood Park, New Jersey. This variety produces smooth, round 4-5 ounce blemish-free fruits with cherry red flesh. They have a very good flavor. It is indeterminate and produces in 75 days from transplant. Eva Purple Ball is considered a purple tomato which are generally rich in flavor and very popular among tomato growers. This is a must grow for flavor and dependability. 

Thanks for checking out my Tomato Tuesday post. Stop by next week to see which variety I will be spotlighting from my garden.



  



Busy Little Seedlings

I may not be busy in my garden, but all my seedlings are keeping me busy inside. Yesterday I spent most of the day pampering all my seedlings. I gave my peppers and cauliflower seedlings new homes in their own pots. I also gave the broccoli and cabbage seedlings some sun and fresh air. They are starting to show their first true leaves. My eggplants and ground cherries are growing nicely, but they are not ready to be transplanted into their own pots yet. I gave some of the seedlings a drink of Neptune's Fish & Seaweed fertilizer. This combination is suppose to help with root growth and health of the plants. Have you ever used fish & seaweed fertilizer on your seedlings? What do you use to fertilize your seedlings? I also sowed my tomato seeds yesterday, I sowed 72 different varieties. Many of these varieties are new to me this year. I will have many Tomato Tuesday posts in the future with all these new varieties I am growing.

Broccoli, Cabbage & Chinese Cabbage 

Sweet and Hot Peppers

Good luck with all your seedlings and happy sowing!

Seedling Update

It may be snowy outside, but there is a lot of green under my grow lights! I thought I would post an update on my seeds I started recently. The dwarf tomatoes I started two weeks ago are now getting their first true leaves. I am planning on transplanting them this weekend into individual pots. I am growing Sleeping Lady, Tasmanian Chocolate, Cherokee Tiger Black, Rainbow Dwarf and Dwarf Mr. Snow. This is my first experience growing dwarf tomatoes. They will eventually be transplanted into 5 gallon buckets. I started the dwarf varieties earlier then my other tomato varieties because they take longer to grow. I will be posting more information on Dwarf Tomatoes in a future post.

 

Rainbow Dwarf

On the left is Cherokee Tiger Black and on the right

 is Sleeping Lady.

 

 I also started peppers, eggplant and ground cherries two weeks ago. They are all germinating nicely, however the hot peppers are being poky which is not unusual. The ground cherry seedlings are very tiny and it will be awhile before they are transplanted into individual  pots. I am just glad they germinated for me, last year I did not have success with germination.



The Eggplant is on the left and the Ground Cherries are on the right back corner.

Sweet and Hot Peppers

I also planted some more broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower seeds a week ago just in case my winter sowing is not successful this year because of the extremely cold winter we are having. These seeds started sprouting the other day and once they are big enough I will be transplanting them into individual pots.

 

I will continue to post updates on all my seedlings for those who are interested. Thanks for reading my post and stop back again to see my 2014 gardening adventures!

 

Toamto Tuesday

Wapsipinicon Peach

 

This is a pale yellow (with tinges of pink) 1 1/2- 2 inch round tomato. The tomato skin is very delicate with a fuzzy texture similar to a peach. It is also known as Yellow Peach or White Peach. The plants are indeterminate with regular wispy leaves and very productive. The tomatoes are very sweet and juicy. This tomato is named after the Wapsipinicon River in Iowa.  Wapsipinicon Peach was originally named White peach and originated in 1890 by Elbert S. Carman. This variety is definitely a novelty and has won many tomato taste tests with its fruit-sweet flavor.  My plants last year were very prolific and the tomatoes were very tasty.  Everyone I shared them with were amazed by its fuzzy skin which is very much like a peach. This was a fun tomato to grow and I will grow it again in the future. There are other tomato varieties that also have fuzzy skin, such as Garden Peach and Peach Blow Sutton. If you would like to try something different in your tomato garden, give Wapsipinicon Peach a try and let me know what you think.

 

 





Thanks for checking out my Tomato Tuesday post. Stop by next week to see which variety I will be spotlighting from my garden.