Some other people have been posting heirloom tomatoes they’ve planted for 2008, so I thought I would post my list as well. It’s one of the problems having a garden on the other side of the town that I have to depend on notes rather than actually looking at what I have growing in the garden when making a post like this, so I might update this list later if I discover an omission or two.
This year the Seed Savers Exchange sent me their new catalog, with wonderful color pictures of the tomatoes they were offering, and I got sucked in. I placed a large seed order of mostly tomatoes from them, and that’s mostly what I’m planting this year. I got a few seeds from other places and people and had a few saved seeds as well. The nice thing about the Seed Savers Exchange is when they put together a collection of seeds like these tomatoes, you know the people behind the decisions are very knowledgeable on the subject, and have probably put together a rather special collection. That’s what I’m counting on anyway.
The Japanese Trifele Black tomato is a relatively new tomato that many people are growing this year. For those of you in the UK, this is rumoured to be Raymond Blanc’s favorite tomato (Raymond Blanc is a British TV personality, originally from France and owner of a chain of upscale restaurants in the UK). In spite of it’s name, it’s really a Russian tomato. Apparently one of the people involved in breeding it was Japanese, which is how it got it’s name. Not only is there a black version of this tomato, but there are a number of other colors as well. I figured what else do you do if you are an heirloom gardener but collect them all, so I am growing the red and yellow versions of this tomato too. I also got seeds from the orange version from a SSE member in Belarus, but they came too late for planting this year and I didn’t have any more space for tomatoes in the garden anyway, so maybe I’ll plant it next year.
I had originally planned to plant some ground cherries (Ottawa Gardener sent me some seeds), but as part of preparing our house for the foundation work a lot of our things got packed into boxes and put into storage, and a few seed packets got misplaced including these seeds. So, they are on the agenda for next year.
This is my first time trying tomatillos, and they’ve been quite a challenge to get started. I’ve now had to sow the seeds three times indoors for transplant outside. The first two times, the plants just died after transplant, apparently because it was too cold for them. Now both kinds seem to be doing okay. I have the green ones on my roof, and the purple/green ones at the garden. Isolation is necessary for seed saving, and they would cross if grown in the same place. As I understand it, you need at least two plants, because they will not set fruit if they don’t receive pollen from another plant (self-sterile). I have at least three of each variety. The Purple/Green variety is from Real Seeds, and the Green variety is from Lieven.
Here’s the list:
Matt’s Wild Cherry
Giant Belgium
Silvery Fir Tree
Hillbilly Flame
Copia
Black Prince
Black Cherry
Mortgage Lifter
Pineapple
Brandywine
True Black Brandywine
Nebraska Wedding (Determinate Type)
Czech’s Bush (Determinate Type)
Black Sea Man (Determinate Type)
Giant Syrian
Moonglow
Japanese Trifele Black (Really from Russia)
Japanese Trifele Yellow
Japanese Trifele Red
Blondkopfchen
Nygous
Brown Berry
John Baer
Crnkovic Yugoslavian
Gold Medal
Emerald Evergreen
Taxi
Green Tomatillos
Green/Purple Tomatillos
Sweet Pea Currant
Gold Rush Currant
Powers Heirloom
Patrick, If you’re not already a member of SSE you should consider it. The members only yearbook contains over 4400 tomatoes from all over the world! You can look for growers who have a climate similar to your own or for varieties that sound appealing to you.
Last year, the variety that was everyones favorite(I gave plants to 6 friends, grew them in my community garden plot, our school garden and for a city youth program) was New Zealand pear, a beefsteak type, the same size and shape as a large bartlett pear. It tasted better then Brandywine and Kelloggs breakfast.
With regard to tomatillos, a friend told me that green (p. philadelphia) won’t cross with purple (p. longifolia). Now I’ve got to get outside and pick some lettuces, arugula and spinach before it gets to hot!
Hi Diana,
I’ve been a member of the SSE for a few years now. I’m NETH WI P
My problem with the tomato listings is knowing where to begin. They’re just so many tomatoes!! I’ll have a look for the New Zealand Pear, and maybe grow it next year.
Thanks for the tip on the tomatillos. I’ll have to look into that too.
You didn’t leave an email address or URL with this comment, so I assume you don’t have a blog. I hope some day you put a blog together. You sound like an interesting person and probably have a really interesting garden.
Good luck with the greens.
All physalis ixocarpa are outbreeders, they do need at least two plants of the same variety to produce fruit. And I’ve never heard the green and pink will not cross, I do isolate all my varieties.
Both pink and green (or yellow) belong to the p.ixocarpa, so I would be amazed the two colours will not cross. This is however only important if you want to take your own seeds, the fruits will produce their original coloured skin the year the crosses could have been made, they will show a varied pattern the year the seeds have been sown (if they are crossed ,of course)