Which tomatoes to plant?

Quoted message said:

(Michael Horowitz)

I'm planning on planting Roma because I want to dry some.
I'd like a tomato good for cooking.

Roma is great for cooking

Quoted message said:

I'd like a general purpose eating tomato.

There are hundreds. Beefsteaks are the best textured and
probably the most robustly flavorful.

Quoted message said:

I'm open to suggestions as to what to plant.

How many acres you talking?

---= BOYCOTT FRENCH--GERMAN (belgium) =--- ---= Move UNITED
NATIONS To Paris =--- Sheldon ```````````` "Life would be
devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."

'Michael',

Some ideas here. Vary your search criteria for more
suggestions.

tinyurl.com39vknOpen ↗

Regards, Emrys Davies.

"Michael Horowitz" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

I'm planning on planting Roma because I want to dry some.
I'd like a tomato good for cooking. I'd like a general
purpose eating tomato. I'm open to suggestions as to what
to plant. Any suggestions?

Look for heirloom varieties - these usually taste great but
aren't sold commercially because they don't travel well.

--
------------------------------------------------------------
----------------
----
Louis Cohen Living la vida loca at N37° 43' 7.9" W122° 8'
42.8"

"Michael Horowitz" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm planning on planting Roma because I want to dry some.
I'd like a tomato good for cooking. I'd like a general
purpose eating tomato. I'm open to suggestions as to what
to plant. Any suggestions?

"Michael Horowitz" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm planning on planting Roma because I want to dry some.
I'd like a tomato good for cooking. I'd like a general
purpose eating tomato. I'm open to suggestions as to what
to plant. Any suggestions?

I suggest looking at the maturity dates of the various
strains. By planting an assortment of early, mid-season, and
late tomatoes you can have a steady supply for a few months
rather than too many all at once.

Roma (or San Marzano) is good for cooking as well as drying.
For eating I think it is hard to beat some of the heirlooms
such as brandywine.

--
Peter Aitken

Remove the [censored] from my email address before using.

"Michael Horowitz" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm planning on planting Roma because I want to dry some.
I'd like a tomato good for cooking. I'd like a general
purpose eating tomato. I'm open to suggestions as to what
to plant. Any suggestions?

I would think Roma and Beefsteak.

Roma for cooking and drying Beefsteak for sandwiches and
onion/tomato salads Etc.

Dimitri

Michael Horowitz said:

I'm planning on planting Roma because I want to dry some.
I'd like a tomato good for cooking. I'd like a general
purpose eating tomato. I'm open to suggestions as to what
to plant. Any suggestions?

"Principe Borghese" is a better tomato for drying than Roma.

Roma, or Viva Italia, or an heirloom variety I grew 2
years ago called "Sausage" are good cookers. Any of the
old varieties called "Heinz" or "Campbell" plus a 4 digit
number (i.e. Heinz 1439) are canning tomatoes that IIRC
are determanent plants with mid-sized fruit that all
ripen at once.

The general purpose eating tomato depends a lot on your
climate. I like the old standard varieties like Marglobe and
Rutgers, but they really need a longer growing season than I
have up here. I grew Better Boy last year and they were a
little late but were heavy producers of wonderful tomatoes.
Brandywine is supposed to be the ultimate fresh tomato, but
most people say it doesn't produce very well so I haven't
tried it. Maybe I'm just a Philistine, but I thought the
Better Boys I grew last year were about perfect.

I'm going to grow just a few Stupice (extremely early) and
Better Boys this year for fresh eating, and a bunch of
tomatilloes for canning. I still haven't used up even half
of my dried tomatoes from fall of 2002. I probably won't
freeze or can any tomatoes this year because commercial
canned tomatoes are so good. If I have a surplus of tomatoes
I may can some salsa.

Best regards, Bob

--
"There's only two things that money can't buy,
and that's true love, and homegrown tomatoes." --Guy Clark

Michael Horowitz said:

I'm planning on planting Roma because I want to dry some.
I'd like a tomato good for cooking. I'd like a general
purpose eating tomato. I'm open to suggestions as to what
to plant. Any suggestions?

Try at least one plant of Brandywines. They aren't pretty,
an heirloom variety, delicious, few seeds, very sweet.

gloria p

In rec.food.cooking said:

I'm planning on planting Roma because I want to dry some.
I'd like a tomato good for cooking. I'd like a general
purpose eating tomato. I'm open to suggestions as to what
to plant. Any suggestions?

I'm somewhat partial to Sweet 100's. They are a small cherry
tomato on plants that (in my garden) get over 7 feet tall.
They are delicious.

--
...I'm an air-conditioned gypsy...

- The Who

In article <[email hidden]>,

(Michael Horowitz) said:

I'm planning on planting Roma because I want to dry some.
I'd like a tomato good for cooking. I'd like a general
purpose eating tomato. I'm open to suggestions as to what
to plant. Any suggestions?

The other factor is that you want to plant tomatoes that
will actually grow! Many years ago I bought my house here in
Sonoma County, Northern California. I was really looking
forward to planting a garden. I planted some Early Girls and
some Big Boys. I wasn't very excited about the Early Girls,
but they would produce ripe tomatoes a few days earlier than
the Big Boys, according to the label. I was more excited
about the Big Boys, because I wanted lots of big, juicy
fruits. The Early Girls were great, and I got tons of
medium, tasty fruits. The Big Boys weren't a few days later,
but more like two months. They weren't much bigger than the
Early Girls, and they were really ugly, deformed and
cracked. I also got very few fruits.

Some time later I went to a county fair, and the county ag
people had a booth. I took a booklet on growing things in
Sonoma County. It was obviously aimed at commercial growing,
but I figured I could learn some stuff. I got to the section
on tomatoes, and it said that you couldn't grow tomatoes in
Sonoma County! We have wonderful weather here. It's hot
during the day in the summer, but the sea breeze comes in
and cools it right down at night. The cool breeze prevents
the tomatoes from setting fruit. The plant grows fine, and
it produces flowers, but there's no fruit.

I would recommend that you go to somebody in your area and
ask what types of tomatoes grow best there. It may be that
they all do, which would be great.

For you in the snow, it's been in the 80's here the last 10
days, almost to 90 yesterday. In Cloverdale, which is in
the extreme north of Sonoma County, it's supposed to hit
100 today!

--
Dan Abel Sonoma State University AIS [email hidden]

Michael Horowitz said:

I'm planning on planting Roma because I want to dry some.
I'd like a tomato good for cooking. I'd like a general
purpose eating tomato. I'm open to suggestions as to what
to plant. Any suggestions?

Plant a variety of tomatoes. Each variety has its own
season, with some being earlier while others come later in
the season. If you plant one or two of each of a few
varieties you will be enjoying fresh tomatoes a lot longer.

Michael Horowitz said:

I'm planning on planting Roma because I want to dry some.
I'd like a tomato good for cooking.

I've heard Romas are good for cooking, but there
are other "paste" type tomatoes, too that might be
worth a look.

Quoted message said:

I'd like a general purpose eating tomato. I'm open to
suggestions as to what to plant. Any suggestions?

My favorite so far are beefsteaks, particularly
Brandywines. Last summer was a bust, but the year
before (my first year attempting a vegetable garden) I
got quite a few out of two plants. No doubt an
experienced gardener would've gotten a better yield.
The taste is spectacular, and well worth trying at
least once, IMO. I'd eat those plain or on top of
burgers and sandwiches. Brandywine is a popular enough
heirloom that I can usually find plants locally in
spring, although raising from seed is also an option.

For smaller salad tomatoes, I tried "Fourth of
July". Good flavor, extremely prolific bearer. Not
really a good cooking tomato because they're not
very meaty. I also grew sweet 100 cherry tomatoes
and really liked those for fresh eating as well.

Ariane

Quoted message said:

(Dan Abel)

Quoted message said:

(Michael Horowitz) wrote:

I'm planning on planting Roma because I want to dry some.
I'd like a tomato good for cooking. I'd like a general
purpose eating tomato. I'm open to suggestions as to what
to plant. Any suggestions?

The other factor is that you want to plant tomatoes that
will actually grow! Many years ago I bought my house here
in Sonoma County, Northern California. I was really looking
forward to planting a garden. I planted some Early Girls
and some Big Boys. I wasn't very excited about the Early
Girls, but they would produce ripe tomatoes a few days
earlier than the Big Boys, according to the label. I was
more excited about the Big Boys, because I wanted lots of
big, juicy fruits. The Early Girls were great, and I got
tons of medium, tasty fruits. The Big Boys weren't a few
days later, but more like two months. They weren't much
bigger than the Early Girls, and they were really ugly,
deformed and cracked. I also got very few fruits.

Some time later I went to a county fair, and the county ag
people had a booth. I took a booklet on growing things in
Sonoma County. It was obviously aimed at commercial
growing, but I figured I could learn some stuff. I got to
the section on tomatoes, and it said that you couldn't grow
tomatoes in Sonoma County! We have wonderful weather here.
It's hot during the day in the summer, but the sea breeze
comes in and cools it right down at night. The cool breeze
prevents the tomatoes from setting fruit. The plant grows
fine, and it produces flowers, but there's no fruit.

Tomatoes are in the nightshade family (like egg plant,
potatoes, etc.), which for one means they grow only during
the night... easy enough to prove to yourself by placing a
yardstick into the ground... during sunny days you'll note
that the plant won't grow at all but when you check in the
morning you'll find that the plant has sprouted several
inches over night. Tomatoes need hot days and warm
nights... if you live where nights are chilly then use
black mulching cloth so that the ground absorbs more heat
energy during the day, the heat will release over night and
warm your plants. If your nights are windy install some
kind of wind block, either a hedge row, a fence, or simply
surround your plants with plastic sheeting Will also help
immensely to improve your soil by adding lotsa humus, which
will maintain moisture and therefore maintain more heat
energy. Doesn't matter where you live, if you have lousy
soil your crop won't grow very well.... funny how folks
think all they gotta do is put plants in the ground and by
magic they should grow... ya gotta put in lots of effort
(both physical and mental), and there are *many expenses*
involved. Anyone thinks home gardening is a way to save
money on produce is nuts.

---= BOYCOTT FRENCH--GERMAN (belgium) =--- ---= Move UNITED
NATIONS To Paris =--- Sheldon ```````````` "Life would be
devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."

(Michael Horowitz) said:

I'd like a general purpose eating tomato. I'm open to
suggestions as to what to plant. Any suggestions?

I like the Oxhearts. Big and meaty with few seeds.

Also, along with growing time, you need to know whether you
want "determinate" or "indeterminate" varieties. If you want
them to come on all at once, then determinate is the one for
you. If you want continuous blooming and fruiting, then look
for indeterminates.

Connie
*****************************************************
My mind is like a steel...um, whatchamacallit.

"Michael Horowitz" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm planning on planting Roma because I want to dry some.
I'd like a tomato good for cooking. I'd like a general
purpose eating tomato. I'm open to suggestions as to what
to plant. Any suggestions?

It is really too late in the season for you to be thinking
about which seeds to plant for tomato varieties, so you will
be limited to tomato varieties that are carried by whoever
sells tomato plants in your area. You will get the widest
selection of varieties if you go to a nursery or some place
like that to buy plants. Grocery stores, home improvement
stores, etc. will probably only carry 2-3 really common varieties--
and be careful here, the big chain stores may carry
varieties that are not particularly suited to your climate
or area--so you got to know your stuff before you buy. A Roma-
type is a good choice for cooking and drying. Read the plant
tags to decide on the eating tomato. If the tag says it is
best for canning, most likely the tomato has a more acid
taste. Janet

Quoted message said:

"Janet Bostwick" writes:

Michael Horowitz said:

I'm planning on planting Roma because I want to dry some.
I'd like a tomato good for cooking. I'd like a general
purpose eating tomato. I'm open to suggestions as to what
to plant. Any suggestions?

It is really too late in the season for you to be thinking
about which seeds to plant for tomato varieties, so you
will be limited to tomato varieties that are carried by
whoever sells tomato plants in your area.

How do you know where Michael lives? In my "hardiness zone"
(US zone 5) right now is the perfect time to start tomato
seeds, indoors or cold frame.

To find your hardiness zone go here: arborday.or-arborday.or-Open ↗
g/trees/whatzone.html?CFID=707794&CFTOKEN=82114860

---= BOYCOTT FRENCH--GERMAN (belgium) =--- ---= Move UNITED
NATIONS To Paris =--- Sheldon ```````````` "Life would be
devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."