The Trusty Gardener-Those Awesome Heirloom Tomatoes
Planting Heirloom Tomato Seeds
Welcome back. It's officially Spring! That means preparing for the upcoming gardening season. The snow is quickly melting and soon my gardens will be visible once again. They recently have been covered under about 2 feet of snow; a blanket of endless white. Obviously, it is too soon to even think about working the ground. It’s also officially mud season. However, there is plenty to be done indoors in preparation for another season of gardening.
About 2 weeks ago, I planted onion seeds; they have now sprouted and I have placed the plants in my portable greenhouse on the porch. You can read all the details here:
The greenhouse works well and gives the plants a good start to ensure they will be garden ready come mid to late May. However, we are still having some nights below freezing so I have to bring the plants indoors overnight. As time goes on, we will have fewer cold nights so the plants can stay outside. It’s amazing how warm the greenhouse will get even on a colder windy day. As long as the sun is out.
Plant Those Awesome Heirloom Tomato Seeds!
Today I decided to plant seeds since it is time once again. It’s hard to believe since just last week we had a big snowstorm. Near the end of March works well for planting tomato seeds which gives the plants time to be of decent size by the end of May. About 8 weeks.
I planted the seeds using Jiffy Seed trays with peat pellets. Once water is added to the peat pellets, they expand to make a good medium to plant the seeds. I then covered the seeds with about a quarter inch of potting soil and watered using a spray bottle. The clear plastic lids are then placed on the trays and the trays moved to a warm location until germination occurs. Sunlight is not needed until germination occurs.
If you follow my articles, you know that I love heirloom tomatoes. You just can’t beat the flavor. Each year I like to try some different varieties. I usually also bring back some of my favorites.
This year I planted 8 varieties. So much for cutting back.
The first 4 varieties I planted were purchased from Pinetree Garden Seeds. As I wrote in a previous article, I was impressed with this seed company and ended up ordering most of my seeds from them. They have a great variety of seeds at good prices.
From Pinetree Garden Seeds, I planted Prudens Purple, Blue Beech, Matt’s Wild Cherry, and Japanese Black Trifele.
Following are descriptions from the Pinetree Catalog:
Prudens Purple: This heirloom tomato is our favorite. Pruden’s Purple Tomato is outstanding in every aspect. It is exceptionally early for a large tomato. Average fruit weighs 1 pound, is 4 inches across, and 3 inches high. Distinctive ridges, like the ribs of a cantaloupe, grid the fruit longitudinally. The color is more of a deep pink than a true purple. Flesh is firm and meaty and the flavor is wonderful. Remarkably, Pruden’s Purple Tomato contains very few seeds.
Blue Beech: An Heirloom, The Blue Beech Tomato is a sausage-type paste tomato, similar to Opalka. An excellent canning tomato with thick, meaty flesh and little seeds; perfect for homemade sauce. The Blue Beech Tomato tastes great sliced and eaten fresh too. It is well adapted to northern climates, resists disease, and blossom end rot better than others. This strain was originally brought to Vermont from Italy during WWII.
Matt’s Wild Cherry: Wild is the operative word here. Matts Wild Cherry Tomato has strong vines, overwhelmed by an abundance of small cherry tomatoes — hundreds of them. The flavor is intense and they seem impervious to almost any disease you can name. They are also early and will continue to yield well up to the first frost.
Japanese Black Trifele: The Japanese Black Trifele is a highly productive Russian heirloom. Brick-red, 4–6 oz pear-shaped fruit rarely seen in other potato leaf varieties. Every summer we share our tomato trials with the staff for a taste test. The Japanese Black Trifele was the favorite for 2019. They loved the dense, smooth texture and clean taste, a natural balance between sweet and tangy. Don’t let the gangly structure of this plant fool you. The Japanese Black Trifele is a workhorse for tomato production.
Of these, the only one I have tried previously is Matt’s Wild Cherry. This is my favorite cherry tomato. Period. They are small, however, the flavor is just outstanding. I have grown these for 3 or 4 years at least.
The next 4 tomatoes I planted were some seeds I had left from last year. The seeds were from Seeds ‘n Such, another great seed company. The following descriptions are from the Seeds ‘n Such catalog:
Old German: 75 days. Perfect as a slicer, these huge, orange-red, boat-shaped, meaty fruits weigh up to 2-lbs. First grown by the Mennonites in Va., this heirloom remains a favorite of the Amish and Mennonite communities. Indeterminate.
Caspian Pink: 80 days. The first tomato to beat Brandywine in taste tests! This Russian heirloom features heavy sets of 10 to 12-oz., pink-skinned fruits. Matures earlier than Brandywine, with regular tomato-leaf foliage. Indeterminate.
Wild Boar Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye: 70 days. Beat Cherokee Purple in recent taste tests! Big beefsteak fruits, deep wine-red with bright green stripes, weigh 10 to 12-oz. with a lovely sweet flavor.
Cherokee Carbon: 78 days. Dark tomatoes rule! To capitalize on the current craze, our breeders crossed Cherokee Purple with Carbon to create a robust purple beefsteak with intensely rich flavor. Big, 10 to 12-oz. fruits with a pleasantly sweet taste are the essence of delicious summer eating! Indeterminate.
Cherokee Carbon is actually a hybrid. However, it is a hybrid of 2 heirlooms. Yes heirloom hybrids is also a thing!
Stay tuned formore updates.
