I attempted to do a paste tomato trial with these five varieties:
- Amish Paste - obtained from an online seed swap in 2012
- Big Month - seed saved myself in 2012, originally from Baker Creek
- Hawkins Plum - seed saved myself in 2010, originally from an online seed swap
- Opalka - obtained from the same swap as Amish Paste
- Rio Grande - seed saved myself in 2011, originally from an online seed swap
This turned out to be the only indeterminate variety of the bunch. The plants grew much larger and more vigorously than the rest, and were ready to harvest the earliest.
The thing is, the tomatoes I got didn't match the descriptions from most of the catalogs. I got this variety from a GardenWeb seed swap, and I wonder if there was a mix-up or the seeds were crossed. All the catalogs say that Amish Paste is supposed to be large for a paste tomato, and this turned out to be my smallest variety, about the size of a small chicken egg. I also had one plant that produced these weird deeply ribbed fruits, that I wish I remembered to get a picture of.
The only thing that did match the descriptions was how this was the juiciest paste tomato. A lot of the catalogs say this isn't really much of a paste tomato, since it has more of the consistency of a tomato for fresh eating.
Still, I have a strong suspicion I got some atypical seeds. I'm reserving judgment on this variety until I get some from a more reputable source for comparison. It's possible Amish Paste just makes smaller tomatoes in my climate, but I want to make sure.
I got these from the same source as Amish Paste, but they seemed to match the catalog descriptions. They were the latest of all the varieties, but they did make large, pepper-shaped fruits. This variety made the largest fruits of the bunch, some of them the same size and shape as a Poblano pepper. As you can see from the picture, they were much less juicy than Amish Paste.
I was pretty happy with this variety and think it deserves another chance. I liked having great big fruits, which are much easier to harvest than lots of little fruits. The plants seemed vigorous and healthy. Some of them had green shoulders and some cracking on top, but that's not a big deal. Little to no blossom end rot.
The other three tomatoes were ones I grew before, and I didn't get pictures of them this time.
Hawkins Plum was disappointing again. Last time I grew it, it had a lot of blossom end rot and didn't yield well, but I had nothing to compare it to. Now that I had it next to other paste tomatoes, I'm sure this one isn't good for me. The foliage was noticeably wispier than the other varieties too, which was something I hadn't noticed before I did a side-by-side comparison. It's disappointing since I got it from someone on GardenWeb who said it was a beloved old family heirloom. Oh well, he can keep it. I'm going to discontinue this variety.
Big Month and Rio Grande were very similar and hard to tell apart. Both had short, stocky plants that yielded large, blocky fruits. Both seemed to have yielded well, with little to no blossom end rot or other cosmetic defects. The plants seemed healthy. One of the Rio Grande plants got completely dug up by the chickens and died, so I only had three plants of that one, making it hard to do a fair comparison.
Both of these deserve another chance in another trial where I can better compare the two varieties.
To summarize Paste Tomato Trial 2013: Big Month, Rio Grande, and Opalka are all worth growing again. Hawkins Plum and Amish Paste probably won't be grown again. Some day maybe I'll get Amish Paste from another source and give it another chance, but from what I've read even the "real" variety isn't much of a paste variety, and there are so many other varieties of tomatoes out there to try I might never get around to it.
I also grew a couple of other varieties of non-paste tomatoes just to I'd have them to eat.
Dr. Carolyn
The only other yellow tomato I'd grown before was Yellow Pear, and it wasn't any good. I wasn't surprised, because everything I've read about that tomato agrees that it isn't good and is only grown for the cute shape. I wanted to try a yellow cherry tomato that did get good reviews, so this was the one I chose. The first batch of tomatoes I harvested were bland just like Yellow Pear, which made me start thinking maybe yellow tomatoes are all this way.
They got considerably better later in the year as things heated up. Hot, dry weather seems to concentrate the flavors of all sorts of garden fruits, and this tomato got considerably sweeter, though it never has developed the deep flavor of something like Black Cherry. Tomato color seems to be correlated with flavor, with the darkest tomatoes having the most intense flavors. It's probably unfair to expect a light yellow tomato to be anything more than sweet.
Still, this tomato has some other things going for it. I only planted two plants, and I'm still getting more tomatoes than I can keep up with. It's still yielding here in mid-August after all the other tomatoes have quit, though cherry tomatoes are usually more heat-tolerant than other types. It is fun to have a variety of colors of cherry tomatoes. I can see this working well mixed with some Black Cherry and a red variety in a salad or pasta dish.
I'm keeping this one.
I also planted some Red Brandywine to use for sandwiches. I grew this once before, and again it did great just like last time, so nothing new to report. Because of deer damage I didn't get the yields I expected, but I still got plenty for sandwiches until the heat got it.
Now I know not to plant tomatoes (or peppers, squash, or beans) in the front garden without some kind of protection. I still got a lot of tomatoes, especially once we put chicken wire around them to keep the critters out. I stuck most of them in freezer bags, and plan to make a big batch of pasta sauce with them once the weather cools down so I feel like slaving over a hot stove again. I just would have gotten a lot more without the deer and chickens.
No comments:
Post a Comment