Strawbale garden area as of September 1
Remarkably, my last blog entry was July 8. Our very first Mexico Midgets - the earliest variety - we ready to harvest. All other tomatoes were unripe. We were eating loads of cukes, beans, shishito peppers, and about to start harvesting eggplants.
That was then - and this is now. As you can see from the pic above, most of the garden is gone. Four eggplants, 2 shishito pepper plants (all healthy and going strong), and some late planted tomatoes (more on those later) are all that remain.
It was a very unusual garden season. Insect and worm pests were nearly completely absent. July was warm leaning toward hot, humid and endlessly rainy. August was nearly perfect - warm and dry. The July rains brought on lots of foliage disease on the tomatoes. The tomato harvest envelope was very short - mid July to mid August - but the flavors were delicious and yields were fine. I really liked having just one tomato in a strawbale, and my disciplined pruning and topping carried throughout the season.
We actually had plenty of tomatoes for our needs and gave quite a few away. We didn’t can any raw tomatoes, but did make a lot of roasted sauce (which we did can), and slow roasted tomato pieces (now resting in the freezer). We are pleased with the eggplant and shishito yields, which continue to this day with no end in sight. Beans were delicious and ample, but the second planting failed due to the endless rain (the seeds rotted). We were overwhelmed with summer squash - our 2 Zephyr plants went totally wild, and it was actually a relief to finally remove them a few weeks ago.
NOTE - there are not as many pictures of ripe tomatoes as I hoped, because I tended to do updates using video clips and weekly Instagram Lives. Those are all viewable - go to my Instagram Profile and check on my Reels tab and you will find all 20 of my 2024 IG Live (my name there is @nctomatoman)
Garden in late July
Below is a detailed review of the tomatoes grown in 2024.
Dwarf Walter’s Fancy X Dwarf Choemato F1 hybrid - this ended up being a prolific tasty variety, with size varying from 3 to 12 ounces. The oblate tomatoes were yellow with red swirls, and the flavor full and balanced and delicious. The flavor doesn’t really matter - it is what we find in future selections that are important. I saved lots of seeds, and welcome folks to work on this new family (which needs a name!). The best finds will be potato leaf variegated dwarfs with fruits of good size, interesting colors and excellent flavors. I also crossed one of the flowers with pollen from Cherokee Purple - this will make for a very interesting future project. The cross took and I am growing out one of the Cherokee Purple X (Dwarf Choemato X Dwarf Walter’s Fancy F1) F1 plants as I type this, hoping for a ripe fruit and some saved F2 seeds to start next year’s work with.
Dwarf Walter’s Fancy X Dwarf Blazing Beauty F1 hybrid - this was also prolific and delicious, with the flavor more tart than that above. Fruit size was also variable, 4-12 ounces, smooth nearly globe shaped and deep pink - which was a surprise. Lots of seeds were saved for future work - this new family also needs a name - and volunteers. Potato leaf variegated dwarfs of interesting colors and flavors of good size are the targets.
Dwarf Walter’s Fancy X Dwarf Zoe’s Sweet F1 hybrid - as expected, this was a slightly taller dwarf that produced a lot of medium sized ribbed pink tomatoes with a nice sweet flavor. Also needing a name, this fun family will be interesting to explore, with the big payoff being variegated chartreuse leaf dwarf potato leaf plants. My friend Eddie and I both planted some saved seeds - and each of us are growing out some chartreuse F2 seedlings. So far, we’ve not identified one with variegated leaves. Lots of work lies ahead next year and beyond - I have loads of saved seeds.
:Late planted test varieties - seedlings of F2 from Dwarf Walters Fancy X Dwarf Zoe’s Sweet are in the left bale group.
Sun Gold F1 - This was a bit of a surprise to me. I thought giving it its own strawbale and caging (and not pruning) would lead to an enormous yield. The plant struggled with septoria leaf spot all season, and although the tomatoes were delicious and fairly ample, disease eventually took it down sooner than hoped.
Egg Yolk and Mexico Midget - These two favorite cherry tomatoes shared a straw bale, with the plants caged together and unpruned. This ended up being the cherry tomato factory, with heavy harvests of each all season long. Picking them was a real pain, though - the dense vines and rampant growth made picking them a messy challenge. Though we found them typically tasty, we may go for different cherry tomatoes next year.
Some of each of the cherry tomatoes - orange Sun Gold, yellow Egg Yolk, tiny red Mexico Midget
Cherokee Purple - This was the most disappointing of the large fruited slicing heirlooms I grew due to season long struggles with blossom end rot. At one point, I pulled nearly 30 small tomatoes that had BER. The seed lot I used is largely fine, though - the 8 plants grown at the Veterans Healing Farm turned out just fine, with not a single instance of BER. I think I harvested no more than 3-4 unblemished tomatoes. Although I did save some seeds, it is possible that I was unlucky, and that the genetics of this particular plant had a tendency to show BER. Needless to say, the saved seeds will not be shared, or be a primary source of plants for future grow outs.
Polish - No, THIS was the most disappointing of the large fruited slicing heirlooms because it died very early on with apparent pith necrosis. The plant grew quickly and set loads of fruit, but it was clear something was amiss - before any of the tomatoes ripened, the plant began to wilt. The stems felt hollow. The tomatoes did eventually ripen - the flavor was not the best due to the poor health of the plant. I saved a good amount of seeds, but they will not be shared or be a primary source of plants going forward. The 4 plants at the VHF grew fine, tasted great and seeds were saved. This was the first time I’ve ever had an issue with this superb variety.
Potato Leaf Yellow - Oh my, we love this variety. One of the healthiest and heaviest yielding varieties of the 2024 garden, it excelled at the same level as it did last year. Whether it is a variety to be grown each year, or every other year remains to be seen. Victory Seeds is growing it out this year for release in its catalog next year.
A nice cluster of Potato Leaf Yellow nearing readiness for harvest
Captain Lucky - Once again, Captain Lucky takes the mantle of best flavored tomato in the garden. Because it was grown caged and unpruned, the yield was very generous and the plant remained healthy for a long time (relatively speaking). We love this tomato - and I actually managed to cross pollen from Sun Gold on to one of the flowers. The cross took and I am growing out a plant of Sun Gold X Captain Lucky as I type this. My hope is to get a few ripe fruit for seed saving.
Captain Lucky lower left, Cherokee Green upper right
Abraham Brown - This was one of my last varieties to ripen, and shading from the Egg Yolk/Mexico Midget monster cluster probably reduced its performance. The large chocolate tomatoes I did harvest were all I hoped they would be flavor-wise, and seeds were saved.
Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom - This was a very interesting mystery. Early on the plant seemed to be struggling with crown rot, alternaria stem canker, or another issue - with dark spots appearing where foliage met stem. I pruned as often as the issues arose and the plant somehow grew out of the affliction, providing a very good yield of the latest ripening variety in my garden. Flavor was superb - seeds were saved. It was also one of the last plants pulled.
Lucky Cross - It is nice to have this tomato very close to where it was when I selected and named it. Perhaps the flavor is just a tad off the Brandywine ideal, but it is head and shoulders above other bicolored varieties. The plant did fine - not great, as I lost a few early set fruit to blossom end rot, and septoria effected it a bit - but it did well enough, and I’ve plenty of saved seeds.
Cherokee Green - I was quite anxious to grow this plant, which was from 2016 saved seed - the only viable seed that traced back to my discovery of this variety in my 1997 garden. The vigorous plant was super prolific, with medium sized yellow skin, green flesh fruit with very good flavor. I noted some tiny dark spots in the flesh - this is a flaw that happens on occasion to green or white fleshed varieties. It seemed to vanish with later harvested fruit. Though it did meet its demise due to pith necrosis, I harvested plenty and saved lots of seed as well. It seems to be not quite as large as the selection released by Johnny’s just after I sent them the seeds years ago.
Cherokee Chocolate (actually Cherokee Chocolate X a 2022 nearby potato leaf variety F1)- One of the true mysteries of my 2024 garden, as well as a healthy tomato machine (the last plant to be pulled), there is an easy explanation. It is a hybrid! When it began to ripen, rather than the rich mahogany color expected, it was scarlet red. The flesh was firm, fruit were large and plentiful and flavor just fine. The big question - is this a seed mix up, or a chance hybrid? If I was lucky and Cherokee Chocolate saved in 2022 crossed with a potato leaf variety, it would show as the occurrence of a few potato leaf seedlings from saved seeds from the unexpected red fruit. Bingo - 25% of the seedlings were potato leaf. Looking at my garden map from 2022, the nearby potato leaf varieties were Lucky Cross, Lillian’s Yellow, Captain Lucky and Polish. I have a regular and a potato leaf plant in straw bales, hoping for a late harvest fruit from each. I will be asking if anyone wants to help me unravel the mystery next year.
Earl - Earl was the health and harvest (and nearly flavor) star of the garden. It seems to love the four stem, 2 stake growing method. The large pink oblate tomatoes were free of blossom end rot and had limited cracking. Flavor was superb. Earl is simply a big winner of an heirloom tomato.
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As for the tomatoes as the Veterans Healing Farm, disease struck there as well once the rains of July came, though our plants in strawbales fared far better than ones planted in the ground.
Plants grown at the farm were mainly the same as those in my garden, with a few additions - Nepal (which was splendid), Red Brandywine (very good, not great), Brandywine (superb), Big Sandy (early septoria issues, but did fairly well), and four important one-offs - Fairytale Fruit (very impressive regular leaf large yellow/red bicolor, a few tending to heart shape, a really excellent variety), Mary’s Favorite (superb - a large, bright yellow, regular leaf selection from Cherokee Purple X Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom), Lucky Bling (just delicious - a potato leaf, variegated leaf selection from Blue’s Bling X Little Lucky - yellow with red swirls and green areas), and the one disappointment, the example of Lillian Rose that I grew (potato leaf, another selection from Cherokee Purple X Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom - ended up being a medium large bright yellow with flavor a bit lacking, rather than the hoped for pink with yellow). It is back to the drawing board for this one. There were two other varieties of interest as one offs - a small purple tomato with green stripes sent to me to check as to whether it is a dwarf (it is not), and one of the regular leaf seedlings from my 2023 saved Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom seed - it produced an oblate medium large yellow with areas of red, with fairly good flavor. Oddly, saved seed did not produce any potato leaf seedlings. This one, therefore, is a true mystery.
We did a tasting at the farm, the most of the varieties showed very well, as hoped (and expected). Yield and health wise, Nepal, Captain Lucky and Potato Leaf Yellow were well above the rest. The three Cherokees (purple, chocolate and green) were first to ripen, heavy yielding, tasted great, but went down to a number of diseases fairly early in the harvest part of the season. Seeds were saved from every variety we grew there.
Dwarf Blazing Beauty X Dwarf Walter’s Fancy F1
