A very brief holiday, pre-move update. Important news for those expecting seed samples

Boxes of my books, SSE yearbooks, and seed catalogs awaiting moving day

Well, Sue and I are deep into packing. It’s hard to believe that this whole “adventure” began with our first house hunting trip to Hendersonville, NC in late October. Not even two months later, we find ourselves only a few weeks from closing on our new house. Wow - there is an ad that says “life comes at you fast”. Indeed!

Seed packing underway

The speed of this process means that the many requests for seeds - some dwarf project, some heirloom - collected throughout the year will not be fulfilled until we settle into our new digs and I can actually find what I need to fulfill them. Packing will be, by necessity, fast. Unpacking will be far more gradual, so patience will be appreciated. As far as Dwarf Project assignments for the upcoming year - I’ve not thought that far ahead. Stay tuned for news on that front.

My new dwarf project crosses - F1 test plants - continuing to thrive. Will they make it to Hendersonville alive? I need to ponder rerooting!

If it’s my office, it has seedlings, as you can see above. This is now turning into a real challenge - seeing if I can get these seedlings in reasonable planting shape at our new place in spring 2020. A snip and re-rooting is in store for them very soon. Yet, it is a good illustration of how healthy, not overly leggy seedlings can result from a south-facing window location. OK, back to packing! Our target date for getting all of this stuff (via a moving company) to Hendersonville is mid January.

As Marlin is learning from Sue - and it applies to the seeds I hope to send out in January - “good things come to those who wait!”

I hope that all of you have a wonderful holiday season. Christmas for Sue and I will be very “different” this year, as you can tell! Catch you on the the other side - in 2020!

Changes, big and small

Me and my wonderful boys Marlin and Koda chilling out, trying to find the energy to declutter the house

Sue and I have never shied away from big changes. We’ve always enjoyed the buzz and energy of change, whether a new job, restaurant, hobby, tomato in the garden, pet in our family, or originating in news from our daughters. Living in one place for 28 years brings with it a sense of falling into patterns and habits, and change becomes less common. Getting into a rut isn’t bad, especially when it is an enjoyable and comfortable one, and people do seem to be creatures of habit.

For some reason, as we’ve watched our birthdays add up and feel morning creaky joints more often, the urge to move has been growing for a few years. It’s interesting to note how despite being very different people, our 40 year relationship seems to bring synchronicity into our decisions. It seemed totally natural to start the process of going from place A to place B - partly driven by the need to get our lives onto one floor, partly by the feeling that a move would shake us up a bit, reset our daily routines, and add in some exploration and discovery.

We always thought that my speaking schedule would provide glimpses of target destinations for our move. Hendersonville emerged as a leading option a few years ago when we stayed at a bed and breakfast there while speaking at the Mother Earth News Fair in Asheville. We love craft beer, hiking in the woods, and a small town setting. We have been growing tired of the increasingly hot and humid summers here, as well as increasing traffic and population. I’ve longed to dig into the ground and plant a non-driveway garden once more, and it makes me dream of a long awaited return to crops like corn and squash and melons.

Howling Mob corn making its debut in the 1905 Burpee seed catalog

Sue and I made our second house hunting trip to Hendersonville on Sunday, after finding a nice candidate on Zillow. We saw a house that will work great for us, made an offer, the offer was accepted - our drive back home to Raleigh was in a state of shock as we discussed the implications of the one day trip. We close on the house in early January. Sometimes, life happens fast - and this change will be significant. We are thinking of it as a great adventure. We are moving!

The changes this move triggers are many, of course. I get plugged in to the Raleigh area gardening community more and more each year, and so many associations will become very different. Spring seedling sales, which we’ve done on large and, more recently, smaller scales will come to an end. People can always ask for seeds - particularly for those more hard to find varieties. I always thought way back when we first started plant sales that my job was to put myself out of business - Epic Tomatoes and lots of gardening talks had lots of info about home seed starting. I know that many of my customers have become very skilled at doing so. I am always available to provide help answer questions for those who have yet to take the plunge. Quite a few of you will be receiving emails from me to offer my gratitude for your support through the years.

Local tomato dinner, local tomato and other gardening topics workshops will now have to come to an end. I’ve loved them all - Durham or Wake libraries, Eno, History Museum, Logan, Atlantic, various smaller gardening groups, master gardening groups - such great memories, and such fun. I hope to find niches in the Hendersonville area to provide workshops, and that is something I will attend to pretty quickly. I admit to be really excited about exploring a new community with whom to share garden stories.

As to the timing of our move, we will likely have ownership of the new house in early January, so this is bound to happen really quickly. It may take some time to sell our Raleigh home, and if this span reaches into April, there could indeed be some seedlings available, though they will have been started in Hendersonville (traveling seedlings!). Watch my blog and newsletter for updates.

Pages from my dad’s garden diary, which I discovered when cleaning out my parents home after my dad’s death in 2007

Another significant change is my decision to completely depart from Facebook; this means my book page and Dwarf Tomato Project page as well. As I’ve already departed from Twitter, the main social networking tool I will regularly use is Instagram; I can be found there @nctomatoman . I hope to encourage all of those who were connected to me via Facebook to register for my newsletters (both regular newsletter and the one created for participants in the Dwarf Tomato Project). I also hope to be a much more regular blogger. You can always get my attention using email also. These changes make me feel more consistent with my personal philosophy on what’s happening these days, and also carve out more time for me to adjust to our new lives in a new place.

Aside from decluttering and getting the house ready to list for sale, and preparations for the big move in January. there is no shortage of things to do. I hope to get to seed sending very soon - certainly in the coming weeks. Then there is completion of the Dwarf Tomato Project book. Just those things will keep me busy well into next year.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

That’s Scout - who we fostered as a tiny puppy with her brother Bodhi (we named them Betts and Mookie) spending Thanksgiving with us, having a nap with her pal Marlin

Some reflections on three days of awesomeness, the end of my 2019 workshops, and other things

I love to peruse my old seed catalog collection at this time of year. I am posting pics on Instagram pretty much daily - check them out - #gardenhistory @nctomatoman

On Saturday November 2, I had the opportunity to present my Container and Straw Bale gardening talk to an enthusiastic, warm and welcoming audience of gardeners as part of the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA) conference. It was my penultimate talk of 2019. On Thursday evening, November 7, I finished my 2019 speaking season with that same workshop at the East Regional Library in Knightdale, NC. It can be a challenge to entice folks to attend gardening talks as the nights grow long and cold weather approaches, and my audiences for all 7 of my fall Wake County Library talks showed that gardening is not the first thing on peoples’ minds in the fall. Yet I loved them all, and my sphere of local gardening friends continues to expand.

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Back to the CFSA meeting I briefly mentioned above. Over the last few months I became involved in a parallel meeting for the event, and was asked to help and participate in the Southeast Seed System meeting as part of more regional efforts of the Organic Seed Alliance. I really can’t say enough about how impressed I was at the talent, enthusiasm, focus and purpose of so many regional farmers, gardeners, seed and produce growers and seed company and agricultural area experts, all focused on guiding improvement in numerous aspects of regional seeds and farming. My role was primarily using my project management and team facilitation tools to ensure that the three days lead to clear ways to advance the loads of great ideas that emerged on those three days of workshops and discussions. What I didn’t expect is how many of my own gardening experiences - my decades as a seed saver, a tomato collector and historian, an amateur breeder - fit well with providing guidance to the group, and we’ve really only scratched the surface as this regional group forms and launches.

There were so many wonderful chances to interact with many like minded friends, old and new - Ira Wallace and others from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (one of my very favorite seed companies, and the one responsible for first making Cherokee Purple available in a seed catalog, back in 1993!), Chris Smith and Carol Koury of Sow True Seed and Chris’s own new venture, the Utopian Seed Project, Jacob Rutz of The People’s Seed, Melissa DeSa (our most welcome and delightful house guest) of Working Food, and Jared Zystro of the Organic Seed Alliance, just to name a few.

One of the most exciting workshops was right up my alley (or more specifically, the alley of the Dwarf Tomato Breeding project), discussing regional open pollinated plant breeding, was provided by Dr. Michael Mazourek, Professor of Plant Breeding at Cornell, and Brett Grosghal of Even’ Star Organic Farm in Maryland. Their talk, Breeding Crops for Resilience in the Face of Climate Change, faced head-on the challenge of plant breeders, gardeners and farmers to identify or create varieties that can handle rapidly changing conditions.

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As for “other things” - there really are an awful lot of them, a few major, most minor - but these are the things that will keep me busy for the foreseeable future.

Our impending move. We’ve lived in Raleigh for 28 years and it feels like time to go west - as in the Hendersonville NC region. We are de-cluttering, house hunting, getting our house ready for the market. That is a big project in itself, but it is underway. This will change things for sure - especially my future gardens, and spring seedling sales. It could be a few months or a year. Stay tuned…this is definitely a breaking story!

Seedlings growing in front of my sunny office window - these are my test plantings of my 5 new dwarf X indeterminate crosses - all are indeterminate, so all crosses took. I will blog about them soon.

The Dwarf Tomato Project. It lives on, and Victory Seed Company will be releasing over a dozen new ones very soon. Promising possibilities keep popping up, and I appear to have 5 new successful crosses to play with.

The book on the Dwarf Tomato Project. It exists in my brain and I need to carve out the time to shape it into a book. Yes, I know I’ve been talking about it for a few years, but it must happen, and happen pretty soon.

Fulfilling seed requests for both dwarf and heirloom tomatoes. I’ve received requests from lots of you and hope to get to stuffing seed packets and getting them into the mail over the next few weeks, into early next year.

My partial exodus from social media. Some of you may have noted that my personal Facebook page is no more, and I’ve vanished from Twitter. It is really a reaction to the times we live in, and the time I have available. It makes me very unhappy that tools used to bring people together are being used to divide us. I still have a Facebook book page (but can’t view or update it - my daughter Sara does that for me), as well as a private Dwarf Tomato Project page that I am also unable to access. I think those will soon vanish as well, but it is something I’m yet to be certain of. This leaves Instagram, and I am trying to post interesting pics each day - find me @nctomatoman . Aside from that, my primary means of communicating outward will be this blog and newsletters.

That’s quite a few “other things”. Hopefully this will give a sense of the things keeping me busy (very busy!), happy, and also a few things I continue to grapple with.

Marlin and Koda at rapt attention playing the morning “treat game” with Sue

Let's Talk About the Weather.

Using Some Data Toward More Productive Gardens

cherry tomato flowers - smaller blossoms suffer less blossom drop in extreme temps

Our family moved from West Chester, PA to Raleigh, NC in 1992. Our first garden in Raleigh was planted in 1993. This past season, 2019, is therefore our 27th garden here. We had 6 gardens in Pennsylvania, with those that focused on heirloom tomatoes from 1987-1991. Using historical temperature data, I wanted to do some analyses and comparisons, as well as identify some trends, in order to confirm my observations about how gardening has changed for us here since we moved in, and to see if I could correlate the superior tomato yields achieved in Pennsylvania with the most modest results obtained here in North Carolina (accepting that temperature was only one of many variables).

One major difference between gardening in PA and NC showed in tomato productivity. In PA, I easily averaged between 20-30 pounds of fruit per plant across the many varieties I grew, approaching 40 pounds in a few cases. The plants were grown in the ground, staked, and only minimally pruned in soil augmented with mushroom compost.

In NC, yields are far more variable, and though I didn’t collect specific harvest weight data, the typical yield per plant was more in the 10-15 pound range, with occasional 20-25 pounds per plant sprinkled across the many gardens planted here. About 10 years ago I moved from in-ground dirt growing to combinations of straw bales and containers in my driveway (to take advantage of increased sun exposure there). This past year was one of the best in recent memory, with the straw bale indeterminate plants achieving the 20-25 pounds per plant range. Disease is far more of a problem in NC than it was in PA, and my yields here are often impacted by sick plants. I’ll talk more about disease in a future post; right now I want to focus on relative temperatures experienced each summer.

The reason for my interest in temperature trends is toward continually improving my own garden results, as well as being able to share pertinent findings with my fellow gardeners so that they can succeed as well. It goes without saying that my main interest throughout my near 40 years of gardening has been tomatoes, particularly heirlooms, especially those with large fruit potential. As many tomato enthusiasts know, when it gets really hot and humid (90 degrees or above, high relative humidity), fruit set becomes a problem with many varieties, leading to blossom drop and disappointing yields. By understanding what sorts of temperatures we can anticipate around which particular dates, adjustments can be made to variety choice and seeding and planting time so that extreme weather can be best avoided. Of course, our increasingly hot summers in Raleigh (as shown by the data below) make it impossible to completely remove the problem. However, there are tactics that can be used to increase success.

larger blossoms, meaning larger tomatoes, which dislike heat and humidity with regard to pollinating and fruit set

I’ve collected and analyzed a lot of temperature data, using the Weather Underground website and the ability to view high and low temps by month and year. Here are some of the key findings.

Extreme temperatures (temps at 90 degrees and above)

• Between 1992 and 2005, there was an average of 36 days of 90 degrees or above.

• Between 2006 and 2019, the number of 90 degree or more days averaged 50.

• The summers of 2010 and 2011 had 82 and 63 days of these super hot days, respectively. In the last four years, we range between 50-60 of such days.

• Taking it in smaller bites, the 90 plus degree days each summer averaged 36 days from 1992-2000 and 46 days in the spans 2001-2010, and 2011-2019.

I then looked at “heat waves” - spans of 4 days or more of temps at 90 degrees or above. The data was pretty surprising, but there is a clear trend. It turns out that 3 years were blisteringly hot; the summer of 2010 had 11 such heat waves, and 2002 and 2011 had 9 stretches of extreme heat. The other stretch that bucked the clear trend are the three years spanning 2012-2014, which averaged only 2 heat waves per summer.

Looking more broadly, however, it is getting hotter. Between 1992-2005, there were 45 heat waves, whereas there were 73 between 2006-2019.

Timing of heat waves

2019 was a really challenging year for heat waves (so it was not just my imagination as I was melting in my driveway during my daily 3-4 hours out there!). Each month had a long, broiling stretch - 1 each in May, June, August, September and October, with 2 in July.

2018 had 2 heat waves each in June, July and August. 2017 had 3 in July and 2 in August. Looking at the other end of my study range, 1992 had 1 heat wave, in mid-July; 1993 had 1 each in June, July, August and September. 1994 had 2 heat waves in June. In 1995 we experienced 2 in July and 2 in August. 1996 had one heat wave in June, 1997 had 1 in July and 1 in August.

Given the data, what is the best way forward for planting times and methods?

This is where it gets tricky. Increasing warmth over time would be expected to mean last frost dates moving more toward early and mid March, which would allow for a month or more earlier planting without fear of crop loss. Looking at the last frost data doesn’t show such a clear solution, though an overall trend is certainly there.

Between 1997 and 2007 (missing low temperature data prior to 1997 meant leaving out of this assessment), safe plant out dates tended to late March or early April. Between 2009 and 2019, many seasons provided opportunities for an earlier planting. Last frost dates fell into the first week of March for 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2016, and 2019.

This data is particularly important for gardeners who, like me, have no greenhouse. Being able to put plants out as early as possible for hardening off or planting is critically important. Moving dozens of flats to the safety of the garage is no fun at all.

The solution? It’s time to try staggering plantings

Even though it seems like a long time span, looking at 28 years of temperature data is still pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Trends can certainly be identified, but season to season variation indicates that it is not yet time to count on the increasing trend to more, hotter days and heat waves to lengthen our growing season and allow for earlier planting.

We can take advantage of the long growing season (let’s say that it runs from, on average, March 10 until November 10; that’s 9 months, or roughly 270 days!) by not putting all of our eggs in one basket - rather than planting everything as soon as we can, aiming for planting in spaced out groupings. For example, if I am going to end up growing 60 tomato plants, rather than plant all 60 as soon as the threat of frost has passed, plant 20 initially, then wait a month and plant 20 more, wait another month and plant 20 more. What this will hopefully accomplish is to avoid a series of long heat waves leading to blossom drop and significant yield reduction on all of the large fruited varieties that are planted. Staggered planting means staggered growing and staggered flowering; the odds are that favorable weather at various points of the season will lead to better overall yields.

The other consideration is in matching crop types with expected temperatures. Potatoes, peas, lettuce, beets, other types of greens (aside from Chard) are not happy when it gets hot. If we are seeing more and more 90 degree days in May, the season for such sensitive veggies becomes extremely short. Very early germination - in some cases, even planting in the fall and providing some cover protection over the winter - and planting out in late winter is the best bet in getting decent harvests from heat sensitive crops.

Let’s keep the discussion going

I’d love to hear what people think about the above, particularly in looking at real data and pondering the possibility that it had significant impacts on their gardens. I encourage people living in other areas to do a similar analysis - collect some temperature data for your area over a few decades and see what the trends are telling you. Think about how you may have to alter your timing in order to bring success back to your gardening, if changing temperatures have been negatively impacting your efforts.

Share your views via email, or as a comment to this blog. I’d love to know what you think!

Larger flowers that are indicative of the beefsteak heirloom types, though some can even look more like marigolds. Heat waves lead to increased blossom drop due to difficulty in self pollination of the blossoms

On a Utah trip, time for thinking, and looking ahead.

Zion…Bryce Canyon…Capitol Reef…Arches…Canyonlands. Five US National Parks running in southern Utah from west to east. 12 days, Sue and I, Airbnbs in Orderville, Tropic, Torrey and Moab.

Talk about good medicine for the mind and the soul….most days so quiet, the warm dry air perfect for hikes, breathtaking views of a geography completely new to us and far different from what we’ve seen, and where we live. It was an utterly perfect way to unwind after a pretty consistently busy year to date, and an opportunity for which I am so grateful.

What did I ponder while out taking in mountains and canyons? Lots, but the most important reflections were around my second career arc, where I’ve been and what’s to come.

I pondered the impact of social networking - which often seems like the burden of social networking.

The impact of social media on our culture, country, politics - the world - has been hanging heavy on me the past few years. This year’s garden - the incessant heat, the number of plants - seemed more burdensome than usual, no doubt party due to the fact that the passage of time takes its toll on stamina, and desire to have such ambitious gardens each year.

This is the tip of the iceberg of my thoughts, and is a sufficient distillate to set up the next part of this post - what I plan to do about it all. Without going into great detail on each point, here is a summary of my plans going forward:

Social media - I plan to simply leave Twitter, begin to close down my personal page on Facebook, but continue with my Facebook Author Page to take me through upcoming planned events to help drive awareness. My primary means of communication via social media will be Instagram. And yet, even given this, I will be posting far less. My hope is that those who follow my gardening exploits will move on to…..

Blogging and Newsletters - Less social posting will mean more communication through my blog and quarterly newsletters - at least that is my aspiration. I will be taking advice from my daughter/coach, Sara, on all of these transitions.

Direct email - I’ve had a long time practice of encouraging questions sent to me via personal email, and I plan to continue that. However, response time to emails could increase a bit - typically I answer the day I receive them, but it may stretch to a week or so…we shall see.

Future gardens - Smaller, less plants, easier to maintain - out of necessity. Continued reduction/eventual closure of the Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project will be a consequence. With a desire to get away with Sue and travel more, and a continuing pretty busy speaking schedule, biting off more than I can chew simply doesn’t make sense. We are probably only a few years away from downsizing and relocating anyway.

Spring seedlings - more limited, less plants, but continuing as long as I can find time to get seedlings stared and well cared for, but tied in to the Future Gardens point as well.

Book 3 - the Dwarf Tomato Project book - this will become the main priority until it is completed and released. I hope to use time saved from reduction of efforts as outlined above to wrap this up at last. It is long over due, and will feel great - and bring on relief! - when it is finally finished.

I welcome anyone’s opinions on my plans. It seems the right thing to do at the moment. To tell the truth, this is the beginning of my departure from all social networking…one has to start somewhere!

Keep up to date by signing up for my mailing list below.

All that remains of the 2019 driveway garden

This is it - the last of a 5 part personal review of all Dwarf Tomato Project releases (whew!)...

Candidates for releases from the Teensy family

That was a fun little effort - it just seemed time to give my honest opinions on all of our dwarf releases. What will be clear, hopefully, is that my experiences with many of them are extremely limited - in some cases, yet to begin. It is really important to stress the individual nature of this type of review series - my taste buds, my growing method, all of the seasonal variations. Our dwarfs are truly in their infancy - so much more information is needed - certainly desired - to provide a more complete picture….which ones do best in which locations (and which ones struggle the most)….which seem to have remaining instability….which ones taste best, which ones seem a bit lacking. None of this is precise. It is a living project that is at it’s very beginning (and we are not at all finished releasing Dwarf varieties from our project!)

Dwarf Egypt Yellow * - This tomato really exceeded my expectations in both flavor and size. I am so glad I finally got to grow it this year; it was one of the highlights of my garden in 2019. It is nice to add a big, oblate, prolific bright yellow regular leaf dwarf to our portfolio.

Dwarf Franklin County - I’ve not yet grown the released selection and hope to do so in 2020 or 2021. I dabbled just a bit in the Wishful family early on.

Dwarf Velvet Night - I’ve been a bit unlucky with this one - either disease or deer hit the two times I grew it, though I worked quite a bit on the Dinky and Muddy lines (both of which produced pink or purple dwarf cherries) early on, and knew that they held great promise. At least I got a few to eat this year before the deer took the rest, and I found it a delightfully flavored purple larger sized, slightly oblate dwarf cherry tomato.

Dwarf Pink Opal - I’ve not yet grown the released selection and hope to do so in 2020 or 2021. I did work a bit on the family early on and found the pink cherries out of Dinky and Muddy families very good.

Dwarf Confetti * - I’ve not yet grown the released selection and hope to do so in 2020 and 2021. I discovered and named this variety and it was outstanding that year.

Dwarf Sarah's Red * - Yet another large fruited, totally delicious scarlet red colored variety takes its place in our project. My first growing was just this past summer, and I simply loved it. Productive, healthy, vigorous, large - and totally yummy. As I’ve said previously in these blogs, great flavored high quality red dwarfs are always welcome!

Dwarf Peppermint Stripes * - I’ve not yet grown the released selection and hope to do so in 2020 and 2021. I discovered and named this variety and it was outstanding that year.

Dwarf Andy's Forty - Though not a total blockbuster like some of our releases, this is a very nice medium sized chocolate colored dwarf tomato with excellent flavor. The fruit are smooth, the variety is productive - and there is a hint of faint stripes on the fruit of the plant that I grew. Unless I was specifically looking for those stripes, I would have missed them.

Dwarf Mary's Cherry - I’ve not yet grown the released selection and hope to do so in 2020 or 2021.

Dwarf Hannah's Prize   * - And, guess what - yet another wonderful large fruited scarlet red dwarf tomato made its debut in my 2019 garden. What an embarrassment of riches - and what a fine tomato this is.

Dwarf Saucy Mary  - I’ve not yet grown the released selection and hope to do so in 2020 or 2021. I selected and named the variety and found it very enjoyable. It is quite unique in being a green fleshed, good sized, distinctively striped (dark and light green and amber) plum or paste fruited dwarf.

Dwarf Mandurang Moon - This proved to be the most compact growing dwarf variety of my experience, behaving more like a microdwarf, though with really large potato leaf foliage. The small plum shaped nearly snow white saladette type tomatoes are really tasty. It just seemed as though it was not at its best in my 2019 garden, and was one of those that came in with a flurry of other, larger fruited types - so was a bit underrated I suspect.

Dwarf Black Angus - I’ve not yet grown the released selection and hope to do so in 2020 or 2021. I selected and named the variety, really liked it, and expect it to be excellent based on my early work.

Dwarf Bendigo Rose - I’ve not yet grown the released selection and hope to do so in 2020 or 2021. I dabbled a bit with this variety while it was in development a few years ago.

Dwarf Bendigo Moon - I’ve not yet grown the released selection and hope to do so in 2020 or 2021. Same comment as with Dwarf Bendigo Rose.

Dwarf Awesome - I’ve not yet grown the released selection and hope to do so in 2020 or 2021. Since I am a big fan of the Ivalde family and this is the first release, I feel bad that I’ve yet to grow it.

Dwarf Moliagul Moon - I’ve not yet grown the released selection and hope to do so in 2020 or 2021….same comment as with Dwarf Bendigo Rose.

Dwarf Bendigo Drop - My first attempt at this during 2019 was not a great success - it was in a poor location, came in late, and hence was attacked repeatedly by deer. I will suspend further comments until I get a chance to give it a fair trial.

Dwarf Bendigo Dawn - I’ve not yet grown the released selection and hope to do so in 2020 or 2021. Same comment as with Dwarf Bendigo Rose.

Dwarf Barossa Moon - I’ve not yet grown the released selection and hope to do so in 2020 or 2021. Same comment as with Dwarf Bendigo Rose.

Dwarf Bendigo Blush - Same comment as with Dwarf Bendigo Drop, above - a poor attempt at a first trial in 2019, hence slated for a return to my garden very soon for a much more fair trial.

Dwarf Grandpa Gary's Green - I was quite happy with this nice medium sized, smooth, nearly round yellow skinned, green fleshed variety. Though not grouped with the absolute best, it is an excellent, productive variety that many will love. With all of the clear skinned greenies from the Sneezy line, it is nice to have a good sized yellow skinned green flesh to grow.

Dwarf Melanie's Ballet * - I really enjoyed eating - and the beauty of - this nicely shaped, good sized smooth plum shaped pink. Highly productive, this is a wonderful multi use tomato…salads, sauces, roasting, canning. It jumped into my favorites category with my first try at growing it, this past season.

Dwarf Sneaky Sauce - This is simply a reliable, high yielding, attractive round to slightly heart shaped scarlet red tomato that tastes really good. It would make a perfect slicing, salad, canning or sauce tomato. It is a fine addition to our portfolio of releases.

Dwarf Velvet Night, a yummy purple large cherry dwarf

As you read above, I’ve no experience yet with the released selections of 14 of the above. In total, 23 of our releases that I’ve not yet grown will be in my garden in one of the next two seasons.

And so the journey through the current releases from our project is complete. I hope you found it interesting, and welcome any questions that you have. I won’t say that the best is yet to come (because we have lots of greatness sprinkled throughout our releases), but some really fine tomatoes will soon be available. Some of those will certainly end up on my “best” list.

Thanks go to the hundreds and hundreds of our wonderful volunteers, reaching back to 2006; to Patrina of course, my project co-lead, Bill Minkey (who grew out the vast majority of our release seed stock that we gave to various companies to package up and sell), the companies that decided that these fit well into their offerings (particularly Mike and Denise Dunton of Victory Seeds, but also the other early adopters - Tatiana’s TOMATObase, Sample Seed Shop (Remy), Heritage (Steve), Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (Ken and Ira), Jeff Casey, Glenn and Linda Drowns, Fruition (Petra)…and the many customers who are purchasing, enjoying and reporting back on their experiences. Keep those opinions coming!

Candidate for upcoming release Dwarf Ann’s Dusky Rose Plum

My personal review of all of our Dwarf Tomato Project releases - part 4

Fancy family offspring from my 2019 garden

Two more big blog posts to go - in this one, I am combining the 2016 with the 2018 releases to keep the number manageable. Part 5 will cover the long list of 2017 varieties. Off we go - and remember, these are MY impressions, limited in some cases - typically grown in 5 gallon grow bags or straw bales in our hot, humid, challenging Raleigh, NC summers.

Willa's Cariboo Rose - I’ve just one season experience and it was not a great year, so I really have no clear impression positive or negative. It will get another chance very soon.

Coorong Pink - I have a funny story about Coorong Pink. I grew it a few years ago and in my garden the tomatoes were striped, and with anthocyanin shoulders. A seedling customer grew it and provided some of their harvest for me, and I just loved it - medium to medium large, smooth oblate pink fruit with a nicely balanced taste. It’s not on my favorites list yet, because it has been inconsistent (obviously!).

Dwarf Caitydid * - This is one of my better finds, out of the Pesty family (and named for my daughter Caitlin), and distinct in being a yellow/red bicolor that had a particularly rosy colored central core. I’ve grown it several times, most recently in a self watering container, where it really showed its stuff…beautiful large red/yellow swirled tomatoes, and lots of them. For me, the flavor is just slightly on the mild and sweet side of many of the indeterminate bicolored types, not quite up to the intensity and complexity of Wherokowhai, but still a really fine tomato. It’s combined attributes - color, flavor, productivity, vigor - move it into my “favorites” category.

Dwarf Firebird Sweet  * - This lovely tomato is out of the complex Beauty family, which provided a rainbow of colors for our project and numerous releases. When this popped up in my garden a few years ago, the stunning pink with gold striped combination was really exciting to find. Add to that it’s high yield and rich, complex flavor and we have a winner (in my book!). One slight complication is that I’ve ended up with purple fruit (with greenish gold stripes) from supposedly stable seed lots. This isn’t unusual for our Beauty family releases - stabilizing chosen colors has been a bit of a challenge.

Dwarf Beauty King * - Another out of the Beauty family, this one is an intense scarlet red with vertical gold stripes, of a medium size, and possessing the consistently wonderful flavor of all of our Beauty family tomatoes. And, as with other Beauty offspring, the color can occasionally offer a surprise. I think we have this one pretty well nailed down, and it is another favorite of mine, well worth growing.

Mallee Rose - This is a pretty, productive, nice sized tomato with some ribbing on the shoulders. It is productive and seems to resist foliage diseases quite well. I find the flavor to be just a bit too sweet/mild for my taste buds, so it is for me a very good, not great, variety. Those who like sweet tomatoes may have a different opinion and should give it a try.

Barossa Fest  * - It may look a bit on the small side (in a way, it is sized like its Sneezy family members Beryl Beauty, Jade Beauty and Kelly Green), but having a bright yellow, wonderfully flavored prolific dwarf variety makes it a wonderful additional to our project releases. I really underrated it when I grew it, and upon reflection, decided to add it to my favorites category.

Dwarf Maura’s Cardinal  * - I’ve had such fun this year growing quite a few varieties for the first time, many of which due to the efforts of our great project volunteer Susan Oliverson of Idaho. Dwarf Maura’s Cardinal is simply a superb, large scarlet tomato that has it all - vigor, productivity, and most of all, a complete, delicious flavor. Great red varieties came late to our project, but we are now really piling them up.

Dwarf Jasmine Yellow - I love the productivity, size and color of Dwarf Jasmine Yellow - it is another that made its debut in my garden this year, and other from the great work of Susan O. It doesn’t quite make the cut as the very best in my opinion due to a slightly less intense flavor than I tend to favor. It is a truly fine tomato, however.

Dwarf Laura’s Bounty - My attempt at growing it this year didn’t work out thanks to a deer attack, so I hope to try it again next year. I love the idea of an orange plum tomato, and can’t wait to give it another shot.

Dwarf Sunny’s Pear - This is a really cute small bright orange plum tomato that is perfect for salads, roasting or grilling. It is really prolific and the plant resists disease well. It fills a niche in our project, and really stands alone in this color, shape and size. The flavor is sweet, mild and pleasant.

Dwarf Galen’s Yellow - I’ve yet to grow the released selection - hope to do so in 2020 or 2021. I had a hand in growing some of the earlier generations and liked it very much.

Dwarf Goldfinch - I’ve yet to grow the released selection - hope to do so in 2020 or 2021. I selected and named it and it is potentially outstanding (it certainly was that first time).

Dwarf Mystic Lady - Yet another fine addition to our pink potato leaf dwarf tomatoes, Dwarf Mystic Lady is produced in good numbers on a vigorous potato leaf dwarf plant. The flavor is on the mild side, showing good sweetness and balance. Size tends to be in the medium range.

Dwarf CC McGee - I’ve yet to grow the released selection - hope to do so in 2020 or 2021. Great flavored whites are always welcome!

Dwarf Jeremy’s Stripes - I’ve yet to grow the released selection - hope to do so in 2020 or 2021.

Dwarf Numbat - I’ve yet to grow the released selection - hope to do so in 2020 or 2021. I have limited experience with it, and consider it a nice dwarf growing Green Zebra type.

Clare Valley Pink - I’ve yet to grow the released selection, but have lots of experience with early generations. Though not outstanding, my feeling is that it was a reliable, tasty tomato.

Dwarf Suz’s Beauty - I’ve yet to grow the released selection - hope to do so in 2020 or 2021. I really love the Beauty family and expect this to be wonderful.

Dwarf Parfait - My initial experience with Dwarf Parfait was impacted by a deer attack, limiting me to but one fruit…but what a tomato it was! Weighing a bit over one pound, it looked green on the outside, but when cut showed a glowing orange central core. Flavor is balanced and delicious. It didn’t make my best of list yet, due to my limited experience with it and inability to really get a handle on potential yield. Slices of this would be just lovely in Caprese.

Dwarf Tiger Eye  * - What we have here is special and quite unique - an Uluru Ochre colored nice sized prolific paste type tomato. The flavor is just excellent, and this is a really versatile multi use variety - salads, sauces, roasting, grilling or canning. Susan O did a great job finding and finishing this wonderful variety.

Dwarf Vince’s Haze * - My oh my, what a delicious tomato. The plentiful medium large smooth oblate purple fruit, from a vigorous healthy potato leaf plant, have a full, rich flavor that rivals types such as Cherokee Purple, and are on a par with Rosella Purple. I really love this variety and look forward to growing it many times in the future.

Dwarf Hazy’s Dream - I’ve yet to grow the released selection - hope to do so in 2020 or 2021.

Grandpa Gary’s Green from this year’s garden

There, you have it - the 4th of 5 installments as I take on an honest assessment, warts and all, of all of our dwarf tomato project releases. The above represents a much more variable set of releases with respect to my experience with them. There is much work to do familiarizing myself with quite a few of them…a tough job, but someone’s got to do it! (actually, a wonderful job that will keep me busy and happy in my future gardens).

Our most recent foster pups, Sibyl and Simon

Dwarf Tomato Project releases...my own impressions and comments - part 3

First ripe Dwarf Melanie’s Ballet from July of this season

Now I am going to move on to the releases from 2015 - there are a slew of them….here we go! Remember - the asterisk * means they are a favorite of mine.

Adelaide Festival * - We have three purple with stripes (green to golden) offerings - this, Fred’s Tie Dye (different family) and Tennessee Suited (same family as Adelaide Festival). I am not convinced that they are two distinct varieties, or rather two very similar, very slight variations that may end up getting collapsed into a single variety. That will actually be a theme involving several of our releases from the same family - are they actually two different varieties, or just selections made on seasonal impact? Anyway - back to Adelaide Festival - it is a real beauty, lovely stripes, excellent yield and fine full flavor, hence inclusion onto my favorites list.

Dwarf Lemon Ice - The same remarks made in my last blog when discussing Lemon Ice’s cousins - Pink Passion and Golden Heart - hold here. I love the “icy” bright yellow color, nearly white flesh, early productivity, excellent reliable fruit set. The flavor doesn’t have quite the impact on me, but as in all of those I am downgrading a bit on flavor, it is time to revisit. This is actually a splendid canning or sauce tomato due to its dense meaty flesh and nice medium size.

Dwarf Mahogany - I’ve far too little experience to be confident in fully grading it. My best experience was during the selection phase where it really stood out at Tomatopalooza, grown by my friend Lee and brought to the event. I’ve been less lucky with it the few times I’ve grown it, in challenging seasons, where it was pretty well ravaged by disease. I lump this in with Tasmanian Chocolate and Chocolate Champion and Maralinga when considering our chocolate colored medium to larger fruited releases. I know it has great potential, it is just that I’ve yet to experience it in my own garden..so, it is time to give it another shot!

Dwarf Russian Swirl - I was so excited to find this as the first of the good sized oblate yellow/red bicolored tomatoes with flavor on a par with the many indeterminate varieties such as Pineapple and Big Rainbow. It is on the tall size, resists disease well, is a heavy yielder…the color is of course outstanding, with variable swirls of red in bright yellow flesh. Flavor-wise, I have the same opinion of it as the indeterminate bicolors - only Lucky Cross and Little Lucky “do it for me” as far as taste excitement, but I know many gardeners who would appreciate the mild, sweet fruitiness of this one.

Dwarf Scarlet Heart - It took some doing, but we managed to stabilize the hardest color to narrow down in our project - red! Our project member Linda in California did a great job with all of the Nosey selections, and I consider this to be my favorite for flavor, having more “oomph” than the gold, yellow and pink members of the family already discussed. It sets fruit well, resists disease, has a nice medium size and heart shape and is just a fine tomato. The flavor won’t make you stop and pause, but it is perfect for all uses - a really good eating tomato that will also be at home in sauces or canned.

Kangaroo Paw Green - These are curious little tomatoes, the Kangaroo Paw series. I find them to vary as to disease susceptibility season to season, but they always set fruit and yield well. They are saladette sized tomatoes that don’t find as much use in our kitchen unless I am grilling or canning. I like the flavor of all three, and the yellow skin makes it unusual in our project for green fleshed varieties. I like it, but don’t love it.

Kangaroo Paw Brown - All of my comments for K Paw Green hold for K Paw Brown - healthy, prolific, attractive, and tasty, though for me not a best taste candidate. It is time for me to regrow all three and confirm or revise my assessment.

Kangaroo Paw Yellow - This and Red (coming soon) has been the most challenging colors to stabilize and nail down. I think we finally have reliable yellow fruit, and all comments for the other two K Paws, above, hold for Yellow.

Dwarf Orange Cream  * - This is a curious one. The color is pretty unique, not quite orange, not quite yellow, and the surface is sort of matte, not shiny. I “found” the variety and named it, and haven’t returned to it very often. The flavor is outstanding, right there with the other Tipsy family releases (Sweet Scarlet, Golden Gypsy, Blazing Beauty). I’ve not grown it often, and haven’t always had luck with it when I did. It can stand with the very best in years when it is happy with the conditions, and it is time for me to give it another try.

Maralinga - There is a consistent theme with this set of dwarf releases; I simply don’t have tons of experience with many of them, including Maralinga. One year it was truly outstanding, others not so much - yield issues, disease issues. It has the potential to be among the best, however - a nice sized, chocolate colored tomato with high yields. Time for me to give it another try.

Dwarf Golden Gypsy  * - I love this variety. It is one of the most consistent yielding of the Tipsy potato leaf releases, with nice sized medium yellow tomatoes of superb flavor (including that nice kick of tartness shown by most of our Tipsy family releases). The very pale yellow flesh is attractive as well. Certainly this is one of our finest varieties.

Waratah - Great reds are a bit lacking in our project. Waratah is what I call a somewhat inconsistent but very good red variety. I’ve had mixed results with my few grow outs, and wish to compare it to another red from the same family of similar size, Tanunda Red. I can’t yet say I love it, and in fact, need to convince myself that Waratah and Tanunda Red are distinct enough to be two different varieties (they are both from the Plentiful family).

Sturt Desert Pea - This release is a bit smaller than Tanunda Red and Waratah (all from the Plentiful family), but more consistent in yield and flavor. It is a fine medium sized red slicing variety that yields well, with a pleasant balanced flavor. I’ve not grown it very often and can’t really add any more.

BrandyFred - Similar to Dwarf Wild Spudlead, my experiences with BrandyFred are very limited. It is a potato leaf, good sized oblate purple tomato with excellent flavor, but I need to regrow it to add more details.

Tennessee Suited - See my comments on Adelaide Festival, above. Tennessee Suited has been a bit erratic for me, a few times excellent, a few times disease susceptible and not high yielding, though of fine flavor.

Lucky Swirl - Like Dwarf Russian Swirl, this is another of the classic red/yellow swirl bicolors with sweet, fruity flavors. I’ve had mixed results in terms of plant health and yield.

Tanunda Red - See my comments on Waratah above. Much more experience with this in my garden is needed to form any distinctive opinion beyond it being a very good medium sized red tomato. I need to convince myself that it is distinct from Waratah.

TastyWine * - This release has the potential to equal Brandywine in flavor, if not quite in size. I’ve found it to vary quite a bit season to season, and we probably could have done a bit of a better job selecting and stabilizing it before release, though that is just a possibility….variations I’ve experienced could simply be due to differing weather season to season. I’ve not grown it as often as I should, but those seeking a potato leaf dwarf with good sized pink delicious tomatoes should aim for this one in their garden.

Kookaburra Cackle - I have little experience with this, but it was a very positive one - lots of medium to medium small smooth oblate chocolate tasty tomatoes. We have so many releases, and there remains still so much work to be done, that once something is released I end up moving on to other things. Like many others released this year, it is time for Kookaburra to make a return to my garden.

Dwarf Wild Spudleaf  *- I’ve actually grown this one quite a lot, and find it consistent in terms of yield, health and flavor - perhaps my top choice right now of potato leaf purple dwarfs. It gets rated among the best for me.

Loxton Lad - Do we have a Lad AND a Lass, or just a Lad OR a Lass? The original idea was that one of them has consistently larger fruit size than the other. As we are short on great orange fruited dwarfs from our project, there is great value in these varieties . They are relatively early, produce well, set fruit easily and the flavor, if not superb, is very, very good. We need feedback from those who are growing them to determine whether we have one variety, or two. I’ve grown each several times and although the seasons that they were in my garden weren’t great ones for dwarfs in general, they impressed, though did not rise to the very top.

Loxton Lass - See comments for Loxton Lad, above….input is needed.

Dwarf Crimson Sockeye - I’ve not had much luck with this, though I’ve only tried it once. It is a medium sized purple tomato, the flavor is nice, but the year that it was in my garden was a challenging one. Disease and poor fruit set meant little luck, so it is due for another chance soon.

First ripe Sneaky Sauce

Not very many from the above list merited an asterisk as my favorites - only 5 - and that is likely due to my relative inexperience with many of them. I have no doubt that some of the above varieties are underrated by me, and a look at Victory Seed Company’s dwarf page shows some of the above to be very well liked. I’d love to hear from those of you wishing to share your impressions about our dwarfs, actually - feedback is always lacking, and always welcome!

A new Salvia (Big Blue? Not sure of the name…more of a violet color, growing in a container, from my friend Ralph

My review of the Dwarf Tomato Project releases - part 2

my Dwarf Speckled Heart …. the distinct stripes don’t come through well on the pics, but the nice meaty interior does

In Part 1 of my Dwarf Tomato Project review series, I tackled my impressions of our first 17 releases. Below are reviews of the next batch - a total of 19 varieties. Enjoy! (as a reminder, my very favorites are marked with an “*” after the name. It is important to keep in mind that these are my favorites - those that excel in my growing area, using my techniques, and assessed by my taste buds. Your impressions and experiences may be very different!).

Rosella Crimson * - I don’t grow it enough, it can struggle with disease issues, getting it uniformly stable wasn’t easy…but when it is at its best in a good season, the flavor of this medium large, productive release can approach Brandywine in intensity and quality. It just isn’t the most reliable performer, season to season, but when it’s on, it’s REALLY on!

Chocolate Champion - This selection has been lost in the sauce in my garden. The years I worked on it were quite successful, and to me it has better flavor potential than the similarly colored and sized Tasmanian Chocolate. It can be sensitive to foliage disease, and I clearly need to return to it soon to update and confirm my impressions.

Big Green Dwarf - I feel the same way about Big Green Dwarf as I do about Chocolate Champion - I’ve had some fine experiences with it but my memory is a bit hazy. It is one of our few yellow skinned green when ripe varieties, quite productive, yet also a bit vulnerable to foliage diseases on some seasons. So, this is another that needs a fresh look by me.

Wherokowhai *- Challenging to spell and pronounce but a fine addition to any garden, I don’t have to ponder long to put this on my favorites list. Those who love the indeterminate Lucky Cross should similarly crave this “dwarf version”. I’ve had few issues with productivity, health and most important, taste. It is time for me to grace my garden once more with this fine variety, one of our best.

Dwarf Blazing Beauty * - I did indeed return to it this year, and am happy that I did, because it is one of the very best flavored of all of our releases, particularly for those that like intensity and a bit of tartness. The rich orange color also makes it a relative rarity among our releases. It can, like many of our potato leaf selections, be a fit fussy about fruit set or foliage disease, but is well worth growing despite any challenges it presents for its flavor alone.

Boronia - I’ve had average tasting and superb tasting Boronia plants in my garden. Sharing the purple color with Dwarf Wild Fred and Rosella Purple, it tends a bit smaller, bears a bit more heavily and in a more concentrated manner, in my experiences. The internal structure is unique for this variety among the purples as well, with a very meaty center. Foliage disease can be a bit of an issue in really humid seasons. I don’t include it with the very best, but it is a very good tomato, and judging from some reviews on seed sales websites, there are those who love it.

Sean's Yellow Dwarf * - I always tend to underrate this one a bit - but it is pretty, really nice sized, super prolific, and the flavor sneaks up on me - it is very, very good, approaching excellent. This is actually a great variety to use to introduce people to the potential and characteristics of our dwarf varieties due to its reliability season to season. In fact, now that I’ve written this assessment, I’ve awarded it a late * and it is now in my favorites category.

Sweet Adelaide - Oh, this one is a bit of a mystery and conundrum. I’ve had spectacularly flavored ones, I’ve had somewhat bland ones, I’ve healthy productive plants and quickly diseased nearly total failures. Will the real Sweet Adelaide please stand up? It could be that this is one of our releases that is very susceptible to differing conditions. I will return to it every so often and hope that it provides the best of what it is capable of! I’d love to hear from others who have experiences with it.

Dwarf Pink Passion -This is simply a lovely, productive, quite early release from our project that is a step removed from having a flavor that matches its other attributes, in my experiences with it. Still, it just may be that the best use for the variety is in sauces, roasting, pastes, and other forms of processing, rather than sliced and on sandwiches, or eaten alone. I like it very much.

Chocolate Lightning * - I just noticed that this one slipped off the list in my first post of this blog - so it is edited, and this important variety is now inserted where it belongs. I LOVE this variety, although it can be as finicky as some of our other temperamental offerings. The plant can be on the tall side (still a dwarf, but pretty stretched), the fruit hard to find in the dense foliage, set fruit late and be a shy yielder - some years are prolific, others less so. But the color, and the flavor, are outstanding and unique. It can also shift colors a bit, as I suspect that like others in the Beauty family the genetics are pretty complex and we probably didn’t stabilize this as much as we might have. The color should be a definite chocolate (not purple), with lots of vertical golden or greenish stripes. It is a “black” tomato, with dark crimson flesh and an intense, well balanced flavor.

Uluru Ochre * - When Patrina “discovered” this tomato, it was unique in the color possibilities - a “black orange” variety, matched by productivity and flavor, fortunately. As Cherokee Purple was a stretch for people when released back in 1993 (“you expect me to eat a tomato THAT color?”), this is a similar reach for traditional tomato color preferences. It really never disappoints, and it in the top tier of our work.

Sweet Scarlet Dwarf * - Of all of the traditional red colored tomatoes in our project, this stands out - in fact, of all of our releases, not matter what the color, it really does fit in with the very best. My only quibble is that it can be variable season to season, garden to garden, with respect to fruit set/yield, as well as susceptibility to disease. It is a clear favorite of mine, with an intense, complex, rich flavor that delivers a delightful tart kick.

Fred's Tie Dye - I love the color, and really, really like the flavor. In fact, in some seasons, it stands with the best..in others, falls a tad flat - or at least that’s what I recall. It’s been a few years since I’ve grown it and it is time for it to return to my garden. I have a sneaky feeling that I’ve underrated it, as it emerged when interesting leads were popping out left and right.

Dwarf Purple Heart - Size, shape, color and productivity are not at all in question - this is a vigorous plant, the large heart shaped purple fruits are really impressive, and the flavor is, if not superb, very very good. My main issue is that disease can hit it hard in some seasons, in my garden. Yet - I know from reading reviews and from feedback directly to me that there are those who love it - which is gratifying. There is no way that all 106 of our releases will excite and excel for everyone, everywhere. One of the missing pieces of our project is just that - which varieties do best when grown….where???

Banksia Queen - This one clearly fits in my personal category of underappreciated/underrated, and undergrown. Also popping out during a very busy phase for our project, the few times I’ve grown it were not as memorable as I would like. Being a regular leaf release from the Tipsy family makes it quite unique. It is good sized, oblate, a pretty yellow, but I’ve noted it to be prone to catfacing and other irregular shapes. The flavor is fine, the fruit set can be unpredictable, and disease for me has been a bit of an issue. So let’s call this another to return to soon for a fresh look.

Summer Sweet Gold * - This is essentially my reselection from the very best of our Summertime Gold selections, and I aimed for smooth oblate form, a nice medium yellow color with a faint blush, and superb flavor. It may indeed be identical to some seed lots of Summertime Gold, but so many of those were looking too much like Dwarf Mr Snow, hence my effort to improve our work (hopefully). It is certainly a wonderful tomato, one of the best of our releases.

Dwarf Golden Heart - I feel the same about this as I do Dwarf Pink Passion…it is attractive, early and prolific, and just misses inclusion into the top selections because of a lack of flavor intensity and interest to my palate. It also doesn’t always show as distinct a heart shaped form, so could be a candidate for reselection work. For those who want volume for sauce and canning, it is a great choice.

Bundaberg Rumball - We had this one identified and named very early on, but due to its smaller size, took a bit of time to be “finished”. For those looking for a super productive saladette tomato type in an interesting chocolate color with very good flavor, this is your tomato. I like them skewered and grilled best.

Sarandipity - Poor Sara (my daughter) - I went and named a tomato for her based on its visual interest, but she bemoans the fact that it just isn’t in the top tier for flavor. I agree, but that doesn’t make it one to ignore. It is lovely, shaped perfectly for skewering and grilling, canning or salads, and is actually very tasty - just not up there with the best. It seems to have good disease tolerance, yields very well, and comes on early. It is actually very well worth growing!

Jerusalem Artichokes happily flowering (they volunteer every year)

So, there you have it - my honest assessment of another batch of our releases. I hope you find this illuminating and interesting…stay tuned for part 3 very soon - these are fun blogs to write!

Unusual portulaca from my friend Ralph - both colors show up on the same plant.

Pondering our Dwarf Tomato Project releases - my revised impressions and plans - part 1

Peak Harvest in mid-late July. Alas, this type of pic is but a memory!

August - the end of my productive gardening season (particularly early this year due to the intensity of the heat and humidity - the harvest was so generous but so concentrated and quick!), is a good time to begin to take stock - look back a bit, and think ahead…but, again, just a bit. There is still a driveway to clean up, makes sense of, and in some cases, harvest.

We conceived the Dwarf Tomato Project in 2005, rolled up our sleeves and really dug soon after, and began releasing our discoveries in 2010. Nine years later, with 106 or so varieties listed in seed catalogs and many more on the cusp of release, I think it is a good time to take them in batches and provide my latest impressions. I got to try lots of new releases this year, and am mighty impressed - so I can now add those alongside my long time favorites.

Let’s consider this part 1, where I will cover releases from 2010-2012, 17 of our varieties. Those marked with an asterisk (*) are my favorites to grow and eat.

Dwarf Jade Beauty * - I’ve grown it often, and though it is not a very large tomato, it is productive, resists disease well for me and is simply delicious. Our green when ripe dwarfs are really fine!

Dwarf Beryl Beauty * - I alternate this with Dwarf Jade Beauty and Dwarf Kelly Green as similarly sized, green fleshed, delicious tomatoes. Beryl is a bit larger than Jade, and I’ve noted a more pronounced pink blush at the blossom end. The foliage is also slightly different, being more rugose, though both it and Jade are potato leaf.

Dwarf Emerald Giant * - Another of my favorites of all of our releases, and to me, very close to being a “dwarf growing version” of the father of the Sneezy family, Green Giant. It isn’t quite as large, and isn’t quite as sweet, but it is to me one of our best creations. It yields well more consistently for me than Summertime Green.

Summertime Green * - When compared to similarly sized Dwarf Emerald Giant, it is not quite as oblate and is regular, rather than potato, leaf. I’ve not grown it in a few years, which is a shame, since it is simply delicious - I actually find the flavor a tiny bit fuller and more complete than Emerald Giant.

Rosella Purple * - I remember being shocked when a purple tomato popped up from one of Patrina’s pink X red crosses, but that’s what we have! Rosella Purple is, I suspect, one of the most widely grown of our dwarfs, and is a great ambassador for our project. It looks and tastes like Cherokee Purple, and is similarly sized, on a nice compact dwarf growing plant. I’ve grown it many times and love the variety. One thing I’ve noted is that foliage disease can hit it pretty hard in some years, due to its dense growth and heavy fruit set.

Tasmanian Chocolate - Though the size, yield and color are impressive and it gets many great comments, it just has never tantalized my taste buds nearly as much as most of our other releases. I am delighted so many enjoy it, and think it is time to return to it for another try. It is another of the dwarfs that can get pretty hard with foliage disease.

Summertime Gold - Though this was one of our initial releases, some remaining instability has created a bit of confusion. It was reselected and re-released as Summer Sweet Gold, as some samples of the released Summertime Gold looked essentially like Dwarf Mr. Snow. No matter what its true identity, it is always delicious. At some point, a comparison between Summertime Gold, Summer Sweet Gold, Summer Sunrise, Dwarf Mr. Snow and Dwarf Sweet Sue would be very useful to see if we are maintaining the differences.

Dwarf Mr. Snow * - I simply love this ivory colored good sized, productive release because there is a distinctive tartness to the flavor, not all that common in large fruited tomatoes (many of which tend to the sweet side). It stood out at one of our Tomatopalooza events as one of the best tasting tomatoes at the tasting.

Dwarf Wild Fred * - One that is near and dear to me, as it is named for my dad Wilfred, it is very similar in color and size to Rosella Purple. I’ve not grown it nearly often enough, and really need to do some comparative grow outs and tastings of our various purple fruited releases. The year that I selected it, the size potential from our dwarf project showed itself right off the bat. My impression is that the flavor intensity is just slightly lesser when compared to Rosella Purple, but this is an impression that needs to be revisited.

Perth Pride - One of our saladette sized dwarfs, Perth Pride really catches your attention due to the intense tartness. This is another dwarf I’ve not grown very often, but it yields well, but is best picked prior to full ripeness due to its tendency to crack. Perth Pride was one of the best tomatoes as judged by Tomatopalooza attendees at one of our tasting events.

Iditarod Red - One of our earlier ripening dwarfs, I consider this a reliable saladette types with a heavy early fruit set. Never the best flavored tomato in the garden, its earliness, vigor and high yield make it very useful to grow. It is another I’ve not grown often in recent years.

Yukon Quest - This is another early ripening dwarf that can produce some pretty good sized, sweet pink tomatoes. It is also another that hasn’t graced my garden recently.

Sleeping Lady - A continuing theme, this is another early ripening variety that yields very well, with variably sized tasty chocolate colored tomatoes. It joins the list of varieties I’ve not focused on recently.

Dwarf Kelly Green * - This is the medium sized, green fleshed gem with regular leaf foliage, unlike the potato leaf Beryl or Jade Beauty it is related to (the Sneezy family). It is prolific, healthy and delicious.

Dwarf Arctic Rose - Similar to Yukon Quest, this is a very good sweet pink tomato that comes on early. I really need to do a comparative grow out, as the original intent was that one of the two was more compact in growth habit. I’ve not grown it in some years, so it is time for it to return to my garden.

Dwarf Sweet Sue * - To me, this is simply one of the best. It should be medium sized, vary from smooth oblate to more round, have a medium yellow color with a distinct pinkish blush at the blossom end when very ripe. Mostly, it should delight the taste buds with its sweetness and intensity. I’ve seen selections that are not yellow enough, too large, or too oblate. This one is very special…and it is named for my wife!

Summer Sunrise - I’ve never been terribly lucky growing this selection. The tomatoes I’ve had from the variety are simply delicious. I’ve battled disease and yield issues, and I should give it another try soon. There should be a distinction between this and Summertime Gold (now, Summer Sweet Gold), though it is subtle.

In summary, the above initial releases contain lots of favorites. The yellow, white and greens come from the Sneezy family - created when Patrina crossed Green Giant with Golden Dwarf Champion. David Lockwood, a most wonderful early project year volunteer from Australia that sadly left the earth when way too young, did lots of the initial dwarf hunting and his first finds created lots of the excitement about our project, because they essentially confirmed our hypothesis - that it was possible to create great new dwarf varieties that had the size, flavor and color interest of indeterminate varieties. Already, back in 2006, we could see the beginnings of “mission accomplished”!

Promising heart shaped lead, purple with green stripes, from the Hearty line. No name yet…but tasty and gorgeous!