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Post by reed on Aug 24, 2016 4:35:27 GMT -5
That's a good looking harvest. Is defiant one of the new disease resistant hybrids? I grew big beef last year but production was very poor for me, just a couple tomatoes per vine. I have F2 of the disease resistant hybrid Mountain Merit this year and the resistance came through but flavor is pretty bad. I might keep it around another season to see what happens. Found a new hybrid at the farmer market called Mountain Fresh. Bought a couple nice ones and ten days later they still looked exactly the same. I figured they would be awful and t he skins were like chewing plastic but were actually very good flavor and nice firm texture. I saved some seed to try next year. I'm realizing as long as flavor and production are there the plastic skin isn't such a bad thing in the canning patch where they are discarded anyway. Sure wouldn't want it in the slicer patch though.
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Post by kazedwards on Aug 25, 2016 11:24:20 GMT -5
All of my plants from Tom's Paste Landrace seem to be bouncing back. We are due to get rain everyday this week so that might change here soon. I did just pick these today off of 4 of the 5 plants I'm growing. Decent haul off of 4 plants.
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Post by 12540dumont on Aug 25, 2016 15:15:12 GMT -5
Nice photos.
Gorgeous toms. Trouble this year with stink bugs. Next year, I think Guinea Fowl will eliminate that problem.
Dar Jones sent me seeds for Brandywine Sudduth. This tomato had a Brix of 11! That's right up their with Sungold. Now anyone got any ideas how I can overcome the problem with output? 4 tomatoes on a vine is just too few. Okay so they were nice BIG tomatoes, but still. Hmm?
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Post by kazedwards on Aug 25, 2016 16:35:22 GMT -5
Nice photos. Gorgeous toms. Trouble this year with stink bugs. Next year, I think Guinea Fowl will eliminate that problem. Dar Jones sent me seeds for Brandywine Sudduth. This tomato had a Brix of 11! That's right up their with Sungold. Now anyone got any ideas how I can overcome the problem with output? 4 tomatoes on a vine is just too few. Okay so they were nice BIG tomatoes, but still. Hmm? Still still trying to figure that one out myself.
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Post by jondear on Aug 25, 2016 18:15:23 GMT -5
That's a good looking harvest. Is defiant one of the new disease resistant hybrids? I grew big beef last year but production was very poor for me, just a couple tomatoes per vine Yes, Defiant is a reasonably new hybrid that is supposed to have some tolerance to diseases and blight. I got both from Johnny's seeds, maybe they are better adapted to the northern tier states. By planting earlier tomatoes here in Maine, I get to harvest a significant amount of ripe tomatoes. Speaking of earlier tomatoes, the cross has produced a lot more ripe fruit as compared to its parents so far this season.
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Post by nathanp on Aug 25, 2016 20:09:13 GMT -5
Defiant is heterozygous for both Ph-2 and Ph-3
That means the genes are not assured of being inherited. I find disease resistance to LB is decent. I have grown out several generations to F4, but nothing worth saving yet.
It is a determinate variety and yields are fair as well. Definitely does better here in zone 7a/6b than most indeterminates
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Post by steev on Aug 25, 2016 23:21:28 GMT -5
It's a bitch when what is healthy is unproductive; hard to know what to do.
I think that was my family's problem; still, they're gone and I remain, hanging around like a fart in a phone-booth.
Will I be productive? Don't know, but it appears I have time to find out. Being relatively unconcerned with productivity, I can indulge my curiosity. I'm not interested in "feeding the world", that's Big Ag's bullshit mission! May my play be productive on an individual level; may my community find what I do useful. Really, whose eyes do I ever have to meet?
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Post by kazedwards on Aug 26, 2016 0:48:26 GMT -5
kazedwards, regarding the tomato I circled in your picture, is that a one-off or do all the tomatoes on that particular plant have that shape and ribbing? If shape and ribbing are consistent on the plant, could I possibly talk you into saving seed for me from that circled tomato? Not absolutely critical, I just have a curiosity regarding this shape and have seen it pop up on random occasions. So is your tomato harvest pretty much finished for the season other than a few last ones? If so that has to be rather early for your area, huh? I will have to look at the plant closer tomorrow. I want to say they all have there own distinct fruit shape and that it is one of them. I will also save seed for you. I want to say I picked 3-4 fruit with the light ribbing. You can see a few more on the pic. My tomato season is not over yet. I will still be getting tomatoes in September and October. Maybe even a few in November. Year before last the first frost was 12/1. Last year we had light frost in November and the plants lasted through several until they finally gave in the last week or so. I am starting to have the bottom of plants turning brown and lots of broken supports. With that said I will probably see a peak in production here soon. The bugs have been really bad this year too. I pick at least a dozen caterpillars a day. It's been a rough season for tomatoes here too.
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Post by reed on Aug 26, 2016 4:22:23 GMT -5
I still have Cherokee Purple and F1 Red Rose producing in the slicer patch but the canner patch is about over. A few plants are still growing a little with the one that looks similar to the one just right of the circled one coming on with a pretty good second crop. F2 of Plum Regal and Mountain Merit are resisting blight and producing nicely but neither is much in the flavor department. I'll keep them for F3 and see what happens. Lots of times if I leave them alone my plants get a second wind later in the season and ones that looked practically dead make a few more nice tomatoes. I guess the blight lightens up a little with cooler drier air. A few that I started in July are growing nicely and will hopefully start producing in time with that. It just occurred to me I should be growing two generations per season of some of the resistant hybrids, it would be easy to do. Don't know why I didn't think of it before.
CP and RR F1 are neither one that I know of supposed to be blight resistant so don't know why they still look good. I haven't had a single nice CP to photograph for my seed packs or to impress the neighbors due to the stupid squirrels.
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Post by kazedwards on Aug 26, 2016 9:43:09 GMT -5
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Post by kazedwards on Aug 26, 2016 9:44:49 GMT -5
Also here is a picture of the way about half my plants are looking. I'm thinking blight. It doesn't help that I'm having an issue with supporting them.
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Post by kazedwards on Aug 26, 2016 11:42:17 GMT -5
kazedwards thanks for posting your pics. I wish you would have had better success with my landrace strains this year. In all honesty I think your photos prove there are some serious issues regarding trying to grow these landrace strains away from my locale. That is the good and bad about localized landraces, strains are acclimated to local soil type and growing conditions and do well as a result, but it appears that the good results are not transferable. This was the main question I had about these landrace strains and you have helped to answer it, and I very much appreciate you giving them a try. It is doubtful that I will ever offer such seeds again for trades as I do not think they hold any value for anyone beyond my immediate growing region. I would not say they are doing any worse than most my others. I have several plants that I have yet to get a fruit from. Some of your plants have been among the most productive. I also didn't plant them in the best area. It was new ground with very heavy clay. I also didn't amend that spot as much as I did the other new areas. The disease problems I have had are not just yours. The last picture I posted is of a named variety. I have several more like that. The ones that aren't like that are being eaten up. I do plan on growing your landrace again. I am going to save seed and just add to the mix. I figured it will take a few years to adapt here anyway. All in all I'm very glad that I grew it this year.
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Post by kazedwards on Aug 26, 2016 11:42:59 GMT -5
And I did save seeds for you today from the blocky ribbed tomatoes.
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Post by reed on Aug 26, 2016 12:31:25 GMT -5
It is doubtful that I will ever offer such seeds again for trades as I do not think they hold any value for anyone beyond my immediate growing region. I'm afraid I have to disagree. Sure, most plants from your seeds are blight poo now but I had one of the best harvests in years before that happened. And from fewer plants! Plus many of them were open flowered and attractive to the little bees so they can easily cross and segregate and eventually become an Indiana landrace much sooner than starting from scratch. I figure your and Joseph's seeds saved me about 20 years of work. Just a reminder, and this is a drop in the bucket to what I picked the next day.
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Post by jondear on Aug 26, 2016 19:37:56 GMT -5
Defiant is heterozygous for both Ph-2 and Ph-3 That means the genes are not assured of being inherited. I find disease resistance to LB is decent. I have grown out several generations to F4, but nothing worth saving yet. It is a determinate variety and yields are fair as well. Definitely does better here in zone 7a/6b than most indeterminates I doubt I'll ever come up with anything with commercial importance, but if it does well in my garden, I'll be satisfied. It doesn't have to survive until frost does them in, it just has to survive until I harvest most the tomatoes, ripened on the vine if possible. My biggest gripe with Defiant, is that I'd like larger tomatoes on it. I suppose I could have just grown bigger tomatoes, or grown out and selected from Big Beef, but I thought it was worth a shot to try and find a lucky combination of traits that worked for me. I'm curious about the f2-f4 Defiants you've grown. Were there any with green shoulders? I found at least one plant that throws green shoulders, much like celebrity does. Did fruit size increase at all or get even smaller? Did productivity go down?
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