This weekend I began to say "goodbye" to a rather miserable 2010 gardening season. Many of the large pot indeterminates and ALL of the 5 gallon grow bag dwarfs are now history. Between extreme heat, which led to poor fruit set, and high humidity, causing rampant Septoria issues, it was pretty much a season to forget (but certainly to learn from!).
Let's start with my summary of the driveway Indeterminate varieties grown this year.
Mexico Midget - just an awful performance - got diseased early, and it really affected the fruit set. Plus fruit worms attacked early on as well. Near total failure! Plant was tossed.
Speckled Roman - somehow, managed to excel in an awful year. We got a very heavy yield of delicious, beautiful fruit. Tossed.
Yellow Brandywine - an immense plant (over 8 feet tall) with not a single fruit. Clearly impacted by the extreme heat - a total failure, which was tossed this weekend.
Green Doctor's - did quite well, heavy yield of amber skinned, green fleshed cherry tomatoes, quite healthy all year, but the flavor did nothing for me....better than Green Grape, but only because it is indeterminate and a little less "crunchy". Pretty, productive and forgettable...and now gone.
Cherokee Purple - I used seed from Johnny's Selected Seeds to see how they are doing maintaining the variety. The good news is that it is just fine - good yield of large tasty purple fruit, just what I expected. Plant is now gone.
Nepal - It didn't give me many fruit, clearly unhappy with the heat, but they were delicious and the plant stayed pretty healthy....now gone.
Cherokee Chocolate - my best large fruited indeterminate in terms of flavor, yield and health. And it is still healthy and cranking them out.
Tiger Tom - Got off to a great start, but got Fusarium wilt early on...so after a few early tasty fruit, was pretty much a failure, and is now gone.
Cherokee Green - also from Johnny's, who produced it from seed I sent them. If the main branch hadn't broken due to the heavy fruit, it would have been right there with Cherokee chocolate. Still, we got plenty before the plant died.
Caitlin's Lucky Stripe - no luck yet - first one went down to disease, second had a broken main stem, which I rerooted....still alive, hoping I finally get some fruit, but a long shot.
Orange Strawberry - see Yellow Brandywine - same type of failed experience, and now gone. Not a single fruit.
Sungold - still kicking along, excelled in flavor and productivity as usual...no wonder I grow it every year!
Kimberly - dead and gone, after a handful of early unimpressive red fruit - got diseased early and suffered this season.
Variegated - another of this year's stars - not in flavor so much as staying power, health and heavy yield.
Stick - died very quickly from Fusarium wilt with not a single ripe fruit.
The following all came down with severe Septoria leaf spot and gave me not a single fruit - Berkeley Tie Dye, Aunt Gertie's Gold, Trees Bottom Yellow.
The following were diseased, but gave me a fruit or two for seed saving - Buckeye State (large pink), Berkeley Tie Dye Pink (though it should be called Purple instead), Lucky Cross (I did eat the single fruit and it was superb), Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red (which was red but not jumbo - not sure if it was from true seed), and Large Lucky Red (it was large, it was red, and it was delicious).
And the following are still barely alive, but I really want some ripe fruit - so I will hope....Lillian's Yellow, Sun Lucky, and Little Lucky.
So, out of 27 driveway indeterminates, I harvested fruit from 17, and am hoping that another 3 will eventually produce something. I've never, ever experienced a season when I have pot-grown driveway indeterminates that fail prior to ANY ripe fruit. Like I said....one of those years I will be happy to put behind me!
Let's start with my summary of the driveway Indeterminate varieties grown this year.
Mexico Midget - just an awful performance - got diseased early, and it really affected the fruit set. Plus fruit worms attacked early on as well. Near total failure! Plant was tossed.
Speckled Roman - somehow, managed to excel in an awful year. We got a very heavy yield of delicious, beautiful fruit. Tossed.
Yellow Brandywine - an immense plant (over 8 feet tall) with not a single fruit. Clearly impacted by the extreme heat - a total failure, which was tossed this weekend.
Green Doctor's - did quite well, heavy yield of amber skinned, green fleshed cherry tomatoes, quite healthy all year, but the flavor did nothing for me....better than Green Grape, but only because it is indeterminate and a little less "crunchy". Pretty, productive and forgettable...and now gone.
Cherokee Purple - I used seed from Johnny's Selected Seeds to see how they are doing maintaining the variety. The good news is that it is just fine - good yield of large tasty purple fruit, just what I expected. Plant is now gone.
Nepal - It didn't give me many fruit, clearly unhappy with the heat, but they were delicious and the plant stayed pretty healthy....now gone.
Cherokee Chocolate - my best large fruited indeterminate in terms of flavor, yield and health. And it is still healthy and cranking them out.
Tiger Tom - Got off to a great start, but got Fusarium wilt early on...so after a few early tasty fruit, was pretty much a failure, and is now gone.
Cherokee Green - also from Johnny's, who produced it from seed I sent them. If the main branch hadn't broken due to the heavy fruit, it would have been right there with Cherokee chocolate. Still, we got plenty before the plant died.
Caitlin's Lucky Stripe - no luck yet - first one went down to disease, second had a broken main stem, which I rerooted....still alive, hoping I finally get some fruit, but a long shot.
Orange Strawberry - see Yellow Brandywine - same type of failed experience, and now gone. Not a single fruit.
Sungold - still kicking along, excelled in flavor and productivity as usual...no wonder I grow it every year!
Kimberly - dead and gone, after a handful of early unimpressive red fruit - got diseased early and suffered this season.
Variegated - another of this year's stars - not in flavor so much as staying power, health and heavy yield.
Stick - died very quickly from Fusarium wilt with not a single ripe fruit.
The following all came down with severe Septoria leaf spot and gave me not a single fruit - Berkeley Tie Dye, Aunt Gertie's Gold, Trees Bottom Yellow.
The following were diseased, but gave me a fruit or two for seed saving - Buckeye State (large pink), Berkeley Tie Dye Pink (though it should be called Purple instead), Lucky Cross (I did eat the single fruit and it was superb), Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red (which was red but not jumbo - not sure if it was from true seed), and Large Lucky Red (it was large, it was red, and it was delicious).
And the following are still barely alive, but I really want some ripe fruit - so I will hope....Lillian's Yellow, Sun Lucky, and Little Lucky.
So, out of 27 driveway indeterminates, I harvested fruit from 17, and am hoping that another 3 will eventually produce something. I've never, ever experienced a season when I have pot-grown driveway indeterminates that fail prior to ANY ripe fruit. Like I said....one of those years I will be happy to put behind me!
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