This Year's Tomatoes

I'll be the first to admit I have a problem!  A tomato problem.  I love tomato plants and become blinded by the enticing possibilities every spring.  I have room for ten plants and the past two years I have found a way to squeeze in an eleventh.  Although what I really want to do is buy at least 15-20.  Our next home is not going to be picked out by square footage or kitchen upgrades but by tomato growing possibilities.

When browsing the tomatoes at the nursery and reading the tags I get excited about all the different types.  I want to buy all my favorites and then try a few, or a lot, of new types.  Who could blame me when there are an endless array of colors and sizes these days?  One that I had to pass up had almost jet black skin with rosy pink insides like a plum.  It looked gorgeous but it ended up not making the cut.  Here is a list of tomatoes I did pick and why.

Giant Belgium - I actually bought two of these because the plant is bred specifically for the Ohio region and it did splendidly in my garden last year.

Black Krim - Two years in a row this tomato has been a work horse in my garden and I love it's purple color.

Cherokee Purple - I grew this once a few years ago and it did poorly.  Everyone raves about it so I thought I would give it another try and grow it side by side to the Black Krim so that in future years I will go with the more successful plant.

Brandywine Red - This heirloom is the Porsche of tomatoes.  Although I will say while they're good I don't know if they are worth all the hype.  Depending on it's success this year it might not make the cut next year.

Orange Wellington - I wanted another option with color other than red and purple.  This tomato is more of a mid year variety, is supposed to be prolific and of good size.

Super Sauce - This is supposed to be the largest sauce tomato.  Since I want to have an excess of tomatoes to can I thought it would be a good one to try.

Arkansas Traveler - I had one year where this plant went gang busters for me and another where it did just ok.  I believe the third time will be the tie breaker.  This plant does well in the heat, resists cracking and is the perfect size for a canning jar.

Rutgers - Everyone out there raves about this plant's reliability and I thought I would give it a chance to compare next to the Arkansas Traveler.

Fourth of July - This is a very early tomato, only taking 49 days to reach maturity.  I want to test it and see if it produces tomatoes nice and early before the Fourth of July like it claims.

Husky Red Cherry - The cherry tomato plants I have gotten in the past grow like weeds and become unruly quickly.  This is a dwarf indeterminate so it does not get taller than 5 feet but continues to produce all season like a regular indeterminate.  Because of it's smaller size I was able to put all the others in my solanaceae bed and tuck this one into a different corner of the garden.