As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
Last year I made the mistake of ordering Marisol Purple tomatoes again, as I like high acid tomatoes, and then discovered I had attempted growing them before and rejected them as not up to what the standard I had set.
So 3 seeds sprouted and two were potato leaf and one was not. The Marisols are potato leaf varieties and this other one was something caught in the mix of my source processing several hundred varieties of tomatoes.
It is a pink, but not a Pink Climber, not a Pink Rose, not a Beefsteak or anything else. It is just a nice beefsteak type which has a really good flavor.
The reason I kept it, is because the Marisols all failed, but this one chugged along and produced a good harvest.
This spring, in my cold germination, this tomatoe sprouted first and prolific. I hate tomatoes that are finicky like Red Pear or the Keeper variety I have. Needing summer temperatures does not help in any of this in wasting my time, so this pink had me quite pleased in it behaves so well.
I just checked them the end of June, as my neighbors in their plastic cages and 3 foot tall plants have nothing, but temperature shock tomatoes that are stunted by heat and arid conditions, and three of these pinks are getting blossom buds to form on them.
It is something that I have tried to explain here from lots of work and bad experience, in tomatoes are better off being acclimated and small plants than these monster bushes. I have had huge plants, blossoms and waited a month for them to produce to August, and then had the method I use now in sprouting, putting coffee tins around them, watering in the heat, and they flourish being smaller in size.
In a few years of growing them, these tomatoes will resemble my culling for plants and fruit, and be a new variety I will name. I am so very pleased in this Godsend variety as the odds of a lost seed, ending up in my packet, and it being the seed I planted are millions to one, especially in it producing a genetic strain perfect for here.
It absolutely loves dry air and high heat. It is Texas in it's love for this kind of drought condition and it deals with quite cold nights very well and cool temperatures.
I might as well include my lazy way of planting tomatoes too as it is basically what I know now was what my Grandpa did all those years.
I simply put the tomatoes in little plastic containers, and then put them into a Tupperware covered to sprout. I do not plant thick, so I actually am not transplanting a great deal of the time now to individual cell packs.
I simply wet them before I plant, take my knife and slice through the dirt and then plant the seedlings. The Backfields I had this year were two leaves. I simply put a metal container around them to protect them, carefully water, and blinked for a weak and noticed the Backfields were as large as the older plants.
You do not have to have tomatoes in cells for months or even weeks. Get them sprouted, and get them planted into a 70 degree heat in not letting them burn off as it goes to 80 degrees and they will respond quickly.
I have planted them with plastic bags on top too with colder temperatures, but the thing is, if you get tomatoes to produce too early in cool weather for fruit, they will taste like supermarket blah fruit. It requires 80 to 90 degree temperatures in fruit set to get the best flavored fruit. Aim for that period and you will be rewarded immensely.
So someday I will have a tomatoe which will be my own genus. It is not German Johnson which my brother loves, but it is mine. It is not a Rose in fruitiness or a Climber in growth. It simply behaves almost determinate and sprouts in cool temperatures and it grows like a weed, as much as it tastes very good for a tomatoe. It is more than I can ask and it delights me.
Yes I still want to grow my Big Boys and things, but this is a really nice main crop tomatoe for all types of eating in salads, a slicer or for sandwiches.
I never expected it, but God was busy getting it to me in a millions to one odds, so I will pay attention to it and grow it.
Nuff Said
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