Favorite Early Season Tomatoes

[jjrasm]

This year I grew Fireworks tomatoes for my early season tomatoes. I only saved one plant for myself and gave the rest away. For some reason, the one I saved for myself ended up not being Fireworks after all.

I was able to taste a Fireworks from a plant I had given my mother, but it was flavorless. However, all of the tomatoes I had given her were flavorless compared to the same varieties grown by myself. Therefore, I didn't get a true assessment of the flavor. I'm not sure why all her tomatoes were so bland, but that's a whole other issue.

Anyway, I would love to hear what other people grow as favorite early season tomatoes. I'm not sure if I should try Fireworks again, or something different. I'm considering Buckee's New 50 Day, Matina, and Stupice.

I would appreciate feedback on these varieties, or anything else in the the 55-65 day range.

[jjrasm]

Thanks Mule! I always appreciate the insight you contribute to TTG. Reading through the forum, I have found many of your older posts extremely informative. This was my first year growing a garden so I still have much to learn!

[jcm05]

I do not really plant "early" varieties. Kimberly is excellent and consistently early but is rather small in size. I have had it come in at 50 dtm or less. Production is very good too. I've never grown Stupice for the sole reason that Kimberly was more than sufficient. Sungold is always early as are many cherries.

[jjrasm]

That's two votes for Kimberly! I'll have to give that a try. What are the best early cherries?

[littleminnie]

I haven't tried Kimberly. But if I was forced to grow only one tomato it would be Stupice. It produces despite lots of problems.

[jjrasm]

Thanks Littlemimmie. I'll take that into consideration, as our growing conditions must be very similar.

[jcm05]

Dec 14, 2011 19:58:52 GMT -5 jjrasm said:

That's two votes for Kimberly! I'll have to give that a try. What are the best early cherries?

Sungold! Its always as early or earlier than Kimberly for me. Kimberly is nice too because it is a very compact indeterminate plant rarely getting more than 4 feet tall.

[stratcat]

Hi, jjrasm. My earliest tomato ever was a Kimberly grown in a container. It came in at around 42 days. I like the taste of it and Stupice is nice, also.

Congratulations on your first garden! Yeah, there is so much to learn. If I weren't learning and being surprised, I'd have to move on.

[johno]

I like Early Girl, Bloody Butcher, and Bradley for earlies.

[jcm05]

Sweet Quartz and Black Cherry are never early for me. Purple Haze is another that is among the earliest to ripen in my garden.

[swampr]

I liked bloody butcher better than kimberly or matina. valencia orange is dependably good and early for a yellow/orange fruit.

for cherries sugary and sungold are good early picks, sweet treats came in a little later, but was better tasting for me than sweet quartz.

[tucsontomato]

Hey Jjrasm,

I have tried Fireworks in the past and I would not recommend it. Fireworks = no disease resistance and poor taste. I have also grown Buckbee's 50 day twice before. It is completely normal in every way. It has slightly above average disease resistance and it probably produces in 75 days. I wouldn't think of it as exceptionally easy but I did overwinter it with good results once.

I would recommend that you try an determinate variety if you want something early. That is - if you have space to start things indoors. Even if you don't have much space to start things indoors you could start the little dwarf Hahms Gelbe. They take up very little space indoors. Just wait till the cherry tomatoes start to turn orage or they'll taste unripe. I have a fun post about them at: scientificgardener.blogspot.com/2011/12/hahms-gelbe-tomato.html

I have heard that Stupice is a really effective indeterminate to start out with - being that it can take the heat, the cold, is early and fairly disease resistant. However, I have not tried it yet. I am considering adding a Stupice and a Costoluto Genovese to this year's tomato trials. I don't know how many others I am speaking for in saying I have seed of so many more tomato varieties than I have land to grow them on.

[littleminnie]

You know when you talk about early, a lot of the time you get very small fruit.

[PVP]

For full baseball size red earlies, Mozark x Sioux comes in 120 days from seed which this year was 65 - 70 days from transplant. Two of 4 plants of Neptune came in a few days earlier with red tomatoes in the 4 - 6 ounce size. Neptune is available from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.

[Tom Akers]

Kimberley and Moravsky Div were tied for 1st tomato(about 50 days from transplant), both produced 1 and took another week to produce more. 4th of July was 2-3 days later, but produced 4 tomatoes, and continued producing about 1 or 2 a day. Once they got going the other 2 produced 1 or 2 fruits a day also. They are all about equal as far as taste and they all produced through the entire season.
Carbon produced the 1st large tomato(2nd year in a row) at about 60 days from transplant.