I am so excited Spring is here and the plants that I am nurturing in my grow light setup will finally enjoy outdoors. This year I ventured into the land of growing plants from seeds. This opened up a whole lot of varieties to purchase beyond what is commonly available at local nurseries / seed shares. I ended up going overboard with my choices resulting in 17 different varieties of tomatoes! I ended up adding couple more veggie beds to accommodate my craziness this year.
Here are my choices…while most are indeterminate, a few are determinate varieties.
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ACE low acid tomato – from seeds saved from prior years. This produces small round tomatoes throughout the season and is nice for snacking and cooking. This is one of my favorites and is a blessing for people with heart burn and acidity.
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Beefsteak – large beautiful tomatoes, and very flavorful.
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Green zebra – these are beautiful to watch transition from a green to a beautiful yellow-green with streaks. They taste wonderful too.
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Bush roma tomato – average flavor, but produces consistently.
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Siberia – Determinate variety which produces even in cool weather such as the high 30’s
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Early Girl – average flavor, but produces super early before the other varieties kick in production.
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Stupice – semi determinate variety. One of my favorites in 2017, and the plant overwintered before a late frost killed it. It kept producing through the cold CA winters, up until December…
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Purple Russian – new addition this year.
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Amish paste : Excellent paste variety that I grew last year and was happy with.
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San Marzano – paste tomato.
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Black brandywine – new addition this year
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Yellow and red pear blend – cherry snacking tomato. This is a permanent choice in my garden.
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Red cherry tomato – snacking tomato, again a permanent choice.
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Pink Berkeley tie dye – beautiful tie dye patterns when it ripens. I did not have much luck with these last year as may either got blossom end rot or the fruit cracked even before they could fully ripen. I am going to try this again this year.
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Get stuffed – great stuffing tomato, which is a new addition this year.
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German lunchbox – small fruits good for snacking, and a new addition for 2019.
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Shorba – These are the tangy Indian variety used in stews and rasams (soups). New addition for 2019
Most of the seeds I purchased from the following sources:
- migardener.com
I would love to hear from you if any of the choices I made were something that you grew in the past.
If you are interested in knowing what I grew in the past, here is a link to it – tomatoes in 2018.
Garden updates in August – 2019
