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Varieties of Early Tomatoes
How To Grow Fast Tomatoes
in a Container
2009 Growing Journal: Early
Girl Tomato vs. Jetsetter
Tomato
2010 Growing Journal Start
Page:
- Siberian
Tomato vs Stupice Tomato
- Bloody
Butcher vs Gregori's Altai Tomato
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2010 Growing Journal:
Siberian Tomato vs Stupice Tomato
Bloody
Butcher Tomato & Gregori's Altai Tomato
April 30th Journal Start: Planted Stupice,
Siberia, Bloody Butcher and Gregori's Altai tomatoes in 10 gallon
containers. The Stupice and Siberia were young. I had a late
start on getting them transplanted outside this year. This could
set me back when the high temperatures come in this summer.
I would have preferred to have them all transplanted outside
on April 15th, but various circumstances prevented it. A late
start to the season.
The Stupice Tomato is a popular, well known
and garden veteran from the former nation of Czechoslavakia.
This potato leaf early season tomato ripens in 55+ days with
2-3 inch red fruits on compact but indeterminate vines. Pronounced
(Stoo-Peech-kah).
Siberian Tomato is another
popular early season tomato known for it's
tolerance to cold weather. Our seeds came from
Seed Savers Exchange who writes: "Dwarf
sprawling plants with early sets of fruits. From
the late Edward Lowden collection, seedsman from
Ontario. Egg-shaped 2-3" fruits, good strong
flavor. Not to be confused with Siberia, Siberian
is superior in all qualities. Determinate, 57-60
days.
The Bloody Butcher Tomato is
another well known early season tomato that
produces 2-3 inch red fruit in the 3-4 ounce
range in clusters of 5 to 9. Compact
indeteriminate plant that offers mature fruit in
55+ days. Some growers at DavesGarden report it
to be tasty and delicious, while others
disagreed. We'll put it to our taste test this
year with my wife, the tomato connosieur.
Gregori's Altai Tomato: This
one was recommended to us by Darrel Jones of SelectedPlants.com who
said it would resist the high temperatures of the
Oklahoma Summer (Hot weather resistant tomato)
and is a good producer of pinkish-red beefsteak
style fruit in the heavier range of 8+ ounces in
65-70 days on indeteriminate vines. Reported to
be very delicious with great crop production.
Online seed sellers report this variety comes
from Siberia that originated in the Altai
Mountains on the Chinese border and West Siberia,
and also near the Kazakhstan border.
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May 10th Update: There has
been hardly any rain until the last few days,
which hasn't been enough to cause the rapid
growth we got last year from 2 weeks of rain. The
growth so far this year is very disappointing and
will cause problems later on when the high
temperatures come in and affect the blossoms and
fruit set.
These are the four 10 gallon containers where
I will be growing and comparing our 4 early season variety tomatoes
for 2010. From left to right, Siberian, Stupice, Gregori's Altai
and Bloody Butcher. The Siberian and Stupice are about 2 weeks
younger than the Gregori's Altai and Bloody Butcher. Although
we purchased our dream home with 2.5 acres last October, the
spacious area we have designated for our future garden will
not be ready until 2011 as we are busy cleaning up and taking
care of other "to dos." The area below is the future
home of our 6500 square foot garden area.
Panorama of Future Garden
(Opens larger image in new window.) More clearing
and work needs to be done before this garden area is completed,
including the installation of raised beds and irrigation. This
is behind our house and includes 6500 square feet. There is
probably another 65,000 square feet of garden space off to the
right of this image, which is to the north. So there is plenty
of room to grow, or grow all our own food I should say.
Siberian and Stupice
Undersized at a little over six weeks old.
A lack of rain this May/April so far has prevented the rapid
growth I was hoping for that we got last year. Nothing is
better for fast growth than plenty of natural rainwater
and sunshine. Note the leaves on the Stupice at right, this
is a potato leaf tomato. The good news is we are expecting
rain the next 3-5 days and that should promote some good
growth.
The Stupice and Siberian are both very early
season tomatoes, 55 to 57 days respectively, and we will
be informally comparing them for speed, taste, size and
production. I doubt I will be weighing and measuring each
tomato as it comes off the vine, so the comparison will
be subjective.
Gregori's Altai & Bloody Butcher
Gregori's Altai on the left, Bloody Butcher
on the right. Notice that like the Stupice, the Bloody Butcher
is a potato leaf tomato. It's also an indeterminate plant,
but on a compact vine that's shorter than other indeterminate
tomatoes. These two tomatoes are approx. two weeks ahead
of the Siberian and Stupice above.
The Bloody Butcher offers fruit much faster
than the Gregori's Altai, but that's not why we are comparing
these two. I want to compare them for their ability to stand
up to the Oklahoma heat. They are really different tomatoes
(see above description) so there is not much else to compare,
but we will be reporting on size and taste, as well as heat
and disease resistance.
Future Updates will be posted here:
Siberian
& Stupice
Gregori's
Altai & Bloody Butcher
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