Help me pick out tomato seeds

[FireWithin]

This is my first year gardening and I am excited.

I am ordering seeds from HIgh Mowing catalog (which is a semi local business) and from Baker Creek

I can't decide on which seeds to get for tomatoes. I want a regular (smallish) tomato and a cherry tomato.


Here are my constraints

I will be container gardening

I live near Boston, so a somewhat short season, but will start them inside

My youngest only eats carrots for veggies. He has multiple food allergies and has started limiting veggies severely. I want to pick a sweet pleasant cherry tomato for him to pick off the vine.

There was a bad case of tomato blight in the area. All of the organic farmers were severely effected. They think that the blight came from some local Home Depot plants.

Because I have two eager young ones, I would like a somewhat early ripener.

So here are the runners up:

regular (smallish) sized tomatoes

mountain princess http://rareseeds.com/cart/products/M...to-346-33.html

al-Kufa tomato
http://rareseeds.com/cart/products/A...ato-350-0.html

cherry:

Chadwick cherry - hmmm not very good comments
http://rareseeds.com/cart/products/C...to-335-33.html

fox cherry
http://rareseeds.com/cart/products/F...to-309-33.html

koralik
http://rareseeds.com/cart/products/K...to-348-33.html

sweetie cherry
http://highmowingseeds.com/organic-s...ry-tomato.html



I didn't think of looking on line to see others comments about my chosen seeds. I think i will do that before i order.

thank you for your feedback.

If you have another suggestion, I would be happy to hear.

[lorelei]

I'm ordering from Baker Creek. I have loved their catalogs for years, and am going to actually have room to garden, for a change. And being laid off, I should have time to mind one. lol

I really admire the family that started and runs the business, and respect the cultural things they're trying to preserve, not just food wise, but craft and art wise stuff too.

I'm sure high mowing is a great company too, I'm just not as familiar with them.

[maplesugar]

I didn't try any of those varieties, but I did order my tomato seeds from Baker Creek last year. I was pleased even though we had a bad year in michigan. I really like the sungold cherrry tomatoes. Also am exited to try the black cherry.

[FireWithin]

thanks both of you. : )

[lmonter]

I tried Al-Kuffa last year. Wasn't impressed. Were late ripeners, they cracked with late rains, and were just all over a bit spindly-looking and light on the fruit vs. my Kootenais. They probably wouldn't have made it with blight in your area.
Chadwick's Cherry.... meh. I'm planting Gold Nugget and WA Cherry instead with my semi-limited plans this year - better ROI for me.

Last year, my first ripeners were Gold Nugget, then Washington Cherry, then Kootenai, then Alaska Fancy and Principe Borghese. And really, all of those could've done well in a decent sized container with some sort of little spike/pole to tie them semi-upright on - they all stayed somewhat determinate to some degree. Oh, I'm currently in a chilly zone 5, I loved the Gold Nugget, WA Cherry and Principe for little snacking-type tomatoes, and hubby's fav taste-wise is the Alaska Fancy (I just like the Kootenai because they're sweeter and a little smaller, I'm not so much an acid fan).

I have zero experience with the other varieties you listed. I have to pay more attention to maturity time because of where I live, so I'm quite a fan of Irish Eyes or Territorial and such.


ETA: White Currant was a bust because it was such a late ripener in my yard, and I also had several other varieties - Big Month, Aunt Ruby's German Cherry (I don't even remember if I got many ripe ones!), Purple Russian, Rouge d'Irak, Siberia, Glacier, Siberian, Polar Baby, Cherokee Purple, Oregon Spring, Heinz and Campbell's. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but still. I've been playing with heirloom tomatoes for a few years now, and am kinda starting to find my groove. Finally.

[lakeruby]

I love Baker Creek! We ordered several varieties from them this year, but all are new to us. I haven't ordered tomatoes from High Mowing, but I really like their company, and order lettuce and herb seeds.

We're in the deep south, so this may not be relevant, but our favorites have been Cherokee Purple, black cherry, green zebra, and Stupice. Also, Ciudad de Victoria is a really fun one to grow-- the tomatoes are tiny and they have a long season.

I would just add that since you're doing container gardening, you may want to consider only growing determinate varieties (that produce their crop all at once) because they don't get as huge. Indeterminate varieties will keep going until first frost, putting out fewer fruit at one time, but over a longer period, and they will just keep growing and growing. For us, this has become a problem when we have planted in pots-- eventually the plant just gets too tall and falls over. It would be fun to experiment, though!

[goldfinches]

Someone on here recently recomended Chadwicks Cherry from Seeds of Change. Her description had me drooling for them, I'm going to try them this year.

[FireWithin]

wonderful information. thanks!

I was thinking about the importance of determinants and maybe staggering a couple of plantings by maybe 2 weeks, to spread out the harvest.