Sorellina's Early Tomatoes 2010

[Sorellina]

Ciao all-

Since there was some interest in the early tomatoes I grew last year, I thought I'd devote a little thread to it and post my progress. I'm only growing 2 earlies this year: Ditmarsher, an OP tumbling pink cherry and Tigerette Cherry Gold, a gold version of a normally red striped dwarf saladette with chartreuse foliage. I've never done any crossing of tomatoes, but I'm going to give it a try with these two this year. Ditmarsher will be making its home in one of the hanging baskets Duane uses for his peppers. It's very much like Whippersnapper in size, colour, and productivity with the flavour being slightly less assertive, but still a real good one for early salads. Tigerette Cherry, being a micro-dwarf plant, doesn't give a ton of fruit, but early on, I'm just looking for something green on the porch that I can obsess over until some of the more anticipated ones start ripening. It has a nice tang that I like in green salads with some of the early greens, herbs, and scallions.

Here's a photo of Tigerette Cherry Gold from last year:

Here's one of Ditmarsher with unripe green fruit from 2008:

 

[millworkman]

Are these outside full time in Canada? WOW.

 

[DiggingDogFarm]

I have Whippersnapper Cherry, Forest Fire, Aurora and Sophie's Choice on the list of earlies this year....I'm probably forgetting a few others.
I'll have to try Ditmarsher sometime.


~DiggingDog

 

[Sorellina]

Ciao millworkman-

I don't overwinter my plants at all. Those photos are from previous years when I've grown the 2 varieties I mentioned. I put the photos so it's not just variety names which isn't as interesting if you have no idea which ones I'm referring to.

My main focus is tomatoes while the main focus for just about all of you is peppers. I figure we can learn some things from each other.

My Ditmarshers have gotten their first set of true leaves and will probably get potted up in the next few days or so. The Tigerette Cherries are a little bit slower, both in germination and early growth. They'll catch up, though.

 

[Sorellina]

Ciao all-

It's been a while since I've posted progress with the early tomatoes. This is how things looked outside as of 14 May:

Ditmarsher tumbling cherry tomatoes in their hanging basket

Close-up of flower clusters and fruit-set - as of today, I'm starting to see some blush, so it's entirely possible that I'll have ripe tomatoes in June!

On the front porch:

Tigerette Cherry Golds and Sport Peppers

Earlier potted up Tigerette Cherry Golds to use for crossing with the Ditmarshers - I'll be attempting this cross very shortly as these plants are starting to put out flowers now