The 2011 Tomato List

July usually marks the point where we being harvesting tomatoes fairly regularly.  To date, we've harvested a handful, but there is still more green on the vines than red. Below I've compiled a list of the tomato varieties we're growing, and indicated whether we bought them as plants from a nursery or started them from seed. All are in containers:

Bush Early Girl - Everybody seems to be familiar with this variety.  We bought these as plants from a garden center. They're great for containers and ripen early in the season, which is great for an impatient tomato lover. We've harvested a handful of these already, and there are many more on the vine in various shades of pink/red.

Black Krim - This is a new tomato we're growing this summer, and we started it from seed. I posted pictures of a few weird looking Black Krims that have formed, but I do have quite a few normal looking ones too.  According to the seed packet, "the Heirloom Black Krim Tomato is one of the oldest varieties of Black Tomatoes.  It originated on the isle of Krim in Russia.  They are extremely dark in color and have a slightly salty taste. "

Tiny Tim and Oregon Spring - These are two new varieties in my garden. Both are grown from seeds which were a gift from my friend Emily. Emily has an amazing vegetable garden with more varieties of tomatoes and other vegetables than I could ever hope to grow. Tiny Tim is a determinate tomato, and therefore perfect for containers.  I don't seem to have a picture of the Oregon Spring, but it is indeterminate and is supposed to be an early season tomato. I haven't harvested any yet and I can't wait to try them.

Bonnie Grape - Grape tomatoes are probably my favorite kind of tomato. They're easy to throw into salads or other dishes without having to cut them up, or they can be eaten by themselves because they're so sweet and perfectly bite-sized. I've seen house guests pull them off the vine and pop them right into their mouth. I've even watched two 10-year-olds clean through these plants like a couple of locusts (just kidding, guys! But not really). We bought four plants and I've picked a handful of grapes already. I hope to be collecting many pints of grape tomatoes this year.  The vines usually grow wild so we have multiple stakes in the plant for support.

Better Boy - We've never grown these before. We bought them as plants, and this hybrid is supposed to produce a high-yielding, sweet-tasting, fungi/bacteria/parasite resistant tomato. That's a tall order! We'll see how they do.

Patio Princess - We are growing these tomatoes from seed. These small determine plants are perfect for containers. We grew them last year and they were good producers. The tomatoes weren't big enough to slice for burgers, for example, but they were juicy and good for chopping up into salsas.

The Rescue Tomato - The tomato we rescued from the weeds is doing really well. I still don't know what this will be when it grows up, but I know for sure it's not a grape tomato plant.

And as I mentioned in my last post, we also have green and purple tomatillos growing.  That's it for our tomato inventory.

What tomato varieties do you have in your garden?