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Tomatoes I Won’t Be Growing Again

So, I talked about the five tomatoes I grew this year that I absolutely fell inlove with, and now it’s time to talk about those that were less than impressive. It’s not that any of them were bad tomatoes, necessarily. But I’m on a smallish urban lot, and if I’m growing something here, I better love it, or I’ve wasted valuable garden space.

‘Heatherington Pink’ was a prolific producer, but other than that, there’s not much I can say for this tomato. The flavor was pretty run of the mill, and though they were a pretty pink color, they’re just not all that interesting.

‘Dix Doights di Napoli’ was a pretty big disappointment. Production was not high, and when I did get a tomato here and there, it invariably ended up with blossom end rot. I dried a few in the oven, and they were all right dried, but I definitely prefer my ‘Polish Linguisa’ and ‘San Marzano’ tomatoes for that purpose.

‘Green Grape’ is a nice enough tasting tomato, and it is always interesting to eat green tomatoes. However, my kids never really did come around to trusting me that it was ok to eat these particular green tomatoes. That’s half of our tomato-eating household that vetoed them, so out they go.

‘Early Girl’ is one of the two hybrid tomatoes we grew this year, and we won’t be growing them again. Part of the reason for this is that we’d just rather grow heirlooms. The other part is that they didn’t taste all that different from the tomatoes we buy in the grocery store. I was not impressed.

‘Manitoba’ was one of the two early varieties I grew this year (the other was ‘Subarctic Plenty.’) It actually didn’t produce that much earlier, and the fruits were not very good–too firm for my taste and rather bland. If I grow an early variety next year (and I don’t know that I’ll even waste the space because neither of the early varieties I grew exactly blew me away, taste-wise) I’ll probably go with ‘Subarctic Plenty’ rather than ‘Manitoba.’

Like I said, I didn’t necessarily hate any of these tomatoes, but they just didn’t do it for me, for one reason or another. Have you grown any of these? Am I being too hard on some of them?

6 comments

6 comments to “Tomatoes I Won’t Be Growing Again”

Dee/reddirtramblings, October 2nd, 2009 at 11:17 am:

I don’t think you’re being too hard on them. I hate ‘Early Girl’, and I guess I’m in the minority, but I can’t stand the plainness of her. The others I haven’t grown, but this year I grew ‘Giant Belgium’. Prolific, but not my cup of tea. Too mealy & no acid at all. Great reviews.~~Dee

Colleen Vanderlinden, October 2nd, 2009 at 11:25 am:

Hi Dee!

I’m so glad to hear you say that about ‘Early Girl.’ I see lots of nice comments about it, but I just didn’t like it—definitely too plain. Thanks for the tip about ‘Giant Belgium’–I haven’t grown that one yet, either, but definitely steer clear of mealy tomatoes. Yuck.

Thanks for stopping by!

Dave@TheHomeGarden, October 2nd, 2009 at 12:17 pm:

I’m not a fan of ‘Early Girl’, I’d much rather have ‘Better Boy’ for a hybrid. I plan on getting more into the heirlooms for seed saving reasons next year so this is a very helpful post!

Blackswampgirl Kim, October 2nd, 2009 at 12:52 pm:

I’m with you on the ‘Early Girl,’ too. I think people just like it because you can eat tomatoes in early July… but, IMHO, that’s what cherry tomatoes are for! (They tide me over until the larger tasty ones are ready.

Colleen Vanderlinden, October 2nd, 2009 at 1:56 pm:

Hi Dave!–I grew ‘Better Boy’ a few years ago, and I have to agree that it’s much better than ‘Early Girl.’ If you’re looking for seeds, let me know—I’ve got plenty of heirloom tomato seeds now Thanks for stopping by!

Hi Kim! I think that’s part of it, and I agree with you—just grow cherry tomatoes, then!!

garden, October 29th, 2009 at 3:26 am:

Wow! it’s a very wonderful blog and I’m so glad to hear you say that about ‘Early Girl.’… thanks for sharing…

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From the Archives

Tomatoes I Won’t Be Growing Again

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6 comments to “Tomatoes I Won’t Be Growing Again”

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