Garden Column for the Salisbury Post

Darrell Blackwelder

September 7, 2005

     On farm field tests of commercial tomato varieties is a common method of evaluating new varieties. Annual testing is a summer ritual for Rowan County producers. Almost all growers cooperate with Dr. Randy Gardner, tomato breeder with the Mountain Crops Horticultural Research Station, to determine if new cultivars have promise for the industry. After years of requests from home gardeners about the best tomato, I thought it would be interesting to let home gardeners participate in a similar study for home garden tomato varieties. For approximately 8 weeks trial tomato plants were grown and cared for by Master Gardeners, Steve Hooper and Richard Wagner.

     Fifty Rowan home gardeners answered the request and agreed to participate in the 2005 Master Gardener Tomato Variety Trial. Participating growers agreed to grow five varieties, 2 of each, in their home garden or container garden. Participants were asked observe their crop and complete a short questionnaire regarding growth and development, any insect and diseases encountered, and the approximate yield of the plant. Another important factor to consider of this test is tomato flavor.

     The five varieties included in the test were:

Biltmore, a commercial variety grown by local producers, Christa, a commercial variety grown by local producers

Plum Crimson-a plum-type tomato developed by Dr. Randy Gardner, Sugary, a 2005 All-American Selection salad tomato variety, Better Boy-used in the test a check or standard for comparison.

     The variety that most preferred for flavor was ‘Sugary’. It produced many small fruits,”40 tomatoes on one stalk” with a sweet taste. The other variety that did well as far as taste was ‘Better Boy’. ‘Plum Dandy’, the plum entry was also a surprising favorite. ‘Biltmore’ and ‘Christa’ rated good for flavor, but according to our growers, difficult to grow.

     Unseasonably cool weather delayed both planting dates and maturity of the crops so most of the crop was late. This problem was also plagued commercial producers. Summer heat in August literally cooked many of the tomatoes. The Summer Weather of 2005 was defiantly a challenge.

     Participating from the public provides not only valuable data to growers and garden outlets, but also allows home gardeners a chance to hone their gardening skills. Plans are to continue with the study next summer. Our goal is to try new varieties and fine tune our data collection methods in 2006.

Darrell Blackwelder is an agricultural agent in charge of horticulture with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service in Rowan County. For archived garden columns or other information, visit the Rowan County Master Gardener web site at www.rowanmastergardener.com , e-mail Darrell_Blackwelder@ncsu.edu