My tomato seeds are now available! Yes it’s time to think about planning for the 2018 garden. I saved seeds from many different plants this year but if you have been reading my blog for a while, you will know how much I love growing tomatoes. Over the summer I saved every seed from all the tomatoes I grew. It’s so easy to save the seeds. I have so many seeds that I decided to sell them. Today I am listing my tomato seed list for you to look over. I have grown many tomatoes over the years and won’t grow one that I don’t like myself. My criteria are they have to taste good. Of course, I stay away from tomatoes that are not suited for our climate and ones that tend to be too fussy. It’s no sense growing long season tomatoes if they don’t produce before summer is over. So choosing a mix of short season, mid season and long season varieties will have you harvesting all season long. Generally the cherry tomatoes ripen first and the beefsteak tomatoes are much later often taking 80-90 days to harvest.
Peacevine:
This very prolific red cherry tomato grows on indeterminate vines which means it will need staking. It has a regular leaf and is an open pollinated version of Sweet 100 F1, from the 1970’s. What I love about Peacevine is how it produces in large clusters. I enjoy popping them into my mouth as a bit of a treat while in the garden. They are a slightly acidic but delicious. I grow this tomato every year.
Gold Nugget:
Gold Nugget tomatoes are determinate plants bearing small golden-yellow cherry tomatoes. It has a mild sweet flavour and is suitable for containers. It sets fruit well in cool weather and is often one of the first to ripen. Here in the Lower Mainland it ripens in late June if planted outside from transplants in early May. Gold Nugget is a heavy producer so be prepared to harvest every couple of days.
Stupice:
Stupice is a potato leaf variety that comes from Czechoslovakia. It is one of the best early tomatoes so perfect for our west coast climate. It’s also perfect for gardeners in northern climates. It has excellent flavour for an early tomato and produces lots of red, small to medium-sized fruit over a very long season. Stupice tomatoes produce golf ball-size fruit.
Victoria Dwarf #1:
Victoria Dwarf #1 is a very compact determinate plant with small to medium 3-6 ounce sized red fruit with a beefsteak appearance. Not an actual dwarf but suited to containers so its popular for gardeners in small spaces. I almost didn’t grow it this year but a customer requested it so I grew a few extras of this one. This tomato is from the Dwarf Tomato Project where botanists have bred heirloom looking tomatoes that grow on sturdy stems suited for container growing. Its seeds are open pollinated so its fun to continue to grow this tomato. It has heavy fruit set quite early in the season. It’s not recommend to prune the plants, unless you want a reduced harvest.
Wapsipinicon Peach:
This is one of the first tomatoes I grew for the seed bank and I fell in love with this sweet yellow tomato. It’s an interesting heirloom tomato named after the Wapsipinicon River in Iowa. The 2″ fruit are fuzzy and yellow with a nice sweet flavour. It is indeterminate so it will need staking but it’s worth it. Just note that the fuzz on the skin is not noticeable when eating it.
King Humbert:
King Humbert is a small paste tomato with great flavour. I starting picking fruit from a May planting in early July. What I like about this paste tomato is it isn’t as meaty as some paste varieties so it can be used in salads as well. The fruit goes from red to a reddish-brown in colour making it a nice addition to a salad.
Slyvan Gaume:
This crazy sprawling tomato is prolific with fruit produced from the end of July well into the fall. I call it my toddler as its branches tend to grow out every which way so you need a tomato cage for this one. The red fruit varies in size from medium to large and is delicious. The first fruits always seem to be small and increase in size over the summer. Some fruit are close to 3/4 pound in size.
Yellow Pear Tomato:
Yellow pear tomatoes have been around since the 1800’s and I love the fact they are still popular with home gardeners. The one inch yellow fruit is pear-shaped and has awesome flavour. I like eating this one straight from the vine. Like most yellow tomatoes it’s not as acidic in taste.
Indigo Rose:
Indigo Rose is a dark black cherry tomato that has taken the gardening world by storm. It seems to be all the rage to grow something different. This one is indeterminate so it will need staking. The biggest issue with growing black tomatoes is determining when they are ripe. Indigo Rose will show a blush of red on the base of its tomatoes and lose its shine when ripe.
Morado del Rincon de Ademuz:
If you want a large beefsteak tomato this is a good one to try. This is the first time I had to use a turkey platter to hold my tomato harvest. Each fruit weighed in between 3/4-1 1/2 lbs in size. This unique tomato is known for its telltale scar on the bottom of each fruit. I used this one for making roasted tomatoes and for sauce. I love the ridges on the top of heirloom tomatoes. We just don’t see them in the grocery stores anymore.
Snow White:
When I tell people about a white tomato they kind of stay clear. At my first plant sale I was asked if I sold red tomatoes because I had so many different colours. Snow White, what a cute name, right? It’s a creamy yellow cherry tomato that will produce all summer long on indeterminate vines. As the tomato matures it is more of a creamy yellow than it is white.
Cherokee Purple:
Tomato ‘Cherokee Purple’ is a well know heirloom tomato. Its deep reddish-purple colour and amazing flavour make it a must have for the garden. This is one of those tomatoes that chefs love to use. Fruit is easily 2-3 inches across. It is a bit later to ripen, usually in late August.
Moneymaker:
If you are looking for the perfect red tomato like you see in grocery stores ‘Moneymaker’ is for you. It’s a medium size tomato on the acidic side for flavour.
Sweetie:
My last tomato is ‘Sweetie’ which is a popular red cherry. It’s easy to grow and produces handfuls of fruit each day.
Want to buy some seeds? Send me an email at [email protected] with your order and I will send you an order confirmation. I only charge for postage needed, no big shipping fees. I call mail seeds anywhere in Canada and the United States. I cannot guarantee seed orders getting across borders if they are too large as customs may hold onto them. Each package of seed has 20 seeds since no one grows more than 20 plants of one kind. Seeds were harvested from my garden in 2017.
