New Tomatoes

New tomatoes: Moskovich, Italian Heirloom Sweetie Cherry, Black Prince, Black Cherry and Indigo Rose

I planted some new varieties of tomatoes this year and am excited to see how they will turn out.

Indigo Rose

The first one is a totally new tomato, Indigo Rose, that was just made available this year. It is a purple tomato, bred at Oregon State University for a high antioxidant level. A purple tomato seemed like it would be fun, so I decided to give it a try. It is a later variety, but I have picked a few already and put them in orders. I haven’t tasted one myself yet…I’ll keep the next one to try out.

Moskovich

Moskovich is another new tomato for me this year. This one is only new to me, however, as it is a Russian heirloom. I chose this one for its early ripening and tolerance to cooler conditions. Given the weather we have been having this year with more cool temperatures than warm ones, that is a good thing. Unfortunately, it is suffering from Blossom End Rot trouble, so there have not been very many good tomatoes yet.

Black Prince

Another heirloom tomato from Russia that I am trying is Black Prince.  It is a small, dark tomato, that also does well in cooler temperatures, as it originated in Irkutsk, Siberia. Uprising Seeds, the company I purchased the seed from, said “the flavor knocked our socks off.” I am hoping it will do that for me, too. I have only had a few of these so far, too, and they also have some Blossom End Rot, though not as much as the Moskovich.

Italian Heirloom

The last new big tomato I am trying this year is Italian Heirloom. These are large, meaty tomatoes, that are good for slicing and for sauce. Again, I haven’t done a conscious taste test, but Uprising Seeds says it has “Incredible flavor with just the right balance of acid and sweet.”

Black Cherry

I also planted two new varieties of cherry tomatoes: Black Cherry and Sweetie Cherry. As the name implies, Black Cherry is dark in color, a dark brick red. It is fairly large for a cherry, with green on the shoulders, meaning good flavor (remember that NPR story). Sweetie Cherry is what you expect in a cherry tomato, small, red and sweet.

Sweetie Cherry

The rest of the tomatoes varieties I have grown before: Stupice, Jaune Flamme, Green Zebra, Striped German, Persimmon, Lena, Rose de Berne and Galina Cherry. The Stupice are doing great, but again, several of the others are suffering from Blossom End Rot, the Jaune Flamme and Rose de Berne, especially. Blossom End rot is caused by a calcium deficiency. Either inconsistant watering or a low pH can be the culprit that makes the calcium unavailable to the plant. In this case, I think it is the pH. I didn’t test the soil this year, but when I first planted this field last year, it had a low pH, because it had blue berries in it previously, which like a low pH. I added lime, both last year and this, but evidently the pH hasn’t gone up enough.

New varieties and old favorites

There are still plenty of tomatoes, though, and I will enjoy every one I can. I hope you will too. And, as always, I would love to hear what you think of these tomatoes.