Fresh San Marzano Tomatoes

[kiwipete]

The video referred to above is not about San Marzano tomatoes but about piennolo tomatoes. They are are a small, thick skinned tomato well suited to hanging in trusses over a period of weeks/months which intensifies their flavours. San Marzanos are a different variety altogether...

[David]

Yes I realize that,and considered  this was the most appropriate thread to link the video to as Peet-za had referenced them a few posts earlier in this thread.
regards,
David

[widespreadpizza]

those look awesome!

[mmarston]

I've been growing five or six different types of heirloom tomatoes for a number of years now.
After doing some research in Amy Goldman's wonderful book "The Heirloom Tomato" I added four plants of "Goldman's Italian American" to my crop this year. OMG these are good! It's a sauce tomato but is also delicious raw.
The original seeds came from a tomato bought at a roadside grocery store in Cernobbio Italy.

I copied this pic off the web from 

http://www.veranda.com/food-travel/heirloom-tomatoes-amy-goldman-0908?click=main_sr

The seeds are available from

http://www.underwoodgardens.com/Tomato-Goldmans-Italian-American/productinfo/V1157/

[Mo]

I've been growing five or six different types of heirloom tomatoes for a number of years now.
After doing some research in Amy Goldman's wonderful book "The Heirloom Tomato" I added four plants of "Goldman's Italian American" to my crop this year. OMG these are good! It's a sauce tomato but is also delicious raw.
The original seeds came from a tomato bought at a roadside grocery store in Cernobbio Italy.

I copied this pic off the web from 

http://www.veranda.com/food-travel/heirloom-tomatoes-amy-goldman-0908?click=main_sr

The seeds are available from

http://www.underwoodgardens.com/Tomato-Goldmans-Italian-American/productinfo/V1157/

That's a cool pic. This year I have tried a number of different heirlooms including some Italian varieties. Specific to sauce, I am trying Costoluto Genovese, Santa Clara canner, and Seedsavers Italian. The best eating raw tomato so far has been, by far, our big, beautiful burnt-orange and mauve Paul Robeson variety. They are complex, delicate and taste vaguely of melon...

[mmarston]

Mo,

The Goldman's Italian American is related to the Costoluto Genovese.
I live in upstate NY and our tomato crops have been destroyed by the wet weather and the "late blight".
I'm spraying chemicals on my tomatoes I've never considered using before just to save a few.
I love the Paul Robesons also and if you like those you should try Chocolate Stripes

http://store.tomatofest.com/Chocolate_Stripes_Tomato_Seeds_p/tf-0115a.htm

Michael

[Mo]

Mo,

The Goldman's Italian American is related to the Costoluto Genovese.
I live in upstate NY and our tomato crops have been destroyed by the wet weather and the "late blight".
I'm spraying chemicals on my tomatoes I've never considered using before just to save a few.
I love the Paul Robesons also and if you like those you should try Chocolate Stripes

http://store.tomatofest.com/Chocolate_Stripes_Tomato_Seeds_p/tf-0115a.htm

Michael

Michael, pity about the lousy weather, hopefully you can save some of your plants. We have had a relatively nice season, a little cool, but it has rained the last three days so a lot of my fruits are near bursting. Not sure what to do about that other than pick the ones I can eat and hope for sun. My wife and I have been getting our heirlooms from the Friends Plant Sale in St Paul for the last five or six years. It's a huge sale with an incredible number of heirloom fruits/vegetables already started so all you do is put them in the ground. We just moved this year from St Paul out to the country in Iowa and have expanded our gardening operation. We planted about 35 tomato plants this year, only doubling on some and nearly all heirlooms. We also have done fingerlings, garlic, onions, Chinese broccoli, lettuces, beans and cukes (of course), a huge pumpkin patch and lots of heirloom peppers (including the very cool green/white variegated "fish pepper"). We will also be going to the Seed Savers Exchange Heirloom Tomato tasting in September near Decorah, Iowa. They have an awesome farm that works to preserve all kinds of heirloom seeds.

I've attached some pics of some of our toms...

[mmarston]

Mo,

Those are some beauties.
I had forgotten but Amy Goldman is/was? the board chair of Seed Savers.

Michael

[DNA Dan]

Anyone familiar with this seed stock?:

http://growitalian.com/Qstore/Qstore.cgi?CMD=011&PROD=1067512429

I have about 20 plants in the ground already and they're taking forever to fruit. I got a late start on the season and I am in western Montana. I assume it's the shorter days and cold nights which are slowing down their maturation. The plants are still quite strong.

I already missed the big drop in prices from late summer, but all I could find in my area are roma VF Mexican varieties which are coated in wax. Bummer

[pacoast]

Anyone familiar with this seed stock?

Not familiar with these guys, but their seed prices are decent.

It's not clear when you planted yours, but if you planted them too late they may not fruit at all. Tomatoes should be planted before the summer solstice so that they see the amount of daylight increasing at first, then decreasing. This light pattern sets an initial growth spurt, followed by blooming. Planting really late results in erratic growth. San Marzanos also need 70 - 80 days of frost free weather.

.

[mmarston]

My season is over due to the late blight. I lost at least 50% of my crop.
On the bright side the Goldman's Italian American tomatoes were much more blight resistant than my other tomatoes.
These are the best all purpose tomatoes I have grown so far, very meaty with few seeds and I recommend them without reservation. They make a great sauce and are quite tasty raw as well.

Michael

[pacoast]

My season is over due to the late blight. I lost at least 50% of my crop.

Sorry to hear that. I presume that by late blight you mean Phytophthora infestans. Not a big problem yet in the NW despite abundant rain. But I guess it's only a matter of time. People in arid areas should  fare much better as the disease only produces spores & cause infection when there is free water on the plants. To that end I only use drip irrigation (no sprinklers or anything like that) & everything is under a "greenhouse" canopy to keep direct rain off the tomatoes. Of course if it's raining outside humidity will still be high. I think next year, I'll grow a handful of San Marzanos plants indoors just in case the blight worsens.

The other thing that you can do is try crossing your tomatoes with a resistant variety.

.

[mmarston]

Sorry to hear that. I presume that by late blight you mean Phytophthora infestans. Not a big problem yet in the NW despite abundant rain. But I guess it's only a matter of time. People in arid areas should  fare much better as the disease only produces spores & cause infection when there is free water on the plants. To that end I only use drip irrigation (no sprinklers or anything like that) & everything is under a "greenhouse" canopy to keep direct rain off the tomatoes. Of course if it's raining outside humidity will still be high. I think next year, I'll grow a handful of San Marzanos plants indoors just in case the blight worsens.

The other thing that you can do is try crossing your tomatoes with a resistant variety.

.

That's what we have in the NE (Phytophthora infestans) evidently it was spread far and wide by seedlings from the big box stores. It rained here for a great deal of June and July. I use drip irrigation as well but this year I only used it two days in late August!

I hear the fungus is spreading west so be prepared next season.