Minnesota Gardens Top Tomato Plants For 2015
With the 2015 Minnesota planting season coming closer and there hundreds of tomatoes that you can plant in your Minnesota Garden I thought I would come up with my top picks of tomatoes for the 2015 growing season.
There is something to be said about growing your own tomatoes, the ease of it, the inexpensive cost, but mostly it would be the taste! When you pick your tomatoes and take that first bite, it truly is a taste you rarely find at the grocery store, or if you do find it at the store you pay allot for a plant that you can easily grow at home.
The selection of tomato plants that we will have this year will be large, and the following are just a few of them.
Tomato Plant Sizes
You can buy your plants in a 4-pack, 4" pot, 6" pot, or the large patio pots with the tomato cage included. Either way, what you pick to grow will taste so much better than what you can pick up at the store or a Farmers Market.
Beefmaster
This beefsteak variety of tomato is awesome in our Minnesota climates but can handle many different climates as long as the growing season is not too short. This good flavored, up to 2 pound fruit tastes delicious when added to a salad or sandwich. This one is perfect for the BLT. The Beefmaster Tomato plant produces huge yields of large, meaty beefsteak fruit. It grows 4-6’ in height and should be spaced 18-24” apart. Tomatoes will turn deep red when mature, so you will know when to pick them.
Golden Boy
Delightful golden tomato with 8-10 oz fruit with great flavor and good disease resistance. Perfect base for many cooked dishes and superb on sandwiches. Ideal for salads, soups, hot dishes and for pickling. This makes a great tomato to stuff. As with all tomato plants water well to prevent drying out in warm weather.
Husky Red Cherry Tomato
Solid 4 feet tall plant bears loads of deliciously sweet 1 inch round tomatoes. This super sweet cherry tomato is a best seller because of its flavor, productivity, and good looks. If you like to snack on cherry tomatoes, this is a great choice. One of the popular "Husky" series developed especially for home gardens. Its one of my favorite for the volume of tomatoes you get with each plant.
Super Fantastic Tomato
Smooth, solid, and meaty, a good slicer with delicious flavor! Large, round, perfectly formed, 8-10 ounce red fruit that adapts well to all parts of Minnesota. An outstanding early tomato that produces abundant harvests continuously until frost. Tomatoes are juicy, meaty, and very flavorful.
Roma Plum Tomato
Vigorous vines produce excellent yields of bright red, medium sized pear shaped fruit. The fruit of choice for many cooked dishes, canning and for making tomato paste. They have allot of meat on them. These are best for sauces, as the fruits, with thicker walls, are not as juicy as other varieties. I also would add these to one of my favorite to snack on.
Amish Paste Tomato
Generations have used this tomato in sauces and for canning. Full and rather unusual flavor. Said to taste the best of all paste tomatoes. Tasty, solid flesh used for stews, bottling, drying, and sauces. 8-12 oz. plum shaped fruit. Twice as big as the classic Roma tomato. Great in salsa, homemade catsup or spaghetti sauce. Excellent for slicing.
Brandywine Tomato (Heirloom)
Brandywine Red is one of the most popular and best-tasting heirloom tomatoes for years now. A classic tomato taste, the classic red Brandywine is full-flavored and one of the best for canning. I would also add this one to any sandwich for a added flavor.
Mortgage Lifter Tomato (Heirloom)
Fruits of mortgage Lifter can average 2-1/2 Lbs. and may reach 4lbs when grown well. Plants are very productive and disease-resistant, and continue to bear until frost. These large, slightly flattened, pink-red tomatoes are meaty and flavorful with few seeds.
The story behind this tomato goes back to the 1930's Radiator Charlie the developer of this tomato. The owner of a radiator repair shop in the 1930s Charlie was facing bankruptcy. He had no plant breeding experience, yet he cross-bred 4 Varieties to develop this big, tasty tomato, sold 1000 plants at $1 each over six years and paid off his mortgage.
Sweet 100 Tomato
Outstanding tomato for containers! Small sweet cherry like fruit are produced in large clusters on strong disease resistant vines. Delightful eaten straight from the vine. Ideal for salads, sandwiches, soups and in many cooked dishes Another one of my favorite to use in a hanging tomato basket, it's nice to walk out on the deck a pick a few to eat.
If you have any garden questions please feel free to email us info@mngardens.com or if you have any tips please share them with us, we would love to post them.
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