Trust tomatoes being replaced.

I am kind of satisfied with the Trust hybrid tomatoes, as the plants have more fruit, and larger fruit, than any of the other varieties.

Today I removed all but four of the green immature fruit from each truss. In addition, I plan on topping off the plants after four trusses have set. The stems that hold the fruit on the truss are really large, and I am thinking that is because the fruit is going to be fairly large. In contrast, the Super Beefsteak, which is supposed to produce fruit close to a pound each, has very small stems supporting the immature fruit. And, in some cases there are double trusses with a dozen or more flowers. That has me stumped at the moment. As the flowers set I will only allow four fruit to remain on each truss.

Yesterday, while I was searching the web for a deal on Truss seeds for next year, I found a tomato trial performed by the University of Maine. The trial was geared toward unheated greenhouses, with fifteen greenhouse cultivars being tested.

I felt that this trial matched my growing conditions and climate, so I was really interested in the results. Trust, which is hyped by the seed companies as a top performer, came in dead last in the Maine trial.

The best performer in the Maine trial was a new hybrid named Arbason, so I placed an order for seeds for this variety. Additionally, I have ordered another new hybrid called Lola, which is also a greenhouse variety. Fifty seeds for both of these hybrids only cost fifteen dollars, with five dollars shipping. That is less than half the cost of Trust seeds, and although I am kind of satisfied with Trust, I decided to go with the new hybrids next season.

I still plan on growing the Tropic tomatoes, as we really like them, and I have plenty of seeds. As the Tropic are open pollinated, I can save seeds.