383 The 2025 Tomato Preview Show!

Show Transcript

383 TRANSCRIPT 2025 Tomato Preview Show

Farmer Fred:

If you’re a tomatohead, this is the episode for you!

We dive into the world of tomatoes with Don Shor from Redwood Barn Nursery in Davis, California. We discuss our favorite tomato varieties to plant for the 2025 gardening season. What’s new and intriguing? What’s old and good? Plus, Don has tips for choosing reliable varieties if you are new to tomato gardening, as well as good advice to get those young plants off to a healthier start. It’s Episode 383, The 2025 Tomato Preview Show!

We’re podcasting from Barking Dog Studios here in the beautiful Abutilon Jungle in Suburban Purgatory. It’s the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, brought to you today by Dave Wilson Nursery. Let’s go!

THE 2025 TOMATO PREVIEW SHOW! Pt. 1

Farmer Fred:

 Well, it's just about that time. In fact, if you want to get tomatoes in the ground for summer harvest and you want to grow them from seed, you better order some seeds pretty quick. But what are you going to order?

Farmer Fred:

 Hmm. That's what the whole show today is about. It's your 2025 tomato seed preview, tomato variety preview. Don Shor is here. He is the owner, proprietor, and tomatohead at Redwood Barn Nursery in Davis, California. We like to talk tomatoes and Don, we are of the same ilk, you might say. We we like to grow what has succeeded in the past but we also like to try things that are new. So what are you growing that's new this year?

Don Shor:

 There are two that I did last year that I want to test again because I was very impressed by them and they're in the small tomato category. So let's just start with those. Cupid and Tim's Taste of Paradise. Have you heard of either of those?

Farmer Fred:

You talked about Cupid the last time we chatted on this program. And so I ordered some Cupid seeds and I guess that will be my official small tomato that I'm growing this year.

Don Shor:

 It is extremely productive. It's bright red, very pretty. I mean, that's kind of important. Great eye appeal. One characteristic I like about smaller tomatoes, is when they pick easily and you don't have to tug and, you know, yank them off when they just detach readily and stay intact. They don't burst in your hand and get juice all over you. And it's a really good flavor on that one. It's one of those kind of meaty, small tomatoes. This is a category that people are calling saladette, the elongated, firmer, textured tomato. Juliet is a good example in that category. And I did real well with it last year. But, of course, you know, we have a rule here. You can't recommend a variety until you've grown it two years in a row and had good results. And so I'm going to certainly give that one a try again.

Farmer Fred:

Is this the second year for Cupid then?

Don Shor:

 Second year that I'll be growing it. We'll be growing some to sell, as well. But if you want this one, you're not going to find it on a seed rack. And there can’t be a lot of nurseries that have it. So you better put that on your “order this seed” list. I got Cupid from Seeds and such, which is one of those proprietors of tomato seeds out there. Another one that you might have to look around for the seed or maybe just wait for the plants is that one, Tim's Taste of Paradise. And we can thank Brad Gates of Wild Boar Farms for bringing this variety back into production. It had nearly gone extinct, as he puts it, probably back in the 1990s. And somehow he got a hold of it and he grew it. And I grew it last year and it was the most vigorous plant in my garden by far, probably a 12-foot vine. And I was pretty carefully counting fruit on all my different tomatoes last year. I thought I'd be very meticulous and scientific. And when I got to about 500 on that one, I just said “too many.” We were no longer counting above that point. Extremely productive, easy to pick, really good flavor, sort of a classic small cherry tomato. And just the high, high yield was really, really impressive last year.

Don Shor:

 That's going to be in the Brad Gates Wild Boar Farm series. So you'll either order the seed from him or you'll wait and find it at the nurseries in the area that carry Wild Boar Farms tomatoes.

Farmer Fred:

How the heck did you trellis a 12-foot vine?

Don Shor:

Well, I didn't know it was going to get to 12 feet. So I put my usual six-foot cage on it and it went up and arched out the top and went back down to the ground and then became a ground cover. So the answer is, with some difficulty, I trellised it. But my standard training technique is just a six-foot cage made out of concrete wire And I keep shoving the branches back into the cage until they reach the top and then they're on their own. So that was, I would say, an eight foot cage might be more apt for that one or whatever method you like for a completely indeterminate and very vigorous tomato variety.

Farmer Fred:

Yeah, I think I'd put a trellis up on the side of the garage or something for that.

Don Shor:

 It could be. That would be one way. Or just, you know, what I do like to do since I have space is make sure my plants are at least six to eight feet apart. And that way, when one of these outperforms my expectations, it's not going to grow all over the next tomato over. That also reduces pest problems and  harvest problems. So I do recommend wider spacing on tomatoes. We can get to that in a moment. But fortunately, this one was way down at the end and it had that whole corner to itself.

Farmer Fred:

You're right about that. Also, my 2025 garden resolution is to give the plants more space. Plant them not so close together. Give them room.

Don Shor:

 Yeah, and go as vertical as you can. I mean, if you've only got a four-foot cage on a tomato, that'll hold it until about the middle of June. And then you've got three more months of it to grow. So unless you're carefully growing shorter types, either determinate or dwarf indeterminate types, you better give them a six- or an eight-foot cage. And as I say, four to six feet minimum is my preference. I realize I have lots of room. So that's kind of my luxury. You're a little more tight for space. So I think you probably look around for some of those more compact growers.

Farmer Fred:

You're right about that. That's for sure. One of the new ones that I'm planting this year is a smaller tomato, three to four ounces, called Saucy Lady that I got from Seeds and such. And that was a throwaway by them thanking me for an order. “Here, try these out.” And so I'll try it out. And according to their Playboy Playmate of the Month-type description here, “Saucy Lady vigorously produces high yields of medium-sized three to four ounce, extremely firm, crimson red, oblong fruits that perfectly cook down into some of the smoothest sauces and pastes you have ever tasted.” It is a determinate tomato, so that'd be perfect for canning. It supposedly gets four to five feet tall. And three to four ounce fruit size isn't bad. It's a fair amount.

Don Shor:

 Yeah, that's like a Roma tomato  that's bigger than the San Marzano. And you know, the sauce tomatoes, by the way, for listeners who aren't well familiar with them, I have found in general, they're very good choices here in the valley. They seem to take the heat better. They're generally a little bit tougher skin, so they don't sunburn as much. Overall, in general, sauce tomatoes are very successful. And if you get a determinate one, you can do something where you can plant a tomato, let it grow to its full size, make one big harvest, process those, you know what? You're done with that plant. You can take it out and put in your Brussels sprouts in mid-July like you're supposed to. So it gives you, for those of you with a limited space and who like to process, freeze, can, whatever, even sun-dry tomatoes, that's a great way to go. I think determinate and semi-determinate, dwarfing determinate, and bush tomatoes are actually excellent choices for a lot of home gardeners that might be limited for space.

Farmer Fred:

 I was pursuing catalogs waiting for us to begin our chat. And I found some interesting offerings by certain tomato outlets. One of those outlets is one you know here in California called Tomato Fest. And they specialize in the Dwarf Tomato Project whch are heirloom seeds with a lot of interestingly named dwarf tomato plants.

Don Shor:

 This is a fascinating program. It's an open source. You know, they're not being proprietary about it. I think a lot of breeders are working on that one. Yeah.

Farmer Fred:

 And there are volunteers who are putting all these varieties together. And that's very intriguing. And I'm curious to see how some of those come out. I didn't buy any, but if anybody is growing any of the Dwarf Tomato Project heirloom seeds this year, let us know how they how they did. Yeah.

Don Shor:

 I've done a few. There's a grower over in Santa Rosa, Sweetwater Nursery, that we work with that does some of these very, very, very compact, I'm not even sure what to call them, miniature tomatoes. I've got so many customers in the Davis area who are living in apartments or have no actual yard or a very, very small side yard. They can't possibly plant a 15-foot tomato vine, but they want to grow a tomato. Some of these look really intriguing for that. We really need to try them, see what kind of yields we're talking about. Two that I grew, and I honestly can't even remember the names at this point. 12 to 14-inch plants, little thumbnail-sized fruit, great tangy flavor. It's the kind of thing you could stick it in a barrel with a bush basil and maybe a shishito pepper, and there you have your salsa.

Farmer Fred:

 There you go. Or something for the kids.

Don Shor:

 There you go. They're very cute, and they ripened well, and the whole plant was pretty much done by early August, which is the nature of a lot of these smaller fruited tomatoes. That doesn't mean you're done with tomatoes at that point, that particular plant is done. You could plant another one in as late as, I've done this, as late as mid-July. Where we live, you could be harvesting those in late September, October, you know, it's summer-like here all the way into the middle of October. The very latest I planted a tomato last year, I did four of them on August 1. Four different varieties, two heirloom and two hybrid, and each of them produced about 20 fruit in mid-October. And they were very good and they had ripened fully by then. So we have a long season here. People get really nervous, thinking they will be too late planting. They're coming in in late March, early April.  Folks, this is tomato country. We have a very long tomato growing season.

Farmer Fred:

 Who are your survivors? What was the last date you picked tomatoes on?

Don Shor:

 Early December. And it was a very familiar one that you and I both got from Seeds and Such a couple years ago. Itz a Keeper. I planted  it on July 15th, four of them. It had very healthy foliage. The plant completely filled a four-foot cage by late August. So in six weeks, it filled a cage. Now, by the way, I was watering it daily because of when we planted it. And it set fruit very well in August. And my note says that I picked a total of 40, that's four, zero, fruit from that in October. And there was still some hanging on there. It's a very firm, solid tomato that's got a good, reasonably tough skin. So it actually held into the first week of December.

Farmer Fred:

 The survivors over here made it all the way to December 18th, and they were Jetstar, Principe Borghese, and Rugby.

Farmer Fred:

 And I harvested ripe, I harvested green, and the breaking. And breaking is just a term for when a tomato goes from green and you start seeing a slight tint of yellow or pink or red. And those lasted in my ersatz root cellar all the way to i think it was two weeks ago when we finally ran out.

Don Shor:

 Oh my goodness.

Farmer Fred:

So this was great having having homegrown tomatoes in late February. That was nice

Don Shor:

 As a slight side note, that breaker stage is actually a really important thing for home gardeners to learn to recognize. And you can find pictures of tomatoes at different stages of ripening. The reason I think it's really important to know is last summer is a good example. Pretty much the whole month of July was a heat wave. Technically, it was three heat waves in a row, but the gaps between them were only a day or two. In the entire month, the average high temperature in Davis was 97 degrees for the entire month of July.

Don Shor:

 And that meant that a lot of tomatoes weren't doing super, super well. More to the point, as you go into one of those extreme heat events, you might want to walk out there and look at your tomato vine. And if any of them have reached breaker stage and they're on the west side of the plant, pick them, bring them in, line them up on your counter, not in the refrigerator, not in the windowsill, just right on the counter. And you can watch them ripen correctly from breaker stage to fully ripen in about seven or eight days. And the ones out in the garden that are going into a heat wave facing west, you're very likely to get sun scald on those, which is just a sunburn on the fruit that ruins them. It's even worse with bell peppers, but in particular with tomatoes, if you're getting close, any bit off of that dark green, so breaker stage is just beginning to turn yellow, it will ripen in your counter just like it does going to the grocery store.

Don Shor:

 And it'll have better flavor than what you would buy at the grocery store. And you will have at least conserved the ones that might have been burnt during one of those heat events. And we had a lot of those last summer. I had a lot of people saying, “well, it was a terrible year for tomatoes”. No, it was a terrible July for tomatoes in particular. And if you just pick as they're getting close to ripening, you can actually save that fruit.

Farmer Fred:

 I noticed while perusing which catalog was that? I think it was the Johnny's Selected Seed Catalog. One of their new entries is a number, STM 2255. And for some reason, I fall madly in love with tomatoes with numbers. STM 2255 is supposedly a widely adapted fruit, according to Johnny's, with 8 to 12 ounce fruits. It's determinate. And it says it has “good heat setting ability, though, not quite as good as Jolene”. So all of a sudden I'm falling in love with Jolene. 

Don Shor:

 Cue the Dolly Parton song.

Farmer Fred:

 Please. Exactly. Yes. And so Jolene, what's the story on Jolene? So I had to go to that page to find out it's an F1 hybrid and it says it's “a smooth, deep red beefsteak that sets fruit in heat when other tomatoes will not. Round, clean, 8 to 10 ounce lightly ribbed fruits for mature green and vine ripe markets. Improved plant health production and fruit quality over Grand Marshall, which it replaced”. And now we have a new virus acronym, especially for you growers down in the Deep South. This tomato has strong T-Y-L-C-V resistance, which I guess means tomato yellow leaf curl virus. Yep.

Don Shor:

 There you go, which is not an issue for us as far as I know, but if you have a problem with that, if you're having trouble with late blight on your tornatoes, if you're having trouble with some virus, go ahead and peruse these catalogs. Because I can tell you breeding for disease resistance is really a big trend. And late blight in particular is a big problem back east. It's not something that we deal with all that much here. I've seen it, but it rarely wipes out the whole crop. But that's a big issue where you have summer rainfall. Something we're not real familiar with here.

Farmer Fred:

Along with humidity of 90% or more.

Don Shor:

 Correct.

Farmer Fred:

 So, I've put Jolene on my list of things to try in 2026.

Don Shor:

Oh, the sound you heard was me grabbing a pen and writing it down real quick, because I'm going to add, that's my production for this year. So, Jolene, in honor of Dolly Parton, I will get that one out in the garden.

Farmer Fred:

 Now, it says, you know, it's a great tomato for the South. Does that mean it won't grow in lesser humidity? Hmm.

Don Shor:

 We'll find out. Yeah, good question. Yeah, high temperature is usually our issue. And one of the things I noted was in your description you were reading was that infamous adjective, beefsteak. Yeah. Beefsteak is a variety. It actually is an official variety. And we generally talk people out of beefsteak tomatoes because the variety beefsteak and its direct derivatives like Beefmaster and Super Steak don't take high temperatures well. Well, they don't pollinate well. So they grow fine and they flower. And then the flowers that appear above about 85 degrees fall off. But long ago, all these companies, Burpee especially, but all of them learned that beefsteak is also a marketing term. And so all that tells you is it's got connective tissue and it slices well. It doesn't mean that it's an actual derivative of the old beefsteak variety. Beefsteak is one that I will generally talk people out of for the reasons I mentioned. But don't let that deter you when you're reading a catalog description as necessarily meaning that this is some progeny of beefsteak. Beefsteak itself, great for the Midwest, apparently, I'm told. Not here in California with our high temperatures and low humidity. And I assume it's the temperature, but it could be both for all we know.

Farmer Fred:

 And for those of you listening in the far-flung reaches of the world, remember all gardening is local and trust your local independent nursery to steer you in the right direction when it comes to tomato varieties that will grow best in your area.

Don Shor:

 Yeah, and also local growers. I mean, this is the thing. I've got Fourth of July as a good example. I never grew that for years. I didn't know anything about it, but one of the folks out here, Dr. Robert Norris, who advises the Master Gardener's program, kept mentioning it and mentioning it. I thought, okay, I've got to try this. This guy knows what he's talking about. Four to five ounce fruit, great in the heat, bright red, produces extremely well, just very, very reliable variety. And that was just getting the information from a Master Gardener or, again, just that old guy down the street who always grows that one type of tomato. I don't recommend always growing just one type of tomato, But you might add his to your current repertoire.

Farmer Fred:

All right. The early girl, there's a popular tomato everywhere. And now, tomato grower supply company, their new one for 2025 is Early Girl Plus. Plus what?

Don Shor:

Plus more fusarium resistance?

Farmer Fred:

 Yeah, exactly. I think it's three F's and two V's. Three fusarium resistant strains and two verticillium resistant strains.

Don Shor:

 Well, those are things we do have here. Yeah. So those are definitely California and even especially perhaps Davis-Woodland issues because it's tomato country over here. Well, Early Girl has actually finally got some contenders to her position there on the throne. Early Girl was introduced in the 1970s. I think it was Seminis Seeds that owned that one, and Burpee had an exclusive on it for several years. It quickly became one of the most popular tomato varieties everywhere because it sets early, it holds early, they ripen properly. I almost never get blossom end rot on it in spite of lower temperatures at the time that it's setting. And, of course, the flavor is outstanding. In fact, it's considered one of the best flavored tomatoes around. But New Girl has come on, and I've now done it side by side with Early Girl. And I especially last year did them literally side by side with exactly the same watering and care. It set better into the heat. It held better into the colder weather as we got into fall and even into early winter. And overall, it produced about 50% more fruit than Early Girl. And I can't tell the fruit apart. They're both four to six ounce, up to eight ounce fruit, very good flavor. And I think New Girl may be a contender for Early Girl's dominance of our industry.

Farmer Fred:

 I think it is. I talked about the three plants that I harvested on December 18th. On December 14th, the New Girl tomato plant blew over in a windstorm. And that's the only reason it didn't make it till the 18th. So I harvested those green and breaking tomatoes and enjoyed those all winter.

Don Shor:

 You know i mean Early Girl has been such a reliable variety. I’ll certainly sell it, i'll certainly grow it. i'll do this test again this year side by side maybe in a in a hotter part of the garden or something like that and see how it does, but i've been impressed for four or five years now i've been growing New Girl i didn't ever do it in such a systematic way like you know literally plant it the same day kind of thing well i did that and New Girl won this time. Again i have a rule - it takes two yearsfor a trial before i ever make an absolute recommendation. consider this an early recommendation.

Farmer Fred:

Oh, yeah. New Girl definitely is going in my garden again. By the way, a correction on Early Girl Plus. From tomato grower supply company. Their claim to fame is not V's and F's. It's TSWV resistance, tomato spotted wilt virus resistance.

Don Shor:

 We do have that in this area. Actually, that can be a pretty common problem in Yolo County, and it wouldn't surprise me in Sacramento County. So that is something to be aware of. It doesn't significantly affect yields or anything like that, but it makes an unsightly appearance on the fruit. So that is one thing to be aware of. That might be worth trying. I better get some seed of that one. I'm making a quick note here as we speak.

Farmer Fred:

All right. Another Early Girl going in my yard again this year is Bush Early Girl. And it is part of my succession planting scheme where I'm going to plant the bush early girl. The seedling's already up, but probably on April 1st, April Fool's Day. I'll stick it in a barrel where I've got some winter greens growing now, it’s in a very sunny spot. And I know, because it's a determinate, it's going to set most of its fruit probably by late June or early July. I will harvest that fruit. The plant gets pulled out because it's a determinate. It's going to set most of its fruit at one time. And I'll put corn in there or something else. 

Don Shor:

 Or you can just leave that open for the fall vegetables that people never have enough room for because their tomatoes are still producing.

Farmer Fred:

Yes, indeed. Yes, yes. I know that. But, yeah, that's very important. 

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THE 2025 TOMATO PREVIEW SHOW, Pt. 2

Farmer Fred

Another one we both like, too, and that's getting another run in my yard this year, probably yours, too, is Rugby.

Don Shor:

 Oh, yes. Rugby is, everyone who grows it comes back and raves about it. It's being marketed as a sauce tomato, which is unfortunate because it's really an everything tomato. Extremely productive, disease resistant, reliable, heat was no problem. It really is going to be a keeper. The only problem is that it was bred in, I think it's Bulgaria, and the seed sources are few and far between, and it's not on any seed rack, and very few garden centers actually sell it, although we will. But it's one of those ones where you better look around for it now and be prepared for a little sticker shock. I think it's one of those 10 or 20 cents per seed kind of varieties. Definitely worth it. Absolutely worth it in every garden. And so far, every year I've grown it, it's been one of my top performers and people rave about the fruit. My notes say 100 fruit last year. Set early, kept setting somewhat during heat, lots late season, just another great year for this new variety, top rated variety for sure.

Farmer Fred:

And it's a quick producer as well, 50 to 70 days, the fruit weigh up to seven and a half ounces. i see they do have it at the in the totally tomatoes catalog by the way i'll have a link to all these catalogs we're mentioning in today's show notes if you want to try your luck. and i was doing long division in my head it's 15 seeds for four dollars and 65 cents so i guess that's about 30 cents a seed i guess.

Don Shor:

 Yes yes indeed it's a little high priced up there but definitely worth it. The seed keeps reasonably well so if you a packet of it,  we find  that seeds lose some percentage of germination year to year don't buy way ahead don't stockpile but it does you know if you have 10 seeds left over next year I'm sure at least five of them will probably germinate.

Farmer Fred:

 I planted two rounds of Rugby tomatoes this year from the packet I had from 2023 and a new packet 2025. and they all germinated. so I'm happy. let's talk about a tomato company that's down the street from you Thank you. Yeah, the Norfolk tomato company or whatever they're called. They're the proud proprietors of the Norfolk purple tomato, the first home GMO tomato that is truly purple.

Don Shor:

 Yes.

Farmer Fred:

 Inside and outside. It's beautiful.

Don Shor:

 It's a little one. I think you got one in the garden and I planted one. These were not cheap, but they're like one or two ounce fruit. I didn't know that when I planted it. I thought they were bigger. So it's really a cherry tomato size fruit. Mine did grow very well. Some people had better results than others. By the way, what was done with this one was they inserted a gene from a Snapdragon that created the purple flesh. Because there have been purple or blue or black tomatoes forever, but they were purple, blue, or black skin. Just the peel, not the flesh. This one is purple. I mean, beautiful color all the way right through to the center. And everybody who tasted this first one that came out said, “oh, that's beautiful. Flavor is kind of mild.” That’s polite. Yes, mild. Insipid was the term that I took to using.

Farmer Fred:

 I like bland.

Don Shor:

Bland works too. but it’s beautiful chopped into salads and things. And one of my employees actually sun-dried it, and it sun-dried great. She just cut them in half just like she does Principe Borghese and some of the others, and sun-dried it. And that made for a very nice concentrated flavor. They are breeding, and I happen – the company is right here in Davis. I did happen to talk to someone from there, and they said they're – He acknowledged the flavor was mild. 

Farmer Fred

Oh, did he? That's good. 

Don Shor

And they're working to get better flavored ones. And this year, it'll be a richer flavor. And in fact, our little garden center is selling the seed of these new ones, of this particular tomato. But you want some sticker shock? $2 a seed.

Farmer Fred:

 $2 a seed. But you're not selling it by the seed.

Don Shor:

 No, it's by the packet. So for a packet of 10, it's $20. I'm not going to see them flying off the shelf, but we've already sold several packets because people are interested in this.

Farmer Fred:

It's getting the publicity around here.

Don Shor:

 Yeah, it's getting a lot of good public relations, and they're aware of the need to improve the flavor on this. It is a beautiful fruit, so there's no question that it might catch on. In the past, my general experience with blue and black tomatoes is I haven't liked them. Their flavor is kind of harsh. So when I would bring them in, and there's a bunch of them out there. I don't need to go through all the names. They were generally not really top rated by my staff or customers who took them. They were just, isn't that interesting? But really not, to my way of thinking, the kind of flavor we're after. This one was definitely sweet, but it didn't have much acidity to it. And while people don't like that term when I say acidity, oh, I don't want a sour tomato. You do want a balance of acid and sweet. You do want those two characteristics commingled. So you get the flavor profile that people really expect. Just sweet isn't really what most people are after.

Farmer Fred:

That's for darn sure