SEEDLESS VARIETIES:

****Available as plants only…$2.50****

It may help to point out that Roma and Oxheart tomato varieties, are “naturals” at keeping their “in-house” seed population under control. Others, considered “semi” or fully “hollow” where seed extraction is easy, may also be an option. If you are finding that issues with your health do not allow the consumption of seeds, consider any of the varieties mentioned in the listing below. There are many tomato lovers out there and due to changes in their health, are deprived of eating their favorite vegetable/fruit. I would think that would be almost unbearable!

Seed maybe available for some varieties. Check out our 2013 Excess Tomato Seed Listing.
Happy Hunting!
Mandy

1. Abraham Lincoln – large Red Beefsteak…meaty, ribbed with FEW seeds.
2. Brazil – small flattened, red fruits…2.75” wide. Meaty and flavorful, with FEW seeds.
3. Chinese Red – red 2” x 6” “paster” with practically NO seeds. Flavor is quite good…sweet.
4. Climbing-Trip-L-Crop – the Italian Climbing Tree, huge red beefsteak, with FEW seeds.
5. Dad’s Mug – a huge heavy meaty pink with low seed count.
6. Delicious – a large red 2 lb. with very tiny seed cavity.
7. Dixie Golden Girl – a giant yellow bi-color, fruity flavor with small seed cavity.
8. Dwarf Champion –45 days…..first few fruits are seedless.
9. German Johnson – a huge red beefsteak with excellent flavor and small seed cavity.
10. Giant Belgium – a huge pink beefsteak whose meatiness shrinks the seed cavity.
11. Gold Nugget – golden 1” cherry, rich, thin-skinned, almost seedless.
12. Kellog’s Breakfast – another orange giant beefsteak, thin skinned with FEW seeds.
13. Legend –a red 8oz egg-shaped fruit, solid with very FEW seeds.
14. Novikovs Giant – a heavy pink beefsteak producer where some early fruits almost seedless.
15. Oregon Spring – first red medium fruits are seedless in this very early var.
16. Siletz – semi-det. early red tomato first fruits maybe seedless.
17. Texas Star – another gorgeous gold and red beefsteak, offering very small seed cavity.
18. White Beauty – the meatiness in this white beefsteak allows almost no seed!

LONGKEEPER VARIETIES:

Here is a novel grouping of tomatoes that will extend your tomato season by several months and still taste better than any “store bought” tomatoes. The majority of them start out later (reserving their energy….) than most, to ensue that a good crop is available to the grower at season’s end. Be sure to try a few.

To prepare: Always select the very best of your crop. (It would benefit to put some type of mulch around the base of the plant, so fruits stay clean and free of soil bacteria.) Find a low edged cardboard box and lay paper towel to soften the area, on which they are placed.  Do not wash the fruits unless they are horrifically dirty.  Just like the chicken’s egg, nature provides a fine natural protective coating (… a natural preservative???) on the skin’s surface to slow down decay.

Lay the fruits, in one row on the paper towel. (Some folks wrap each individual fruit with newsprint.) Would be a good idea, if you have a lot of fruit, to experiment with both methods… naked or wrapped! Place this tray in a mildly-warm-cool environment, “windy” area (here, I mean a fan to circulate the air) preferably away from apples. Temperature for proper storage should be quite cool. Apples release a gas that causes almost anything placed beside it to ripen! Return to the tray every few days to monitor the process and remove those that become too soft or show rot, as these will ruin the “soup”! Good Luck!

One can never have too many Long Keepers for wintering over! Seed maybe available for some of these. Check out out 2013 Excess tomato Seed Listing.

1. Keepsake – a long “keeper” tomato which has great flavor, when picked vine-ripe. You can keep fruits at room temperature for 6 plus weeks without decreasing temperature to ensure best quality. Orange scarlet, medium to large “heavy” fruits with great juice, thick walls and thick skin. One unusual trait…80% offered a large nipple on their blossom ends. Plants are bush-type (less than 30″tall) and offer very high yields for such small plants. Fruits come on mid season and continue to produce till frost, ripening evenly overal, compared to other “long keepers”. Determinate 76 days
2. Long Keeper – famous for its storage ability. This was my first attempt at trialing storage tomatoes (1995). The color of these was quit different than anything I ever saw. Even the foliage was darker green, plentiful, ”hairy” and rugose than regular varieties. If picked ripe in late fall (before any frosts threaten…) and stored properly, most fruits can last thru the winter, without change in flavor. Ripe peel is lite golden orange/red, (mottled….) while flesh is medium red. Taste is moderate, leaning more to the acidic side. Determinate 78 days
3. Green-Skinned Long Keeper – preserved by members of the US, S. S. Ex. Regular leafed variety that is quite productive for a storage type. Thick skinned (7-8 oz.) round beefsteak-type, flatter than usual, bearing light green and white gently striped skin. Will last a long time in storage, if picked almost ripe and kept cool & dry, with some air movement to prevent spoilage. Flesh is deeper pink and tasty. Plants do not grow too tall…about 30″.  Ind.  90 days
4. Mystery Keeper – an outstanding storage tomato, in a light orange translucent color. In my 2011 garden trials, this one was out of this world. Plants were barely 30″ tall, with deep green Rugose style leaves & several trusses, each offering close to 10 or more fruits on each! Try harvesting before all the fruits turn color and just before any serious frosts damage them. They will ripen slowly from this point on and keep for weeks. Hunter friends ate some of these in December and were impressed by their great flavor. Some may not appear ripe on the outside, but maybe ripe on the inside. When cut open, insides were quite red in color, compared to the outside. Today…Feb.4th, 2012…still have 5 tomatoes looking good, in a plate on the kitchen table! Determinate 80 days
5. Rev. Marrow LongKeeper – (aka ? Rev. Marrow Peach) New for 2013! According to sources, this variety was selected out  by Merlyn Neidens and that the original seed came Rev. C. Frank Marrow, ? from Northern Illinois. A late producing “keeping” peach (furry?) variety with light red ( orange/red) tones that slowly ripen from the inside out. Flesh will appear pink when fully ripe. Fruits can reach 10 oz and are very roundish. Plants can grow to 4 ft and known to produce heavily. Det.
6. Ruby Treasure – firm medium-sized fruits that keep well into the winter. This one (of two…) was bred by Tim Peters of Peters Seed & Research Co. Will develop early enough to produce some vine-ripe, so you have some to taste, before you put the rest into storage. These will turn red and soft, much earlier than other “keepers”. Flavor is the best of all. Determinate 75 days
7. Winter Gold Keeper – here is the other variety bred by Tim Peters of Peters Seed & Research Co. An improved version of the “Long Keepers”. In my trials of 2012, I vote this one my next favorite LongKeeper! As I sit here updating website additions and deletions, a basket of them still sit pretty on my kitchen table! (January 29th) Yellow/green on the outside (changing to a clear deep yellow as it ages…) with pale pink on the inside when ripe. 4 to 6oz (the smallest in our collection…) flattish, round fruits born on regular-leafed plants. Growers have remarked how much prettier than the others these look. (See Photos in Flickr…)  91 days
8. Yellow Fleshed Red Interior – (aka Yellow Out Red In) New for 2013! Honestly, I can’t get enough of long keeper varieties and here is another, just to prove that there are literally 100′s of these out there. (At one time I thought there was only half a dozen) Yellow thick walled fruits, where the  interior changes completely to a rosy red! A 6 to 8 oz smooth globe, blemish & crack free, long keeper with excellent flavor and  juice. Plants are semi-determinate, reaching about 3 feet.  93 days

“CLIMBING” VARIETIES:

This section is devoted to tomato varieties that go out of their way to provide us with bountiful crops. There is no such thing as a “climbing” tomato, but after you grow one of these you will understand why they are termed as climbers. It is quite common for vigorous vines to reach 6 ft. or more. These listed here are capable of travel far beyond that! Allow these to cover some surface or provide support, where the fruits can hang down, ready for you to harvest. Be warned, some fruits may need support too!

There are many varieties which, if I did not clip them back, could easily reach over 6 ft. Some examples are: “Aussie”, “Black Plum“, “Blondkopchen“,  “Brandywine Yellow”, “Costoluto Genovese”, “Iidi“, “Isis Candy”, “Landry’s Russian“, “Lollipop”, “Red Calabash”, “Garden Peach”, “Portuguese Bull Heart“, “Plum Lemon”, “Purple Smudge”, “A’s Mini-Mouse”, “Olirose de St. Dominque“, “Orange Banana”, “Orange Strawberry”, “Zapotec Pleated Pink”, to name a few and many of the cherry types.

Seed maybe available for some listed below. Check out our 2013 Excess Tomato Seed Listing.

1. Bearo – from my friend Micky. A lot packed into this chubby (2-4 oz) plum shaped red fruit! Has great flavor, combined with high yields and produces over a long period of time. The virtue of this one…is that it is capable of growing over 12 feet long! A climber, to be used to shade a deck or veranda! Keep roots cool mulched, moist and well fed. It has a lot of work to do! Ind.  75 days
2. Climbing-Trip-L-Crop – (aka “Italian Tree”) There appear to be several varieties, laying claim to this famous name. Their claim is its ability to grow vines to 15 feet by season’s end. Each plant can produce tons of fruits (forms of huge beefsteaks…), some of them reaching 1 to 3 lb plus! Fruits are mild-flavored, sweet, rich and meaty with few seeds. Ind. 75-85 days Ex: 1) “Climbing Pink” – regular leaf, pink 4-6oz, good yield, great flavor. 2) “Climbing Trip-L-Crop Pink” – large 12oz beefsteaks, long season production, fruits have 12 seed cavities, flesh is sweet, texture is succulent to creamy. Reg. leaf. 3) “Climbing Trip-L-Crop Burgess” – obtained from S. S. Ex. Large pink beefsteaks on tall vines. 4) “Climbing Trip-L-Crop (Red)” – largest of all, with fruits reaching 2 lbs, vermilion red. 5) “Trip-L-Crop” – Potato-leafed plants bearing pink flattened globes of 10-12oz (5” x 3.5”) 6) “Pink Climber” – Potato-leafed, large seeded, 10-16oz pink fruits. From Rosella Richardson.
3. Lunch Bucket – unknown history. Small red fruits are perfect for children’s lunch boxes, about (4-5oz.) Flavor is unusual…spicy and salty at the same time. (maybe better for “big” children, than for small children) Plants are very productive and vigorous…growing to 8 feet! This variety is unusually early for such a tall one. Ind.   67 days