Is there anything I need to be aware of that's different about growing heirloom tomatoes? I picked up a red beefsteak and a german queen. Both are indeterminate and the beefsteak has a F N disease resistance. I just didn't know if I need to be more careful or watch for certain things or if I just grow them like I do regular hybrids. Is it ok to put them in a bed with hybrids?
Heirloom Tomatoes
- Thread starter nhraziano7
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You grow them both the same. The thing about heirlooms is that they don't have all of the "built in" disease resistance that hybrids do. They usually are a larger plant than hybrids and take up more room but you can grow heirlooms and hybrids side by side
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Watch for early blight with the German Queen. I planted one in my first garden last year, and got a ton of rain right after. The other tomatoes I had did great once the weather got better, but the German Queen picked up blight and never recovered.
I was really looking forward to tasting those too
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Most heirlooms are scared and often not heavy producers. It is always fun to grow a few as an experiment, but don't rely on them for the main crop.
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In my climate, I've all but given up on heirlooms.
There is usually a reason why they lost popularity.
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I have good results with the smaller salad size and baseball sized heirlooms but the big varieties not so much. The only big heirloom that produces well for me time after time is Cherokee Purple. I keep on planting heirlooms in search of the Holy Grail of big tomatoes but after 20 years in the garden I have now I still haven't found the perfect big tomato. I think the reason for this is because of the climate here leads to a short tomato growing season and most heirlooms are mid to late season producers, but, I ain't gonna give up!