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Post by glen on Oct 19, 2018 12:52:56 GMT -6
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Post by glen on Oct 26, 2018 18:21:55 GMT -6
The little heidi tomato's are growing very quickly and staying fat and not leggy at all. There are 6. I have to get on the ball and decide on how I am going to support them. I have to look around and see if I can find material to do so. Looking real good so far.
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Heidi
Jan 26, 2019 13:44:07 GMT -6
Post by heavyhitterokra on Jan 26, 2019 13:44:07 GMT -6
Glen,
How did you support your Heidi tomatoes?
Are they still bearing?
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Post by glen on Feb 8, 2019 14:42:35 GMT -6
Ok, I have not been on this forum in quite awhile. The Heidi tomato project was and is a smashing success. I have 6 specimens. All six started out with a very bad case of blossom end rot. I didn't know really what to think about that at first. I do believe it is because of the small pots I am using and uneven watering issues. I now water twice per day. The plants are now about 3.5 months old. The plants quickly became loaded with blossoms. Almost none of the blossoms dropped off the plants. All produced tomato's. The blossom end rot issue did require me to throw away quite a few tomato's. However, slowly but surely the blossom end rot did stop. The plants have been loaded with tomato's ever since. I have never seen anything like this in my province of Panama. Usually, blooms fall off the plants and production is very low and not worth the effort. This heidi variety is obviously a tropical variety of tomato. They are happy and productive. The plants are not big. They are easy to support. I used cheap half inch pvc pipe as stakes. I tied them up with cut up tee shirts where I cut it into strips and used that as twine. The flavor of these tomato's is unique. They get exceptionally red and the redness is all the way thru the tomato's. They are meaty little paste tomato's with a very robust flavor. You cannot buy this type of paste tomato in the Supermarket. At least not in Panama. I use them in salads mostly. Bercy likes to just grab em and eat em like fruits.
The plants outside are still bearing fruits. They are beginning to look ratty. We have had high winds starting in December which are real hard on tomato's. I was skeptical that these plants would survive. But, they have. There are 2 plants in particular that I will save seeds from. One has round tomato's which George says is probably a specimen that got mixed with cherry tomato's. At any rate the quality of those tomato's are superb so I will be saving seed from that plant as well. Both these specimens look great still. If you could be here to feel the weather we are experiencing now you would be surprised that any tomato could survive in the high winds and intense heat and clear sky's we have now. The winds are gusty and powerful-probably in the 30's and 40 mph range gusts. Every day. And, the heat is in the 90's every day. Its 91 degree's inside my house now in the middle of the afternoon right this minute. Oh, these plants get about 3 feet tall and sort of droop over. The tomato's come in nice little clusters of 2 or 3. They are little. About 2 oz each. Some smaller, some bigger, but not much. They are very attractive little pear shaped tomato's. I have to say I was not the greatest fan of paste tomato's. But, this variety changed my mind. Flavor is tops. Performance is tops. I highly recommend this tomato.
If you live in a hot place-get some of this seed. Its worth it.
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sal
New Member
Posts: 3
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Post by sal on Mar 8, 2019 18:06:40 GMT -6
Glen, After I read your note and your comments on Heidi, I went online and bought some seeds. Now they are planted and I am waiting for them to germinate. I hope they will fair well in Florida. Sal
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Heidi
Mar 8, 2019 21:37:52 GMT -6
Post by heavyhitterokra on Mar 8, 2019 21:37:52 GMT -6
Great review of the Heidi tomatoes, Glen. You may have talked me into trying some of them myself. We have a seed swap Sunday afternoon, at 2:00 pm at Liberty Grace Chapel. I'm sure someone will have Heidi tomato seeds there. If so, I'll try to nab a couple of them for my seed trays this week.
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Heidi
Mar 9, 2019 7:41:40 GMT -6
Post by macmex on Mar 9, 2019 7:41:40 GMT -6
Now that is wonderful news! Here in Oklahoma we often have brutal summers. Heidi has never let me down. Also, Dawn, over from The Oklahoma Gardening Forum (Houz) lives near the Texas border, where the summers are even hotter. She is a tomato guro, having experimented with hundreds of varieties. Anyway, Dawn has become increasingly fond of Heidi. She comments that when the heat comes on, it just keep cranking out the tomatoes.
Bercy is right about them for fresh eating. They are flavorful, not bland, like a Roma. In fact, I don't even consider them to be a true paste tomato. They are a plum tomato, but on the inside, they are not a paste. They have a standard type tomato quality.
Glenn, we're going to have to come up with something else for you to trial. It's so great that you do this. It's like the acid test for heat, wind and drought!
Interestingly, I either saw or had correspondence with Dr. Carolyn Male, who introduced this tomato in North America, and she thought it was an "okay tomato." Folk in the North generally have that impression. I believe that's because their "hot weather" is not hot enough to bring out Heidi's virtues.
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Heidi
Apr 5, 2019 17:30:25 GMT -6
Post by glen on Apr 5, 2019 17:30:25 GMT -6
George, I appreciate the encouragement. Ok, my hiedi tomato's are about dead. There are 2 or 3 that still have a few tomato's on them and I am waiting for all of the tomato's to ripen before pulling the dead plants up. Lets see. I planted these in October 19, of 2018. I still have a bowl of these tomato's on the kitchen counter. They are rich red in color and its the same rich red all the way thru the tomato. They are not like store bought perita tomato's at all that are watery and lighter red inside the fruits with no rich flavor. Heidi is smaller fruits. Many are no bigger than a golf ball. It doesn't hurt a thing for them to be small. And, these tomato's are great to use in your soups and stews and in the bean pot. I use them for everything including salads. I have been picking a lot of tomatos for 3 full months in the worst possible miserable weather you can think of. The season for tomato's is actually October thru March in Panama. I do not know what variety the farmers use. They grow egg shaped tomato's though-commonly called perita and they are sold everywhere in the country. They are not flavorful. Everyone is just used to them. I am not even sure they would like Heidi tomato's. Totally different. Different red color. Very Rich flavor. Nothing the locals would be used to.
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Heidi
Apr 5, 2019 17:32:29 GMT -6
Post by glen on Apr 5, 2019 17:32:29 GMT -6
Sal and Ron. Congratulations on your decision to try Heidi tomato. Get ready to eat real rich plum tomato's. Or, as I call em, paste tomato's. You will love em.
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Heidi
Apr 5, 2019 17:40:20 GMT -6
Post by glen on Apr 5, 2019 17:40:20 GMT -6
Update. I bought 6 new large pots. I saved seed from the heidi tomato's. I also saved seed from one of the plants that had round tomato's. That plant came out of the same seed bag George sent me. I planted some original seeds, plus some of the seeds I saved, including the round tomato. The round tomato seeds would not germinate. I direct seeded right into the large pots. I will just transplant some of the extra seedlings into the pots where no seeds germinated. You can do that with tomato seedlings as long as you are careful. I have plenty of seedlings. Obviously the round tomato seeds were an f1 hybrid tomato that resulted from a cross. Sometimes, crosses don't produce viable seeds. My seedlings are now over an inch high. This is not the tomato season per se in Panama. However, I am growing more just to see what happens. Tomato's don't do so well during the rainy season. But, I should get some half way decent results and I may find out that I can grow Heidi tomato's twice per year. This is the first time I have ever had any good results growing tomato's in Panama. Pretty exciting.
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Heidi
Apr 5, 2019 17:46:23 GMT -6
Post by glen on Apr 5, 2019 17:46:23 GMT -6
George, I would be more than happy to try something new that you come up with. I am growing a nice selection of different things this year. I am not sure where I will post about this. Maybe on the new okra thread I start soon. My rainy season starts in May. Thats when I have to get things in the ground. May is showtime. Especially for the AfricanX okra. I am really looking forward to that. I have the pots ready to go. I just have to wait until May or close to May to sew the seeds. I must resist the urge to sew the seeds too early.
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Heidi
May 20, 2019 21:26:44 GMT -6
Post by glen on May 20, 2019 21:26:44 GMT -6
This season I have 6 Heidi tomato's planted. They are already nice sized. They are blooming now but not setting fruit. Blooms are falling off the plants. I am just now beginning to need to stake them up. The rainy season is not the traditional time to grow tomato's here in Panama. The plants need more sun. But, I could not resist trying to grow Heidi tomato's. I am experimenting. My first try was a success. I planted in October which is a good time to grow tomato's in Panama. I do believe I will get at least some tomato's even in this rain and over-cast weather though.
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Heidi
May 27, 2019 8:06:41 GMT -6
Post by heavyhitterokra on May 27, 2019 8:06:41 GMT -6
Glen,
Because of your Heidi Comments and your Heidi Reviews, I've planted several Heidi Tomatoes this season. I have about 120 tomato plants in total. 72 of which are Early Girl, one of which is a Super Fantastic, one is a Big boy (whatever that is) one is a Pink Brandywine, one is a Cherokee Purple, a few are Black Cherries, a few are Yellow Pears, the rest are a hodge-podge of Heidi, Baker family Heirloom, and whatever else I may have picked up at one of our many seed swaps. I like a variety of flavors for different purposes, some are for Winter Soups and Stews, some are for Garden Pizzas, some are for Salsa, some ore for Pico De Gallo, some are for salads, some are for the local Hamburger Joints who buy from me every year that I have surplus, and some are for family members that can't eat high acid tomatoes.
I'm looking forward to seeing what cooking purpose Heidi will be good for.
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Post by glen on May 27, 2019 22:45:21 GMT -6
Ron, I think you will like the flavor of the Heidi tomato's plus they are very heat tolerant. Nematodes don't bother em that much either. They are super dark red pear shaped tomato's with a very deep rich flavor that I have never before experienced. Pear Shaped tomato's are usually not that interesting to talk about but for me heidi is very useful. Number one, it grows for me. Which is important. Most tomato's do not set fruit for me. Some don't make blooms. Some won't set fruit. Blooms fall off. Heidi sets the fruit in hot conditions and also the short day lengths. My nights are very warm also. And, I guess Heidi does good in OK as well, after all, George sent me the seed. You can do anything you want with this tomato. I eat em in everything. Even in salads. Oh, the tomato's are little, about 2 oz. Oh, another interesting thing about this tomato is that you can put em on the counter and they don't go bad for a long time-even in my warm temperatures. Even when they do start to get over-ripe on the counter you can still use them in soups and stews or steamed with okra. My current plants are not looking so great. The weather is over-cast every day, like a nuclear winter. Heidi likes sun. My plants are now tall and lanky but still setting fruit. I have some weird plants. Some are pear shaped Heidi's. Some are round. There was obviously some hanky panky going on. I will have to sort that out later.
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Post by macmex on May 28, 2019 6:29:00 GMT -6
Cherry tomatoes are extremely promiscuous and will cross with other tomatoes very easily. When I received my first seed for Heidi, I had a cherry tomato cross show up, which had to have occurred back where the seed was produced. I rogued it out, yet Glen still had one show up the first time he planted my seed. I haven't seen that one since the first season I grew it, but this shows how persistent a cross can be, hiding in the gene pool without showing itself.
I put out about a dozen Heidi plants, on April 28, just before I headed out East, for a week, to see my parents and family. I mulched them lightly, knowing that we were likely to have downpours, which could splash mud on their leaves, and... forgot about them. I didn't really forget, but neither did I have time to do anything with them. I just saw them, over on the far end of the garden, and left them until yesterday. Yesterday I put T posts by each one, and today I hope to cage them. They are ready for cages. If I don't do this real soon, they'll be too big.
I lost more than half of all the other tomatoes I have transplanted into the garden. This is partly due to late frosts/freezes. Heidi was put out later. Still, it is impressive that this tomato is thriving with no care at all. I anticipate a bumper crop. As Glen has mentioned, though a plum, Heidi is quite tasty, eaten as a salad tomato. It's not a great slicer, as it's smallish. But it does produce well and tastes good.
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