Comments on: Paul Robeson: Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2007

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 01:52:46 +0000

Well, another summer, and much less success with tomatoes, except our one grape; it is covered with fruit. Both Paul Robesons have taken a beating with the horrible heat we have had this summer. Bugs have been worse, too. Makes us want to try chemicals. One PR died before the fruit matured. The other is now withering, but has made a handful of just gorgeous delicious fruits. They are sooo good, but the plants take up a lot of space for the amount of yield.

I think that we may try more hot weather varieties next year.

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:39:54 +0000

We have numerous varieties in our garden this year. I’m a new grower, so I’m sure there are things I could have done to improve yield. Having said that, we have several varieties that were put in around April under polyethelene tarps; Slicers: Paul Robeson, Cherokee Purple, Mosckovitch, & Plack Prince. Cherries: Sweet 100′s, Yellow Pear, and an unknown variety). We also got a number of tomato plants that were freebies and planted late (May): 2 Oxhearts, & 2 Brandywines – they are green and growing some nice fruit.
So far, I’ve only gotten to taste the sweet 100′s, pears, and ONE Robeson. The cherries are great, in particular the sweet 100′s are divine. But the Paul Robeson, was a really delicious tomato, perfect on toast with a little mayo. Also very sweet if just eaten by the slice.
Can’t wait for the other slicers to come to ripeness. Just picked a very large cherokee this morning, letting it ripen a day or so before going in for the yum.

Thanks for the great blog.

Peace

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:29:36 +0000

In 2009 we grew Paul Robeson in a planter and got numerous small to medium fruit that seemed very sweet. They were the most popular vs First Prize, Sioux, Celebrity and Giant Belgium. We will be devoting garden space for more Paul Robesons next year. The plant and fruit seemed to be disease resistant and the flavor was superlative, and we were able to leave the fruit on the vine long enough for it to become purple/black. The only problem was blossom end rot when the plant became calcium deficient.
Thinning our plants and spraying with a combination of soap and neem oil seemed to keep the rot and pests to a minimum, versus 2008 when we tried Carbon and had a lot of trouble with both. We also improved the drainage in our garden and seemed to have less cracking, despite 2009 being one of the wettest years we can remember.

By: Hanna

Hanna — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 22:03:23 +0000

kate – Thanks for the suggestion. I will certainly give Black from Tula a try.

jen – That sounds like a fun idea. I will have to see if I can do a post like that after I have finished this year’s tastings.

By: jen

jen — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 04:25:03 +0000

Hanna-I love your tomato tastings. It would be nice if you would do a round up of sorts of your favorites. Tomatoes that you always grow that have done well for you. I would love that.
I also value your opinion of tomato tastes as they seem to be similar to what I want on a tomato. your blog rocks!