Early Slicers
(aka Main Crop, Globe, Standard)
But first a short lesson in tomato anatomy.
The outside wall of the tomato, the skin, or epidermis, varies in thickness from being very thick in paste type tomatoes to being so thin as to be translucent in pink heirlooms.
The meaty interior, or pericarp, is very thick in paste tomatoes, less so, but still predominant, in beefsteaks, and even less so, in slicers and cherries. Therefore cherry tomatoes and slicers are typically juicier.
The locules are the seed chambers. Four are shown in this diagram. Cherry tomatoes typically have only two. Paste tomatoes have 2 or 3 locules. Slicer tomatoes, also sometime called Standard or Globe tomatoes, contain 3 to 5 seed cavities. Beefsteaks contain 6 or more. The seeds are suspended in a gel called locular jelly. This gel contains the sugars, glutamates, and acids that give the tomato its distinctive flavor and aromatic compounds that provide most of its aroma.
So, the tomatoes in this category, Early Slicers, contain 3 to 5 locules. They also weigh 3 or more ounces to be large enough to make nice slices, and the plants mature ripe fruit in less than 81 days after plantings otherwise it would be senseless to call them Early. The are also the tomatoes most often grown by home gardeners, earning the title Standard, and most are round without ridges, thus the moniker Globe.
Still more nomenclature.
Most Slicers are determinant. That means the vine will grow to a certain (determined) length (typically 5 feet or less), and then stop growing and producing blossoms that can set fruit. Determinant plants usually produce a short bush that requires little or no pruning and some, but not a lot of support to keep fruit off the ground. Many determinant grow well in large pots.
indeterminant plants continue growing, and producing fruit until killed by frost. The vines can grow 6 to 15 feet long and will definitely need the support of large cages or stakes. Pruning advice is a matter of individual wants and needs. Some growers like to deal with only one main vine tied to a stake, pruning off all suckers and branches. The other end of the spectrum is just letting nature take its course with zero pruning. Of course creative trellising, caging, staking or a combination thereof must be done to keep fruit off of the ground and rotting. Most Gardners prune all of the suckers and some of the branches to produce a more manageable plant. But there is no right or wrong, and the debate is hot on what method produces the most vs best fruit.
There is a third category called semi-determinant. Tomatoes in this grouping form a bush like determinants, but continue to produce fruit until frost like indeterminants. Many of these produce even shorter (3 to 4 ft tall) and more compact bushes than most determinants. A large number make good container plants. And while caging or some form of support is recommended, I have grown varieties that have strong enough stems to stay erect without any.
You are probably asking yourself, well, self, why would you grow anything but semi-determinants? And for you, that may be exactly the smart thing to do. But farmers and home canners like plants that mature large quantities all at once, or nearly all at once. Thus the harvesting and processing gets done in shorter time. Gormands and heirloom aficionados have their own favorites which spread across all three categories. To each, his own.
And about heirlooms.
Public acceptance for the label heirloom is the cultivar can be any open-pollenated tomato so long as it has been available for over 50 years including such well known tomatoes as Rutgers, Marglobe, and Big Boy even though they were F1 hybrids when first marketed, Hybrid tomatoes can become stable open-pollinated plants by repeatedly, across multiple generations, selecting offspring most like the parent plants and cross breeding them. Once all the offspring of a generation exhibit the desired traits of the original parent hybrid, a stable open-pollinated seed source has been established.
Tomato purist insist that to be considered an heirloom no tinkering with the genetic code through hybridization or engineering by commercial developers has ever been done, regardless of how long the cultivar has been available to the public.
The Cultivars (varieties)
Bloody Butcher heirloom, 56 days. Indeterminate. Bloody Butcher is believed to have originated in Germany and was introduced into commerce by Sahin Seeds of Holland in 1998. Rich flavor and ready in only 8 weeks, the fruits have a deep red color, inside and out. Plants will yield five to nine 3-4 oz. fruits per cluster and will produce until frost. It's a multi-purpose, potato-leafed tomato. Its rich flavor is a favorite of many gourmands, but the skin is a bit tough. In 2015 and 2016 my Bloody Butcher plants ripened fruit earlier than all other varieties except Cherry Falls. I picked my first ripe Bloody Butcher tomato on June 12 in 2017 - only 2 days after my first Cherry Falls.
Celebrity hybrid, 70 days. Determinate. 1984 AAS winner, Celebrity is highly disease resistant and the bushy plants are tolerant to blight, but be aware they grow poorly in cooler temperatures. I transplant mine outside at least a full week later than other tomato plants. The smooth, firm, dark red, oblate 7 to 8 ounce fruit grow on stocky vines perfect for caging. Although a true determinate plant that should not be pruned, Celebrity is often considered to be a semi-determinate variety because it does not grow tall or scraggly and it continues to produce fruit until frost.
Celebrity's strength is its reliably high productivity. Its weakness is that some heirloom lovers might think its flavor ordinary and bland. But I think the flavor as good as most hybrids - just be careful of the seed vendor you buy from so you can be certain that the Celebrity seeds you are sowing are really Celebrity. Assurance of quality is a major concern with all vegetable seed purchases. I recommend not bargain hunting and sticking to the time proven major players.
Celebrity was developed by noted plant breeder Colen Wyatt for PetoSeed.
Champion, hybrid, 70 days. Indeterminate. Champion produces average yields of 8 oz red tomatoes that ripen quickly after fruit set, and continues to produce heavily all season long until frost. The fruit are nearly perfectly blemish free, not too sweet and have a hint of that old fashioned tomato flavor - more like beefsteaks than the other early varieties. The juicy, meaty fruit do not contain too many seeds.
Champion was bred to produce the perfect early slicer for sandwiches. Fruit sets even on cool nights. I started growing Champion because it was highly recommended by a gardening friend who swears by its taste and productivity. I have to generally agree with his opinion. The one possible drawback I've found is that Champion does not set fruit well during hot, steamy weather. Of course that's true of many tomato cultivars.
Defiant hybrid, 70 days. Determinate. Hghly resistant to late blight and somewhat to early blight. It was co-developed by Johnny's Selected Seeds in collaboration with researchers at North Carolina State University, released around 2011 The dark red 6 to 8 ounce fruit have a robust flavor.
Early Girl hybrid, 57 days. Indeterminate. For good reason Early Girl is the most purchased six-pack tomato plants at retail stores every spring. 4 to 6 ounce, globe shaped, meaty, smooth, reliable, and heavy yielding with crimson red, blemish-free skin. Somewhat resistant to wilt, large leaves protect against sun scald. Early Girl's unique, rich flavor compares favorably to many heirlooms. It has enough juice and thick enough walls to be an ideal canner. Early Girl does not sprawl, and responds well to caging. Considered the earliest true slicing-size tomato, it starts producing quickly and keeps on until frost. Early Girl matures quickly (advertised at 54 days; good luck with that) and continues growing with temperatures even as low as 40 F. Early Girl has been the standard by which all other early tomatoes are compared, and in my opinion, still the best. Early Girls developer, a hybridizer in France, considered his new creation a failure because it bruised too easily to be trucked by commercial growers, but Joe Howland, a member of the Board of Directors at PetoSeed Co., had been on the lookout for just such a hardy tomato; one that could be reliably grown under the variable climate conditions of his high desert home where he gardened in Reno. Burpee bargained with PetoSeed for exclusive rights to market the seed and featured the tomato on the cover of its 1975 spring catalog.
Eva Purple Ball heirloom, 78 days. Indeterminate. Cherry red, 5-7oz, meaty, smooth fruit. This blemish-free, Black Forest tomato is excellent for salads, sandwiches and sauces. The seed provided by Carolyn Male and Craig LeHoulier was introduced by SESE in 1994. Joseph Bratka of Elmwood Park, NJ, got the seed from his Grandfather whose family immigrated to the U.S. from Germany in the late 1800's. Some catalogs describe Eva as being pink-purple, but most gardeners claim they can see no purple tint whatsoever. The same holds for some other varieties with 'purple' in their name. This may be explained by the fact that in the late 19th century PURPLE was sometimes used colloquially to mean a darker shade of pink; even one without any bluish hue. Also, another definition for purple is 'showy' or 'spectacular' which many growers would agree appropriately describes Eva Purple Ball.
Eva Purple Ball is a disease resistant, reliable and abundant producer - even in hot weather. The flavor is slightly tangy, but still sweet. Fully ripe fruit has a tendency to drop off the vine.
First Lady II VFNTASt hybrid, 60 days. Indeterminate. 4 to 6 ounce round, smooth skinned fruit. Very crack resistant. Purposely developed to compete with Early Girl. Many claim it tastes better. Often considered most flavorful of all early hybrids. Is much more disease resistant than Early Girl, and very productive. Fruits cluster on vines that need support. Grows well trellised. My results have been that Early Girl produces fruit at least a week sooner than First Lady, but First Lady fruit are bigger; very comparable to Big Beef. Total production is pretty much a tie. Early Girl has a unique flavor with a bit of tang whereas First Lady’s flavor is more common, less unique, tasting a lot like Big Beef. So I view First Lady as another entry rather than a replacement for Early Girl.
Goliath Giant Early Bush hybrid, 50 days. Semi-determinate. Giant Early Bush is a really superb tomato with the caveat that you purchase the seed from a reliable source. There is a lot of so called ‘Early Goliath’ seed being sold that isn’t, and that has resulted in Bush Goliath having an undeserved poor reputation with many home gardeners. The real McCoy could in fact be the Holy Grail of tomatoes grown in small spaces. It is more than a week earlier than Early Girl with fruit nearly as big as Big Beef. The flavor is better than average for an early hybrid. It has spread of only 28-in. and a height of 48-in. Ideally planted in large pots, yet still producing as much fruit as many garden planted tomato plants. I’m amazed by the amount of consistent quality tomatoes Giant Early Bush pumps out. It does slow down its production of fruit later in the season but there are tomatoes to harvest up till frost. I’ve not had much luck continuing the season bringing Early Bush indoors and growing under lights.
Green Zebra Open-pollinated, 78 days. Determinate. Tart, 2 inch green fruit sweeten as they slowly ripen to a yellow-gold with dark green stripes. This tomato, often erroneously listed as a heirloom, is actually a cross of 4 heirlooms by Evertt, WA, plant breeder Tom Wagner. Tom first offered it for sell in 1983. Soon the tomato was popularized by being featured at Alice Waters' Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, CA. Expect good yields of 3 oz fruits great for sauces, salads, sandwiches, or pickles.
Jetsetter hybrid, 64 days. Indeterminate. Ripe fruit from 64 days after setting out. The smooth, juicy, globe-shaped fruit weigh 8 oz. or more. I discovered the tomatoes keep better in storage than most varieties after being harvested. Jetsetter fruit is absolutely crack free and disease resistant. The size is amazingly consistent, and the flavor is really not bad for a hybrid. Productivity is excellent until frost.
The variety was released by wholesale vendor Petoseed in 1998.
I had heard great things about Jetsetter from other gardeners, so I thought I'd give it a try.
Legend hybrid, 70 days. Determinate. The Legend tomato is an early-maturing, slicing variety bred by Dr. Jim Baggett at Oregon State University. Famed for strong resistance to late blight fungus and the ability to set fruit in cool, wet weather. The 4 foot bushy plants are parthenocarpic and can set fruit without the need for insects to pollinate them. it yields large, glossy red, 4 to 8 ounce, low-seed fruits with a rich, balanced sweet-acid flavor.
Manitoba open-pollinated, 58 days. Determinate High yields of bright red, baseball size 3.25 oz fruit with a tangy tomato flavor. As its name suggests, this slicer was developed in Manitoba to mature and produce fruit during the short Canadian summer. Morden Experimental Farm created this disease resistant, 2 to 3 ft tall tomato plant. The plant produced its full crop over a month, then died.
Unlike other mealy, bland, seedy short-season varieties I've tried, the fruit of Manitoba compares favorably in size, texture, and flavor with Mt. Princess. But, at least for the 2013 growing season, harvesting that first ripe tomato took much longer than the 58 days advertise
Marglobe open-pollinated, 75 days, Determinate. Red, smooth, meaty, medium sized fruits 5 to 8 oz. on vigorous. stocky stems. Marglobe was one of the first relatively early maturing tomatoes to exhibit good disease resistance and has been used for that reason in the parentage of other varieties, including Rutgers. It iwill produce most all of its crop over a 2 month period.
Marglobe was created in 1917 by Fred J. Pritchard by crossing Marvel and Globe. Its original release was in 1925 by the USDA.
Mountain Princess heirloom, 65 days. Determinate. As a potted plant, Mountain Princess twice beat Early Girl for the first ripe fruit in my garden. In 2011 I had ripe tomatoes by the end of June. But unlike Early Girl that continues production until frost, Mountain Princess vines often quit production by mid-August. If conditions are favorable though, Princess will set more blossoms and produce an additional late crop.
These orangish-red 2.5 - 3.5 inch diameter tomatoes form in clusters of 5-8 fruit. The variety originates from the Monongahela National Forest region of West Virginia. The medium size plant benefits from caging to keep fruit from spoiling on the ground, but staking is not necessary, and Mountain Princess grows very nicely as a container plant.
During the record hot growing season of 2012 Early Girl, Bush Goliath, and Mountain Princess all had ripe fruit within days of each other before the 4th of July
Rutgers hybrid, 75 days. Indeterminate. Developed in the 1920s and still famous for its remarkable flavor and large yields of 6 to 8-oz., solid, meaty, deep-red fruits, perfect for canning. There are seed catalogues selling a determinate Rutgers, sometimes listed as Rutgers VF. but i’ve found it to be inferior to the original in size and taste. I do like the latest Rutgers 250. It is semi-determinate and retains most of the original Rutgers characteristics with greater disease resistance.
Rutgers was developed by Lyman Schermerhorn at Rutgers University in 1934 by crossing J.T.D. with Marglobe. It became a great canning tomato for Heinz and Campbell's and was so successful it soon made up nearly 3/4th of the tomatoes grown by farmers in the United States. The bright red fruit ripens evenly from inside out, and the walls are thick making it ideal for canning. Rutgers was also widely sold as a fresh eating tomato.
Rutgers seeds are the only ones that have ever been shot into space. In 1984 twelve and a half million Park Seed Company's California Supreme Rutgers tomato seeds were launched into space aboard the Challenger shuttle and spent 5 years in orbit aboard NASA's Long Duration Exposure Facility. The Columbia shuttle retrieved the tomato seeds in 1989 and found no significant change in plants grown from the space seeds. Many Rutgers devotees claim it is the original 'Jersey' tomato.
Spark's Earliana open-pollinated, 65 days. Determinate. Expect compact plants that prolifically produce 3 inch diameter, 4 to 6 oz. red fruit. For a time this was practically the only tomato grown in Southern New Jersey and marketed in Eastern cities during the last week in June through July. The uniformly round fruit grow in clusters of 4 to 6 on 3 foot vines. Its sweet/tart flavor makes Earliana good for eating fresh off the vine. It is also a good salad and canning tomato.
George Sparks of Salem, NJ, discovered the original plant. Philadelphia seed supplier Johnson & Stokes was the first to sell Earliana commercially in 1900.
Stupice heirloom, 55 days. Semi-determinate. A native of Czechoslovakia. Sets fruit even in cool weather. Heavy yielding 2 to 3 inch, 3-6 ounce fruit oncompact, potato-leaf vines reaching 4 to 5 feet. The flavor is highly weather-related and varies from being watery and bland to some harvest having a rich, slightly tart sweetness.
Traveler 76 hybrid, 78 days. Indeterminate. The globe-shaped, meaty, dark pink, crack-free tomatoes weigh at least 6 ounces, have a great flavor, and are heat and drought resistant. My wife thought it was the best tasting pink. While not as large as Brandywine, the slices are large enough to cover a bun. Traveler 76's are also much earlier and more dependably productive than the fickle Brandywine. Brandywine does have something Traveler 76 lacks, though, a large fan club and media hype. It's hard to find sources for Traveler 76 while Brandywine is featured in almost every seed catalogue.
Bradley County Arkansas, located in the piney woods of the West Gulf Coastal Plain south of Little Rock, became known nationally for its Bradley Pink tomatoes which earned the reputation as "Arkansas's gift to the nation." The acclaimed Pinks of Bradley County grown the first half of the 20th Century were descendants from a plant first discovered in 1917 by Walter Richards of Crystal Springs, Mississippi, growing among his Early Detroit tomato plants. D. M. Ferry & Company named the discovery Gulf State Market and sold the seeds to backyard and market gardeners. .
Dr. Julian C. Miller Of the Baton Rouge Ag. Experimental Station developed a highly refined selection of Gulf State Market tomato he named Louisiana Gulf State that was offered for sell to consumers by Reuter Seed Co. in 1936. Further progress was made in 1961 by U. of Arkansas' Joe McFerran who crossed Gulf State with a wilt resistant cultivar, Pinkshipper, to produce a quality table tomato he named Bradley. After even more selecting and hybridizing with the Gulf State Market line, McFerran released Traveler in 1971, and a few years laterTraveler 76.
In the 1980's many Bradley farmers switched to recent University releases of more productive and reliable red cultivars. Also, to meet the new demands set by the large chain-store supermarkets that were quickly replacing mom & pop groceries, most tomato farms in Bradley county had to enlarged to over 20 acres, mechanize cultivation, and employ migrant labor to harvest the crop.
While rarely grown now for commercial shipping, Bradley Co. Pink tomatoes can still be found in backyard gardens, at local farmer's markets and nearby roadside-stands, and they continue to be celebrated each June at the Bradley County Tomato Festival in Warren.
Trophy, rare heirloom, 80 days. Indeterminate. Medium sized, six to eight ounce, sweet, red tomatoes ideal for slicing. Trophy is thought by many as being the most important tomato developed in America. It took Dr Hand of Baltimore Maryland more than 2 decades to perfect Trophy, afterwhich in 1870 agricultural researcher Colonel George E. Waring Jr. of Newport RI sold Trophy seed to the public at the astounding price of $5.00 per packet of 20 seeds.
The D. Landreth Seed Co in 1820 was the first to market tomato seeds commercially in the USA, but the quality of the fruit produced was largely unfavorable. The improvements made through Dr. Hand's efforts were remarkable and, in a great part, led to the popularization of the tomato throughout the country. Equally important, commercial plant developers, Burpee, Henderson, Park, and others then used Trophy extensively to breed other new cultivars. Most of today's successful tomato varieties have in their heritage those cultivars.
Ultimate Opener hybrid, 57 days. Indeterminate. 5 to 7 ounce, scarlet-red, globe shaped fruit on vigorous vines. Disease resistant, indeterminate vines should start producing crack free, sweet and juicy fruit early in the season and continue until frost. Ultimate Opener was developed by the veteran plant breeder Dr. Paul Thomas who also gave us Better Boy and Early Girl. Although seed catalogues advertise that Ultimate Opener will beat Early Girl to the table, my experience so far is that the first Ultimate Openers ripen at least a week after the first Early Girls. However, the ads go on to say that Ultimate Openers will be 1/3rd larger and that I've found to be true. Mine have been more in the 8 to 12 ounce range of unblemished fruit. Although compared to Early Girl for earliness in production, in most other respects - size, growth habit, coloration, flavor - Ultimate Opener is more similar to Big Beef
