2000 Fresh Market Tomato Variety Trials in San Joaquin County

Benny Fouche, UC Small Farms & Specialty Crops Advisor
Bob Mullen, UC Vegetable Crops Farm Advisor
Dawn Brunmeier, Cooperative Extension Technician
Scott Whiteley, Cooperative Extension Technician

Cooperating with Mary & Terry Cake

A Country Garden

This year's experimental plot evaluated 6 replicated varieties and 22 observational lines for potential use by small farms in direct marketing situations such as farmers' markets and upscale restaurants. The plots were drip irrigated and staked. The grower was certified organic and used plastic mulch and hand pulling for weed control. The seed was grown in the greenhouse on the farm and transplants were set out on May 1.

Results from harvests beginning on July 7 and ending on September 23 are shown in Table 1 for the replicated lines.

Results for the observational varieties are shown in Table 2.

A compacted layer of soil 6 inches deep resulted in a severe outbreak of Pythium root rot and resulted in plant mortality in many of the plots. Table 3 lists the surviving plants at the end of the season. The tomato suck bug, Cyrtopeltis modesta was present throughout much of the season and probably had some impact on yields.

One blind taste testing was performed on the ripe fruit at the UCCE office involving 9 individual evaluations of the 10 varieties available at that time. These results are in Table 4.

The second set of taste testings were performed at the Danville Farmers' Market and involved 49 individuals evaluating 6 of the large varieties and is reported in Table 5. In the second test at the Danville Farmers' Market, 43 people evaluated the same 6 large varieties but a 7th cherry type of tomato was included for comparison.

Table 1 Small Farm Fresh Market Tomato Variety Trial - 2000

Means followed by the same letter were not significantly different at the 5% level. (Fishers LSD)

Table 2 Small Farm Fresh Market Tomato Variety Trial - 2000

Cooperator's Notes