Weird weather did produce some winners (and a few winter tomatoes)
Rugby tomatoes can be used for sauce, drying or fresh for salads. They can be slightly heart-shaped or rugby-ball-shaped, and have shown to be good producers in the Central Valley lowlands. Kathy Morrison
Huddled indoors on a cold and rainy December day, I can find warmth in thoughts of summer – and tomatoes.
Now is prime time to order seed for next year’s vegetable garden. But what? Should I let 2024’s failures (and a few successes) guide my picks? Or should I give new varieties a try?
Overall, I had a disappointing tomato year due to poor timing. I planted in late April and early May, which proved to be too late. My vines were just hitting their stride in July – the hottest July on record – and got very poor fruit set.
The plants that survived that heat enjoyed our relatively mild August and set some late-season tomatoes. The big surprise? How much my vines grew in late October and November. Massive plants, they still were blooming on Thanksgiving. But the weather got too cold for their green tomatoes to ripen on the vine. I finally pulled the plants shortly before Christmas (with green tomatoes now slowly turning red on the kitchen counter).
My best producers were Rugby (a paste tomato shaped like a rugby ball), Lemon Boy and Chef’s Choice Orange. Coincidentally, those varieties also were among the 2024 stars for garden expert/podcaster Farmer Fred Hoffman and Don Shor of Redwood Barn Nursery in Davis.
Hoffman and Shor discussed the 2024 tomato season in depth during a two-part podcast, “2024 Tomato Winners (and Losers),” released Friday (Dec. 27) on Hoffman’s “Garden Basics with Farmer Fred.” They came to some interesting conclusions – heirlooms really do hate high heat, some tomatoes can take a little shade – as well as offered useful tips for more tomato gardening success in 2025.
“It’s really good to do this show (in) December, January, so the people who are getting the seed catalogs and watching them pile up on their desks can start marking some of these varieties,” Shor said. “Some of them, you will have to order yourself. You’re not going to find them in most garden centers.”
Hoffman, who lives and gardens in Folsom, picked his last vine-ripened tomatoes on Dec. 18. They weren’t pretty, but they tasted good on a sandwich, he noted. He had three varieties that kept producing tomatoes into December: Rugby, Principe Borghese and Jet Star.
Principe Borghese is a Shor favorite; small and pointy, it’s a little Italian sauce tomato, available from Rare Seeds and Seed Savers Exchange, among others. Jet Star is a fast-maturing hybrid slicer, similar to Early Girl; it can be found at Tomato Growers Supply Company.
Shor grew 35 varieties in 2024 and kept detailed notes on each. He was especially impressed by Rugby, which can be found at Totally Tomatoes and West Coast Seeds.
“We can’t tout that one highly enough,” Shor said of Rugby. “It’s being marketed as a sauce tomato but I’ve got customers who are slicing it and using it as a regular slicer. It cooks down great. It’s not going to be in garden centers, very likely, unless the buyer or the grower at one of the large local chains is listening. Rugby is one you should definitely put in your program because it's just not that widely known yet. But every year I grow it, every year I sell it and plant it, people rave about it. Yield is great. It takes the heat well, sets very well early as well as late, in my case, at least this year. So it’s a really, really high quality tomato.”
Shor also praised Chef’s Choice Orange for its firm texture – he harvested about 60, including many 1-pounders and a late-season second crop – and Bodacious, a big red slicer that matures early.
Both Hoffman and Shor had luck with Lemon Boy, a sweet yellow, medium-size hybrid. Shor said he stopped counting when his Lemon Boy produced more than 100 fruit. “It just really outperformed everything this year,” Shor said.
To hear more (or read the transcript), go to: https://gardenbasics.net/.
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Flowers in My Back Yard Series
April 21: Celebrate roses, America's favorite flower
April 14: Small flowers with outsized impact
April 7: Calendulas do double duty
April 3: Make Easter lilies last for years to come
March 31: In praise of a pollinator magnet (small-leaf salvias)
March 24: Azaleas brighten shady spots
March 17: The perfect flower for beginners? Try zonal geraniums
March 10: Keep camellias happy for years to come
March 3: Fruit tree blossoms are a fleeting joy
Feb. 27: Are your roses looking rusty?
Feb. 24: Treasure spring daffodils now and for years to come
Feb. 17: How and why to grow wildflowers
Feb. 10: Let's talk Valentine's Day roses
Feb. 3: Why grow flowers?
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Garden checklist for week of April 19
After this midweek storm, start getting serious about spring gardening. Flowers are blooming about three weeks ahead of schedule. That includes weeds!
* Get ready to swing into action in the vegetable garden – if you haven’t already. As nights warm up over 50 degrees, set out tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants.
* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, radishes and squash; wait on pumpkins until May. Plant onion sets.
* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias. Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.
* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom. Late April is about the last chance to plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.
* Transplant lettuce and cabbage seedlings.
* April is the last chance to plant citrus trees such as dwarf orange, lemon and kumquat. These trees also look good in landscaping and provide fresh fruit in winter.
* Smell orange blossoms? Give citrus trees a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants. If leaves look yellow, your tree may need an iron boost -- apply some chelated iron fertilizer.
* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.
* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.
* Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden needs nutrition. Give shrubs and trees a slow-release fertilizer. Mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost, which helps the soil, but keep it a few inches away from trunks and stems.
* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.
* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.
* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.
* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.
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Food in My Back Yard (FIMBY) Series
Lessons learned during a year of edible gardening
WINTER
Is edible gardening possible indoors?
Hints for choosing tomato seeds
Why winter is the perfect time to plant fruit trees
When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
How to squeeze more food into less space
Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Win the weed war by tackling them in winter
Tips for planting bare-root trees, shrubs and vegetables
Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
Ways to win the fight against weeds
FALL
Dec. 16: Add asparagus to your edible garden
Dec. 9: Soggy soil and what to do about it
Dec. 2: Plant artichokes now; enjoy for years to come
Nov. 25: It's late November, and your peach tree needs spraying
Nov. 18: What to do with all those fallen leaves?
Nov. 11: Prepare now for colder weather in the edible garden
Nov. 4: Plant a pea patch for you and your garden
Oct. 27: As citrus season begins, advice for backyard growers
Oct. 20: Change is in the autumn air
Oct. 13: We don't talk (enough) about beets
Oct. 6: Fava beans do double duty
Sept. 30: Seeds or transplants for cool-season veggies?
Sept. 23: How to prolong the fall tomato harvest
SUMMER
Sept. 16: Time to shut it down?
Sept. 9: How to get the most out of your pumpkin patch
Sept. 2: Summer-to-fall transition time for evaluation, planning
Aug. 26: To pick or not to pick those tomatoes?
Aug. 19: Put worms to work for you
Aug. 12: Grow food while saving water
Aug. 5: Enhance your food with edible flowers
July 29: Why won't my tomatoes turn red?
July 22: A squash plant has mosaic virus, and it's not pretty
July 15: Does this plant need water?
July 8: Tear out that sad plant or baby it? Midsummer decisions
July 1: How to grow summer salad greens
June 24: Weird stuff that's perfectly normal
SPRING
June 17: Help pollinators help your garden
June 10: Battling early-season tomato pests
June 3: Make your own compost
May 27: Where are the bees when you need them?
May 20: How to help tomatoes thrive on hot days
May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can
May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success
April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
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