Tag Archives: tomato plant

Stump of the World/Big Ben: What’s In A Name? Another New Offering For 2019 From The Tomato Lady

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Introduced by the late Ben Quisenberry, Ohio. this is an indeterminate, potato leaf plant producing a good yield of large, 1 lb., dark pink, meaty tomatoes. Small seed cavity. The variety was part of the Ben Quisenberry Collection, which also contributed the variety Brandywine. Stump of the World also known by some as Big Ben, is a bit smaller and more productive than Brandywine, but like Brandywine, offers outstandingly rich flavor An historic and VERY popular variety for marketplace appeal.

The name: one theory is that this variety was named by Ben Quisenberry after a bible reference, as Ben was a very spiritual man. The speculation is that the ‘Stump’ being referred to is the stump or root of Jesse in the bible.

In my research on this tomato, I found an interesting article written by The Seed Savers Exchange on the background of this tomato name. the link is below.

http://blog.seedsavers.org/blog/tomato-tasting-winners

Whatever the origin, I truly do love the Brandywines and am always anxious to try others by Mr. Quisenberry. He was a legendary seedsman.

Momotaro Tomato – Japanese Variety

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I am going to start posting my new tomato offerings for you to see. This one was one I had never heard of and a customer requested it last year. Interestingly enough, I don’t normally think of Japanese cuisine when I think of tomatoes. Who knew?

Momotaro Tomato (F1) is the most popular fresh tomato in Japan. Here in the US, it is marketed as “Tough Boy”. Deep pink, with green shoulders around the stem, these 6 – 7 oz. tomatoes are sweet with a delightful refined flavor and a little bit of tang.

Noted for crack resistance, holding quality, and Verticillium, Fusarium and nematode resistance.

This tomato has some wonderful characteristics and I am happy to offer it under the original name which refers to a hero in Japanese folklore.

End Of Season Advice for Tomatoes

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Here in the Inland Northwest, our weather is extremely variable.

Here are several ways to motivate your tomatoes to ripen their fruit. Remember that the plants main purpose in life, is to procreate and it panics when you do one or more of the following:

Cut back on watering

Shovel pruning – cut the roots about a foot from the plants on two sides. If it’s really late in the season, do all four sides.

Start picking off extra blossoms. One caveat: if it is a cherry tomato leave them alone since they take very little time to go from blossom to ripe fruit.

Pick off tomatoes that you know aren’t going to have enough time to get big enough. These would be the very large, whopper size tomatoes such as Mortgage Lifter, Aussie, Big Rainbow, Rose etc.

Pinch off growing tips as to focus their attention into ripening what they have

Watch the weather like a hawk protect the plants with row cover, bed sheets, tarps, blankets, anything to keep the frost off the fruit. tomatoes-with-tarp

Here we have used blue tarps.

Once frost touches the fruit they will rot rather than ripen.DSCF9210

This what a frost damaged tomato looks like. 

Before a hard, plant killing frost, pick all green ones and bring them inside, most will ripen, the rest you can use for fried green tomatoes or a green tomato relish.

Tomato Terms: What Does It Mean When I Say…Early, Main and Late Season?

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ImageSiberia This might be the earliest tomato ever – only 7 weeks from transplanting to table. Capable of setting fruits at 38 F on sturdy dark green plants. The fruits are bright red, 3 to 5 oz. and bunch in clusters. Also good for a patio. Determinate, 48 days

Along with these words usually comes a range of days in which you can expect to start eating tomatoes. (The days are from transplanting not sowing the seed).

Where I live, it can be colder in some areas than others. For instance, Deer Park, is about 10-15 miles north from Spokane. It has predictably colder weather and earlier frosts than we do. Their growing season is a lot shorter than ours and we aren’t geographically that far away. Cheney is colder plus they always have a lot of wind. Different growing conditions is a small area.

After reading my descriptions (www.thetomatolady.com) on my tomatoes or peppers, one of the things my customers ask is if it really will be ripe in 45 days or 60 days. I have to be honest with them and say I can’t give a definitive answer. There are so many variables involved in growing a garden. Weather, soil temps, amount of watering and fertilizing, where did they site the plant and variety.

The biggest one is  the weather, which we have no control over. Last June, it seemed like it rained avery day and was cold. That will keep plants sitting there, in the ground,  just waiting. (The only good thing about that is the plant is working on root development so that when it gets warm they have a good foundation to shoot up). I think I remember having a light frost in early June.

I would like to change my descriptions to early, mid, late and really late. It’s true that a Siberia or a Fourth of July will produce fruit before a late season variety such as Orange Russian or a Gold Medal.

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Gold Medal These are fabulous, reminiscent of Big Rainbow. A Ben Quisenberry tomato. Wonderful, 1-1/2 lb., yellow and red bi-color beefsteak tomato with pink marbeling in blossom end, thin skin and luscious sweet, well-balanced flavors. Indeterminate, 85 days

That being said, I have seen some early varieties (48-60 day) that are only about 2 weeks earlier than a 70-75 day tomato. There again it depends on a lot of variables.

It must be nice in the South where have you a longer growing season, if you have to wait longer to get them into the ground it’s ok because you won’t get a frost until November.

There are many ways you can extend your season. Some years  if you wait until all signs of frost are gone you won’t have any tomatoes. At some point you have to get them into the ground. Especially if you live in an area the gets an early fall frost.

I will discuss some ways in later posts