1997

TOMATO VARIETY EVALUATION

James Janak, Cooperator

Joe D. Janak, C.E.A.

SUMMARY:

This demonstration is evaluating 11 tomato varieties. Excessive rains during the growing season reduced tomato yields by 2/3 of their normal yield. Early Girl was the best variety, producing an average yield of 4.5 pounds per plant.

PROBLEM:

There are hundreds of tomato varieties to choose from. Which ones are the best?

OBJECTIVES:

To demonstrate which tomato variety produces the best for our area.

MATERIALS/METHODS:

Eleven tomato varieties were planted on March 23-30, 1997. They were planted three feet apart, and staked. They were fertilized at planting with one tablespoon of 13-13-13 fertilizer.

The fertilizer was put out about every three weeks. Tomatoes were harvested approximately every three days. Tomatoes weights and numbers were recorded at each picking. Tomatoes were sprayed with an insecticide and fungicide once.

RESULTS:

The tomatoes didn't grow as expected because of the wet year. Due to rainfall before planting, rows were not made high enough for all of the plants to survive. Approximately thirty-five inches of rain fell after planting. About twenty plants died. Another disadvantage of the rain was that they were slow to bloom.

The highest yielding variety, Early Girl, produced 4.5 pounds as an average per plant. One of the lowest yielding varieties was Champion producing 0.5 pounds per plant. Normally each plant should produce 10-15 pounds, showing these produced about a third of normal due to extremely wet conditions.

Table 1. Evaluation of tomato varieties. James Janak, Cooperator, Victoria County, TX 1997.

TOMATO VARIETY	# of Plants	TOMATOES HARVESTED
		Average Tomato Weight (Ounces)	Average Number Per Plant	Average Pounds Per Plant
Early Girl	7	4.1	17	4.5
Orange	4	9.6	7	4.2
Sunmaster	6	6.3	9	3.3
Porter	4	1.2	43	3.2
Celebrity	42	6.3	7	2.8
Merced	12	8.7	5	2.8
Bingo	18	5.9	5	1.8
Surefire	18	4.3	6	1.8
Black	8	4.6	6	1.8
Carnival	12	2.2	4	1.6
Champion	4	2.7	3	0.5

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS AND IMPACT:

The best tomato variety is Early Girl, producing on average, 4.5 pounds per plant and selling them for $0.75 a pound giving $3.37 return per plant. The least produced only $0.37 per plant being unprofitable.

CONCLUSION:

Selection of the top yielding tomato variety is a very important decision. Based on this experiment, Early Girl is one of the best producing tomato varieties.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:

Appreciation is expressed to my brothers, Travis and Stephen Janak for helping me plant, water, fertilize, chop weeds and harvest. Also to my 4-H Agronomy project leaders for getting me interested in this project.