Best Early Indeterminate Tomatoes for the Pacific Northwest?

[bennythedroid]

Any suggestions from PNW gardeners about their favorites?

Suggestions from folks in similar climates are also very welcome.

[Fusion_power]

Benny, the problem in the PNW is with late blight. One specific strain is endemic to the area. I could name a few varieties that will perform in your area, but they are difficult to find.

DarJones

[bennythedroid]

Fusion - thanks for your reply. Go ahead and name a few, I enjoy hunting.

[BeckyW]

Have you thought of going to a farmer's market and asking what they are growing? You may get all the advice you need from that visit. Just a thought ....

Happy Gardening --
BeckyW

[bennythedroid]

I do need to get myself to a market, haven't been at all this year yet.

[MarieV]

This is only my second year growing tomatoes in Seattle, but last year Sungold, Jaune Flammee, and Cherokee Purple were all productive and tasted great. This year I'm also growing Kimberley, Spudakee, Indian Stripe, Vorlon, and New Big Dwarf, which have similar productivity to Cherokee Purple. Kimberley was the first to blush after just 67 days from transplant, two days before Sungold. The others are still a few weeks away from ripening, so I can't attest to their flavor. Last year my favorite farmers' market tomato was Paul Robeson, so I saved seed from it. Unfortunately, it's the least productive of the black tomatoes, having produced only about a dozen fruit compared to 18-20 for the others.

[bennythedroid]

I'll put Sungold and Kimberley on my shortlist of things to try next year. It's a race against time in this area, and for me, getting productivity early trumps a lot of things, to some degree even taste or size of the yield. That might sound sad, but I get very tired of being held hostage by our cold wet springs and tepid summers. All too often I find myself with a load of green tomatoes in August and have to cross my fingers for an Indian Summer to get a decent yield in September.
Granted, I screwed a couple things up this year so I can't entirely blame the weather or the varieties. But regardless, when it comes to tomatoes around here, we need soldiers, not supermodels...

[lorri d]

I'm in Oregon and this was my first year for tomatoes. I got 4 to 5 rounds of blight during the year and below is how my best tomatoes performed for me.

I have a ton of huge, green, amish paste tomates, but just a few ripe ones so far.
Early girl, sungold, sweet 100 and sweet million had ripe tomatoes by the Fourth of July.
All of my cherries types and the early girl have been big producers.

These were average producers:
Principe Borghese
Glacier
Pruden's purple

I plan on trying a lot of new varieties next year. Lorri

[Little Minnie]

I have never had LB but I bet Stupice would do well there. It is tremendous but small fruited.

[Bill W.]

If you really want early, you might try a currant tomato. We grew the orange currant tomato this year and had ripe fruit weeks ahead of any other tomato. They're tiny, but they add up.