Gill's All Purpose Tomato
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$3.20
$3.20
per item
A determinate maincrop tomato with rich flavor and strong, healthy plants. This replaces Rutgers as a super-dependable, midsize red tomato for fresh eating and canning. Gill's really surprised me when I grew it last summer--I didn't expect good fresh flavor in a determinate canning tomato. Great yields of 2 1/2" round red tomatoes with excellent crack-resistance, glossy red skin, disease resistance, and a strong compact plant habit. Another terrific variety from the now-extinct Gill Bros Seed Company of Portland, Oregon. Introduced in 1947 as a commercial variety. Both garden and farm-worthy. Bears longer than most, could be called semi-determinate. 60 days. 25 seeds
Our varieties are chosen for flavor. In addition, each has its own special talent or trait that you may want--disease resistance, ripening time, heat resistance, cold resistance, low-light tolerance, etc. They are listed in order of ripening--within their category. (All slicers, early to late, then all cherries, early to late, then paste.) I recommend growing an early, a main crop, and a late tomato to have a dependable supply all summer. I have noted which tomatoes do well in especially cool or hot climates. Most of our varieties are indeterminate, meaning that they make a vine that needs support, but continues to bear until frost kills it. So-called bush, or determinate, types bear a more concentrated crop for canning or freezing. Most are commercial varieties that ship well but lack flavor.
Two tips to maximize flavor and minimize cracking: In areas where nights are cold, pick in the afternoon for best flavor. (Cold temps make tomatoes sour and tasteless, which is why we don't put them in the fridge.) Pick ripe and near-ripe fruit before you water, to avoid cracking and watery flavor. Fruit that has colored, but needs a couple of days for full ripeness will ripen with full flavor indoors. (This is nothing like the way agri-biz tomatoes are picked totally green and artificially ripened.)
Two tips to maximize flavor and minimize cracking: In areas where nights are cold, pick in the afternoon for best flavor. (Cold temps make tomatoes sour and tasteless, which is why we don't put them in the fridge.) Pick ripe and near-ripe fruit before you water, to avoid cracking and watery flavor. Fruit that has colored, but needs a couple of days for full ripeness will ripen with full flavor indoors. (This is nothing like the way agri-biz tomatoes are picked totally green and artificially ripened.)