By: Scott Eckert, Harvey County Extension Agent, Horticulture
What is your favorite tomato? Recently the Harvey County Extension office and the Harvey County Master Gardener Volunteers conducted a tomato tasting event at the Harvey County Fair. Each year we receive trial plans to grow in our county and provide data back to K-State Research and Extension. We raise 10 different varieties in our test trial each year. The “most preferred” tomato in our trail this year was “Red Snapper.”
“Red Snapper” is versatile and adaptable with good hot set potential with strong disease resistance. The fruit are an excellent, red color, firm and have a good shelf life as well as producing firm, 8-12 oz fruits. “Red Snapper” is a hybrid, determinate tomato variety that has a bush growth habit. “Red Snapper” plants produce big yields of round, large to extra large fruits suited for both mature green and vine-ripe markets.
It is resistant to: Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus, Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus, Verticillium Wilt, Gray Leaf Spot, Alternaria Stem Canker, and Fusarium Wilt. The plants are medium-tall, have mid cover and benefit from pruning. Red Snapper has a more manageable plant that most hot set commercial varieties.
Our second favorite tomato variety from the test trial was a variety called “Medusa”. This is a hybrid indeterminate purple tomato with heirloom flavor and appearance. “Medusa” is a cross between Damsel Hybrid and Cherokee Purple.
