Tomato 'Early Girl'

Had a 5-gallon bucket plant last year- produced fruit like crazy for a while, and then some sort of blight got it (pretty sure I had my t...Read Moreomato plants too close together) and that was it. Not great taste, but easy to grow. Might be worth considering for kids or first-timers.

While the plant GROWS well, it sets a lot of small (2-3 inch) bland tasting tomatoes. It is a hybrid so DO NOT save seeds. Will NOT plant again.

Seed for this tomato is now owned by Monsanto. So, I am looking for an alternative.

Plant did not grow as vigorously as my other tomato varieties and seems to have stopped growing altogether, while my other tomato plants ...Read Morehave grown up to 2' in the past weeks and are still growing and flowering.

Tomatoes formed early and still have not ripened. Green tomatoes were on the vines for a month; now a few are turning red but never fully ripen even after 2 weeks. They have all blighted before fully ripening. I'm having to pick them almost green and they still do not ripen after a week on the counter so I dice and cook them.

This plant has wasted precious space in my garden.

Taste is bland to me. As my mother would say: "It tastes like a kiss through the window." I'm thinking that's kind of flat. In my gard...Read Moreen it hasn't been much earlier than a Super Fantastic or Big Beef that taste a lot better.

Accidentally discovered how to get great flavor from this tomato.

All my years of growing this tomato were from an...Read More early planting in May, since after a long winter wanted a tomato from the garden as early as possible. In this respect it performs well, but its flavor is only as good as a tomato from the store.

Then one year put in a garden after the 4th of July, not much time before the first frost, so planted an 'Early Girl' to insure a few tomatoes.

That is when I got the surprise. Typically have very hot summers. 20 or more days above 90 degrees for July/August, with between 3 to 10 days near 100, but because of my latitude, 45 degrees, start to get cool nights in September with hot days, just when the tomato is ripening.

That is the ticket for setting sugar because those tomatoes were some of the best tasting ever. Ran the same experiment with early producing corn, same results, excellent flavor

i started this plant late march 2011 planting out late may in a raised planter on the west side of the house. this vatiety is
fair...Read Morely common and can be found commercially in many locales. i purchased seeds on-line from a large seed co.
was not the earliest.....starfire, applause ripened sooner
large plant, healthy foliage
was slow to set fruit...but high yields
taste was average....slightly bland
required lots of watering, fertilized twice
large cavities with lots of seed
with limited space, i will not grow again

In my area 'Early Girl' is prone to late blight .The plant produced one good picking of 2-21/2 in. tomato that is good in taste and text...Read Moreure.Due to blight no second fruit set.

Grovespirit, has a point, but they aren't that bad. I had plenty of success with the early-girl, and the flavor is amazing. But the disea...Read Morese resistance is low. If you look past that, you have a wonderful variety.

I tried two Early Girls this year along with Celebrities and Better Boys. I planted 8" starters on May 7th and luckily they did not free...Read Moreze but grew slowly at first due to our cold wet spring. Today, 8/8/11 the first Early Girl tomato is turning red, and there are many more to come. The other varieties are turning yellow but no red tint yet. So, for me the Early Girls were the earliest. It appears the average size of the Early Girl tomatoes will be about 2 1/2" - about the same as the Celebrities and slightly smaller than the Better Boys. Also, the Early Girls are my tallest plants (about 4') but then I do not prune. As far as numbers of tomatoes per plant, it appears that all of the varieties are about equal for me so far, with about 15-20 tomatoes growing on each plant. So far I am pleased with the Early Girls.

I've grown Early Girl for years Here in Montana and in Ohio,New Jersey,Vermont and other locations. Its not the best tasting or the earli...Read Moreest but to us it is the best tasting early tomato.

Early Girl is one of my favorite tomatoes.

It produces uniform sized fruit of about six ounces - perfect for slicing in a...Read More salad or as a side dish. The fruits also make wonderful sweet-tasting juice which I freeze for year-round enjoyment.

The taste is sweet, not acid, which I prefer in a tomato.

Here in zone 7b I can start the seeds indoors on March 20th and have them transplanted in the garden as soon after April 18th as the weather permits.

First tomatoes are usually ready to pick the first week of July.

Not all that early when compared to some of the super-early varieties like Sub Arctic Plenty.
Compared to other hybrids, this plan...Read Moret's disease resistance is quite lackluster.
Also, I have to agree that this has inferior flavor... and looks just like a supermarket tomato too.. how boring!

So, given all the above, there's not much point in me growing it.
If I'm planting a hybrid, it better have VFNTA resistance... and if it doesn't have all the above resistances, I may as well grow an heirloom which will have good flavor or interesting appearance!
Grew it once, and will not ever grow it again.

Hello to All,
Last year, I purchased some tomatoes from a Whole Foods near my home. They were marketed as “Organic” Early gir...Read Morel tomatoes. They are purchased yearly from a local farmer I believe. I remember the fruit to be small to almost medium sized, VERY sweet, and good in sandwiches. So sweet, that I had to save some seeds for the next growing season. Well, here we are; and I decided to germinate my seeds. I used the standard napkin in a zippy method, and found that a large percentage had germinated. I transplanted the sprouts into small peat cubes and they are now 3-4 inches tall with strong stocks. From what I have read in the posts below, it is impossible to germinate these from seed. How would I go about figuring out what stain I really have?

This is a poster child for a typical tasteless "supermarket" tomato.
Yield is large though.

This has been the most successful and hardy tomato plant that I have ever tried. Grown in a pot on a patio, this plant has already given ...Read Moreme almost 90 perfect 6 oz tomatoes. And it's only the 1st week of August! I still have about 75 more tomatoes on the vine with blossoms still coming! To boot, it has been a wet,cool summer here..

Not at all impressed with this tomato. Tomatoes don't do well in Houston's heat during the summer anyway, but this one is really in sad ...Read Moreshape. Thank heaven I only planted one of them (and two Celebrity and 4 Russian Big Roma). Very small fruits that aren't ripening much earlier than Celebrity. Will probably yank out the plant and put something else there. No point in wasting garden space!

I grow Early Girl in 14" plant pots, and trim them to be about 6" high and not much wider than the pot. I use recycled potting soil and P...Read Morelant Tones Organic fertilizer sprinkling about a level teaspoon about once a week while plant is fruiting. They also get one treatment of liquid seaweed fertilizer when transplanted over whole plant, and one more when they set flower, but only over the roots. The first year I grew Early Girls, I got to the store late and only Ferry Morse seed was available. Despite being pelletized, this is by far the hardest tomato seed to germinate of those that I plant. Although I usually plant 3 seedlings, I rarely get more than 1 plant to grow, and last year I did not get any. I also don't like the fact that the fruit does not breed true, so I cannot collect seed for next year. When it does grow, it has not been particularly early for me either, which is its big selling point. As soon the seed I bought runs out, I will be dropping this plant from my repertoire. The plant, once growing, has been disease resistant and fairly prolific. The fruit looks and tastes a lot like Rutgers Select, although it is perhaps a shade less productive. Since my problems are with germination, not growing, I cannot in good faith give it a bad rating, but I see no reason to recommend it.

I grew Early Girl F1 from Bonnie's plants. I purchased a small plant early 2008. It survived (unlike 1 other variety bought at the same t...Read Moreime). I got lots of small tomatoes. They had thick skins and no flavor. They were no better than store tomatoes. This year, I will try something else.

To me, it doesn't have the strong acid flavor that I prefer. However, it is a decent tomato that often finds itself in my garden because...Read More it is early. The tomatoes are good-sized for an early tomato. Once temperatures reach 90's and 100's during the summer, my plants cut production.

This is my first season growing tomatoes, and I could not be happier with the results. Early Girl is a very prolific producer, and I wil...Read Morel grow it again next year.

It grows well here in Corte Madera.

I've grown Early Girls for years and they are without a doubt my favorite. Not only are they usually the first to ripen, but I think the...Read More taste is superior to other varieties. Personally I also appreciate their smaller size. I'm not a big fan of the huge beefsteak tomatoes. Very dependable and usually lasts thru the season. If I had to find some shortcoming, I'd say they are probably not the best for canning.

I have never had a real fondness for the performance or taste of this tomato. I do generally raise one or two so I can have tomatoes a ...Read Moreweek or two earlier than other tomatoes. Though it is a hybrid, I do have a bit of trouble with blight.

It is popular here in Beaver/Beckley WV. So maybe its a matter of taste and my fondness for the distinct flavors of heirloom tomatoes.

We've grown the early girl variety for the last few years and it has outperformed every other tomato we tried in flavor, yield, fruit qu...Read Moreality and plant hardiness .Very resistant to nematodes and disease.

Early Girl has always been my first arrival with a sweet almost perfectly shaped tomato. I like to share this one because it comes so ea...Read Morerly my friends are impressed. I have tasted better but when you are in need of that first fresh tomato this one fits the bill just nicely.
As I was cleaning up my tomato area for my new strains I noticed many new (seedling) plants where I usually have my Early Girl, has it reseeded itself? that is yet to be seen.
That has happened to me before but never with Early Girl.

For me, it took a little longer to germinate than other tomatoes, but quickly caught up when potted up. And this was an early and prolif...Read Moreic producer (one day I picked ten off the plant!!) of smaller (no larger than baseball sized) tomatoes that are meaty with a thicker skin (they travel well for lunches and even mailing) and an excellent taste. The taste is wonderful, to me at least- with a nice balance between sweet and acid. Will definitely grow again- it has good flavor for a hybrid.

I got 2 Early Girl transplants in as early as possible (mid-March here in Tucson), and had good yields of medium-sized, tasty tomatoes be...Read Morefore the high heat shut things down at the end of May. Will definitely be growing these again next year.

I had this plant, about 10 inches tall that I got from a friend. I transplanted it into a pot and it thrived... for a few days. The botto...Read Morem leaves withered, the middle ones are now yellow and the top (still green) is wilted. It was watered deeply and fairly consistantly. Does anyone know what is happening? Nematodes?

about 2 monthes later. Plant is thriving and very productive however something is wrong. It has been 2 1/2 moths since the first tomatoes. We have had warm sunny weather, and none of them are ripening! Does anyone have a solution? Thanks. Oh, Sea Kelp exxtract and Fish emulsion seems to help.

3/11/07: We're at 3700' here in Cochise Cty. It's mostly heavy clay in this old river bottom, San Pedro Valley...but we love "Early Gir...Read Morels". The sets are in a 'sun-window' right now for planting after the last Apr-May killing freeze.
I've dug 2' wide, 2' deep basins and turned them into mini-compost piles but after adding Winter Rye cuttings last year the vines went to 10'. Do it like the commercial "Eurofresh" hothouses do over by Willcox except their variety goes up 3-4 times that. Wind the vines around 'strings' coming down off a pole trellace.....couldn't work better.

This is the fifth year I have planted Early Girl but this year I was able to find what was sold as an improved varity. They produced mo...Read Morere tomatoes than in the past. The high heat stoped production about the first of August.

I plant early girls every year. This year they are humungus!! There are so many tomatoes that I'm looking all over the place to find o...Read Moreut about pruning the plants. Trying to find out why they are not reddening as quick this time. I'm thinking that they need more exposure to sun because we put 4 poles into the ground and then tiered boards in a square area so they wouldn't get cut by using the metal things for them. I'm thinking I'm going to have to take off the top boards so the plants can spread out more. I just need help so I don't loose any of my tomatoes. My husband and I just love these type os tomatoes because they are meaty but yet sweet and not too seedy.

This one may very well be our favorite. Super taste - like a sweet exotic fruit!! Everyone we give one to says the same thing: "WOW, T...Read Morehis is the best tomato I have ever had!!"

We have about 20 growing right now. They were hit by early blight the week after we put them out - every single plant recovered without a hitch. Great disease resistance, season long yeild, almost perfect taste. We love it. If I had to choose one variety this would probably be it.

I grew this tomato for years. Some years the tomatos would ripen by July 4, some years it would ripen mid season. The fruits vary from go...Read Morelf ball to tennis ball size. I discontinued growing this variety in favor of Cascade which is more consistent in fruit size and has heavier production, but ripens mid season every year.

My Early Girl was not early, but it was very prolific, outperforming 20 other varieties in the same garden (Santa Barbara, CA 2005). I en...Read Morejoyed the fruit into the fall. No complaints.

early girls are great tomatoes for western montana's often erratic and always unpredictable weather patterns, they can withstand colder ...Read Morenight temps and i was very happy with my '04 crop, i just topped all my plants yesterday and expect the '05 crop to be a lower yield than last season but with higher quality tomatoes. if you ask me i say early girls are the way to go.

My 4 early girls are over 6' tall and about 4 feet wide each so far. There's probably over 50, and most likely 75 green tomatoes on them...Read More combined (I can't see them all right now). I'm on day 72 of planting the transplants, so they are about to go red any day now (68-80). Been very hot here, now getting over 100. Transplated them Mothers Day May 8th. So far, a lot of water and I think my soil did the trick.

History - my garden this year is the VERY FIRST I've ever planted. Watched parents and aunts and uncles back east do it. I read a lot on the web and books. And even watched a few shows on PBS to get things right. Being in Colorado since 1993, I know that things are hard to get going up here at 5000-6000 ft in elevation and in our short growing season. I bought 4 little Early Girls from a local garden shop - Arapahoe Acres. I have a semi raised garden bed, 60x6 along the back of my severely sloping yard, thus the semi raised nature. I tilled up our junkie sand-clay soil, then added lumber to make the bed, then a TOP3 dirt, compost, manuer, mix from a local landscaping materials place. I did add some bone meal and blood meal, checked the PH, checked the soil moisture. I sprayed some kitosain (not sure how to spell that) and I've done one dose of Bloom Booster. The tomatoes are in a space thats 8x6 and they crowd it out. They are climbing on A-frame trellis I built with plastic mesh on them. Taking notes for next year to plant them better with more walking space in between.

ALWAYS GET NICE, RIPE TOMATOES BY FOURTH OF JULY. HOWEVER, THE LAST TWO YEARS I HAD A
NEW EXPERIENCE, USED MIRECLE GROW POTTING M...Read MoreIX IN THE HOLES. THIS PRODUCT MAKES PLANTS GROW LARGE. THEN THEY START DIEING. LEAVES BROWN FROM THE BOTTOM UP. BY THE FIRST OF AUGUST, I HAD TO PULL THE PLANTS. DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY USE, BUT IT ALSO KILLED MY BIG DAHLIAS. LEAVES TURNED BROWN WHILE STILL BLOOMING. THEN DIED. FOR SOME PLANTS THIS STUFF IS TOO HOT.

Early Girl doesn't have near the taste as Better Boy or the other "standard" varieties, and of course can't compare to Heirloom Tomatoes,...Read More but nothing beats the early season production.

Early Girl has always produced well for us, and the same is true for this year. It's been a long, cold spring in Sacramento, CA. We were harvesting cherry tomatoes at this point last year, but not this year.

Still, the plant is churning out plenty of fruit so far. I've counted eight tomatoes on the vine, and it will continue to produce more.

I am lucky to live in an area with incredible farmer's markets and a tomato festival where you can taste hundreds of varieties at once (m...Read Moreost heirlooms). After tasting all of these tomatoes, I was surprised to find that the very best was a dry-farmed Early Girl! Dry farming concentrates the flavor and I've never had better. Early Girl is a reliable variety that produces even when the summer weather isn't ideal. My tomato plants are currently over 6 feet tall and over 4 feet wide and loaded with fruit, even though I got a slow start this year and didn't plant until mid-June. (I would like to thank my chickens for their support.) My grandfather, an old ex-farmer, plants this variety every year in Wisconsin because it never fails to please.

My first red tomato was an early girl on July 15th. Not bad. Those that have followed have been very good. Not a large fruit, but grea...Read Moret flavor and meaty, but not mealy. Keeps producing. If I were not experimenting, I might make a crop of this plant. Pruning aided in getting sun on the fruit. Here in the NW the sun is not too hot or common, so all my tomatoes got pruned to their advantage.

Always grows well here in Hollister, CA. In 2002, fruit kept maturing on the vine well into mid-November. I stripped the plant bare at ...Read Morefirst frost, stored the tomatoes in a cool, dark place and was still eating them until late February.

Does wonderful in the cool. Also does pretty good in the heat. Here in Oklahoma the heat is pretty bad. Tomatoes struggle to set fruit....Read More The Early Girl did good in 100+ degree days. Fruit is small now, but its getting back to its normal size the closer to fall we get.

Marin County, CA. This is my main tomato. Produces vigorously throughout the season. Great flavor. Thick skin makes it good for travel.

I was unimpressed with this tomato in 2002. We had rather weird growing conditions here in south central Ohio, though, so it may not be ...Read Moreindicative of normal performance. I had rather a lot of foliage for very few tomatoes, and although they tasted good, they were not any earlier than my other varieties.

A mainstay in my New Jersey garden. I grow 50 early girl plants each season. Very prolific. Excellent for sauces and salsa. They have rep...Read Morelaced plums as my cooking tomato. No cracking, medium size (6 to 8 oz)

I've grown Early Girls for many years in central Kansas. They consistently outperform other varieties I've tried in terms of flavor, abi...Read Morelity to cope with Kansas' brutal and erratic weather, and producing until hard freeze. The plants frequently look terrible when being battered by 100+ degree winds in August, but always revive and begin producing heavily again in fall. The fruit keeps well stored in a cool (not cold) place. Two years ago we ate our last tomatoes in February--several months after winterkill. We're frequently told our tomatoes taste better than any others in town. Very sharp, acidic, strong tomato taste. Excellent for canning. I suspect those who found them bland didn't let them get completely ripe.

Wondering about the parentage of the 'Early Girl' hybrid...

I have grown this in the cooler coastal areas in California with much success. It will produce earliest and very well in areas where temp...Read Moreeratures do not get much above 85 deg. It takes well to fertilizers for tomatoes like Jobe's Spikes and had good flavor in the heavy Clay soil of my area. In hotter areas it was not much ahead of the other varieties

My 'Early Girl' did ripen well before the 'Big Boy', but we also found the flavor to be lacking in this variety. Our summers tend to be c...Read Moreool, and the tomatoes were very bland-tasting.

Marketed as "early" but mine ripened at the same speed as other varieties marketed as "mid-season". The flavor was not outstanding.