PlantFiles: Tomato
Lycopersicon lycopersicum 'Manitoba'

Germination of the seed is poor if the potting soil is too rich. Manitoba is a sprawling plant, difficult to stake. The fruit is round and smooth, no “Turk’s-turban.” Size of the fruit and yield of the plant are on par with Rutgers. Half of the fruits produced are a uniform red. The other half have green streaks, not quite green shoulders. It produced red fruit two weeks ahead of Rutgers. For me, Manitoba was resistant/tolerant to both Early Blight and Late Blight in 2009 (a cold, wet year when blight went wild).

I grew this tomato in 2006 and 2007. It is an early variety; however, the tomato lacks taste - it tastes like a store bought one. Hence, I have to give this tomato a NEGATIVE rating. I have some seeds available if you want them - I don't plan on growing this tomato ever again.

A 1956 early round red from Morden, Manitoba, Canada.

Not very disease resistant. Okay productivity. By comparison Legend grew better and was more productive.

We gave this one a try in 1998 & 2000, and found it to be a very early small-fruiting determinate, especially interesting to us for our northern (Minnesota, 3b) gardens. Oddly enough, it matured in just 47 days in the very cool 1999 growing season, but needed 56 days in the very warm Spring of 2000.

We found it to be prone to Early Blight and somewhat acid, but a pretty good canner despite small size.

Paul Hughey
Sauk River Seed

Bought a seedling, stuck it indoors under a 175W mercury vapor lamp for about a week of 12 hr on, 12 hr off, just prior to last frost. It flowered despite being just about 6-7" tall.

After last frost I moved it and the soil it was planted in into the garden along with my other tomato plants. Watered thoroughly, fertilized/mulched with some well mixed 3 month old compost consisting mainly of grass trimmings, weeds, and rabbit droppings. I may have allowed some trace amounts of compost to fall on the leaves. This tomato plant died, while my other tomato varieties grew well. I later planted four yellow boy tomatoes in a close ring around the same location - one turned brown at the base of the stem and died shortly after transplant, while three grew well.

Spacing was about 12-18" between tomatoes, growing inside a tomato cage, in fairly heavy black soil with some peat and compost added to lighten it up.

Dunno what I did to this plant. Since I live in Manitoba, I might have another go at this variety next year.