PlantFiles: Tomato
Lycopersicon lycopersicum 'Amelia VR'

This year (2009) was my first with TSWV determinates. I planted Amelia, Bella Rosa, Top Gun and Talladega. Amelia beat them all in yield, disease resistance, appearance and heat tolerance. Taste is is so-so but the stronger disease pkg is worth the compromise. Only problem is large plant size, requiring full-size cages. Next year I will switch to Nico, also from Harris-Moran, which has all the characteristics of Amelia in LSU field tests, including yield, on a smaller, more easily-supported plant.

I'm having very good luck with this variety, it's very disease resistant, and I've been harvesting since the first week of June. I'm a home gardener, last year I had problems with diseases growing Celebrity and Hillbilly, so far so good with this one. I bought a few more flats today for a second planting, I live on a tidal creek on the NC coast, we have a very long tomato season, sometimes until the middle of Dec. I'll upload a pic.

I grew this one for the first time this year and so far have been very impressed. It may very well be the "Holy Grail" as far as cash cropping is concerned. It has got it all - its early, vigorous, prolific, huge tomatoes, firm but not too hard, great taste. I love it. I grew it alongside "mountain fresh plus f1" and "mountain pride" and it blew those two out of the water.

I harvested the first fruit set a few days ago (60 days from transplant - and a 288plug at that!) and it was phenomenal. A second round is on the vine, about a week away with what may very well be a third round setting fruit now.

I am very interested to see how long this "determinate" will bear marketable fruit. After the first blooms set fruit I fed with !7-4-4. And after I had harvested the first round of fruit I fed with a heavy dose of 19-19-19 and this seems to have caused a growth spurt with the forming of several new bloom clusters

Another thing I loved about Amelia was the way the breakers ripened. I ripened them in cool conditions without ethanol and they ripened very nice, glossy red. I left some of the fruit on the vine to vine ripen and compared the two side by side and they were equally as good. This is not the case with any other tomato I have grown.

The seeds are high for this one but worth it. Give it a try.

By the way, Harris Moran suggest that you prune Amelia to two main stems.

Kyle

I have a Roadside Market here in SC and grow tomatoes to sale to the public. This year (2004) was the first time that we planted the Amelia but it will not be the last. It produces a vigorous plant that can yield medium to large size fruit with an average to above average taste. The taste is not that of a or Cherokee Purple (my favorite) but it is a good tomato. This tomato is Bred primarily for Southeastern US and is very disease resistant.

THE TEXTURE OF THE FRUIT SEEMED TO BE VERY COARSE AND "MEALY". I HAVE NO COMPLAINT ABOUT THE SIZE AND NUMBER. VERY LARGE AND VERY COPIUS. I LIKE TOMATOS FOR OUR TABLE AND I REALLY DO NOT LIKE THE TEXTURE/TASTE. I CANNED 20 QTS AND THEY DO CAN WELL BUT DO NOT HAVE THAT HEAVY TOMATO SMELL

A current fresh market round red from Harris Moran. The fruit is pretty typical of current fresh market cultivars. They are smooth red and 10 -12 ounces. Their greatest claim is resistance to all three races of Fusarium and spotted wilt virus. Of course it has also resistance to Verticillium, Nematodes and Gray leaf spot. This will be my first trial.
7 - 5 -04. This plant is almost bullet proof. It keeps on trucking when others are fading into the sunset. Of course it is one of the hard tomatoes with texture like a bell pepper. The flavor and texture takes a bit getting use to. I would recommend it only to those who have trouble with tomato diseases especially spotted wilt.