A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 Favorite Tomatoe

What is everybodies favorite variety of Tomatoe?


I am looking at planting Roma, Beefsteak, Cherry and Grape tomatoes, but not sure which varieties are best. I live in zone 6b.

Hi Amigatec,
My fav Tommy is a Alicante.
Not too big
Not too small
JUST RIGHT nice and sweet
Dave

My favorite,
Boy that's a hard question...

Celebraty has got to be right up there on top.
Nice size, good taste, easy to grow, and
not toooooo tall of a plant!!!

Weezie

But I love the Beefmaster and the grape tomaotes too!!

Last year was our first stab at veggie gardening.....I had wonderful peppers that I grew from seed....but my toms didn't fair quite as well....my sis grew Roma tomatoes and they turned out beautifully(and her thumb isn't so green) .....So I think we are going to try growing some of them this year.....hopefully they'll turn out as good as hers did.

I like the heirloom tomatoes. My favorite is Brandywine, but Big Rainbow and Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter are close.

For cherry tomatoes I like Orange Sungold. I'm also trying a new grape tomato this year called Red Grape from Johnny's Selected seeds. It's supposed to have better flavor than Sweet Olive which I really liked also.

We planted some Parks Whoppers last year. They were more like mini maters. Didn't do too well with them.

Dianna

Weezie, your favourite is really Celebrity? GF, give me your snail mail addy and I'll send you some tomato seeds for next year that will send your taste buds into Nirvana.

My favourites so far are:

Paste: San Marzano
Beefsteak: Brandywine
Saladette: Green Zebra
Cherry: Sungold

I have a huge list for this year and if enough people are interested, I'll post it here.

Ciao,
Julianna

Julianna,
I grow Celebrity, Beef Master, Beef Steak,
Sweet 100's, (I love the grape one's, but never grew them) Roma, Lemon Boy, Jet Star, Heinz,
Early Girls, and one other...can't remember....
Oh, Rutger's........

I have to admit, I had never grew the them from seed before, until last year... I had always just taken what was available from several local nursery's...
I did grow them from seed last year, the Rutger's variety..
I thought they were good, but took me a while to start them..

I also had two very, very nice member's send me some seeds...
#1 Ailsa Craig

And then also
#1 Emerald Evergreen
#2 Golden Pineapple
#3 Great White
#4 Prudens Purple

But I had a small mishap right in the very begining of the growing season, and got a little greenhouse for my mommy's day present, got all those seeds started and in the greenhouse and I got some kind of flu bug that "dropped me" and I never got to the greenhouse to open it up and the temp's were over 100*'s in there
I was sooooooo sad..
I didn't plant them all and then kinda~sorta misplaced the seeds.?? But I did just find them..
*I have 2 seeds from each variety...and I am intenting to plant them...
I only have the Rutger seeds to plant so far...

Can you discribe the tomatoes you posted??
What is the Saladette? Is that the size, like the
right size for one salad/? Sounds cute..
And what is the Brandy wine?

And Please go post your tomatoes in the seed section, there's a few that like to do the seeds
in there...
I would love to see all the variety's you have..

Weezie

Weezie, Brandywine is a big beefsteak type that is often described as the best tasting tomato ever. The leaves of Brandywine plants almost look more like potato leaves than other tomato leaves.

Weezie, Terry's right, there are several strains of Brandywine and all of them but the Red version are "potato-leaved" (at least all I'm aware of which includes Brandywine Sudduth, supposedly the original Pink, Brandywine Yellow, Brandywine Black, and Brandywine OTV (off the vine). They're not huge producers but the taste is way worth it.

Saladette refers to the size, being about the size of a tennis ball or slightly smaller. Perfect for salads, unlike beefsteaks which are better for sandwiches or hamburgers, IMO. Some people just eat their tomatoes out of hand and they never make it to the kitchen, lol.

It's a pity you weren't able to grow those wonderful heirlooms that were given to you. Those are some really terrific varieties.

As for the descriptions of my favourites..well, let's see....caveat being that taste is a very subjective thing..

Brandywine to me tastes kind of like the name...like wine, rich, complex, not mushy with a good texture

San Marzano is my "sauce machine"..I use it primarily for sauce and also salsa as it has few seeds, flesh is "dry" meaning not overly juicy, cooks down well...I use it for salade caprese..tomato, fresh mozzarella, basil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper

Sungold is a wonderfully sugar-sweet orange cherry tomato that never makes it into the house..those are for snacking, especially by our 5 yr old

Green Zebra is a wonderful green tomato with yellow stripes. You know it's ripe when it lightens to a pale chartreuse and is soft to the touch. It tastes spicy to me and I just love how it mingles with a vinaigrette salad dressing

It's too late for me to send you seed for this year's garden but I think we might work something out for next year.

Gonna go post my list in the seed section

Ciao,
Julianna

Better Boy's...Yummmy

Julianna,
I have been back~logged, as usual with me,
but I wanted to get back to this post...
The day we were all talking about these tomatoes, I had gotten a book in the mail and they were in there....The catalog was www.kitchengardenseeds.com it was so neat to read up on them and see them...

I have to say the same thing and for me toooooo,
I walk around the yard with them in my hands, or a pocket or something, *but I have to make very sure I remember that they are in there I've forgotten them once or twice and ended up with tomato on my shirt...

How tall has your "Brandywine" tomato plants gotten? Mine regular Beefsteaks' are tall, plus they are in raised beds, so they're tall...
What do you do with your tomatoes that get really tall? Just outta curiousity??
Cages, stakes, let them sprawl on the ground???

I haven't given it a huge thought as to what to do for tomatoes this year yet???
I have time yet, I can't get out there to plant even my seeds yet until around the end of April,
*we've been known to have snow storms here late, so even in the greenhouse, I can still loose them.

I am going to plant the Rutgers again.
They were okay.. and I have to admit, I get alot of "volunteer's" in my compost....
****I've threatened for a few years, instead of buying plants, I was just going to throw a shovel full of compost into a hole and get my tomato plants that way...only thing is, it's pot luck to see which tomato I get until they start flowering and even producing some times...

Weezie

I love tomatoes!

I like most of the above, but the best tomato that I've ever tasted was from some heritage seeds I started last year -- Black Krim.
Oooh -- my mouth is watering just thinking about that flavor! Didn't produce a lot of fruit, but it sure was tasty!

Gisela

LOL Weezie, you're too cute !

Our Brandywines got over 6' tall and 4' around last year. The best supports for these big honking indeterminates are cages made out of concrete reinforcing wire, but they're a bit of an initial expense in both $ and labour. Really the best tools for cutting the wire are a pair of serious bolt cutters and a big strong guy to do it. Then leaving prongs to bend around the other side so you have a 2' diameter hoop, sink stakes 1' higher than the hoop into the ground to anchor it around your plant. Having said that, what we use with ok results are 2x2" stakes 7' long, sunk 1' into the ground. I then tie up the plants as they grow with jute twine. I'm going to try some velcro on a roll from Lee Valley this year, but when the plants get real huge, I may have to resort to the twine again.

I plant my tomatoes 2' apart and 3' between rows. Even then, I will probably need to suck in my belly and squeeze between plants at harvest time, lol. I don't plant more than 2 tomato plants per planting hole either. Some people try and go for 3 to a hole, but you're pushing your luck with foliage disease because you won't have good air circulation by crowding them that way.

Black Krim is an AWESOME tomato, with that rich, smoky flavour the "blacks" are famous for. It's on my list for next year along with Cherokee Purple.

Ciao,
Julianna

Oh Weezie, one more thing...since you're a bookworm, you should really check out Dr. Carolyn Male's book "100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden". It's a good intro to heirloom tomato growing and while 100 might seem like a lot of varieties, she's grown over 1000. I can't imagine how tough it must have been for her to narrow it down by a factor of 10. If $$ is an issue for you, try Amazon.com's used section ;o)

Cheers,
Julianna

I have 48 pots started so far with another 36 ready to go. My favorites are yellow or golden varieties but all are good if the growing season is favorable. Just name a HOMEGROWN tomato that isn't better than anything ever bought at the super market?!

I bought this tomato last year that was supposedly a Roma. I know a Roma when I see one and obviously some comedian went to my local nursery and started switching the little tags around, because this plant produced these huge, pinkish red most yummy amazing things I've ever eaten. This plant got like 5 feet and I was growing it in a pot. I have no idea what it was! Possibly a brandy, but the color wasn't right. I went ahead and got a couple Brandy's this year, I hope that was it!

I grew a Japanese tomato too, that was so incredibly sweet! Can't remember the name (I know write it down stupid!) but the yield was bad.

I'm all about the heirlooms this year and got a new one called an Heirloom Gigantor! I just loved the name!

Big Boy,

I happen to think Early Girls taste like cardboard, but hey, that's just me, my growing conditions and my tastebuds. A lot of people don't like Green Zebra because it tastes sour to them and it's one of my very favourites. Le shrug.

WinterRosebud,

If it was Japanese Black Trifele, lucky you! I'm growing that one NEXT year as I didn't discover it until after I'd ordered my seeds. Lots of rave reviews for that one ;o)

My mother likes the the early girls..
for two reasons......

Cause they're early and homegrown..
and an early homegrown one tastes better than
a store bought one anytime....

Weezie

I still haven't started my seeds yet!! UGH!!! :rolleyes: