Rate your tomatoes ....... 10 best taste & productivity

[Botany]

1) Brandywine ..... heirloom taste of the Gods

2) Jet Star .... good for the midwest great taste ...... produces like a champ

3) Juliet ..... Roma grape tomato ..... I just had my first .... pushing hard to be #1

4) Cherokee Purple ..... So good and so pretty ..... better than sex in many cases.

5) Sun Gold ...... cherry tomato ..... hot off the vine ...... they never makes it to the house

6) Lemon Boy .... low acid and makes awesome salsa with red & purple tomatoes (habanero pepper, cilantro, & green onions too)

7) Marglobe .... the sandwich 'mater .... burger, blt, and or salads .... far better than a big boy, better boy, or beefsteak

8) Roma ..... makes pasta possible

9) German Queen ..... heirloom only problem is they grow so big they rip from the vine

10) Santa ..... red grape tomato ..... early fruit.



cherokee purple

[beac]

1. Oh, your cherokee purples are so lovely. Mine are big, but splitting due to the

unpredictable rain we've been having here. I'll be harvesting my first one tomorrow. Word is, that split tomatoes look bad, but still taste good. Here's hoping!

I wonder if my mystery tomato is a Juliet? It was supposed to be a Mr. Stripey, but the fruits look just like mini-Romas.

My Husband calls my Roma "Lazarus" b/c the vine looked more than half-dead, but produced a few good tomatoes and now that those are harvested, it's putting out new stalks and has five little minis growing on it already.


I've copied and saved your list for future reference. Thanks!

[Botany]

2. Check w/ a local college Agriculture or Hort. department to see if ....

.... tomatoes have been developed for your region or what heirloom tomatoes are good for your area.

BTW a light straw mulch will keep your plants water levels more stable.

[beac]

3. Thanks, Botany. I was going to get some straw to cradle my growing butternut squashes, so I'll be

sure and save some for the tomatoes. I orginally mulched them with grass clippings. My tomatoes are all in containers and for some reason I placed the CP in a different part of the "garden" (my front yard) and it's not getting the benefit of the shade of its fellow tomatoes like the other 5 are. It also seems that the CP isn't as naturally leafy, but so far no sun scald issues and it's still making fruit at a happy clip.

I'm really a beginner at all this (previously grew the occasional cherry tomato and/or basil), so it's fun to hear about all the different strategies for (and frustrations of) growing your own food. :)

[bvar22]

4. My favorite tomato?

The next one from our garden. :)

It is difficult to compare this year's with last year's crop.
We haven't done well this year, and it is not just us. No one in our area (Central Arkansas) is getting many tomatoes this year. We had a very atypical May/June with temps soaring beyond 95 and no rain.
Some of the tomatoes set early fruit, but the heat just scorched them, and we have very few tomatoes this year. The plants look healthy, and we are getting blossoms, but it is just too hot to make tomatoes.

My wife and I have experimented with 10 different varieties over the last two years.
My favorites last year were a toss up between Cherokee Purple and Arkansas Traveler.

HOWEVER, This years WINNER hands down is the "Creole".
My wife and I both immediately agreed after our first taste...Best Tomato Ever!
It is an heirloom from South Louisiana, and this tomato has it all.
If you are a tomato connoisseur, you MUST try this tomato.

We ordered our Creole seeds online, and have just started some more hoping for a Fall crop.

BTW: Nice photo of the Cherokee Purple.
Have you tried the Black Krim?
It was my intermediate favorite for a while last year.

[Botany]

6. Tomatoes are hot weather plants but pollination drops way off if it gets too ....

..... hot. I grow mine in 10 to 15 gallon black nursery containers that are buried 3/4 of the way into the ground.
Much easier to keep watered and you use less water too. I water every other day too. Make sure to work in lots
of organic matter (compost), a potting medium, silica sand, manure, and native soil for structure. I use espoma
fert., a small amount of urea, and gypsum ..... planted in late may and the leafs still have a good almost blue green
color.

I work w/ plants for a living and think people should grow varieties that have been developed for that area ..... both
w/ heirlooms and some of the "improved hybrids." Jet Star was developed for Ohio by OSU about 40 years ago and it
is solid plant.

I almost got some black krim or one called russian sable but I didn't last spring .... I ran out of room. But i will have
to try some next year.

Being in Arkansas can you grow good watermelons? I have been playing around w/ one called sugar baby for the past
3 years.

BTW the picture of the Cherokee Purple is clipped from a google image search .... I'll to post my own plant porno pix later.

[bvar22]

8. Watermelons DO grow well here.

Our problem is not the Watermelons.
Our problem is the Watermelon Picker, who has consistently demonstrated his inability to tell when one is ripe.

We currently have some "Sugar Babies" ripening.

[Botany]

9. I too am very weak in knowing when the melon is ready

Being more southern the sugar baby watermelon will ripen a little earlier than in OH.

tips ....... if you can water them that is good .... watch for leaf wilt to let you know when to water .... never get water on the leafs in full sun ...
water around the base of the plant.

they take a long time to ripen ..... in OH @ least until late August (80 + days from planting of seed)

I never can tell by the "thump test" as per ready to pick .... others can but I can't

wait until the melon is full sized and the bottom part of the melon (touches the ground) is 100% bleached out of color ... almost white

[Blue Gardener]

5. Sungolds are the best

You're right, they generally don't make it to the house. They're like candy.

[Botany]

7. i have 2 mini tomatoes growing

santa




sungold




The Santas are "all right" (any fresh tomato is good" but the sungolds are awesome ....

Although to really judge a tomato for taste they should be picked on a hot day.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

10. So far, only a few cherries have ripened enough to eat...

but all the plants are going gangbusters, especially my black krim and Cherokee purp. Black prince, green zebra, golden giant and morgage lifter all very large but with less fruit (been too hot here too).

made the mistake of putting my brandywine in the topsyturvy tree Gran INSISTED I use. none of those plants are doing very well. :(

[hippywife]

11. I'm with bvar22.

I love any fresh tomato from the garden. I have no idea what some of ours are because they germinated from seeds that were in the compost. I do have some black plums that I need to work diligently to can this weekend.

I'm originally from Columbus and lived there until I was 37 when I married and moved away to OK. I really miss it sometimes. What area are you in? I used to live between Sawmill and Riverside right across from the OSU Ag facility there.

:hi:

[Gormy Cuss]

12. I'm not sure there are ten, but here goes.

1)Striped German -- this heirloom produced 2 lb + fruit. Color is red and yellow with more yellow showing on the skin but more red in the interior. Similar to a pineapple variety but with a far superior flavor. Best for slicing.


2)Cherokee Purple -- just a great, productive tomato.

3)Early Girl -- the only heirloom we grow every year. It's the first and last to fruit each season and one plant produces tons of medium size fruit that are good for slicing or making sauce.

4)Taxi - a medium size yellow tomato, good producer.

5)Brandywine -- a fine large slicer tomato

6)Principe Borghese -- a small, intensely flavored tomato. It's apparently grown for sun drying in Italy. I use it for that and to make tomato paste.


7)Any of several San Marzano-types for freezing whole.

I'm also fond of Sweet 100s, Isis Candy, and other red and orange cherry tomatoes. We usually grow one or two new large varieties each year but the above list is our standard set.

[Botany]

14. I am growing an "old German" tomato this year and looks a lot like your ....

.... striped German and the German Queen I grew last year. I will look for the Borghese next year ......
the Juilets ( a small Roma type) are what I will use for Italian food this year.

[Gormy Cuss]

16. I think Old German is a close relative.

I've seen them in catalogs and the description and picture look similar to Stripeds.



D'oh!I just noticed that I called "Early Girl" an heirloom -- I meant non-heirloom!

[Botany]

17. try a jet star ..... for me at least far better than early girl

about 10 days later than early girl and a better taste.

[JDPriestly]

13. I will only rate one

1. Sungold cherry tomatoes -- first year I planted them and they are the best that I have planted. Next year only Sungold cherry tomatoes.

I also planted a pretty good tomato last year. The name wasn't beefeater but was something like that. My other tomatoes are just not as tasty. I grow one of my Sungold's in a pot and the other in the ground due to my very, very limited gardening space. The one in the pot gets more sun and the tomatoes are ripening faster.

[Botany]

15. after more tastes I am very impressed w/ the sungolds ...... the grape tomato

"santa" i don't think are as good as sweet one thousands or sweet one millions

[WolverineDG]

18. Haven't done too well

got too hot too early, although the Romas were already going like gangbusters before the heat set in & started baking everything to a crisp. No blooms since late May; just trying to keep everything alive & hoping they'll start producing again when it's cooler.

dg