favorite tomato varieties

[livoniagardener 0]

I'll be starting my tomato plants under lights at the end of March or beginning of April. I'm interested in hearing about the types of tomatoes that others have had success with. My favorites are Golden Jubilee, Purple Cherokee, Sun Gold, Lemon Boy and Sweet Tangerine.

[Karen Bovio 3]

Try Green Zebra! I was amazed not only at the fantastic flavor, but by the very heavy production. The fruits are a little larger than golf balls and are green when ripe. You can judge when to pick them because the faint stripes over the fruits become somewhat yellow when ripe. The fruits hold well on the vine and are not prone to cracking. Some people consider this an heirloom variety. For an heirloom, I found it to be much more productive and one of the most disease resistant heirlooms I have grown. They are a real conversation piece, both fresh and when you can them. Make pretty Christmas gifts by canning Green Zebra along with red tomatoes in the same jar! This is my new favorite tomato.

 

Among hybrids, I like Early Goliath best. Nice firm very round fruits (on the large side, but not huge despite the name). Great flavor and perfect for canning due to their perfect shape.

[Dawn Trainor 3]

Porterhouse is a great beefsteak, also Great White Beefsteak was new to me in 2011 a beautiful white when ripe and very flavorful tomato. Karen is right about Green Zebra! A great flavored tomato and a conversation starter!

 

Grace Lahman is a great pink tomato, lots of flavor and very productive as well.

 

These are all indeterminate varieties so plan on staking or caging them.

[Madcitysal 0]

I am trying Early Goliath this year. Several of my friends rave about this one.

[carolm 1]

If you're into cherry tomatoes, try chocolate cherry. Very productive plant, good sweet tomato flavor.

[Karen Bovio 3]

Early Goliath has been my favorite among the large-fruited hybrids. Great flavor, good production, and nice large round fruits.

 

I also agree that Chocolate Cherry is delicious. We tried them last year for the first time, and loved the flavor. Much more tomatoe-y than other cherry tomatoes.

 

However, we did find that the fruits were more prone to rot than other cherry varieties. They would get a small water-soaked patch on them that quickly expanded and ruined the fruit. Other varieties were not troubled by this. I don't know what the disease was, but discovered that the best way to avoid this trouble was to pick the fruits when they were a little bit underripe and let them ripen indoors. Despite this issue, I will definitley be planting a Chocolate Cherry in my garden again this year.

[carolm 1]

I think its recommended that chocolate cherries get picked early. I've been able to ripen whole green clusters of them when I pull up the plants in the fall, with only a slight decrease in flavor.

[Cricket 7]

My new top favorite is 'Sun Sugar" - an orange cherry tomato - A tomato plant that grows to "Jack in the Beanstalk" proportion - Fruit doesn't tend to split or get leathery like other cherry tomatoes can....

 

Great because a gardener need not even come into the house for lunch. Just wash hands and tomatoes using the hose and pop in one's mouth....

 

Uhmmm...a package of crackers could be a great addition to one's garden tote when tomato season rolls around ...

[Janet Macunovich 32]

Brava, someone else who is not deterred by the "unsafe to drink from garden hose" warnings on new hoses!

(we tried to address this issue seriously in a past newsletter...)

 

I'm having a heck of a time going through the Seed Savers Exchange to pick 3 or 4 heirloom types. SO many cool varieties and each one with a personal history ("...sent to the U.S. from the former Czechoslovakia by Milan Sodomka..." ""...grown since the early 1900's by Lithuanian immigrants in Sheboygan, Wisconsin...") Because I want to grow several and have limited space I'll have seed left over; it's good to be in touch with so many others so I can foist extra seed on those I see when I'm in gardens working, or doing talks!

[binnie 0]

this year we are growing arkansas traveler (great flavor in a medium sized tomato), black plum (very prolific), mortgage lifter (the earliest of the large tomatoes, it took some time off and has started fruiting again), ananas noire, red brandywine (we prefer the black or pink ones), wapsipinicon peach, yellow perfection, sungella, hillbilly (my husband's favorite this year) and red zebra (so tart!). As far as cherry tomatoes, we used to grow sungold and coyote and loved them. Next year hope to try chocolate cherry.

[gardenfaerie 1]

livoniagardener, If you like 'Purple Cherokee,', also try ''Chocolate Cherokee,' Loved it! 'Green Zebra' is fun, but I prefer 'Black Zebra.' For a red beefsteak, I love 'Mrs. Benson.' For cherries, 'Snow White,' 'Brown Berry,' and 'Gajo de Melon.' A fun one to try is a fuzzy-skinned tomato, either 'Garden Peach' or 'Wapsipinicon Peach.' 

 

I'm trying to narrow down which tomatoes I'll winter sow this year--have limited sun and it's always a challenge finding a good balance between old favorites and new-to-me varieties. I only grow heirlooms, but there are hundreds!!

 

Monica