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Tomatoes: Your Favorites, Your Star Performers
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Posted by tallclover Zone 8 Maritime Pac (My Page) on Tue, Oct 6, 09 at 12:36
| It was a great summer for tomatoes in Seattle. My favorites were Old German (slicer), Northern Exposure (firm and perfectly shaped), snow white (cherry), Amish paste (juicy,juicy,juicy).
What homegrown tomatoes do you love and would plant again?
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Here is a link that might be useful: Photos of my homegrown tomato favorites
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Tomatoes: Your Favorites, Your Star Performers
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| Sun Gold remains a big favorite for me. I grew one in a large nursery pot filled with Tagro potting mix. It was a very small plant & I planted it a little late. But the sun warmed the pot all day long and the plant thrived. It grew big and has been bearing more fruit than I can eat, altho it's in a prominent spot along the path & I frequently stop to eat a few. Earlier in the season, before anything is ripe, I stop to tuck a few wayward shoots inside the cage & smell the foliage...I think I'd grow tomatoes for the smell of the leaves even if I never got fruit! I was impressed this year with Super Fantastic. Placed in a better location & grown the same way I did Sun Gold, I think it would have been more productive for me, but the tomatoes I got had a great true tomato flavor, something many tomatoes grown in the Puget Sound area fail to achieve (at least in my garden). |
RE: Tomatoes: Your Favorites, Your Star Performers
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I love Matina for taste early ripening and crack resistance.
Green Zebra has become a regular for me...great taste, good production and fun to share with people.
Pink Accordian...is delicious although very fragile (bruises if you twist if off the vine) and the huge weirdly shaped fruit are fun to share.
Gold Medal...huge, great taste, dense flesh with red swirls.
Principe Borghese....great for drying and so tasty.
Wouldn't be without good old Romas for canning.
Tried Legend this year and was pleasantly surprised by its taste, size, long season and crack resistance. Will grow it again!
Gold Nugget for tasty early cherries. jwww |
RE: Tomatoes: Your Favorites, Your Star Performers
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| I tried "Brandy Boy" this year and it was the best tomato for me yet. Huge, delicious tomatoes and lots of them. This is one I'll grow again. |
RE: Tomatoes: Your Favorites, Your Star Performers
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I liked Black Cherries this year, great taste, more close to fruit than veggie for me.
I don't like that it's cracking but maybe it's my watering problem. |
RE: Tomatoes: Your Favorites, Your Star Performers
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| I second black cherry--a little less sweet and very satisfying--almost like eating giant grapes. Sungold's are always great--I grew them in my new greenhouse and got some that were basically tomato shots because they had fermented on the vine. The one big surprise was Black Krim that were fantastic. They got very deep red on the bottom and were really delicious and produced well. They also resisted cracking. I tried Marzano's (sauce tomatoes) this year and they were a disaster. I had three plants in the greenhouse in different beds and about 80% of them had blossom end rot or didn't really ripen--won't be doing these again. My wife really liked Purple Calabash but I found them too liquidy and they wrinkled into themselves quite a bit which I found pain. |
RE: Tomatoes: Your Favorites, Your Star Performers
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My best tomatoes this season were, Amish paste,
Carbon, Noodle Orange, Heartland, and Early Kus Ali.
Also good are Princepe Borguese, and Legend. I did not like Black Sea Man or Paul Robeson........two other blacks, and my San Marzano got a lot of end rot. |
RE: Tomatoes: Your Favorites, Your Star Performers
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| Can anyone speak to the varieties that didn't crack or split after rain or watering? |
RE: Tomatoes: Your Favorites, Your Star Performers
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| I grew Cosmonaut Volkov, and they did not split or have bad skin for the most part. I got a decent harvest from them, even though the vines have had some kind of fungus or bacterial spot on the leaves starting in early September. If I had done a better job of spacing my garden and supporting the tomatoes (they sort of grew all together like a thicket), or perhaps had sprayed some fungus preventative on them, they would have done even better I'm sure. They also taste very good in our opinion, but we have not eaten a lot of heirlooms, so the connoisseurs might disagree. Siletz came up early, the fruit were big, and the plants rather hardy. They are determinate, and are one of the parthenogenic varieties (blossoms need not pollinate to set fruit) developed at Oregon State decades ago. I would say that their taste does not compare with the more well-known heirloom types (or Volkov), but they are still better than Safeway tomatoes ;), and very easy to grow for such a big fruited tomato. Next year I am think about trying Thessaloniki, Anna Russian, Fireball or New Yorker, maybe Eva's Purple Ball or Persimmon (which may be too late-season for around here) and some others already mentioned. Has anyone grown these in the Seattle area? |
RE: Tomatoes: Your Favorites, Your Star Performers
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I had intended to harvest Bush early Girl, Super Fantastic and Brandywine, (in that order) due to their maturity dates. although the Bush girl blushed first, the SF beat it and ripened first. Brandywines have been good, but are cracking alot! The SF have by far been my best performers, just last night I picked about 15 semi ripe ones for ripening in the mudd room, and I still have about a dozen on the vine. There are a few Brandywines still on the plant, and once they blush, I'll pick them for the cardboard box and newspaper routine.
I think next year no brandywine, as they took too long to produce, and sem to be not as resilient as others. |
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