I've been waiting for Jay to start this thread, but apparently he's been waiting for me to start it, lol, so here it is.
After each variety I've listed, I've tried to list why I chose it, thinking that might help some others here who are seeking similar qualities in their tomato varieties.
This year's list has fewer cherry types, but more bi-colors and currants; fewer hybrids; and quite a few varieties that are "new to me" and were chosen for somewhat arbitrary reasons, like "just because".
I have tried to balance the list to provide a good selection of "old favorites" with desirable qualities and "new ones" (new to me, not necessarily new to the tomato world) because experimentation is always fun and makes it more interesting.
I am 100% certain this list will change somewhat before I start seeds in February because I still am not quite settled on all the determinates to grow in containers, but I don't think it will change much.
BI-COLORS: Almost all of these are from the Gates' family's "Wild Boar Farms" and they are my big experimental group for this year, chosen simply because I wanted to try something new and thought it would be fun to try this group of fascinating, oddly-colored tomatoes. I've only grown two of the varieties on this list before.
1. Brown and Black Boar--new
2. Large Barred Boar--new
3. Red Boar--new
4. AAA Sweet Solano--new
5. Pink Boar--new
6. Berkeley Tie Dye Heart--new
7. Berkeley Tie Dye--was new in 2010 and produced early and well in a bad tomato year. Fruit was tasty and attractive and plant had great disease-resistance.
8. Evan's Purple Pear--new
9. Sweet Carneros Pink--new
10. Pork Chop--new
11. Michael Pollan--new (even if this one didn't sound and look very interesting, I would try it just because Michael Pollan is one of my favorite authors)
12. Beauty King--new
13. Speckled Roman--new
14. Little Lucky--produces pretty heavily for me whether in containers or in the ground and has superb flavor.
RED TOMATOES
1. Burpee's Globe--new
2. Brandywine Red--chosen because I love the flavor even though it is a poor producer/late producer in our climate
3. Marmande--relatively early producer of good-flavored tomatoes, returning to garden for first time in several years
4. Russian Red--new, chose for earliness
5. Mosvitch--relatively early producer of good-flavored tomatoes, returning to garden for first time in several years
6. Rutgers Select--great producer, very good disease resistance, great flavor
7. Beefmaster F-1--good producer, good flavor, good disease resistance
8. Big Beef F-1--great producer, good flavor, great disease-resistance
9. Scatalone--new, chosen for processing (tomato sauce and salsa)
10. Heinz 1439--great producer, good flavor, great disease resistance, chosen for processing (tomato sauce and salsa)
11. Santa Clara Canner--great producer, good flavor, great disease resistance, chosen for processing (tomato sauce and salsa)
12. Heidi--incredible producer even in very hot conditions, good flavor, good disease resistance, chosen for processing (tomato sauce and salsa)
13. Red Robin--great in containers, heavy producer on very small plants, good flavor, very early
14. Glick's 18 Mennonite--new last year, trying again to see if I get better results this year in what will be, hopefully, better weather conditions
15. Mr. Bruno--new last year, good producer, good flavor, good disease resistance
16. Tess's Land Race Currant--great flavor, great disease resistance, great production. This is a mainstay in our garden and is used for (a) snacks while working in garden, (b) dehydrating for winter tomatoes, and (c) sheer dependability---even if every other tomato variety succumbs to weather conditions or disease, this variety just keeps on producing tomatoes until it freezes in fall
17. Sara's Galapagos--new, chosen based on its reputation. I expect it will perform very much like Tess's although it it probably is not a true currant, but rather an interspecies cross.
18. Sweet Pea Currant--new, chosen based on its reputation. I expect it will perform much like Tess's.
19. Matt's Wild Cherry--new, chosen based on its reputation. Supposed to perform very similar to Tess's although it likely is not a true currant tomato.
20. Tumbling Tom Red--extreme and early producer of red cherry tomatoes with typical cherry flavor. Great for containers of all types but gets much larger in ground, where it spreads out like a ground cover.
PINK TOMATOES:
1 Traveler 76--returning to garden for first time in quite a few years, great producer, esp. in August when other varieties slow down, great flavor, very good disease resistance
2. Brandywine--chosen for superior flavor even though it produces late and does not produce heavily in our climate.
3. Mortgage Lifter--very good producer, great flavor, good disease resistance.
4. Brandy Boy F-1--great flavor that is similar to but not quite as good as Brandywine, great producer, very good disease resistance
5. Dana's Dusky Rose--new last year and was both an early producer and a heavy producer of pretty tomatoes with great flavor. Very good disease resistance.
8. Pink Climber--new last year and succumbed to disease at midsummer, but good enough it is worth another try.
9. Stump of the World--despite its peculiar name, this variety produces a good yield of tomatoes with great flavor. In my garden it is fairly early and has very good disease resistance.
10. New Big Dwarf--produces large fruit with fine flavor on very compact plants. Great in containers. Very good disease resistance. Produces early for us.
PURPLE TOMATOES:
1. Pruden's Purple--returning to garden after a few years' absence. Fairly heavy producer of tomatoes with great flavor and plants that have good disease resistance. I've tried many purple tomatoes seeking a better one, and only #2 below is rated more highly in our garden.
2. Cherokee Purple--Fairly heavy producer, great flavor, moderate disease-resistance.
3. Haley's Purple Comet--new this year.
BLACK TOMATOES: My favorite category and I could grow 25 black varieties and would like them all. I've never had a 'bad' black tomato, so I just choose from the black varieties based on production and disease resistance.
1. Black Cherry--along with SunGold, the best cherry tomato ever
2. Indian Strip--very similar to Cherokee Purple and also could be listed under the 'purple' category. Excellent flavor, a little earlier than Cher Purple in our garden and slightly higher than Cher Purple in production.
3. Black Krim--first black one we grew and still one of our all-time faves. Good production, great flavor, moderate disease resistance.
4. True Black Brandywine--earliest of all the Brandywine heirloom types we've grown, great flavor, great production for a B'wine type, very good disease resistance.
5. Gary 'O Sena--was new last year and outstanding in every way.
6. Goose Creek--died an early death last year, so second attempt to grow/evaluate it
YELLOW TOMATOES:
1. Azoychka--returns to garden for first time in several years. Heavy producer, fairly early, great flavor.
2. Taxi--new, chosen for earliness
3. Yellow Brandywine--returning after an absence of a few years. Great flavor, moderate production, moderate disease resistance.
4. SunGold--along with Black Cherry, the best cherry tomatoes we've ever had. One of the true standouts in last year's garden, it produced ripe fruit from May through late October despite very trying weather conditions. Flavor and production are always superb.
5. Dr. Wyche's Yellow--an Oklahoma heirloom from the Hugo area. Great yields, fairly early, great flavor, above average disease resistance.
6. Yellow Canary--very heavy yields on a tiny plant. Chosen for container production. Fruit has good flavo.
7. SunGold Select II--did not peform as well as SunGold last year, but getting a second chance this year to prove itself 'worthy'
8. Tumbling Tom Yellow--same as Tumbling Tom Red above, only produces yellow fruit
ORANGE TOMATOES
1. Tangerine--returning after about a 5-year absence. Great producer, early producer, fruit have very good flavor and plants have moderately good disease-resistance.
2. Valencia--new
3. Russian Persimmon--returns after an absence of several years. Very heavy producer, great flavor, great disease-resistance and very tolerant of high temps.
4. Jaune Flammee'--retuns after an absence of seveal years. Heavy producer, great flavor, very good disease resistance. Producers pretty early and produces as well in large containers as in the ground.
5. Orange Pixie--very heavy production on very small plants. Great for containers. Very good disease resistance.
6. KBX--this one dies every year before I get many tomatoes from it. Seems to have poor disease resistance, so will try it this year in a container. Has a reputation for excellent flavor, but doesn't seem to like growing in my garden.
7. Orange-fleshed Purple Smudge--Great production, great disease resistance, good flavor. Probably should be listed with bi-colors, this one has orange fruit with purple smudges.
8. Nebraska Wedding--Great flavor, great production, poor to moderate disease resistance which varies wildly from year to year. Produces well in large containes. A long-time family favorite.
GREEN TOMATOES: I don't grow many green tomatoes. Although we enjoy tomatoes of all colors, I still feel 'odd' about eating green ones, and I don't know why, so I don't grow many.
1. Aunt Ruby's Geman Geen--superb flavor, moderate yield, moderate disease resistance.
2. Evergreen-new
3. Green Giant--outstanding flavor, moderate yield, moderate disease resistance.
4. Cherokee Green--very similar to Cherokee Purple but doesn't yield quite as well in our garden.
That's the preliminary list and, while not engraved in stone, it is pretty firm although I'm likely to add about a half-dozen more deteminates and may add a handful from Totally Tomatoes' "Goliath" family of varieties to replace all the red hybrids I dropped.
That's my list at the present time, y'all. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's.
Dawn
elkwc
soonergrandmom
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