What's the truth here? I just planted a few German Queens, 3 Mr Stripeys, and 2 golden cherry tomatoes of a variety who's name I can't remember now, but they were Bonnie plants. I tried growing Cherokee purples and Mr Stripeys 2 years ago but that property was too shaded, and they just grew tall and stringy with few good tomatoes.

The only other difference I'm familiar with is the fact that the seeds collected from heirlooms at years end will be true to variety. Well, that and heirlooms supposedly don't have the shelf life of commercials.

Also, some tomatoes are listed as hybrid, but are they just commercial varieties or a cross breed of commercials or heirlooms?

It was a simple question of whether there is a difference in flavor between heirlooms and commercial varieties. I read where some schooled horticulturalists have said there isn't much difference in flavor, and I'm just asking whether that's true or not.

'Commercial' tomatoes are often bred to produce a lot, early, ward off disease, and pack and ship well or in other words have tough skin. Homegrown varieties on the other hand can be bred with flavor as a main priority, for example, so yes there is a difference. Luckily there are so many choices available that you can grow new varieties every year until you find your favorites.

Any tomato grown in your own garden be it a hybrid variety, a heirloom, or an open-pollinated variety will taste much better than any you can buy in a store. Tomatoes bought at a local farmer's market will taste better than any bought from a store. How much different will all depend on how it was grown - soil, climate, nutrition, watering, chemicals used, etc.

Store bought tomatoes are picked green and artificially ripened with ethylene gas. They are also usually varieties developed for shipping with thicker skins, uniform size and weight, and disease resistance. Flavor is the last consideration.

If what you are asking is about a flavor difference between hybrids and heirlooms grown in a home garden then that will all depend on the variety and the growing conditions provided. There are some great hybrids and many great heirlooms but there are also some blah varieties of both. And even a great, raved about tomato may not be great if not provided with the ideal growing conditions.

There are many discussions here about 'favorite hybrid' or 'best heirloom' or 'tomatoes you will never grow again' that the search will pull up. Otherwise we don't know what varieties are available to you to grow. List them and you will get comments on them.

Dave

There is no commercial hybrid tomato grown today for sale to processing plants or stores that can compare to non OP Hybrid varieties developed for home gardeners, Open Pollinated or Heirloom varieties included.

If it were not for the OP/Heirloom growers, commercial and amateur all we would end up with is Hybrids. It's because of home growers as you find on this and other tomato growing forums that pass on information as to the best methods to grow tomatoes, the best tasting tomatoes and perpetuate the heirloom varieties passing them along generation to generation.

If you are going to get involved with this hobby, do your research, provide the best growing conditions possible to include the aggregate, nutrients and disease control then you will be able to grow and make determinations on what varieties taste and grow best for you. If you have farmers markets in your area stop buy and pick up some locally grown tomatoes and see which tastes best to you. If they are OP or Heirloom varieties save some seed and grow them yourself the following year.

Since you are buying transplants and it is already late for zone 7 planting you may find them well picked over already and the only choices left for you are the commonly grown hybrids like Better Boy, Celebrity, Bradley, etc. Personally I'd stick with the Better Boy of those 3 although Bradley is ok too. If you can find one of the Brandywine or some Arkansas Travelers (both heirlooms) grab those.

Since you will be planting late fruit set will be delayed on most of them as the hot weather will be coming on soon. But keep them well fed and well watered and hopefully we will get some cooler days that will allow for fruit set.

Dave