Was out this afternoon tending the tomato garden and as usual, noticed how my conventional Early Girls, Champions and Lemon Boys are producing way more fruit (as expected) than my heirlooms which brings me to my question: even tho 'prolific' and 'heirloom' are rarely synonymous w/ each other, which heirlooms do you find year in and year out give you a better crop than other heirlooms?

One of the reasons I ask this and I know it's almost sacriligious to say it but some heirlooms just don't seem to be worth the space expended. For esample, Persimmon and Pineapple both have no more than 6 or 8 tomatoes on the entire 8 ft. + plants.

I know, I know, w/ heirlooms it's often times a case of quality vs. quantity which I fully understand but for those of us with limited space, part of the overall equation is maximizing yield per plant. My Kentucky Beefsteak and Aunt Ruby's German Green are both producing very well.

Again, which heirlooms do you personally find have better than avg. production?

TIA for any thoughts -

Overall, I've been impressed with my heirlooms. I heard so much about how you give up productivity when you choose heirlooms that I'm amazed how many tomatoes I'm getting.

Don't know if Dr. Wyche Yellow is considered heirloom but for me this yellow/orange tom is quite prolific.

DL

We grow a coupl'a basil plants in the same container which makes it doubly (word?) convenient for salad making. Love the acidity, too ...

Good growin' - Will and the Furry Ones in the OC

1.Porter "Cherry"--this plant has made a TON of tomatoes, I have a big bowl of them on the counter right now, so I'm always looking for ways to use them. I like the taste, they're not sweet, though. They are really bigger than a cherry, more of a golf-ball size, and they are pinkish in color. You can't eat them whole and they are small for sandwiches, one tomato equals one slice from a big tomato--but I like that I don't have to cut up a big tomato for a slice when I'm making one sandwich. (I use 2 for a sandwich.)

2. Sioux. This variety makes medium-large orange tomatoes. Even with all the predation I've had (birds? mice? fruitworm caterpillars and some kind of small worms), I've still had one or two available to eat most of the time.

3. Carbon. This is a black tomato and has made about a half dozen nice big fruits. Unfortunately, I've only managed to get to one of them (yum!) before the aforementioned tomato predators--they love this plant.

4. Sweet 100 O.P. It's a cherry, so of course I've got some fruits from it, but hasn't really produced like I expected.

5. Cherokee Purple--This only made two fruits--they looked great, but the first was eaten by a fruitworm and the second split so badly before it was ripe that it rotted.

6. Eva Purple Ball--This had 4 medium size tomatoes that all rotted on the vine before they got close to being ripe. I'm not sure what was wrong--they looked like they were covered in bruises.

I've been picking Rutgers and NAR since early-mid July, but I wasn't keeping track early in the season and they didn't really stay on the counter long enough to count them, but about three days ago I picked about 10 6-8oz. Rutgers, and I picked another 12 this morning and there are tons more to go (2 plants). NAR has been giving me beefsteaks since early July, initially in the pound-and-under range, but now they're all in the 1-2 pound range. Both of these tomatoes produce more for me than any of the hybrid equivalents I've tried - although I plan on trying Big Beef, and Momotaro next year for comparison.

The Paul Robeson, Yellow Brandywine and Yellow Tom-Tom are scaffold onto a 8ft. lattice and left un-prunned.

It's too early to comment on production preference using either techniques at the moment, but using the drop line technique in conjunction with pruning definitely lets me grow more types of tomatoes per square foot.

Here's my experience in production so far:
Top Producers: Amy's Sugar Gem, Stupice, CP, Paul Robeson, Yellow Tom-Tom (hybrid), Super Snow White
Medium Producers: Azoychka, Kellog's Breakfast, Green Giant, Early Girl (hybrid)
Low Producers - Yellow Brandywine, Druzba, Virginia Sweets

Anyway, when I think of "so many I can't pick them all", it would be Orange Russian 117 and Heidi (and almost all cherries).

Carla in Sac

Edie

In the past both Anna Russian and German Red Strawberry have been big producers in my garden. Russian 117 has also been quite reliable.

And lastly, you might give Great White a try. I am growing it this year for the first time and the plant is simply loaded.

Larry

I'd also recommend Eva's Purple Ball, and Paul Robeson.

This year, my Red Figs, Crnkovic, and Lillian's Yellow are COVERED in green tomatoes (have yet to get many ripe tomatoes in NE Ohio, except from my Stupice), but this is the first year I've grown those.

This plant is the only competitor with the workhorses of the hybrid world.(in heat) I truly love taste, but I am starting to really love the mentality of hybrids.

It is like they are saying, we taste pretty good too. I come out every year with the same name. Okay, I have streamed my point.

Take care,
Travis

My in ground 6'+ Mr. Stripey has had exactly 4 tomatoes on it all year, and it looks like its done. Big waste of time there. The blue though is in a container (got it planted way too late, potted it so I could move it indoors in case it cold snaps early on me) and its got 8 tomatoes growing on it right now, first batch, and is still flowering happily.

I'm going to have buckets o' blues at this rate from a single potted plant.