Kalman's Hungarian Pink ~ meaty, paste-like, mellow
Black Krim ~ outstanding flavor, best dark tom I've grown
Mexicana Hybrid ~ great canner, heavy-setter, flesh holds together and seems to sweeten when cooked
Dombito Hybrid ~ eye-candy fruits with satin texture and superb flavor
Garden Peach ~ yellow fuzzball makes some of the best sauce to come out of my kitchen
Big Pink Volunteer ~ found growing from a bag of potting soil, this softball size fruit is simply delicious

SO,SO many choices. Thanks to everyone, I've got lots to research for next year!
Also, I've heard this advice, choose:
one early, one late, one large, one cherry, one to can/sauce, one unknown to experiment with.
Given these criteria, how would that effect your choices?

My choices, after tasting some new-to-me varieties this year:

Estler's Mortgage Lifter
Kellogg's Breakfast - not only yummy but a beautiful sunny color
Cherokee Purple (although I might try a different purple next year. Maybe.)
Aunt Ruby's German Green - unique taste, can be a little too "tangy" if you don't let them ripen enough
Grape - this little baby is just prolific enough to have for snacking but not coming out of our ears
Early Girl (yeah, I know... but we always get one well-started potted plant every spring and have tomatoes at least 3 weeks earlier than any of our others and she's always reliable well up to frost.)

We do can our Mortgage Lifters. They may not be as bright-red as regular paste/canners but they are meaty and tasty and in the middle of winter, that's all I ask for.

Just six -

Sungold
Mexico Midget
Cherokee Purple
Stump of the World
Cherokee Green
Cherokee Chocolate

simple!

Ok I'll give it a try.
These are based on my research. No hands on experience... yet

1) one early : Sophie's choice
2) one late : Brandywine
3) one large : Kellogg's Breakfast
4) one cherry : Sungold
5) one to can/sauce : Opalka
6) one unknown to experiment with : Hawaiian Currant or Cherokee Chocolate

Simple nctomatoman!!!!
My head is spinning, and my shortlist is several pages long. What's happening to meeeeee.....

cherokee purple
white wonder
xmas grape
warren's yellow cherry
sweet 100
rutgers

well, sandra, after 25 years of trying hundreds of varieties, things do crystallize after awhile! (and, no, it isn't simple...but those six tend to end up in my garden more often than not - that says a lot!).

Craig

If I could only plant 6 the first thing I would do is expand my garden! ;)

Seriously, I think it depends on what your primary goal is - eat fresh or preserve for winter goodtimes or both.

MY main goal is preserving (with enough fresh eating to keep us happy) so if I could only plant 6 plants I'd plant 4 Rutgers, 1 Early Cascade, and either 1 Beefsteak variety or 1 OP heirloom of choice.

But if you aren't into preserving then I'd pick any 2 pinks, 1 Gertie's Gold and 1 Kellogg's Bkfst., 1 Pruden's Purple, and 1 Amana Orange. With such limited space I wouldn't bother with any cherry variety.

Dave

I'm taking notes here. Seems like Cherokee Purple is a huge favorite. I'm going to have to grow that next year.

Aunt Gertie's Gold
Cherokee Green
German Red Strawberry or Reif Red Heart
Black Cherry
Cherokee Purple or Indian Stripe ( strain of CP)
Large Pink Bulgarian, or Omar's Lebanese or Tidwell German

.......with about 50 Honorable mentions. ( smile)

Carolyn

As of right now, my six would be:

EARLY GIRL
ULTIMATE GIANT
OLD VIRGINIA or PINK GIRL
RED MORTGAGE LIFTER
SUPERSTEAK
PINEAPPLE

NOTE: Early Girl is strictly for early tomatoes with a tolerable flavor, and vine that is vigorous, and reliable.

HONERABLE MENTION: AMANA ORANGE AND BIG BEEF

Craig-

Can't believe you left out Lucky Cross.

1. Black from Tula
2. Lucky Cross
3. Opalka (paste)
4. Sudduth's Brandywine
5. Estler's Mortgage Lifter
6. Uncle Mark Bagby

This is my first year of growing BFT and I find its yield a lot more consistent than Cherokee Purple, which sets tons of fruit in July for me but is dead by August.

Anyone who has not grown Lucky Cross is missing out--it's a staple every year for me.

I have never grown Heidi, but I really love Opalka. Some argue for Heidi--maybe next year.

Uncle Mark Bagby is a pink family heirloom from Western Kentucky, not commercially available. Very meaty and sweet, reliable yielder in hot weather.

The flavor is incredible - but I made a very difficult but based pretty much on consistent performance and yield year to year....Lucky Cross does great 80+% of the time, but for me in Raleigh, the three Cherokees are so consistent year to year! Green Giant is another tough cut. If we made it a top 10, both would be there.

I'm laughing at digdirt's suggestion to expand the garden.

nctomatoman, thanks for letting newish gardeners benefit from your 25 years. Your site, which I found when I clicked on your name, is full of information, so I've bookmarked it. Yes, he's into tomatoes, alright!!!!I'm guessing MD's conditions are similar enough to give me some measure of success with your suggestions.

maupin - my Cherokee Chocolate is practically dead by now, I'm fairly devestated. I'm only growing the Rutgers because they are SO reliable, and actually are the only ones still going strong.

1. Toms Yellow Wonder
2. Black from Tula
3. Cherokee Purple
4. Red Brandywine
5. Opalka
6. Grandpa Willie

~ Tom

1. Black Cherry- for being the best
2. Kellogg's Breakfast-for being tasty
3. Aker's West Virginia- for taste and being a deep pretty red
4. Pale Perfect Purple- for being prolific
5. Brandywine Suddent(or German Head)- for the taste and size
6. Amana Grande, or Earl of Edgecomb- for the color and taste
Thats hard to only list six

Sungold
Cherokee Purple
Dixie Golden Giant
Cabernet
Green Grape
Snow White

Cherokee Purple
Opalka
Celebrity
Earl's Faux
Green Zebra
Another Opalka :)

We were talking in another thread about ol' reliable "workhorse" tomatoes for just in case everything else fails. I've been reading the lists here and noting the workhorses mentioned in people's favorite 6. So far:

Rutgers
Celebrity
Big Beef
Early Girl
Supersteak

Cherokee Purple
Black Cherry
Jaune Flamme (always my earliest)
Kellog's Breakfast
Paw
Green Zebra

Lou

Ooh! I'll play:

Sungold - Fills the prolific cherry tomato slot.

Kimberly - Fills the small red/pink slot for salads and other uses.

Little Lucky - Fills the bi-color slot and also does duty in the salad slot.

Anna Russian - Fills the medium sized-sweet red/pink slot. Useful for salads, sandwiches, and sauces.

Hmm, the last two are a lot harder...

Aunt Ginny's Purple - Fills the Brandywine slot, over Brandywine(!), because it cranks out tons of beautiful and delicious medium/large sized pink tomatoes.

Russian #117 - Fills the other large tomato slot. There, I said it, I choose this one over Cherokee Purple. This variety does nothing but produce long harvests of large, meaty, blemish free, full-flavored tomatoes that do just as well sliced on a platter as they do in sauce. (I'm growing Wes this year, and it seems to share many of the same characteristics except it has a much better name. At this point, it is still the second choice on my list.)

1 stupice
1 sungold
2 Pink Brandywine
2 Yellow Brandywine

But six isn't really enough in my yard.

early - Black Krim
late - Aker's West Virginia
large - Blackfoot
cherry - Black Cherry
can/sauce - Roma
experiment/other - Great White

... but I've only been growing exclusively heirloom tomatoes since '02, so I still have a lot to try. This was my biggest year yet for # of varieties, with over three dozen, but there are at least hundreds more I'm unfamiliar with...

If I were to include hybrids, I'd have to think back pretty hard. I know Early Girl and Celebrity would be on the list, and I think Sweet 100.

BW Sudduth
(If I wanted great production however, Stump of the world)

Sungold
Cherokee Purple
Neves Azorean
Kellog's Breakfast
Green Giant
( Aunt Ruby's Green tastes better to me, but they are usually smaller, severely misshapen, and not very productive)

Roma
Cherokee Purple
Cherokee Purple
Cherokee Purple
Persimmon
Matina (for earliness)

The six new one's I'm gonna try next year after reading this forum are:
Aunt Gerties Gold
Bloody Butcher
Black From Tula
Caspian Pink
German Strawberry
Jumbo Jim Orange
Sungold
OOPs that was 7 (oh well)
I like a sweet tomato and the person who won the $2,500 for the JJO said it was sweet. Of course I'll still plant BW-S,CP.

Theresa

I'd have to go with:

Omars Lebanese - large yummy tomato
Opalka - paste type that still tastes great
Cherokee Purple/chocolate - good size beefsteak
Russian 117 - late oxheart that's worth the wait
Anna Russian - early oxheart
Dr. Carolyn/Galinas - white/yellow cherry type

Judging by the responses you've gotten - you may have some research to do! :)

In no particular order:

Indian Stripe
Cherokee Purple
Earl's Faux
Stump of the World
Aunt Gertie's Gold
Dr. Wyche's Yellow

I grew over 20 OP varieties and was very pleased with results.

Pictures posted soon.

I copied the toms posted here, gathered the most popular and decided to do a poll off my wrestling site.

Sorry you can only pick one.

Here is a link that might be useful: OP Poll for taste/size

Sandra, if I could only plant 6 I'm afraid that no heirloom varieties would make the list.

You can easily lump the one early, one late selection into one with a steadfast producer like Fourth of July. Big Beef or Parks Whopper will preform circles around any heirloom variety in and Lemon Boy is a decent consistant yellow variety. For sweetness (without cracking of SunGold) Sun Sugar has been nicknamed "Vegetable Candy" by a group of frequent buyers of this variety.

Any of the above can be used in processing, often with less hastle than a sauce tomato.

So There are five reliables. The one to experiment with.. Look in next Spring's seed catelogs. I always save room for a few new varieties, especially AAS selections, even though they often don't meet expectations either.

If you ever do expand your garden to 20 tomato plants my advise would be to include a few of the aformentioned heirlooms. But don't be surprised if one in ten isn't at all as described. Then you'll need to chalk one up for traditional seed saving errors and try from a different lot of seeds.

Indian Stripe
Spudakee (Cherokee Purple PL)
Tom's Yellow Wonder
Glory Hybrid
Gardener's Delight
Chello

If I was only allowed 6 they would be:

Aunt Gertie's Gold
Cherokee Purple
Earl's Faux
Mortgage Lifter
Aunt Ruby's German Green
White Currant(Someone brought this to MAGTAG and they were very prolific and absolutely delicious...very sweet, nice flavor)

Fortunately, I'm not relegated to just six. I'm thinking maybe 10 or 12 varieties next year.

Hey pumpkinhead1961, have you grown Cherokee Green? I found it to be a far better overall tomato to Aunt Ruby's. The tomatoes are exactly like Cherokee Purple, except they're neon-green when ripe.

I would also go with my reliable producers:
1- 4th of July (my earliest and produces till frost)
1- SunSugar (split-tolerant yellow cherry)
1- Champion (Indeterminant, I think there is a determinant version out there)
1- Goliath (New for me this year and I like it)
2- Celebrity (Indeterminant, not bush)

I've never posted on the tomato forum before, but I do grow tomatoes on my deck in homemade earthboxes and am limited to just 6. I am in CT - zone 6. This year I did 7 plants, experimenting with putting 2 plants in 1 box which I won't do again. This year I had:

Brandywine and Red Brandywine in 1 box - Brandywine was a complete bust serving only as the plant for aphids to go to, not a single tomato. Red Brandywine was tasty, but not enough of a harvest for me to repeat. I may however try it again one more year to see if it does better on it's own.

Gregori's Altai - awesome tomato, great harvest, largest tomato to date tied in with Cherokee Purple at 1.2 lbs. Will repeat.

Black from Tula - great taste, slower to ripen for me than Cherokee Purple. Good harvest. May repeat.

Cherokee Purple - first large tomato for me to ripen. Excellent harvest, large, meaty, excellent tasting tomato. Largest to date tied in with Gregori's Altai at 1.2 pounds. Will repeat.

Kellog's Breakfast - disappointed with this. The tomato has excellent flavor, they are large, meaty, but my harvest on them has been very slow. Good tomatoes, but not enough of them to take up my precious growing spot. Considering replacing it next year but not sure with what.

Galinas - incredible tasting cherry! Best I've grown in the 6 years we've done tomatoes on our deck. No cracking like Sungold, very bountiful harvest. Will be a staple in one of my boxes each year.

Good luck!

Aunt Gertie's Gold
Black From Tula
Earl's Faux
Cherokee Green
Isis Candy
Black Cherry
That's my list for today. Tomorrow it would probably change.

Earl's Faux
Paul Robeson
Cherokee Purple
Marianna's Peace
Granfather Ashlock
Eva Purple Ball

Early Girl
Big Beef
Pruden's Purple
Kosovo
Aunt Gertie's Gold
Carbon

Runners up:

Kellogg's Breakfast
Tidwell German
Gregori's Altai
Indian Stripe

My six would have to be:-

1. Moneymaker- for sheer reliability and cropping, only average taste, but just chuck them in the ground anywhere and they are almost guaranteed to produce a crop-come what may.
2. Shaker village- working name only, confusing history but a darned good tomato, decent crop of fairly large tomatoes with crinkly and creased tops to them-superb flavour deep and strong, especially if left on the vine to fully ripen to a darker shade of red.

3. Sungold, -but only from thompson and morgans stock as these are the original purveyors straight from the japanese hybridisers, and to me are always the best flavour and growth pattern.

4. Gardners Delight- the best and original cherry, that is no fuss no fickle, reliable, sweet, good cropper, reams of cherries and is not a hybrid, but seed selection requires some thought, as there is a lot of variations out there claiming to be Gardners delight, so it is only by trial and error that one arrives at your ideal version of it.

5. Sunset Red horizon- fickle, fussy, for a start until the half way stage and then- it takes off like a rocket, producing absolutely huge tomatoes of good flavour non stop.
6, Neves Azorean Red, very late starter in the Uk, but from july onwards it pumps them out none stop, huge very flavourfull tomatoes, very healthy plants, superb flavour.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Alternatives would be:-

7. Shirley- (english version) F1 hybrid, ultra reliable, producing a very heavy crop, especially on the bottom first truss, which can have as many as 9 to 13 tomatoes on it, -very good setter. good average flavour.
8. Novikov's Giant, good reliable cropper, sets trusses all the way up the stem-non stop, fairly large tomatoes up to a pound or more in weight, good average flavour.
9. sweet million F1, cherry, with the right selected seed (it varies a bit)you can have barrow loads of long triple trusses of cherries, which hang like long strings of beads from top to bottom, very moorish- but cut them in half first on you plate before eating, because if you try to bite them whole, they usually burst and squirt seeds and juice all over your shirt front :)

10. Glacier - one of the earliest tomatoes with real flavour- but be selective as to where you get seed from, as there are variations out there.

11. Various Brandywines, red/pink according to taste-and wait and hope, may surprise you, or may dissapoint you, varies season to season, as does also the flavour,very fickle,finnicy, fussy, as to soil, temp,and conditions, a real challenge and test to even the most experienced growers.

12. anything new that comes along- that fires up the old enthusiasm, and set the pulse racing- that sounds as if it's worth a try.

I was looking at what I put in back in September, and I wouldn't change my list, but I'm very much looking forward to NEW varieties this year! I am actually not planning to grow all the 6 I put on here so I have an opportunity to try others!

THis is a good question - I often wonder what people would say if they had to choose only ONE big red, and ONE big Pink, and one cherry and one green, etc. It would be interesting to see what people say.

Shannon's
Cherokee Purple
Kellogg's Breakfast
Black Cherry
Neves Azorean Red
Stump of the World

I wouldn't complain if these were the only six on the planet!!

Greg

1. I think everyone should grow at less 1 black cherry plant, because of the good taste. A farmer would have to dedicate almost an acr to bring enough to Market in large nunbers. They are so good, I have to control myself. Even with over fifty plants is not enough, Amen!!!

2. Cherokee Purple

3. Amana Orange

4. Super Snow White

5. Charlie Green or Campbells

6. yellow Pears

sandra_christie,

Sure we can all list our favorites or choices for just 6. However, there are some things to keep in mind. The first is that tastes vary. What one person likes another may dislike. Secondly performance and taste of varieties may vary in different areas.

As far as varying tastes, you have to look no further than Green Zebra. If you get a sampling large enough you will find at least one person who dislikes/hates it and at least one person who likes/loves it. At least that was my experience at the tomato tastings I conducted.

With regard to performance and taste varying depending on geographic location, I learned that lesson here (on this forum) because of Early Girl. The descriptions I read on taste and texture were far different than I experienced. In my garden Early Girl is quite good and I recommend it as a dependable early.

Some varieties tend to do well in many areas. Cherokee Purple is a very good tomato that fits in this category. Several people have recommended Brandywine. Brandywine is an excellent tomato, but from what I've read doesn't do well in the south. I've noticed in my garden that BW performs and tastes best when the summers are moderate (i.e. taste and production decreases as heat and drought increase). Also, I have favorites that are not commercially available.

That being said I would recommend the following:
Sungold - there are several good cherries, but this is fruity and therefore a bit different.
Early Girl - early with lots of production.
Cherokee Purple - good taste.
Box Car Willie - I can't believe no one else mentioned this one, it is quite good and a good producer.
Brandywine - if it grows and performs well in you area you will be rewarded.
Earl of Edgecombe - good tasting orange.

So, the bottom line is you're going to have to try different varieties to see what you like, but these trials and errors are half the fun.

Good luck.

Randy

p.s. I realize this thread was started last August and revived recently, but wanted to put my 2 cents in. :-)

I've grown tomatoes for many years but last year I added 20 varieties that I picked from Carolyn's book. My favorites:

1. Black Krim (worked better for me than Cherokee Purple which I've been growing for years)
2. Kelloggs Breakfast (they're Greaaaaaat!! ok, my daughter made me write that; grew it for the first time last season and has become a favorite).
3. Red Brandywine (grows better for me than OTV or Sudduth)
4. Jaune Flammee (the most prolific tomato I've ever grown)
5. Aunt Ruby German Green (this is my favorite tomatoey tasting tomato. You must try it).
6. Principe Borghese (can't beat it for sun drying. We preserve these in olive oil and pesto. Won our tomato tasting party last year).

Without any doubt, I definately choose the Parks Whopper Tomatoe over all the rest. If planted my way, your plants will grow to nine feet tall and produce fruit to 23 ounces in size. Only if I could not get the Whopper, I would go with the Celebrity. I will be glad to share my thoughts on this.

chuck@waterwheelsoftexas.com

Micado Violettor
Black from Tula
Sungold

This is a late post, but I wanted to put a word in for Glenn Drowns great selection at Sand Hill Preservation Center as he has 2 exclusive varieties which make my list.

1. Open pollinated Big Boy, for the reason Big Boy with care produces large harvests of a sprite tasting, not too tomatoey, but acidic tomatoe which is cleansing to the palate and one can never tire of. RL (regular leaf) I (Indeterminate)

2. Backfield, this is an early tomatoe of robust tomatoe flavor, huge, huge yields, dark red, hardy plants which ripens all at one time. Spectacular flavor on a determinate plant..
This tomatoe makes other early types like Silvery Fir Tree which is a good early tomatoe taste like those bland store types. It is that good in the heat and is pretty too. FL, D

3. Red Pear, huge yields of cherry tomatoes with Beefstake quality if one allows them to ripen in heat. RL, SD will need staking.

4. Azoychka, A light acidic version of Big Boy in a yellow tomatoe. Very hardy in extreme conditions, germinates well in cool sprouting and has very good yields of good sized fruits. RL, I

5. Rose, this is like most pinks in a work horse for a later tomatoe. It is huge, meaty, plants that resemble weeds for thickness and being tough. The fruit is meaty and sweet and under right conditions will be fruity. (only problem is one must cut the fruit from the vine as the plants are unwilling to give up their treasure.) RL, I

Also mentions, Black Krim but one would tire readily if you had to eat just them as they are heavy on the palate. Riesentraub for the Campbell's type juice if you like that.

In an additional note, people need to be warned that Brandywine is a musty flavored tomatoe which does have a smooth or slimey type flesh. This tomatoe is one which is the reason why so many people who first taste tomatoes say they do not like tomatoes. It is very distinct.
Most people prefer the sweet types like Rose. Sweet types or heavies like Krim will tire people in eating them by the peck. That is why I mix and rely on the acidic types as they allow one to different flavors to keep on eating tomatoes.

Heck I might as well put my "if only 6" list in. And they are in a particular order:

Cherokee Purple
Brandywine Sudduth
Omar's Lebanese
Stupice
Aker's West Virginia
Sungold

Patrick - Shreveport, La.

If I had that choice it would be: Beef Master Hybrid, Abraham Lincoln Original or improved brand, Which both these are good all purpose tomatoes. Others would be Big Beef Hybrid, Early Girls, Better Boys, Bonnie and topped off with some kind of sweet cherry type for salids.