I can highly recommend both Jet Star and Brandy Boy. 4th of July was a disappointment to me in size, production, and taste but only gave it 1 year try. Goliath and Better Boy were...ok but nothing special so I gave up on both after 2 years. Big Beef is good but I prefer both JS and BB more. No personal experience with the others.

Dave

Rutgers-great taste and productivity. Good disease resistance.
And yes, Sungolds

Of all those you mention I have grown them all except for J.D.'s Special C-Tex and Moreton.

These hybrids are on my yearly Must Grow List:

BrandyBoy
SunGold
Momotaro
Big Zac
Big Beef

and Moreton.

*****

If you mean Moreton Hybrid, seeds for it are no longer in production and haven't been for about 8 years now. A few folks sandbagged seeds; I'm one of them but with only one pack. ( smile)

But there are two other Harris hybrids that I like a lot. One is Jet Star and the other is Supersonic. Great yields and taste. Actually of the hybrids I've grown I think the Harris hybrids have the best taste.

I'll let others who live nearer to you or are in the same zone as you share with you what seems to do best for them.

Carolyn, noting that she didn't answer your same question posted elsewhere.

I am glad to hear all the positives on Brandy Boy. A friend of mine shared some seeds with me and I am anxious to see how they do. Has anyone tried Goose Creek? It is another fav of my friends that I am also trying and I understand it is hard to come by.

Dombito and Mexicana.

Dombito is a satiny textured tomato, major eye-candy to look at, and taste divine.

Mexicana is offered by Burpees in a goldenrod-colored pack with bilingual text. It was released by Burpee's for their Latino gardeners. It makes loads and loads of two to three inch red fruits which hold well on the plant. They're good eating fresh, when you cook them they maintain their shape rather than breaking down to mush, and they also seem to become sweeter as they're cooked. I got my seeds at Walmart.

T

I'll echo Dr. Carolyn's recommendation for Supersonic from Harris. Many hybrids have had their trials here in my garden, but this is the one I settled on a few years ago. With the consistently great productivity and great taste...I no longer experiment. Big Beef may have been a close second but I prefer the taste of the Supersonics, and the productivity has been a bit better, too. One caveat....I have no idea how your Dallas temps might affect any hybrids we more northern folks might suggest to you.

So as to not hijack this thread, I'm going to start a new one tomorrow (if I have time). I tried something new (to me) this season with my tomatoes. The result was an approximate 33% increase in production...to roughly 60 lbs. each plant this season. These were Supersonics, too.

Hal

thanks for all the comments

Hal - want to hear more about the 33% solution - not hijacking at all, directly on point for me - tell us about your plan for Supersonics

Another vote for both Supersonics and Sungolds - the latter is everyone's favorite hybrid.
And yes, the Harris hybrids are undoubtedly superior - don't know why but I visited their test fields many years ago and sampled every variety there before settling on Supersonics but many of their varieties were excellent. Guess they just had good breeding lines.

Guess they just had good breeding lines

*****

They do.

But my real fave was their variety Starpak and they stopped seed production on that one as well. Sigh.

At that point Harris had joined with Moran to form Harris-Moran seeds, a wholesale firm with excellent hybridizers, some of which they acquired from Harris, and those folks moved from Rochester to CA, and some of their own.

I almost, I say almost, had someone in CA convinced to send me the last in the two breeding lines so I could make my own F1 Starpak seeds, but it fell through at the last minute.

I guess they didn't believe me when I said I wasn't going to share or sell the F1 Starpak seeds. LOL

Subsequently, as most folks know, the employees of Harris bought back the Harris portion from Moran seeds, so while the Harris-Moran name stuck, they're back to being an independent company just called Harris Seeds, but all the hybridizers stayed with HMoran in CA.

Now the nice thing about this situation is that Harris gets first dibs on anything new that the Harris-Moran hybridizers come up with and that's a good plus in my opinion.

Carolyn

Second that Rutgers. I grew some in whiskey barrels and had plenty for myself and plenty to give away.

Tumble Weeds, I live over near Mesquite on the S.E. side of the Metroplex, so what I have success with might work for you too.

I agree that Merced is excellent, I have been saving seeds and planting out the F-1 and F-2 to keep them going for my garden as long as possible. I have yet to be disappointed in them, and the taste is right up there with the tops. My all time, long time favorite has been Big Beefsteak. My plants of that variety were very productive this past spring regardless of the unusual rainy season, they went thru the mid summer lull and . I counted 30 new tomatoes on one plant yesterday or the day before, ranging in size from about like a marble to bigger than a tennis ball.
That is probably my top two, Jet Star might be numero threeo, and I could list several not far behind.
That is just my preferences.
Bill P.

Rutgers-great taste and productivity. Good disease resistance

****

Rutgers is not an F1 Hybrid. ( smile)

Yes, several strains of it, of which there are about 10 different strains, do have some bred in tolerances to certain diseases, but they are systemic diseases which are only found in certain areas of the country, not the foliage diseases which are the most common tomato diseases.

But Rutgers is not hybrid, it's just that a few genes for disease tolerances were bred into the original OP developed by Rutgers in 1928 and then an "improved" version released in 1933. Various companies bred in those various tolerances at different times post 1933.

Hope that helps.

Carolyn

Rather than enumerating all the hybrid tomatoes I've enjoyed to one degree or another over the years, I'll just say the first one I ever grew, Big Boy, remains one of the best ever for what I want in a big, red, tasty slicer.

And this year I tried a new one that really proved itself ... Glory Hybrid by Peto Seeds. Glory started the season very aggressively, got up to size and began setting fruit with no problems. The vine appears disease tolerant and the blossoms nearly heatproof. It's a fairly controlled growth indeterminate with large, shady leaves.

Glory Hybrid produced nice 9 - 11 ounce, shapely, red, solid tomatoes that hold well on the vine and maintained good, firm slicing quality on the kitchen counter for several days.

Glory's shape and color reminds me of some of Dr. Randy Gardner's breeding lines with the slightly ruffled shoulders, and smooth, almost nonexistent blossom scar. Most fruit are perfectly blemish free. And the flavor is superior according to my wife and coworkers.

Can you see the tiny gold flecks in the skin? That's another phenomenon somewhat characteristic of a few of Dr. Gardener's Mountain series hybrids, so I wonder about Peto's marketing hype that Glory is a cross of two "heirloom" tomatoes ... and whether instead it has some genes from more recently selected breeding lines.

Regardless of parentage, Glory is a good hybrid tomato, and the seeds are available from Parks.

Can you see the tiny gold flecks in the skin? That's another phenomenon somewhat characteristic of a few of Dr. Gardener's Mountain series hybrids, so I wonder about Peto's marketing hype that Glory is a cross of two "heirloom" tomatoes ... and whether instead it has some genes from more recently selected breeding lines.

*****

Bill, the Gold Fleck condition, and it is called Gold Fleck, is something that occurs from time to time and can occur on almost any fruits given the right genetics and conditions, the latter of which is not well understood.

Right now I'm looking at my Seminis ( read Petoseed) Tomato Pathology book and it says:

Gold Fleck ( and I'm shortening up some of what they say.

Symptoms: round dark green spots on immature fruits, spots change to light tan as the fruit matures and to golden yellow at maturity.

Conditions for Disease Development:

(And disease doesn't mean a biological agent is involved. CJM)

****

Susceptibility is genetically inherited.
Development more severe when fruits exposed to high temps and plant and fruit are growing rapidly.
More work is needed to understand
Tomato varieties differ greatly re susceptibility with some varieties developing only a few flecks and others developing many.

So Glory could still be a cross of two heirloom tomato varieties given their genetic backgrounds as to "flecking". Hmmmm, I never used that word before. LOL

Carolyn

>"Can you see the tiny gold flecks in the skin? That's another phenomenon somewhat characteristic of a few of Dr. Gardener's Mountain series hybrids ..."I probably should've left that issue out of this thread altogether. Or at least qualified it a bit further by saying that I had seen this gold flecking in Mountain Spring and Mountain Fresh grown last summer nearby in Kentucky by a lady who does market gardening. I also saw it to a lesser degree on some of her Celebrity tomatoes, so I suppose it was genetic and/or environmental.

Here are two links related to what I was saying about Dr. Gardner's breeding lines:
Fresh Market Tomatoes
If you scroll down the page to the picture of NC 127S(2002)-BK, you will see a tomato that looks to my eyes very much like Glory ... except that Glory isn't determinate ... but then there could be hundreds of tomatoes that look exactly like Glory to the naked eye. I just thought that Glory held so well and so long on the kitchen counter that it reminded me of one of the Dr. Gardner market tomatoes ... rather than the Delicious x Brandywine that was alluded to online in a couple of discussions with one of the breeders.

And here is a short article about gold fleck that indicates it's probably genetic and/or environmental but not necessarily associated with certain insecticides as was thought by some commercial growers in the Southeast.
Gold Fleck on Tomatoes

Sorry for steering the discussion away from the original question. I reiterate, Glory is a great hybrid for home gardens IMO. I hope more folks buy the seed from Parks as they are currently selling it at about half price, and I hope that doesn't indicate an upcoming discontinuance.

Bill

Bill

interesting about the gold flecks, which I have not noticed in my garden

am pursuaded to try Glory, thanks for sharing, will order from Park

I swore I already posted in this thread....maybe there was another thread about favorite hybrids.

Anyway, I have a few favorites but this year I really enjoyed Champion. The red skinned fruits with pink inner meat made for a beautiful sliced fruit and were quite tasty as well.

Jay

I find this thread/string very interesting because I often vacillate between wanting to know more about the genetics of tomatoes (to understand traits  whatÂs recessive/dominant  and what ARE the traits  gold flecks, orange red purple, etc.) and not giving a hoot, and just wanting to enjoy the Âfruits of my laborÂ. Like most reading/visiting this  I LOVE tomatoes. LOVE the look and taste thereÂs nothing more beautiful. I do not save seed, have successfully saved seed  but then I feel I have little space to experiment and if I end up with something disappointing IÂd be stuck with it for the season. I understand OP, hybrids, F1, F2  I had Bio 101 in college but is there anything out there  a book/reference that lists traits and how it all plays out? May be I should have started another thread. Or may be it something that others aren't interested in  several of you seem like expert/experts seems like there's a lot I don't understand - but some part of me wants to understand more.

Tom-

Tom,

I hope the links below help out. Even if you end up buying nothin' but store bought seeds and nursery transplants, the kind of stuff in these links makes for great wintertime reading:

Online Tomato Vine

Making Tomato Crosses

Gene Basics and Grow Out

I grew most of the favorite hybrids mentioned on here this year along with over 50 op's. Goliath is still my favorite hybrid and my trusty standby here in my conditions. I tried Jet Star again and it was just average. Old Fashioned Goliath did well along with Big Beef. Most of the rest of the hybrids were average or below. Brandyboy is a favorite that the hail got this year. Jay

One of my favorites for years has been a variety called "TomCat" offered by Totally Tomatoes ...

Perfectly round, medium red globes, on productive disease tolerant vines with great taste. What more could you ask for ???

~ Tom