My first year for San Marzanos. Did not do well, Seemed very small, problems with BER. I had such high hopes for these too.

Sun Gold as well as San Marzanos had Septoria. However the Sun Gold sure did chug away in spite of the disease and am still harvesting every day.

I loved the Brandywine and Mortgage lifter, very good producers. The Beefstake did not do well. Not much production. The Rutgers were not a good producer either.

We had a very rainy July here in West Michigan and I blame the disease on that. Could not keep in front of it no matter what I did.

In spite of all of that, I did get enough production for salsa for the winter, sauce and stewed tomatoes for the winter with a few left over to give away. I guess that's why we always plant a little more than we really need to!

Will try a different paste tomato next year for sure. Any suggestions?

Diane

Best luck this year with Dr. Lyle and AAA Sweet Solano. They did better than the tried-and-true hybrids. The Dr. Lyle probably benefitted from being in afternoon shade. Still, it kept going longer than I thought it would in our miserably hot summer (with spider mites).

I am having my best tomato season ever (only 5th year) I have half the plants (8) than last year, but more tomatoes!

We had a cold rainy June, which really stunted my cukes and beans, but didnt seem to hurt the tomatoes. Slowed them a little, but right now I am harvesting about 20-25 every two days.

Early Girl - this may be my last year for them. They were not earlier than most of the others, and while they produced ok they are not anything special for eating.

Genovese Costoluca - Very productive, small to medium sized, I use them pretty much only for sauce, very little gell/seeds.

Kosovo - first year with these, my most productive plant, but very small fruit, the size of romas, but jucier. 70-80 tomatoes, good flavor.

Prudens Purple. My biggest and tastiest fruit. Last year I think I only got 5-6 tomatoes, this year at least 40, so far all of them nice sized (over 1 lb.)

Parks Whopper - nice sized very tasty classic slicers, but smaller plant with less fruit than others.

Goose Creek- Similar to the Parks Whopper, but larger plant with more fruit.

Belmonte - Beautiful pear shaped tomatoes, 50-60 nice and meaty, with good flavor.

Green Zebra - smallest and slowest of the plants this year, but I like the look and the flavor a lot. at least 40 tomatoes.

This was my first year starting from seed, grew 60, half went to friends and planted the other half, a few each of the following:
--Black Krim: Moderate production
--Cherokee Purple: Moderate production
--Brandywine: Low/moderate production; however, along with CP was my favorite in terms of flavor
--Green Zebra: BER issues; but still producing
--White Wonder: BER issues; low production
--Amish Paste: Moderate/high production: wish I planted more of these
--Red Pear: High production: wish I only had 2 of these instead of 4; however, love that they produce early and consistently throughout the season

Next year? I am eager to try other choices like Kelloggs, Rutgers, & Sun Gold. Thanks to everyone in this forum, I rarely post but am an avid follower/student!

Bought a pot at Lowe's with three plants in it - label said ''Roma''.

One became a reasonable sized plant with average sized round red tomatoes that crack. A second averaged sized plant has some few average sized round red tomatoes that don't crack.

And then there is the third plant. It has now covered an area 12ftX12ft with scores of thumb sized red fruit, slightly pear shaped. And still growing. Still blooming and still producing more fruit.

Although weather conditions in my zone were less than favorable two of my varieties did exceptionally well. The German Johnson in fact is still producing fruit and to date I've gotten over 45 large tomatoes with the poundage exceeding 32. Also my Sun Sweet produced over 200 super duper sweet little guys in spite of the fact that it was in a 15 gallon container. Next year I'm going to double the size of the container for that variety and compare. The Sun Sweet is the sweetest tasting tomato that I have tried to date.

I'm in SC, right on the border between USDA Zone 7 and 8. This summer has been unusually cool and wet, and that may be the reason I got a lot of cracked tomatoes.

Most of the heirlooms I grew were flavor-wise head and shoulders over the hybrids. Here are my observations, FWIW:

By far the best tasting tomatoes were Marianna's Peace and Stump of the World. Rich, full tomatoey taste--made you stop and say, 'man, that's what a tomato SHOULD taste like'--but not very productive. I'll definitely plant these again in 2014.

Black Krim was pretty good as well, along with Cherokee Purple.

The most productive plants I had were a paste tomato, Opalka, and a cherry tomato, Black Cherry. Both produced lots of fruit, but neither one of them had a remarkable flavor. Not bad, just not exceptional. Probably won't plant them in 2014.

Pretty good: Arkansas Traveler and Mortgage Lifter. Indifferent: most of the hybrids, including Brandy Boy, Beefmaster, Goliath

Did a blind taste test with a sliced up Marianna's Peace next to some hybrid (Goliath, IIRC): people could easily tell the difference on the first taste, even though the Marianna's Peace wasn't as red as the other.

Diane, as far as paste tomatoes go, I'm no expert, but in 2014 I think I'm gonna try the San Marzano Redorta (see the link).

Here is a link that might be useful: san marzano redorta

This post was edited by arley on Mon, Sep 16, 13 at 15:05

I have had a number of favorites from last year as well as new ones. Favorites mostly still are although Big Rainbow will be replaced and so will Black Krim. New ones that I have tried and loved were Nickolaevna, Momotaro/ hybrid but very good/, Giant Yellow Belgium, orange paste, hog heart, Gypsy, most favorite dark ones, which is my preference are Amazon Chocolate and Pierce Pride. List is open for next year. Had too many cherries but they were good. My most favorite was Isis candy, however by the end of the season it gets too soft and mushy. I might grow few standbys as tried and true giveaways and try out all new for myself for next year.

Arley, you have me adding Marianna's Peace to the list for next year!

My MP is similar to Tatiana site and PL and came from trade, I have grown it for several years, besides that it is late tomato it does have excellent taste, I would say good production.
Diane, of my paste tomatoes I have had good luck with Roman Striped, which is one of my favs over the years and Banana legs, this year I had new ones Orange paste and Hog heart. Orange paste has fantastic color to add to taste. Next year I will be trying banana cream which is slightly earlier than banana legs.

Marianna's Peace- (PL) first time this year defineitly a keeper! Medium production , great taste !

Kellogg's Breakfast - first time this year, This tomato will be in my garden every year, great producer, my largest tomato 1 3/4 lbs. Best tasting tomato in the Garden .

Gigantesque - Big tomatoes, great producer, lack luster in taste. I'll give them one more try next year due to the strange weather conditions here in So . Indiana and Septoria.

Golden Jubilee - Hybrid. Another keeper, great producer and great taste 3/4 lb. tomatoes !

Black Krim - Will not try again !

Mortgage Lifter ( Radiator Charlies) - Good producer, Biggest 1 1/4 lb., Great tasting, Keeper !

Long Tom - Paste tomatoe, Great taste, medium producer . Big paste tomato up to 6 in. long and 2 in. diameter. Keeper !

Bloody Butcher - My earliest tomato . Good producer of 2 in. tomatoes . Great taste ! Keeper !

Anna's Russian - medium producer , 3 in Oxheart type , great taste ! Keeper

Better Boy - Always

Probably my best year ever as well. I have never had too many tomatoes, but I have canned more than I will use in two years, and am now trying to give them away.

Italian Heirloom - Good production, most fruits large, well formed and no cracking.

Helen's German - Amazing production, most fruits in excess of 1 pound, hanging in clusters on the trellis. So heavy they collapsed the trellis and I had to reinforce!

Crnkovic - normally rather stingy producer, but this year they just won't quit. Beautiful deep pink, meaty, excellent for eating and canning.

Hanky Red - Small determinate vine, heavy producer of small to medium sized fruits. Good for processing, also early ripening.

Aviuri - Similar to Hanky Red in most ways. Kind of a one and done sort of vine.

Unk Paste Type - The actual name has been lost to the mists of time, but it is an absolute gem. Large fruits hang in clusters, hollow center with a small gel of seeds. Very thick wall, excellent for processing and drying.

Cherry Type - Grown by a friends grandmother for years, we call it after her, Gladys' Cherry. Large fruit, almost golf ball size, good for stuffing and cooking into juice. Extremely large vines and very fruitful.

As I said a most productive year when I am trying to give them away.

Steve

Mortgage Lifter, Estler: great producer and wonderful taste, my favorite again

Brandywine Sudduth: great taste and good yield, my largest plant; a keeper

Kosovo, good production and good taste, but fruits got mushy if they weren't picked just before ripening and eaten as soon as they ripened. The plants are wispy and fragile. Going to look for another oxheart

Cherokee purple: good yield and interesting taste, but still hard to convince my family to eat a tomato that looks like that

Goosecreek: tasty with a fair yield. These were larger and more productive in the past two years when we had far less rain. This year most were smaller than a tennis ball.

Stump of the world and Earl's Faux: only produced a couple tomatoes each; disappointing flavors

Brandy Boy and Jetsetter: I grew these two hybrids as "insurance" but they both succumbed to disease early and we're basically duds

My choices turned out ok, for most part:

-- Early Girl: Although did not turn out to be as early, as claimed, but was ok. But what made it a good choice, has been its productivity. It has been ripening since mid July and still going like the Energizer Bonny.

Sweet N Neat: very nice large pink cherry fruits, ripening from second half of July. Now getting tired. But amazing thing about it that it is dwarf, taking little over one square foot and about 6" tall. VERY PRODUCTIVE.

Det. Roma: Very small plant, as label said "Window Box". Not much production. Less than 20 fruits all season.

VARIOUS Cherries: A lot of fruits, Now they are loaded. Some are TOO TINY. We had too many of them. Next year will have one plus SUN SUGAR or SUNGOLD.

Black Krim: Disappointing slow start. But has been ripening since early September. I will grow again.

Brandywine: Total disappontment. Has about 5 fruits all together and nothing has ripened yet. SCRATCH IT!

Best in 2013:
---------------------
1. Druzba - 5 stars! Robust plants with tones of red, round, uniform picture-perfect tomatoes (no cracking, BER, green shoulders or anything). Will grow again.

2. Rebell Yell F5 - wonderful taste, robust plant, large pink tomatoes and LOTS of them. The most productive pink beefsteak IâÂÂve ever grown. Will grow again

3. Big Boy - another surprise. Very productive, also very disease resistant. All my tomatoes are already gone (late blight + 2 frosts finished them all). Only Big Boy and Juliet are still growing and producing fruits. Juliet has some late blight, but Big Boy seems to be immune. Definitely a keeper!

4. Juliet - very robust and very productive with decent resistance to late blight. I am using this variety for canning tomatoes whole - fruits are just perfect for this, thick fleshed, thick skinned and extremely productive. A keeper.

5. Rutgers - a keeper. Productive, beautiful and tasty. Nothing to add.

6. Tasmanian Chocolate - robust, bushy plants (though not very tall), good production, very tasty reddish-chocolate large fruits

7. Big Beef - OK⦠planted it after âÂÂwowâ reviews and I expected it to be The Star of the garden.. But it wasnâÂÂt. Production was OK, taste is good, but nothing compared to my #1 and #2 stars. I will give it another try.

8. Helsing Junction Blues - almost black tomatoes, a conversation piece in my garden. Productive, no cracking - will grow again.

Not stars, but will grow again:
-------------------------------------
1. Joe Lauerer's Pink German Eggs (prolific, good for canning whole)
2. Pineapple (nice color, good taste, prolific)
3. KelloggâÂÂs breakfast (meaty, nice color, decent production, excellent taste)
4. White Wonder - low production, but I like the fruit color
5. Green Zebra - so-so production will grow for esthetic reasons. Love the color!

Will not grow again:
----------------------------
1. Wapsipinicon peach - fruits donâÂÂt last, plant is very sensitive to draught.
2. Pink Berkley Tie Dye - fruits were cracking and rotting on the plant, not sure why
3. Barlow Jap - OK, but Rebell Yell was better among pinks
4. Neves Azorean Red - OK, but Rebell Yell was better among pinks
5. Beef Master - produced several large beefsteaks, but overall production was disappointing
6. Black Krim - so-so production, lots of cracking on the fruits
7. Super Sweet 100 - cracks, need to find another red cherry for next year
8. Black Cherry - cracks, need to find another black cherry for next year
9. San Marzano Nano - need to find more productive paste tomato with less BER

This post was edited by green_go on Tue, Sep 24, 13 at 11:18

I had bought a Neves Azorean Red and I had "high hope"s for it, but Alas, almost over night it wilted, and died. All the surrounding tomato plants were fine, alto I did spray them with Serenade just to be on the safe side.

I find it interesting that "green go" compares it to Rebel Yell.
The NAR is a large tomato, that I read that "Carolyn" had something to do with it, while the Rebel Yell is a small tomato, with apparently good taste. Had I not taken the time to look up Rebel Yell, I would have been disappointed had I replaced NAR with it. I wanted a large good tasting mater.

Why do you favor the Rebel Yell, does it taste better, is it more productive, or what??

For those of you that have grown NAR, would you suggest I give it another go, next year, How was the taste and production. Is there a "similar large pink or red tomato" you would choose instead?

Thanks!

Gary

Rebel Yell is not a âÂÂsmall tomatoâ by any means.
The plant is huge, the production is fantastic and it bears large pink beefsteak tomatoes.
And it tastes wonderful.

I suggest you give NAR another go. It is the best tasting red I've ever tried, out of 100+ red varieties tried. That means there are no similar large reds, to me. :)

There are dozens and dozens of large pink tomatoes that I think are its equal, or a bit better.

Another Gary

Sorry for the double post

This post was edited by ABlindHog on Fri, Sep 27, 13 at 17:03

JD's Early black came in earliest at 54 days, and made lots of small (4-6 oz) sweet Black/Red beefsteaks till it shut down in July. Replanted for the fall season and picked my first fall tomato on Tuesday.

Plainsman was new to me this year, I hoped to replace Sioux with a Texas tomato. Three plants made a few tomatoes each and all three died before any of them ripened. Meanwhile Sioux did great, as usual. Will try again one more time but maybe not right away.

Big Dwarf was fair sized and good tasting, but less productive than I had hoped. It will go in a better spot next year.

Cherokee Purple was good despite being uprooted in the garden by a deer, and re-planted late in a too small container to get it out of harms way. It still managed to ripen a few great tasting tomatoes before the heat shut it down.

I grew Tycoon for disease resistance and hybrid vigor and had healthy plants that made a ton of fruit that was not very good to eat at all. They went from green to nearly white as they began to slowly ripen and cook in the sun, after they finally blushed pink it took about two to three weeks for them to turn red, some sat on the counter for several more weeks, but they still never really seemed ripe.

I would still like to find a hybrid red beefsteak for disease resistance and vigor but first it needs to be one that you would want to eat. I'm thinking of trying Big Beef next year and hoping to hear some suggestions.

I am currently enjoying the process of whittling down a long list of new tomatoes to try next year.
I'm also looking for an indeterminate dwarf cherry that tastes great for a container on the deck, and as always, for tomatoes with a Texas heritage to add to my already too long list.

Mike

I'm trying to get a stable OP out of my favourite hybrid, so the majority of my plants this year were the F3 of those. My goal is a 9-ounce(ish), heart-shaped tomato with a complex flavour and enough zing to make your tongue tingly. So far I've just been selecting my best-tasting fruits, but next year I may try a purposeful cross. A few showed up that were really fleshy (like a beefsteak), had great texture, very small locules and good flavour. If I can get that quality crossed with the other, zippier fruits, that'd be great (but I won't sacrifice flavour for the trait). I got a lot of plants/fruits that are on target, so I'm really pleased so far. I also had two friends call me up specifically to gush about the tomatoes (I had given them my extra starts in the spring). That's never happened before! :) As an added bonus, practically all the fruit were able to ripen on the plants outdoors before mid-September - a benefit for our very short season. I've only got a couple of dozen in the house yet ripening up in boxes (we had to get them out of the garden because I was rotating the garlic to that spot, which needed to be planted now).

I also grew Juliet for the kids. They love them (so does hubby), but I don't because the skins are always tough and they're far too sweet.

Lemon Boy was also for the kids; again, too sweet for me. The plant absolutely exploded with so much fruit, though, that the family couldn't keep up, so I've been incorporating a few here and there in sauces. I've still got loads of green fruit on that plant yet. If a person likes sweet yellows, that's certainly a nice one!

San Marzano did well, but I wasn't able to keep up with tying the indeterminates this year. I will grow these again, just to evaluate them when they're properly cared for. They did not to badly considering they were pretty much ignored, though.

Polish Linguisa I want to try again, too. The fruit was lovely, but the plants were pretty wimpy. Perhaps they're just that way or perhaps it was because of the neglect on my part. I want to have a re-try on those.

Roma VF wasn't really worthwhile. The fruit weren't that much larger than Juliet and the flavour wasn't anything special. I'd rather grow the other pastes.

Black Krim finally produced for me this year, but I had to start it much earlier than all the others. It was nice, but had nothing of the "smokey" flavour I always see in its catalogue descriptions. I likely won't grow again.