Martinos's Roma*
Banana Legs*
Maiden's Gold*
Mr. Brown*
Golden Jubilee
Captain Lucky
Buckeye Yellow
Orange Bourgoin
San Marzano 2
Djena Lee's Golden Girl
Chocolate Cherry
Mr. Stripey
Ildi
Giant Oxheart
Red Alert
?- an unknown red beefsteak variety with huge fruits that I acquired many years ago. The seeds were in a pill bottle with no label. I grew it once, that's how I know what the fruits look like. I plan on growing this next year.

The main use for these tomatoes will be for sauce or as ingredients in other cooked recipes. I don't like raw tomatoes (I've tried them many times). Pears, cherries, grapes, and currant types are of no use to me as they are too small to deal with.

I plan on growing about 8 plants, 4 reds (2 will be paste) and 4 of other colors (again, 2 will be paste). Any suggestions? Or anything you'd swap out? I can buy one or two more tomato seed varieties, if necessary. I'm looking for prolific, meaty, and good flavored. Preferably determinate although indeterminate is okay.

Rodney

Most of these seeds I acquired free or in a SASE. I bought the Martino's Roma and Ildi (I planted this once to give the fruit away) a few years ago. I got the Djena Lee's Golden Girl and Red Alert free with seed orders. Mr. Stripey, Chocolate Cherry, and Giant Oxheart are seeds that my aunt bought (she bought the seeds, I started the plants for her, and I kept the leftover seeds). The others I got in a SASE. And you already know the story with the unknown variety.

Rodney

So let me clarify. The only varieties I was thinking about growing from my list were:

Martino's Roma
Banana Legs
Maiden's Gold
Mr. Brown
Djena Lee's Golden Girl (thanks to bmoser's suggestion)

Although now I'm wondering about Banana Legs. Is there another yellow paste that is better in fruit quality and flavor? Or perhaps I should just forget about growing pastes.

Rodney

You appear to have several yellows. By choice? If you like them, fine, then Golden Jubilee is very popular around here.

Martino's Rome and Giant Oxheart are both good choices of the ones on the list. Many better ones available than your list. San Marzano is one of our personal favorites but they are BER prone.

Dave

I think I've pretty much got the yellows figured out now. I'm not going to plant Banana Legs.

Like I said, I can buy one or two new varieties. It's not essential that I stick to what I already have.

Rodney

Most of the names you have listed are not popular. But it does not means anything.

Since you are in a cool and short season climate(z5/6), I would look into varieties with shorter DTM. I would eliminate anything over 85 days.
Also consider plant size and growing habit. Would you rather grow something over 7 foot tall ? or rather grow ones up to 4 foot ? I want, personally, a few of of these and few of those.

Another thing is fruit size: Starting from small cherry to large beefsteak over one pound. I planted TOO MANY cherries last season. So this year I will grow just one yellow and one red cherry type. And couple beefsteaks and few medium fuits varieties with short DTM(50 -65)

FUN PART: I see that a lot of people have bad reviews on Mr. Stripy (and Green Zebra elsewhere), But I will grow both of them because we also enjoy by seeing things. I enjoy looking into a basketful of tomatoes with all different colors and shape. It is like a nice flower arrangement to me. You can also slice them together, and get another nice color combination. With a dash salt, pepper, spoonful of vinegar and olive oil, they all will taste great.

JMO

Rodney