Outstanding tomatoes (#TeamDenethorII)

[Bou]

Sorry Faramir, I really love peppers, but just like your father I'm a complete sucker when it comes to tomatoes! Over the years I have tried several but I am still searching for the "Holy Grail". I'm looking for fleshy, productive and tasty tomatoes that will grow like there's no tomorrow at my location (46°N, 72°W). I much prefer large, meaty fruits with less gel but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in smaller ones. I also want to stick to stable varieties that will produce a predictable harvest of delicious fruit year after year. Flood me with suggestions and convince me to try them (no paste, dwarf or micro please).

So far, here are my favorites and the main reasons why (listed alphabetically).

Black Beauty: As the name suggests, this one is a real show stopper! It starts completely black and matures to a dark reddish-pink tone with black shoulders. Very tasty and keeps well. Good production but a little slow to fully mature. Variable fruit caliber; they tend to become smaller as the season progresses.

Black Early: Brown, very similar to Black Krim but bushier and more productive. The fruits ripen a little earlier and also have greater resistance to cracking. Thay have a rich and complex flavor typical of other browns. I must have eaten over 50 tomato sandwiches made with this one last season

Brad's Atomic Grape: Massive plants full of stunning multi-colored fruits with a tropical taste! Already good when ripe (greenish pulp), patience is rewarded as they get even better when the inside becomes orange/yellow. This one is my go-to for salsas! Cracking can become an issue when there is a lot of precipitation late in the season.

Gargamel: Another true beauty and definitely one of the prettiest tomatoes available! Mid-size fruit with a strong/clean red tomato taste. A very good tomato to dehydrate for winter use. Can hang on plant for quite a while. Average to good but regular production from mid-season.

Golden Cherrywine: Large producer of small but delicious fruits, a little prone to cracking. Insensitive to heat, plants takes on gigantic proportions in my greenhouse and produce a ridiculous quantity of fruit until November! Unfortunately an F1 (received as a freebie), so when my seed stash runs out, that will be the end of this one!
Photo courtesy of Bene Seeds (formerly known as Artisan Seeds):

Kumato Cherry: A dark red/brown fruit with green shoulders once again full of flavor. Think of a miniature Black Krim but firmer with even better taste. It produces a more than decent amount of clusters and the fruit ripens quite quickly.. Mid-season until the first frost. Does not crack and keeps extremely well. The fruits are also very hardy; unripe berry that falls from the plant in late fall will continue to ripen on the ground without becoming soft, so no waste with this one! My favorite cherry up to now.

Pork Chop: Yellow beefsteak with little gel. Taste-wise, it’s in a category of its own: mild with light citrusy notes but not acidic at all. It produces best in full sun, but it seems the stink bugs love it as much as I do, so more attention is needed.

Rebel Starfighter Prime 1: Last but not least is another beauty queen (while also being more than delicious). I'm giving it a second chance because last time I grew it my plant was located in the shade so I didn't harvest much from it. It has a thicker skin but fruits have a long shelf life so it's not really a drawback here.

To date I have also grown the ones below (must have forgotten a few!). Many were very good in some respects (flavor, productivity, etc.) but had significant flaws, not suiting my preferences or climate (bland, poor production, late flowering, too susceptible to wilt or BER, short shelf life, etc.):

Alice’s Dream
Amethyst Jewel
Anna Russian
Ananas Noir
Atomic Sunset
Babylon Glow
Barrys Crazy Cherry
Black Beauty
Black Krim (Noire de Crimée)
Black Strawberry (2025)
Blondkopfchen
Chocolate cherry (2025)
Cowboy
Elser’s Brown Derby
Everett’s Rusty Oxheart
Galapagos Cheesmannii
Gary’O Sena
Ghost of Laos
Gigant Kuby
Golden Cherrywine
Goluboy Les (Bosque Blue)
Green Bee
Hippie Zébra
Isis Candy
Jubilee
Kumato Cherry
Magic Bullet (2025)
Malakhitovaya Shkatulka (Malachite Box)
Manitoba
Midnight Sun
Northern Green
Oaxacan Jewel
Plourde
Polaris
Pork Chop
Rainbow Jazz Heart
Rebel Starfighter Prime 1
Red Viper
Sgt. Peppers
Spike
Stupice
Summer of Love
Taiga
Uluru Ochre
+++ most reds and cherries widely available at hardware stores and garden centers.

 

[NJChilehead]

@Bou as far as larger, meaty tomatoes, two of my favorites have been Bull's Heart and Costoluto Genovese.

It sounds like you favor the larger ones, but felt that I needed to mention: two of my favorite cherry tomatoes are Snow White and Sweet Aperitif. I've read some mixed feedback on Sweet Aperitif over the years, but my experience has been that they are sweet and delicious. Regarding Snow White, I've brought bowls of them to work and people (even people who aren't "tomato people") go nuts over them. Not sure how they stack up to some of your favorite cherries, but my experience has been that they are great.

Sungolds are also a really nice cherry tomato, but I think there are different strains of it. I grew a strain one year that was very good but not great (my Coyote was better than my Sungold that year), but there were some in the garden at the school where I teach this past year that were insane. They didn't even taste like a tomato, they were so fruity.

 

[Bou]

I will have to do some research on the Bull's Heart and Costoluto Genovese, thanks for the recommendation!

As for the cherries, I'm willing to try new ones, but I'm caning most of my harvest so the larger ones make more sense and are faster to pick & process. The Snow White seems like a good one, while have a look at it too!

 

[Grass Snake]

Let's talk tomatoes then...

Have you tried the Florida Everglade tomato? It's the smallest tomato I've seen but it's also the tastiest I've tried. It's a cruel joke they're so small but I can't get over the flavor. Someone needs to super size this one.

Abe Lincoln and Oregon spring are bigger ones that do well for me down here.

A new one I'm growing this year is Glacier, a determinate type.

super sweet 100 is a nice cherry that will produce like mad, but that always seems to be the case with these smaller ones.

 

[Bou]

Let's talk tomatoes then...

Have you tried the Florida Everglade tomato? It's the smallest tomato I've seen but it's also the tastiest I've tried. It's a cruel joke they're so small but I can't get over the flavor. Someone needs to super size this one.

Abe Lincoln and Oregon spring are bigger ones that do well for me down here.

A new one I'm growing this year is Glacier, a determinate type.

super sweet 100 is a nice cherry that will produce like mad, but that always seems to be the case with these smaller ones.

Yes, I grew SS100 but despite its excellent yield, I found the taste ordinary... Oregon Spring is a little small and according to what I just read in many ways similar to the Stupice variety that I have often grown just to have fresh tomatoes early in the season! Abe Lincoln seems like a good candidate to be on my 2025 list though!

 

[Downriver]

@Bou, here's a few to check out. The one's that start producing in 75-80 days might do better up your way. Dunno. I haven't grown any of these, but several are on my '25 potential grow list. I've heard good things about all of them.

80-85d Ashleigh
80-85d Cuostralee
75-80d Goat Bag / Goatbag
75-80d Kosovo
75-80d Zapotec

 

[Bou]

Thanks DR, I'm going to Google about them!