Thoughts about tomato plants

W

wordwiz

This year, just because I had not done it before, I grew about 15 different types of toms. Pleasant and not so pleasant surprises.

The great:
Red Zebra: these toms are about the size of a cueball, a large one the size of a baseball. Fantastic flavor. Great for slicing - not a lot of juice. But great for making juice - the flesh produces a lot. Also looks like a great canning tomato. The plants are prolific: I haven't kept track but I suspect about 30-50 fruits per plant.

Green Sausage - I was ready to pull the two plants up but if you like salsa, this is a must grow tom. Very prolific plant, dozens of 4" toms that ripen over a period of time. Very little juice and the seeds and fleshy middle is easy to remove.

Golden Monarch - If you like yellow toms, this is the variety to grow. Bit fruits, few seeds, very juicy when squeezed.

If you like to show off:
The Giant Belgium is the tom for you. Huge toms measuring at least six inches by four inches, plus about three inches deep. They don't weigh what one would expect - my heaviest was under two pounds. Very few seeds, not much juice when you slice them. But the HAVE to be staked, otherwise part of them will rot. They have the color of a pumpkin.

More later.

Mike
 
Thanks for sharing this info. Haven't grown any this year, but I wanna grow various sorts next year. I'll look through my seeds and see if I have any of those.
 
To finish up what I started last night but got interrupted by an explosion:

I wasn't impressed with several of the types of toms I grew. The Hawaiian Pineapple was a disappointment, though it may be one of the toms that contributed to the explosion. Jersey Giant - it is suppose to be a prolific Roma type. The few toms it produced were great, but getting eight toms off a plant over the summer is not worth it.
Cherokee Chocolate - forget it. Perhaps if they can be staked where the fruits don't touch anything, they would be good. Lots and lots of juice and seeds, but they are prone to rot. Aunt Ruby's German Green - save your $2.50 and don't order any.

Mike
 
Thanks wordwiz... I only grew a few varieties this year and am thinking about trying several more next year. You have posted some very useful info that I'm sure I'll be using when it's time to purchase Tomato seeds.
 
My favorite tomatoes this year were

Omar's Lebanese: A large pink Beefsteak with great taste and a good producer. I have one plant in my greenhouse that has actually outgrown the greenhouse and has probably produced 30+ lbs of toms so far, most of which were 1-2 lbs

Sungold(hybrid): Big plants, big producers, and big taste. Small orange cherry toms.

German red strawberry: The best tasting tomato I have ever tried but they didn't produce very well this year with our wet weather

Opalka: My favorite paste tomato. Great flavor and usually quite productive but once again this year's weather really messed things up.

Redrobin: Small determinate plants that are very productive for their tiny size and produce great flavored red cherry toms.
 
What is a reliable source for these tomato seeds? The wife loves them and we'll try some next year!
 
I get a lot of mine from www.tomatogrowers.com as well. Seedsavers exchange is a great place to get rare heirloom seeds, with their many sources you can usually find a variety more acclimatised/adapted to your location.
 
Potawie, we grew opalka after hearing your mention of them...weather did a number on them this year but we liked the flavor and size, will grow them next year.
 
My favorite tomato this year is prudens purple. A big, dark tomato with great taste, ripened a bit earlier then most everything. Sungold was also a BIG winner this year. Another one I will grow next year is juliet - the flavour wasn't the best but it is good, the plant is amazingly productive and the tom's are perfect for making "sun dried tomatoes" in my dehydrator as they are like a mini roma tomato.

Next year I hope to try a few more varieties but these three will be the mainstays.
 
POTAWIE said:
I personally wasn't a big fan of the Juliet. For sundried toms I prefer Principe Borghese
Click to expand...

Yah I'm not a huge fan of them, but they were just so prolific, even in containers.

However, I've found the Principe Borghese and I will grow them next year and see how they do. Thanks for the tip :)
 
I have had such bad luck with tomato's here in the big dry ditch that when I think of tomato's ...I have bad things on my mind.

Cheers, TB.
 
I am growing:

1. super snow white hybrid - a very sweet ping pong sized white cherry tom.

2. Hugh's - Large white heirloom tom that can grow to 2.5 pounds. It is thin skined so i hope it will be ok in my hot summer..

3. Sprite - smaller red grape tom plant that is a hugh producer and is great in pots.

4. Pineapple tomato - yellow/red Bi coloured tom that grows to 2 pounds. very prolific and sweet.

5. Green Giant - green tom that grows to about 18oz, and is sweet and spicy.

6. Golden Gem Hybrid - this golden orange cherry tom has a 10% sugar content, and can grow up to 50 toms on a single cluster. Looking forward to this one.....

7. Gold Nugget - yellow cherry toms that are very prolific and the plant stays small..

I grew 2 red cherry tom plants last season and i am really looking forward to growing all these different types this season... They are about 6 inches tall ATM and they are going in the ground this weekend. It's a long weekend of us in OZ so look out garden, here i come...:D:onfire:
 
i grew boxcar willie which did NOTHING for me in this rain, brandywines and roman candle which were suprisingly awesome given the weather (but i only planted two and one respectively cuz i wasn't expecting this...), and husky which weren't super outstanding but good little workhorses...
my cherries were just tiny tim and red pear, reliable and tasty as always (tho not as good as last year. see:rain)
 
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