Ciao all-
How did I miss this thread?
Wordwiz, you are not kidding about Red Zebra. That thing was crazy productive for me in 2007. It also has far superiour flavour over Tigerella, which looks a lot like it. I found your comments about Green Sausage very interesting. I haven't grown it, mainly based on opinions and bad reviews from other growers, but I really ought to give it a go, basing it more on my own growing practices, climate, soil, yadda yadda.
Pam, it's interesting you heard that New Big Dwarf is considered an early variety. It certainly would never fall into that category in my garden. I'm keen to see how your DTM is with it. For what it's worth, I've heard Coyote is a spitter. I've not grown it myself. Snow White Cherry is an excellent white cherry, sweet but not cloying.
Potawie, I'm another huge fan of Opalka. It's my all-time favourite tomato. I use it for so many things, both fresh and for cooking, mostly for cooking/canning. I have a gardening friend in Mississippi who grew Summer Cider last year and loved it but I've not grown that one myself. KBX is merely a potato-leaf cross of Kellogg's Breakfast. They are essentially the same tomato with different leaf types. Kellogg's Breakfast is very good, but a little too juicy for my taste. I prefer Orange Strawberry for a large orange tomato, dense and meaty. My favourite black is Black From Tula, bar none. It's not going to wow you with production, but the ones you get should be outstanding. Paul Robeson was bland and mealy for me in 2005. I've got a different seed source for it and will probably give it another go at some point. Black Cherry is stupid productive, will grow to 12 ft even in our short season, and has good flavour, but for me, the deal breaker is the skins..skins are too thick and chewy. Chocolate Cherry is better, at least to my taste buds.
Hotpeppa and Moyboy, San Marzano Redorta is a very good Italian paste tomato and easy to source. Other ones for sauce would be again Opalka, Uncle Steve's Italian Plum, Prue, and Franchi Pear. I grew Brandywine Landis Valley which is a red strain of Brandywine and it was good, but it didn't match Brandywine Sudduth for flavour.
Josh, I've grown Cherokee Purple, Brandywine Sudduth, Black Krim, and Aunt Gertie's Gold of the ones you mentioned, all good. I've heard good things about Soldaki but I've not grown it myself. Just a word about Brandywine Sudduth. If you're looking for production, don't bother with this one. It's not going to wow you in that department. But for a BLT or a burger, there are few tomatoes out there to match it for flavour. Also, Aunt Gertie's Gold is VERY late. I only got 3 tomatoes off of it in 2006. Hopefully your season is longer than mine. It does well in the American South. I'm growing Neve's Azorean Red for the first time this year on rave reviews from other growers. I'm very much looking forward to it and pray for an outstanding season comparable to 2006 or 2007. I grew it for a Portuguese friend from the Azores and she talks about it to this day. She and her husband saved seeds from it and will grow it every year now.
AJ, if you're looking for crazy production, here are a few for you: Thessoloniki, which is on your list, you've been warned. This thing likes to take over. Costoluto Genovese was also crazy productive for me in 2006. King Humbert is the craziest of any tomato I've grown for production except for the cherries. It's a roma-type and will have you harvesting buckets for weeks wondering what else you can do with them. It also gets crazy huge, topping 12 ft in my Toronto garden. Reif Red Heart was nuts as well, and it's an oxheart, not known to be productive tomato plants. They're also HUGE, most in the 2 lb range.
Whew, that was fun..anyone else?