I had Anna Russian from 2 different sources and plants were puny, late and nothing to speak of. If anyone has great Anna Russian seeds please share. Or it might be just me...

My deceptions/disappointments included:

Fish Lake Oxheart is a red salad sized
India looks like the same salad sized as FLO
Ambrosia Red is a small red grape.

I take full responsibility since all three are saved seeds from previous years. All seeds from those will be destroyed and new replacements will be purchased. No sense going through this again. All three taste really good and are very productive but I do not like small fruited tomatoes; one cherry per year for my wife...and then she eats very few of them.

I have come to learn that several of my favorite varieties that are supposed to be saladette-sized can come out cherry-sized in some years. Bosque Blue Bumble Bee and Bola Maciza come to mind. The weather seems to control the size of the fruit, by determining how many flowers set. That could be a peculiarity of my own weather, but it doesn't happen with hybrids or more common varieties. It seems as though fruit size fluctuation has been bred out of those varieties, possibly at the cost of flavor.

[QUOTE=Father'sDaughter;661248]So far, for me it would have to be Gregori's Altai.

Based on reports I'd read here and elsewhere, I was expecting an early-ish, very tasty, good sized pink beefsteak. The plant piled on a bunch of very early fruit that quickly grew to full size, but then just hung there for about six weeks without even a hint of blushing. When they finally did start showing color, they went to a very pale pink stage, and then stayed there for another couple of weeks.

The first three that finally went to a deeper pink were almost sour/rotten tasting. When I tried one at the pale pink state, it was flavorless.

There are a couple more that are now going to deep pink, so I'll see if it has any redeeming qualities.[/QUOTE]

Fathers Daughter,
I wouldn't give up just yet. I'm on the MA/RI border. This particular season all of my tomatoes ripened exactly as you described. I know that several local farms and gardeners had the same problem with ripening. I've grown GA for a few seasons now and they really have been great in the past.

My biggest deception was Delicious. :no::no: I was expecting large red beefsteaks, however all I got was lots of golf ball sized, bland tomatoes. I gave some of those plants to friends and all reported same thing. I know it was my seed source :)):))
well the old saying "you get what you pay for" came home. Dollar General :shock:

:no: No... I did not save seed!

Still waiting for my first Orange Strawberry to ripen!

Pruden's Purple and Rebel Yell taste wonderful as usual, but the fruits are very small and the production is sparse. (A few feet away, the George Detsikas keeps producing many large tomatoes!)

Still waiting on my first Keepsake OP to open. It's gasping with Septoria but trying to ripen about 4 little toms.

Orange Russian 117, while thirst-quenching, tastes like water.

Nan

[QUOTE=Nan_PA_6b;663687]

Orange Russian 117, while thirst-quenching, tastes like water.

Nan[/QUOTE]

Did you let it fully ripen? It should have lots of red streaks then it is really fruity and wonderful

[QUOTE=charline;663714]Did you let it fully ripen? It should have lots of red streaks then it is really fruity and wonderful[/QUOTE]
It was getting soft, so it couldn't get much riper.

Nan

[QUOTE=Nan_PA_6b;663730]It was getting soft, so it couldn't get much riper.

Nan[/QUOTE]

Nan, just my opinion but I don't always equate getting soft with ripeness. Sometimes a fruit will just sit there and not get more ripe,the reasons could be several.

[url]http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Orange_Russian_117[/url]

Carolyn

Ok, I just had an Orange Russian 117 that was not so good too. It was very soft and almost overripe. I had another one that had red streaks and was still firm and was wonderful.

Charlene- Maybe mine was too ripe?

Carolyn- I'll try the other OR117 fruits, to compare with that first taste.

Nan

[QUOTE=marc_groleau;663591]Fathers Daughter,

I wouldn't give up just yet. I'm on the MA/RI border. This particular season all of my tomatoes ripened exactly as you described. I know that several local farms and gardeners had the same problem with ripening. I've grown GA for a few seasons now and they really have been great in the past.[/QUOTE]



This has been an odd year!

I finally cut into my first two Donskoi and they had the same problem as GA -- a strange off flavor, almost sour/musty. I guess I will have to give both another chance.

So far the best slicers have been the ones produced by the plants in grow bags. Their in ground counter parts have been either bland (Orange Minsk Heart, Azoychka) or had pitiful production (Cuor Di Bue). I only had inground plants for GA and Donskoi.

I was disappointed in Carbon, I had seen lots of rave reviews for them in past years but although they were very pretty to look at, the flavor was bland and so only good for things like salsa to me (where you can add salt and other seasonings to help bring out what little flavor they did have)

I agree with you chadandpia, about Carbon. I got to taste one, and it had that "smokey flavor" people rave about, but really, it tasted like a bland tomato that got caught in a house fire.

Nan