Large fruited variety with highest productivity
 

Of all the large fruited varieties of tomatoes that you have grown, which have the highest productivity? By large I mean average over 9oz.

I'm just curious. I have limited space (very limited). I would like to plant varieties that produce well. Heirloom or hybrid doesn't matter to me.

Anyone grown Bella Rosa? Would this tomato fit the bill?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Brandy Boy (hybrid) did very well for me, and was very tasty. Lemon Boy (also a hybrid) - yellow tomato - produced tons, but it is very mild. I think those meet your size criteria - double check Lemon Boy.

Mortgage Lifter (OP/heirloom) also produced lots for me - but I found the flavor too mild. Others disagree.

[QUOTE=J Peazy;219925]Of all the large fruited varieties of tomatoes that you have grown, which have the highest productivity? By large I mean average over 9oz.

I'm just curious. I have limited space (very limited). I would like to plant varieties that produce well. Heirloom or hybrid doesn't matter to me.

Anyone grown Bella Rosa? Would this tomato fit the bill?

Thanks in advance for your help.[/QUOTE]

I haven't grown it (well, I am this year...), but for productivity and flavor Kosovo seems to be mentioned quite often around here! The fruit are generally approaching 1 lb I think.

Year before last it was Marianna's Peace. Last year it was Neves Azorean Red, Limbaugh's Legacy, Kosovo, and Stump of the World. This year it is kind of a toss up of several varieties and one of them is Bella Rosa. The others are Dr. Wyches Yellow, Jetsetter, Brandywine Sudduth's , Brandywine Terhune, Milka's Red Bulgarian, and one I thought was Germaid Red. A couple of them still have fruit on them so I don't have a final tally yet. This year neither Marianna's Peace nor Neves Azorean Red has done well for me. I would recommend you pick at least a half dozen different ones so that if one or two do poorly you will still get a good crop of large tomatoes.
For me it seems that none of the large fruited varieties can be counted on to produce well every year. I will say that Kosovo has proven to be fairly consistent in production of large but not huge fruit both years I have grown it and so has Jetsetter.

For what heirlooms I have grown Rose had the most production and size consistency. It was not uncommon for me to get maters around the 1 pound mark with some being in the two pound range.


Kevin

@J Peazy:
No offense, but we have a terminology issue. :) I am going to assume that you are really asking what large fruited varieties are most productive. In my garden the winner would have to be Aker's WV. The added benefit is that it is most resistant to the most common foliage diseases we have around here (Early Blight and Septoria leaf spot).

A long time ago someone actually counted the number of tomatoes per plant of many varieties and posted the results on the internet. I don't know if you can find a link to those results by searching (google?) or not.

@tam91:
I have to agree with you on the Mortgage Lifter. It is a big honkin' plant that can throw out some big ones, but in my garden it is bland. Tomatoes taste differently when grown in different environmental conditions and individual tastes vary. But we're on the same page with this variety and I'm from West Virginia. The implication is that one wouldn't want to knock a tomato from their home state based on anything but results.

Good luck.

Randy

The first two incredibly productive and big tomatoes that come to mind are both pink ones: Sweetie and Large Pink Bulgarian. Both were early too!

No matter the variety you choose to plant I would suggest planting two plants in each hole. This will not produce as much as two separated plants but will produce more than a single plant. Hope that made sense... :) The tomatoes in my avatar to the left under my name are Brandywines (bought the original plant a few years ago at a local nursery that were simply named "Brandywine"). I counted my production last year for the first time. They are not all as big as the ones in the picture of course... I had two plants (four plants actually that were planted in two holes). I picked 120 Brandywines from these two (actually four) plants. I know that Brandywines aren't normally great producers but that's what I got last year. I have very good growing conditions with soil, location, light, etc and last year I got anywhere from 40 to 85 tomatoes off of each 'slicer' variety (again, these were all double-planted). The varieities that fell into this category I planted were Green Copia, KBX, Carbon, Hege and Brandywine.

Porterhouse biggest I ever grew.

In 2006 I weighed every tomato and these were my top 9 for productivity. If there had been a normal frost the Brandywines would not have made the list. Except for Bucks County and Supersonic all averaged 9+ ounces with Polish, Big Zac, Yellow BW, Large Pink Bulgarian, and BW Sudduth the largest beefsteaks. I think I need to plant Polish again next year!

1. 45.9# - Polish
2. 32.8# - Bucks County Hybrid F1
3. 30.7# - Big Zac F1
4. 29.8# - (not) Kelloggs Breakfast (traded seed)
5. 29.3# - Supersonic F1
6. 29.2# - Yellow Brandywine (picked 15# in Oct.)
7. 26.9# - Large Pink Bulgarian
8. 26.8# - Brandywine Sudduth Regular Leaf (picked 17# in Oct.)
9. 25.6# - Ramapo F4 (average from 3 plants)

[QUOTE=pacmanJohn;220003]No matter the variety you choose to plant I would suggest planting two plants in each hole. This will not produce as much as two separated plants but will produce more than a single plant. Hope that made sense... :) [/Quote]


Um no I don't understand :?!?:.Why would you do that?


Kevin

What I'm trying to say is that if you only have space for 1 plant I would plant two plants in that one hole. This will/should produce more tomatoes (from my experience) than only putting one tomato plant in that spot but wouldn't necessarily be as productive as planting those two tomato plants into two separate spots in the garden. When I grow from seeds I will leave two seedlings in each pot instead of one and plant both into the same hole in the garden.

Here's the original thread that I read that started me on doing this ([URL]http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=235[/URL]). You need to experiment for yourself as some have reasons against it. I've done it for three years now and I do not prune my plants. The one drawback is that the plants get so dense that it's sometimes hard to see and pick some of the tomatoes but I seems to protect well from sunscald.

Here's a picture from a week ago of a Stump of the World that I have planted. It's actually two plants in the same hole/cage. In a month they'll be five to six feet tall and much thicker than this.

Plants that have given me the greatest number of tomatoes and run in the 8 - 12 ounce per tomato range are Big Cheef and Spudakee. These two also do well in hot conditions. Another couple that produce heavily, but which run a bit smaller in size are Red Brandywine (Landis) and Druzba.

Also, for the past two years, I've experimented with what Pacman is saying, and I get very good results from two vines in the same cage. My cages are rather large diameter (30 - 36 inches), and I dig broad, deep holes and amend heavily with compost. I have to tie the vines to their own side of the cage, and stake the cage to the ground to prevent tipping.

At planting, I also add gypsum, bone meal and a good measure of fertilizer to each gage. Then set two vines per hole space out about 12 - 15 inches from the center of the cage. For most varieties, I also give another modest dose of balanced fertilizer following heavy fruit production.

Also, I limit the growing stems to a maximum of 3 per plant until the plant gets well past its first well developed fruit sets, and only let them go wild after they're grown well past halfway up the cage. This has worked very well so far. The only drawback is when fungus strikes and the foliage has become too dense to manage properly.

It's difficult to give a straight answer. The first year I grew Cowlick's Brandywine I got well over 100 lbs of tomatoes off that original plant all of them in the 1 lb. plus range. They produced well for about 5 years. Last year they did terrible (it was a drought year here with extremely high temperatures).
Still, Brandywine-Glick's and Brandywine-Sudduth's did well last year. The big producers last year were Tarasenko6, (which also did very well the previous year) and Barlow Jap and Liz Birt. All large slicers.
A more medium-sized tomato that did very well was Dana's Dusky Rose. Thing is, every year is different. What does well one season may be very disappointing the next, due to weather conditions, planting time, diseases, watering schedules, fertilization,or some other condition. What does well for me here in South Central Pa. may not do so well for you where your at.
I've had tomatoes like Rose or Limbaugh's Legacy or Indian Stripe that have produced 2 lb plus tomatoes one year and small I/2 lb's the next, and not many of them either. Too many uncertainty's to say plant this and you'll be happy forever...even paste tomatoes that produce well like opalka have for me in the past, can get too much rain in a season and not be worth eating at all.
Hope you find the one's that work best for you in your area!
Camo