San Marzano vs San Marzano Redorta
 

So does anyone here have experience growing both the San Marzano and San Marzano Redorta? I am trying to decide which to grow in 2010 and any advice would be appreciated! I have just seen these two San Marzano varieties...are there any others?
Thanks!!!

I've grown the San Marzano for many years and it's a nice all round roma.

Last year was the first time I heard of the Redorta and found seeds. I grew them both but due to our crummy summer I can't say that either of them did all that well. The Redorta is somewhat bigger than the regular but not nearly as much as I thought it was supposed to be.

Carol

Yep last year wasnt a good year to test out new varieties as who knows if a poor showing was the weather or the variety...around here most likely the weather. Some of my best performers did terrible last year.
Carol have you had good luck with any other roma's here in WI?
Thanks

Things were so crazy around here last summer that I didn't have a chance to do a good evaluation on many of my new varieties. For the romas I've been looking for larger than the average commercial / store little thing.

I've grown Howard German for several years and it produces well. Nice and large.

The Roughwood Golden Plum did well this year and made a really nice golden tomato juice. The plant is dwarf, but productive. Size is just normal roma.

Polish Linguisa did OK. Large.

Giant Sicilian Paste did OK and is large.

Jersey Devil did OK. Rather large, about like Long Tom. Bigger than normal but not huge.

Sherrill is maybe not exactly a roma, but it did grow well for me. Lots of good sized bomb shaped fruit. Probably heavier than most of the others.

Speckled Roman is only about average sized but decently productive. One of my market workers got an unlabeled plant at the end of a market that turned out to be Speckled Roman. They grew it in a pot and liked the flavor of that one a lot, even fresh.

I've grown several others but can't really say how they did.

Carol

San Marzano is smaller and grows as semi-determinate
San Marzano is quite a bit larger and Indeterminate and can be eaten fresh off the vine or as a paste - get more to process too!!!

I know 10 varieties of [B][COLOR=red]San Marzano[/COLOR][/B]:

[B]Gigante,La Padino,Lampadina,pink,Scatalone[/B]

[B]Lungo[/B]:beter for dried tomatoes

[B]Nano[/B]:dwarf plant for dried tomatoes

[B]Redorta,retorta[/B]:a very big tomato for dried tomatoes

[B]Vesuvio[/B]: tomatoes can beware until march but small cherry

San Marzano 2 is my favorite...Seeds from Italy gives a better description than I could...

Jeanne

Wow thanks for all the great suggestions. Now I have a bunch of varieties to search out and test this year!

Yes Carol
A lot of people really like speckled roman