Mountain Merit was an OK producer for me this year. I did not have much if any late nor early blight problems. Every year I have TSWV and more importantly Septoria problems. My standout this year, by far, was IRON LADY. It was new this year from High Mowing seeds. Mountain Merit was completely defoliated from septoria. We stopped spraying about 3 weeks ago when it no longer seemed to be providing any control. Iron Lady though has some very moderate septoria problems, but is still producing while mountain merit is dead.
On the other hand Mountain Magic is still going strong. I have not found another tomato in this size class that produces such exceptional fruit. The tomatoes are just perfect, they hold for weeks in 50F storage with zero decline in quality. They have moderate problems with septoria, but seem to be ripening fruit faster than they are being defoliated.
Far and away the two best producers this year for me have been grape tomatoes. Tami-G and Solid Gold BOTH have no listed resistance to septoria, but seem to be holding up as well as Iron Lady.
For large tomatoes I have almost given up on them and will probably only grow iron lady next year. I need a tomato with strong Septoria and TSWV resistance and there just is not much out there at all with that. If I had tunnels I might think differently, but open field production of large slicers just sucks at my location. I get double the yield off the cherry and grape tomatoes.
The only additional tomato I am adding next year is an orange grape called Lizziebelle. Mixed grape tomatoes sell really well with my retail grocer customers and I was just lacking an orange. It seems no one but the wholesales want cherry tomatoes. I can sell them, but the retail guys want the crack resistance of the grapes.
Sorry for the rant. I had high hopes for Mountain Merit, but I just did not have the Late Blight/Early Blight pressure this year. Even the old Big Beef variety from Seminis out performed Mountain Merit yield wise.
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