What are your favorites so far this year?

[KarenO]

I still have some nice ones coming that I have yet to try but OH MY GOODNESS, Captain Lucky is the most delicious tomato! and I think it is just beautiful too. A new favorite that for sure I will grow every year. Excellent tomato.
KarenO

[Sunsi]

Tegucigalpa -- the most pleasant surprise of the season, I didn't think I'd grow it again because it's just too small. Well, after the taste I have changed my mind--it might be small but the taste is so sweet and luscious that it will now be in my garden every year. I gave many of these away and people were asking about this one, my son-in-law's father just called them the "finger tomato" because they do looks like fingers.


Goose Creek -- Phenomenal flavor and great production in fact it's pushes a few off my list for 2014 so I can plant more of them. After all these years of growing tomatoes I finally have an answer if someone asks the question, "If you could only grow one tomato what would it be?", Goose Creek, no hesitation. This one will always be in my garden--it never disappointed whether it was the first one picked or the ones picked later in the season.


Cowlick's Brandywine -- Brandywine on steroids, a wonderful, sweet flavor and great producer. My family loved this one for BLT's and a great slicer.


Black From Tula -- This might be the only black I grow--yes, it's that good. Garden space is of the premium so cutting back or finding just one that's the best is great.

[slb345]

I am really impressed with the taste of my Paul Robseons this year. I had no idea tomatoes could get a flavor like that. I was starting to get discouraged mid season that most of my tomatoes tasted shockingly similar (and disappointing) for what I thought was a very diverse list.

The other two winners of the 20 varieties are Big Cheef that another tomatoville member was nice enough to send me this spring, and Cherokee Purple.

Raspberry miracle was the production winner with many very large fruits but the taste was so bland that it was almost nauseating to stomach by the end of the harvest. I will never plant again and strongly favor taste over production.

[Alpinejs]

After a disastrous start, most of my 'maters outdid themselves in production.
New to my favorites list is Strawberry Margarita. Great flavor, large size and
nice form.

Strangely, most of my prior favorites were among my few poor producers.
These include Sudduth, Mariana's Peace, Stump, Pineapple and Cherokee Green.
All will be back for another try next year.

My winter (Calif. garden) will be restricted to my known favorites (50%) and
paste tomatoes (50%). I am determined to learn to make a GREAT tomato
paste. I have mastered salsa (to my liking, but way too hot for most others).

[camochef]

With this all but over, (Ive already pulled half of the tomato plants out there as temps have dipped into the mid-30's a few times now).
I'd have to say its a neck and neck tie between Cowlick's Brandywine and German Johnson-Benton Strain for best production and taste.
Brandywine-Glicks, Dana's Dusky Rose and Bear Creek are right on their heels. All 5 are still producing as well as Amazon Chocolate, Terhune, Earl's Faux, and Barlow Jap. But their days are numbered.
Of course size has diminished greatly from what they were earlier in the season, but taste is still very good and they are still trying to produce great number in case I'd like to try fried green tomatoes again.
Enjoy!
Camo

[robbins]

Bear Creek - consistently great every year.
Dwarf Chocolate Lightning
Black Master

[Sen831]

I've already called out my McKinley Pink, which is the first of my heirloom big pinks to do well in my new coastal Maryland environment. But I'll add an interesting detail.

The vines were still green and leafy, but we don't have enough sunlight or heat to bring newly set tomatoes to the ripe or green-frying state. So I gathered what I could find, pulled up the plants, and turned over the ground in the little 4 x 8 raised plot I tend in the community garden.

To my surprise, when I did so, I found that the plants had made multiple feeder roots that extended laterally through the plot. These were long (up to 5'), surprisingly thick like tree roots, and covered with hair. No wonder the two plants had yielded so much better than my other variety, which had the usual compact root ball under the plants.

[Zeno-25]

I've been very happy with my Gold Medal, Black from Tula, Franchi Red Pear, Japanese Black Trefele, Kosovo, Ananas Noire, Stump of the World, and San Marzano Redorta. The Gold Medal just keeps pumping out fat, beautiful beefsteaks even in the recent cooler weather, as does Stump. Franchi Red Pear and JBT are absolutely delicious, top quality tomatoes. The Ananas Noire has also been a fantastic tomato with a very unique, fruity/citrus flavor.

Disappointments were Old German (still haven't gotten any tomatoes off that plant), Kellogg's Breakfast (I found the flavor to be bland and the texture a bit grainy), Franchi Oxheart (most were small and not oxheart shape), Morado, and Mortgage Lifter.

Winter may be coming but at least that means plenty of time to research new tomato cultivars! Does anyone have any recommendations for old Soviet varieties like Cosmonaut Volkov or large-fruited paste varieties?

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by habitat_gardener

I tend to like sweeter tomatoes. So far, the standouts have been Pruden's Purple (first choice for tomato sandwiches), Mandarin Cross, Black from Tula, Amana Orange (looks like a pink tomato), and Nepal.

Evergreen, Dester, Ananas Noire, and Sunsugar are pretty good, but a few notches below the ones above.

The ones that get donated (blander flavor, plus they look round and red, and they are outproducing everything else) are Dona and Carmello. Not impressed with Portuguese Monster, Japanese Plum, Red Butterheart, Red Grape, and Sugary.

Still waiting for some huge Black Krims I picked last week to get ripe. And I still have a bunch of varieties I planted late.

It's interesting how the tomato flavors change during the season! Without looking at my notes, here's what I recall from the season that's different from my August post.

Japanese Plum turned out to be one of my favorites. It was solid and fairly sweet. Portuguese Monster was pretty good, too. Both produced until the end of the season.

But I remember Dester as a disappointment -- it didn't live up to all the hype. Also, it was a huge plant, but it was far outproduced by many other varieties, and when I took out the huge plant before the end of the season, it didn't even have any flowers or baby fruits on it!

Black Krim was great as a green-when-ripe. Ananas Noire produced a whole bunch at one time, and I liked it a lot. Black from Tula didn't produce much, and quit early. Nepal got BER for most of the season.

Dona turned out to be great for drying, because it has such thick walls.

Sunsugar for some reason did not produce much at all (new-to-me garden plot).

[aclum]

Sunsi,

Were you growing the red Goose Creek or the pink Goose Creek?

Thanks
Anne