What are the most overrated varieties?

[barkeater]

This is a poor year so I will try again next year, but Berkely Tie-Dye Pink was very disappointing. It did ripen though, while others haven't, but I did notice the south side of the plant, those tomatoes all had some sunburn when we had very little sun until August.

The ones I got were nothing to write home about, and I'm not all that sure it is really a pink. It looks more like a black to me.

[simmran1]

Enjoy reading this thread. I’d have to say for myself and relatives I grew plants for- Eva Purple Ball was the most disliked. http://www.tomatoville.com/images/smilies/no.gif
I know I thought they were to be near baseball size, but more like a flattened ping pong ball for us. In my garden only Black Krim may not return as they split so easy.
The only reason I wouldn’t grow Hazelfield Farm again- is because I don’t have a farm. That was the biggest plant I’ve ever grown. Give that plant 5 feet each way and a 7 foot cage! Fruits were good to very good. The fruit are a little more flattened than Cherokee Purple, and not quite as large.
On the plus side- San Pablo from ‘farmall’ Adam Gleckler was superior to my San Marzano. Goose Creek was a superior slicer, and all the others did well and overall a decent growing season.
http://www.tomatoville.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[OmahaJB]

Originally Posted by cecilsgarden1958

Actually, I prefer the flavor of the hybrids I like, on my sandwiches over most heirlooms I've tried. There is of course a bonus as they produce better for me than heirlooms I've tried so far.
I do like these heirlooms/OPs...
Bonny Best, Hilltop, Dixie Golden Giant, Riesentraube & Rostova(tomatofest version) Below is the page I have been keeping track on, of everything I have grown since 2002. I thought there was a link box for urls, after you preview the page, but it isn't here, but here is the url's addy..
http://community-2.webtv.net/Tomatotime/gardennotebook/
CECIL

Thanks for posting the link to your results page, Cecil. A couple of things stood out: one year you grew 4 plants of Giant Belgium and had an average of 1 tomato per plant; and you included German Queen in your growouts in 3 of the years, so I'm assuming that's another OP you like. GQ is one of the varieties I've been wanting to grow so that's why it caught my eye. You've kept great records, including the numbers of cherry tomatoes that were produced! I wasn't the one pulling tomatoes of my plants this year half the time so sometimes I didn't even know what variety I was tasting, and was unable to keep track of their numbers.

[Wi-sunflower]

I think that this year should be put in the taste books with an asterik ***. The weather was so awful in large parts of the country that I'm sure THAT was a large part of the crummy taste of varieties that people usually rave about.

I know for my own tomato patch, there are several varieties that I usually really like and this year they were really quite bland, blah. But my area has been quite cool and short of rain most of the season. Ripening has been slow to say the least. I didn't have the blight problems tho.

Absolutely NONE of my black varieties have colored up nicely. They are all a sickly yellowish brown.

Since we got things fairly well weeded for our Tasting Day, most of the tomatoes almost everything is sunburning. I took pics for new varieties the other day and the color for many is not typical of the variety at all.

Oh well, another year,
Carol

[stormymater]

Oh I had that happen too - OmahaJB! DH would pick & come in - cut an AWESOME MATER & I would make him lead me out to where he plucked the particular mater (sometimes he was aggravated, a bit! LOL). Now he is accustomed to leaving me generous shoulders on particularly tasty ones (which he has begun labelling with a SHARPIE - happy dance!) so I can get seed. What a guy! Friends who came to help pick were weirded out by my sharpie labelling of tomatoes. Next year I'll have garden dedicated sharpie pens.

[stormymater]

My biggest disappointment was the Black Pear - I purchased seed that was crossed. When it sprouted I knew there was trouble - 25% were RL & this is a PL variety. Kept a couple of each - RL gave us tasty (when fully ripe) little yellow grape tomatoes that were prolific, disease-resistant & long-keeping. The PL were monster plants, huge producers of awful fist-sized pears that were woody green cores 1/2 way down even when the bottoms were over ripe & mush - ni real flavor either. Grew to be 8 - 9 feet tall & monstrous.
Some day I'll try Black Pear again. But I did save seed from the yellow boogers!

[Wi-sunflower]

I hate to say this but most of the Wild Boar Farms varieties have been far less than spectacular for me. Most have been very slow to ripen even tho we have had San Francisco like weather this year. The flavor on most of those I've tasted has been so-so too, other than Pork Chop. But the flavor for many of my tomatoes this year have been less than good in general.

But the biggest disapointment has been the fact that some of the seed I purchased direct from WBF seems to be mixed. The Berkeley Tie Dye seemed to be noticably 2 types of fruit.

I do understand how that can happen tho, as I too save lots of seed and not all varieties are totally stable. Sometimes crew don't always understand that they shouldn't pick something that doesn't "look" like it should. Been there, done that too. But it's not possible to do all the picking myself. I'm lucky that I can do all the processing myself, so far.

I will be growing ALL the varieties again if I can save or get seeds again for the few varieties that croaked before fruiting. (This referes to ALL my new-to-me varieties, not just the WBF varieties.) Personally my garden just wasn't a typical year and I'm not going to pitch a variety because of this year.

Carol

[feraltomatoes]

It's great when people have an all around bad season and down talk varieties.(and then claim to not pitch a variety because of the bad year)hmmm
I also do ALL the seed processing myself. My one partime helper(crew) does not select for seed, I do it all.

The BTD seeds I sent out were the same ones I planted myself this year. I planted over 1000 plants just of this variety and had at least 95% stability just like last year.

[Wi-sunflower]

I'm sorry to have made it sound like the stuff I got from you wasn't good. It's just that your varieties always get such a great reviews here. I haven't even had a chance to taste many of them yet as they were so late to mature this year. I'm sure it would be different if we had had even a moderately warm summer.

I will try to get some pics today that may still show the varieability I saw in the BTD. I planted at least 100 plants and in the first area of the BTD, many of the fruit did not show ANY striping when green. I don't know if they showed it when ripening or not. Today will be a day to try to get pics of lots of plants before they get frosted as that's a real possibility here any time now.

Not all our tomatoes were flavorless this year. Some DID have great flavor. But there were plenty that I've grown before that weren't up to their usually good flavor. So because I know things were strange this year to say the least, of course I will be giving all the new-to-me varieties another year or 2 of growing. I have more than enough room to grow as much as I want. I don't have to be selective with varieties as many here have to be.

Carol

[OmahaJB]

Originally Posted by stormymater

Oh I had that happen too - OmahaJB! DH would pick & come in - cut an AWESOME MATER & I would make him lead me out to where he plucked the particular mater (sometimes he was aggravated, a bit! LOL). Now he is accustomed to leaving me generous shoulders on particularly tasty ones (which he has begun labelling with a SHARPIE - happy dance!) so I can get seed. What a guy! Friends who came to help pick were weirded out by my sharpie labelling of tomatoes. Next year I'll have garden dedicated sharpie pens.

I have to admit it was my own fault for never giving my mother a copy of the diagram of the garden. I'm sure she would have written down the varieties she picked and how many. Doubt she would have been willing to weigh them for me, however! That may have been asking for too much. Bottomline is I'm just happy she's taking an interest in the garden. Last year she said the garden was all mine to do what I wanted with. During the winter she said she didn't have the energy to deal with one so it was all mine again. (She takes care of my elderly step-father who needs constant attention.) This summer however she started talking about wanting a raised bed to garden in, and have all of the area close to the house to use as a garden. That area is where she would have the raised bed, plus additional space.

Unfortunately, I'm useless when it comes to making things or putting them together. But I will do some research this fall/winter to see what I may be able to accomplish. Oh, this could turn into something I may never live down - Jeff's wonderful falling apart raised bed that wont grow anything in it.

[cecilsgarden1958]

Well, tasteless mne weren't. Is that because they were mostly hybrids, I wonder or did I hit the right water ratio??

Excellant flavor was First Prize, Mt. Pride, Champion, Country taste. The only one that was so-so for part of the season was Basinga, which is an Heirloom. Seems like maybe another one too, but I forget.

CECIL

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by travis

Overrated by whom? By the breeder? By the vendor? By garden writers in periodicals or extension horticulturalists in local newspapers? Or by gardeners who rave online about their favorites?

Varieties that are called "must grow" by forum posters. Seed catalogs list every variety as "amazing" so I don't count that. I'd say any variety you heard nothing but good things about, but fell flat in your garden.

Originally Posted by Tormato

Most overrated?

For me, every early tomato.
And, just about every red tomato.

Tormato

Oh I agree. So few good reds. Mostly hearts. And Gregori's Altai and Sungold are the only "early" tomatoes ( consistently < 80 days ) I like so far.

[Wi-sunflower]

Varieties that are called "must grow" by forum posters.

That is all I was trying to say about the WBF varieties I grew this year. I'm sorry if I made it sound like they are bad tomatoes or I got bad seed. Late this year. Those that I've found seem to have a good amount of tomatoes on them.

Everyone here at TV raves so much about all the WBF varieties that I guess I was too hyped about trying them. I had hoped to have some available for our tasting day too, but I only found a couple of Pork Chop that were ripe.

Early on in about 70 plants in the early planting of BTD, about 1/3 of the plants did NOT show any striping at all. I was watching those plants quite a bit before the Tasting Day. But yesterday, only 1 of those plants didn't have striped fruit. A growth patern I wouldn't have expected.

I'm sorry for saying that they weren't "right" in my earlier post.

So I guess the only disapointment is the fact that they matured a lot later than I would have expected. That first planting of BTD was planted the same day as Cuostralee, Sherrill and Vjera's and many others, many of which had ripe fruit about 2 weeks before the BTD.

Carol

[Dukerdawg]

Carol, call them like you see them. Yes, it wasn't a good year and you mentioned that. Brad should be able to take some crititism if it delivered in the proper way. Everyone has different tastes and conditions including weather. I tried BTD and Beauty King and didn't like either one. Yes, it might be the year, but I doubt it. I had less than stellar production but very good taste out of what I did get. I didn't like those two varieties at all. And yes, they are somewhat of a novelty type (awe inspiring in appearance!) and that is why I picked them anyway. I knew that going in. Others may love the taste, but I found them someone 'raw' tasting and the skin was tough. My opinion, that is all. Would I grow them again? Maybe, but not next year. To each his own. When we can't give an honest opinion here then we might as well shut the place down.

I think Brad is great and appreciate anyone who works as hard as he does at tomato growing and seed saving. But we can agree to disagree on personal likes and dislikes.

Duane

[Moonglow]

Originally Posted by Wi-sunflower

I hate to say this but most of the Wild Boar Farms varieties have been far less than spectacular for me. Most have been very slow to ripen even tho we have had San Francisco like weather this year. The flavor on most of those I've tasted has been so-so too, other than Pork Chop. But the flavor for many of my tomatoes this year have been less than good in general.

But the biggest disapointment has been the fact that some of the seed I purchased direct from WBF seems to be mixed. The Berkeley Tie Dye seemed to be noticably 2 types of fruit.


Carol

I cannot agree more.