Scott,

I think maybe it is weather related more than anything.

I like Burpee's Big Mama because it produced massive amounts of fruit per plant the year I grew it, but the plants were very susceptible to Early Blight (they looked awful, but didn't die) and the tomatoes were only average in taste. For me, Burpee's Big Mama didn't have any issues with rot of any kind, but I grew it in a very, hot dry year and didn't give it much irrigation either.

Roma, LaRoma, and all the other Roma types are about the same to me as grocery store Romas....as in nothing special in flavor or texture but reliable. I could use them all day long for salsas because the salsas don't get their flavor from the tomatoes, but from the peppers and other ingredients. I don't care for them in tomato sauce though.

Viva Italia has almost always done well for me, but did not do well at all in containers for me last year. In a good year its flavor is almost as good as San Marzano Redorta. If you wanted to add other tomatoes to a salsa from VI, just chop the VIs and let them drain through a strainer or colander for an hour or too and a lot of their excess juice will drain out.

San Marzano paste tomatoes are the best, and the type known as San Marzano Redorta are superior in flavor to the plain San Marzano. They produce well and the flavor is superb.

Martino's Roma is a terrific heirloom paste type that produces almost more fruit than foliage and which has superb flavor almost as good as San Marzano.

Jersey Devil is a heavy producer with great flavor. Aunt Mary's Paste and Amish Paste both are worth growing, although I don't think Amish Paste is a true paste tomato.

For sun-drying (or machine dehydrating), Principe Borghese is superb and it is a very tough drought-resistant and highly productive plant with great flavor.

I do think the quality of all Romas (make that all tomatoes) is harmed by excess moisture. I'm fairly picky about the tomatoes I cook down into tomato sauce or pasta sauce and use a mix that is about 50% Roma types for meatiness and 50% heirlooms for flavor. With salsa, though, I'll use any paste type handy.

Dawn

I just made the decision today that I'm done with pastes, at least as long as we live here. I very rarely get much of a harvest out of them and I've tried 30-40 various names over the years. I think they just don't do well with our soil and crazy boing-boing weather. BER takes most of them.

I do remember Viva Italia having a wonderful taste when I grew it and got a few. This year, the only one that stands out taste-wise is Speckled Roman but that's based on the one surviving fruit only.

Diane

Diane,

I do think it is the weather fluctuations because the performance of mine varies a lot.....and they do better in dry years than wet years. (That may be a clay soil issue since even improved clay tends to hang on to moisture too long.)

I'm growing Heidi this year and eager to see how well it does. It has set some fruit, but not a lot, so time will tell.

Dawn

This year my roma has done great, heavy yields, good flavor for roma. But the san marzano has done horrible, late to set, poor yields, and 90 percent BER. I have 3 fruit on the entire plant and they are still green, so I can't comment on the flavor.

I've grown most of the paste varieties mentioned. I don't really like paste types and kept trying them to see if I could find one I liked. I have seeds for one (Paquebot Roma) that I need to try again. Most say it is the best paste type they've grown. I tried it last year and lost it to disease. Out of the ones Scott mentioned Viva Italia and Big Mama were very heavy producers. Everytime I've grown Big Mama I've had BER issues with the first flush. One year it was the only variety all year I had any BER fruit on. And I had the plants scattered around the garden and every plant had it. After the first flush little or no problems. I'm growing Amish Paste this year and many don't consider it a paste type like Dawn mentioned.I will know more later. It is the only known paste type I'm growing. I have a few others with what appears could be paste type fruit but won't know till I harvest them. On some of the seeds I'm sent they include very little information other than you should grow this. So often some question about what type, color I might get. Again my climate and soil conditions are so different than most of yours I'm sure that makes a big difference. In summary paste and cherry types have never been favorites of mine. I've had years I've never grown either. This year I've went overboard on Cherry types. Probably around ten varieties just from memory. I've grown the paste types for salsas but have found I like using what I call regular tomatoes better anymore. Jay

can someone comment on Pompii romma. My BIL gave me two plants last year, and then two more again this year.

These plants seem to grow and produce ok (except they have not set new fruit in the past several weeks).

My wife does not feel like doing much and I dont have to preserve food. These Pompii just are not as good fresh as other tomatoes. What is a good way to use the Pompii?

Larry

Larry,

Roma Pompeii is a typical paste tomato so is intended to be cooked down into sauce or made into salsa. That's how I'd use them. Very few paste tomatoes are good for fresh eating, although I think that the San Marzano varieties (there's a few, including San Marzano, San Marzano II, San Marzano Redorta, etc.) are pretty good for fresh eating in a dry year but not so much in a wet year.

Pompeii Roma/Roma Pompeii seeds are sold by Reimers's and by Renee's, and the variety was named San Remo when Renee sold it at Shepherd's Garden Seeds back when she was a co-owner of that seed company. So, it is possible you'll find seed of it available under either name.

Dawn

I am not growing any paste types this year, but I have to comment on one. It isn't a heavy producer for me, but I like the taste of Opalka.

Jay sent me seeds for Ensalada, and although nothing I have read says it is a paste type, if I were to classify it, that is where I would place it. I just have one plant.

Dawn,

Thanks, I dont plan on buying any Pompii seed, but if BIL gives me plants for the next 10 years I will plant them out of respect for my DW.

BIL did give me a Porterhouse this year. I have never heard of it, but look like it will have very large tomatoes on it, but they are not ripe yet. I had rather have tomatoes in the 2 to 3 inch size.

Larry

Larry,

I have grown and liked Porterhouse some years, and I think maybe Jay has grown it as well. I usually only got the really big fruit on Porterhouse at the beginning of the season and then as the summer went on, the fruit were more in the 8 oz. range.

The first year it came out, they had it on the cover of the Burpee catalog, being held in the hands of a person wearing overalls (you couldn't see much of the person, just part of the torso, the hands, and the gigantic tomato). The tomatoes looked incredibly large. Then, real people grew the Poerterhouse tomato and got significantly smaller tomatoes and decided the person holding the toms on the cover of the Burpee catalog had to be a young child!

Porterhouse has pretty good flavor for a hybrid, and for some reason, the deer always ate that specific plant all the way down to the ground before we put up the taller fence. They didn't necessarily eat all the other plants, but they ate all the Porterhouse plant. In the last year that we had a shorter fence, they ate one Porterhouse plant down to the ground three separate times. I don't think it ever had a chance to make a single tomato that year.

So, apparently Porterhouse is the variety deer prefer most.

Dawn

Larry,
It is one of the hybrids I like to grow. I like it better than Jet Star and a few of the other favorites of many. It produces better and has better flavor in my opinion. I started plants this year but they were some I didn't grow due to the spraying fiasco and now wish I had as most of the few I did plant have done as well as any of the others. Thinking they might of been right about the fertilizer issue. It has been a good producer of 8-16 oz tomatoes here. I wonder some about the cross. If I plant 3 plants all 3 may produce somewhat different sizes of fruit when planted close together. I've seen others say their experience is similar. I've seen a few reports in the 2 lb range. But very few. I would say chances are you will see most in the 8-12 oz range. Which is big enough for me. Has been fairly disease resistant for me. Production and size wise very similar to the Jetsonic I grew last year. Too me flavor was better and also the skin isn't as tough as Jetsonic. Jay

Speaking of tomato size....not counting the Sioux that was surely fused, my two largest tomatoes have been on the same truss of a Carbon plant. One was 14.4 ounces and the other was just slightly smaller.