This was the year I planned to have good tomatoes. I worked hard at it. I added lots of compost to the garden. I mulched the tomato plants. I've pruned them and fertilized. I've labeled every one so I can make proper comparisons. I am not being rewarded for my efforts. I think the weather is to blame. We have had too many cool damp cloudy days. So far the only type that is loaded with tomatoes is a little container plant called Torenzo. It is a cherry. In the garden, I have a few of each: Forme de Coeur Bison Mountain Magic New Girl Black Cherry Jaune Flamee Sweet Baby Girl Viva Italia Mountain Spring. Mountain Magic, Sweet Baby Girl, Viva Italia and Mountain Spring were all from leftover seed and were all good growers for me before. Some of the others are heirloom plants..Forme de Coeur, Bison, Black Cherry and Jaune Flamee. New Girl and Terenzo are from Lindenberg and new this year. What is concerning me is that some of the plants have unhealthy looking leaves on the bottom of the plant. Is there something I should be doing about this? It looks like a type of rust or something. When I first noticed this I picked those leaves off, but now I see it is still happening.

I'm looking for one or two new varieties to grow this year and thought I might get inspiration by asking what tomato you would grow if you could only have one variety? I'd be torn, too, but I think mine would be (so far) Cherokee Purple. ########### I am in Massachusetts also and for MA the winner is Jet Star by far. I have grown CP and Jet Star side by side and JT wins hands down with double the yield and larger tomatoes of higher quality and the same flavor. size of vine is almost identical. Jet Star is a little more bushy to get more tomatoes. for Jet Star you must get genuine seeds. do not buy plants or you will not get jet star in new england. you will get later F2 f3 f4 etc from sellers who save seeds to save money. and the yield on F2 is half that on genuine seeds. the best place to get Jet Star seeds is Fedco or Totally Tomatoes. but do some google searches if you need to find a different seller. of course Harris sells them as Jet Star is a Harris seed. also jet star is much better than its partner Supersonic. I get jet star going early then I get some seeds in close to May 1 and the first set of plants fully ripen all toms then the 2nd set takes over until freeze time. Supersonic is used for that late crop. but I prefer 2 crops of Jet Star. Experiment and see what you like. I am in colder area zone 5 you are warmer and have more grow time in zone 6. every farmer I have talked to in 50 years says if they could only grow one it would be Jet Star. Fedco catalog lists contests of varieties over time and Jet Star always wins first place in New England at least. BUT YOU MUST GET SEEDS TO GROW REAL JET STAR.

Re: coffee grounds-- They have nitrogen, but the problem, as with many other home remedy type amendments, is that very little of the nitrogen is in a form the plants can use anytime soon. It needs to be broken down by soil microbes before plants can use it, and that takes time, especially if you don't have a well-established and healthy soil micro-ecosystem. Also, coffee grounds don't provide the P and K fruiting veg need, and it's deficient in many of the key minerals plants require. In the right soil, it can probably be a fine part of a long-term amendment strategy. Analysis of Starbucks coffee grounds. (Note that I think that article is talking about a baseline amount of nutrition when it says coffee grounds can provide everything plants need. Fruiting veg like tomatoes need a lot of nutrition, and I have a hard time believing that Sunset would give the impression that one could grow something like squash or tomatoes with just coffee grounds as an amendment.)

Barrie --- if I recall correctly you have a greenhouse the size of a football field. We have small footage with enough sunlight (too many shade trees in our backyard) where we can grow about 20 tomato plants. So our experience is limited only for the 1 plant of each variety. This year we nixed eggplants and pole beans to fit in 30 varieties --- so, we can choose the most tasty AND disease resistant with great production for next year. As a home grower I can only comment on the ones that will work for us. High humidly (nearly every night it's 99% in the summer), high temps, lots of rain bring in lots of diseases (early blight, gray mold and the worst -- Leaf Spot later on...we are expecting any day for the thrips to arrive, bringing in Septoria, with copper spray ready in hand...LOL) forces us to make hard choices. So far we tasted the following similar to Brandy Boy (still awaiting Brandywine Sudduth, Mrs. Maxwell's Big Italian and Prudence Purple to ripen) in order of best tasting: Rose --- soft, nice flavor, juicy, on the sweet side. Stump of the World --- soft, good overall taste on the sweet side. Chapman --- soft, juicy, not an impressionable taste. Brandy Boy beats them all in taste (love the tangy flavor) !!! Tony p.s. Think Pink actually tastes better (although on the sweet side) than Rose, Stump, Chapman --- and has incredible disease resistance (VFFNT) and is very productive for us. http://www.tomatogrowers.com/THINK-PINK-VFFNT-HYBRID/productinfo/5192/