I swear by the cherokee, the tomatos are ugly
as sin but they're the best I ever had.
Even my Wife, who is not a fan of the tomato,
liked them.

Big fan of Brandywine and Cherokee Purple here... :)

Everyone has such impressive lists these days. I grow only my favorites, Sudduth Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, and (oddly) Big Beef. And any cherry (usually Sweet Million). If I grew 2 others, they would be Pruden's Purple and Caspian Pink. Might try Black from Tula again next year. Hey, I've learned what I like... :)

I always say I'm going to cut back to 4 or 5 types then about the 2nd week of January I get a seed catalog in the mail and then next thing you know I've order 20 or so.

Rita, I remember your posts of last year and I'm glad to see you branching out to more OP's, as you indicated.

I've grown most of the OP's on your list so I'll be interested to see what you think of them.

This is neither the time nor place for me to be sharing with you my faves, b'c each person has to just grow more and more varieties until they decide what works best for them in their location with their soil, their weather and their way of growing tomatoes.

So lets hope that those of us in NYS state have a wonderful summer with moderate temps and nice rainfalls, without lighning or hail,, thank you, on a regular basis throughout the summer. ( smile)

Carolyn

"So lets hope that those of us in NYS state have a wonderful summer with moderate temps and nice rainfalls, without lighning or hail,, thank you, on a regular basis throughout the summer. ( smile)"

And Ohio, too!

Yep, I was only going to grow a couple of types this year, then decided to check out Fusion's website LOL! And then I went to another site and got seeds of a couple more types. So now I am planning on 8 or 9 varieties, all new to me except my Mortgage Lifters. I will be so excited to taste all these "new to me" maters!!

I wish we were neighbors! I'm trying to find homes for 5 varieties I grew from seed that are on your list.

This year I am going to attempt to grow 10 maybe 11 different tomatoes. 8 I have grown from seed myself. The others I will buy. I already bought an Early Girl. It had two plants in the cup so I pulled them apart and have to find a home for one of them.

I'm going to buy German Queen if I can find it and I'd like to get some kind of beefsteak or one of the larger tomatoes.

Is this your first year growing the Park's Whopper? If you've grown it before, how would you rate it's taste and what size potential do the fruits have? I realize taste is in the tastebuds of the beholder but I figured it can't hurt to ask.

Also, what about Better Boy? Is it a tomato grown for it's larger fruit?

Well, I just went back and found the old thread that I posted in 2006 with my 2006 list which was-

10 Early Girl
4 Grape Tomato
4 Big Bite
6 Parks Whopper
6 Big Boy
6 Better Boy
6 Italian Beefstake
1 Caspian Pink
1 Mortgage Lifter
1 Brandy Boy
Total of 45 tomato plants put in May 6

Quite a bit different from my list this year for 2007. Honestly looking at last years list I don't like the lack of variety I had by going for all those 6 packs but last year I thought I had a good list. This year I think I did a lousey job on last years list. Oh well.

shellva- I grow Parks Whoppers or Improved Whoppers every year for at least ten years. They are one of my standbys and have good taste but the fruits are not really that big. At least not in my garden.

Better Boy has larger fruit and tastes good but I like the taste of the old fashioned Big Boy the best of the three mentioned myself. I usually put in either Big Boy or Better Boy or both also for lots of years. I also always put in Early Girl, which really isn't so great in the taste department so this year I added the Quickpick which are also early tomatoes. Never heard of it before.

Carolyn - I picked those particular Heirlooms because that is what I found for sale and all the descriptions sounded good. I also picked the Mykonis tomatoes, which I never heard of before, because they said they were known for being a fresh market fruit and it sounded good to me.

I'm growing about 18 different types this year:
Beefmaster
Roughwood Golden Tiger
Sweet 100's
Ananas Noire
Cherokee Green
Bradley
Brandywine (PL)
Japanese Trifle Black
Black from Tula
Grandfather Ashlock
Jeff's Mystery Pink Oxheart
Striped Cavern
Ponderosa Red
Dr. Wyches Yellow
Black Cherry
Kellogg's Breakfast
Lemon Boy
Stump of the World

There was more, but some seeds didn't germinate at all. Don't know how many of each I'll have, at least two I'm hoping.

Abby

My 2007 list, trying to grow 2 each as backup :)

Rutgers (select)
cherry
Mr. Stripey
Brandywine Pink
Brandywine Red
Mortgage Lifter
Amish Paste
Yellow Pear
Italian
Roma
Red Currant
Gold Currant
Yellow Pear Cherry
Large Red Cherry
Italian Heart
Micro Tom Cherry
Silvery Fir
Tiny Tim
Super Marmande
GardnerÂs Delight
Farmer Reds
Orange Banana
Super Beefsteak
Black Prince
Large Red Cherry
Delicious

Earl Faux did not germinate.
Silvery, Tim and Tom were hard to get up.

Unusual warm weather, tilled and put in 9 in raised bed. I covered them for first night out, watered and mulched. Saving rest to put out later...might lose the first group.

Dug in rock and clay and planted three dwarf apples, Yellow and Red Delicious and Winesap. Got them at Walmart, they have been outside since arrival from TN.

Thanks Rita. I will keep an eye out for the Big Boy then. I have never had a fantastic year of growing tomatoes so my experience with the different tastes is limited. I try every year though!

Guess I'll be growing 11 plants. I picked up a grape tomato plant today. Still need to pick up a larger fruiting one though. Thanks for your advice.

I am itching to get them in the ground, I just can't wait. Looking at the long range forcast Monday looks very good as the nighttime lows are going to be around 55 after that.

These are only the types we have planted so far.
I donÂt know how to post a picture but here is a link to our garden.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/nan337/gar07.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/nan337/ring07.jpg
Tomatoes

Early Girl
Better Boy
Homestead
Celebrity
Beefsteak
Grape
Lemon Boy
Big Beef
Porter
Gulf State
Mountain Pride
Marglobe
La Roma
Golden Ponderosa
Pineapple
Watermelon Beefsteak
Cuoro De Toro
Lillian Golden Giant

Hugh's Yellow
Thai Pink
Manalucie

We planted 68 more tomatoes today, they were......
Pink Ponderosa
San Marzano
Tomcat
Teton de Venus

Sadly, some of the varieties that I started from seed didn't make it out to the garden. They were replaced with purchased seedlings. Luckily we have an organic market gardener nearby who sells seedlings out of her greenhouse in the spring.

I'm devoting 1 bed to tomatoes this year, so I've had to narrow it down to:

Sungold
Sweet 100 (black cherry seedling died)
Carmello
Hillbilly West Virginia
Silvery Fir Tree
Marianna's Peace
Black Krim
Striped German
Kellogg's Breakfast

I'm sad that I won't have any Azoychka plants this year, as they've born fruit first each of the past couple of years. Other disappointments include the loss of my ARGG and mortgage lifter. 9 plants isn't really adequate, and I'm looking at the garden area I fenced out in January and wondering if there's a practical way to expand it...

love love love those black krim. Also love Principe Borghese for drying...........

I have noticed that the Marianna's Peace seems to be very popular around here. We have never grown any, so I am interested in why so many folks are growing them?

Mostly on hype. I tried them for a couple of years and they are very tasty but I didn't get very good production from them. It's one of those tomatoes with a story behind it and it's only been available for a few years. As with any plant, YMMV.

Well, I didn't plant on Monday. Instead I planted them all today. Its a beautiful day and quite warm. Nightime temps are supposed to be pretty warm too for the next few days that I saw so this was a good time to get those tomatoes planted. They look great.

I have never gone with Heirlooms before so I am very exceited and can't wait for this years crop to start ripening.

30 total plants this year, last year I grew 60

12 Brandwines (original pink potato leaf type)
6 Yellow Brandywine
6 Belgian giant
6 Beefmaster

In years past I have grown eight or nine different varieties at a time but now I no longer like so many types, they are too hard to manage and hard to even remember what I grew or how they did. Just not as much fun growing that many types now that I have grown them once before I guess the novelty just wore off. 4 or 5 is about right. This year I basically concentrate on big tomatoes now, eliminated all the cherry and grape tomatoes, medium sizes or the early hybrids like Early Girl.

Overall the pink Brandywine are still my taste favorite. I like the yellow Brandywine too, I always need a yellow tomato. It was this or Lemon Boy. Lemon Boy are better producers in my area (by a lot). My adventure tomato this year is Belgian giant heirloom. I am growing Beefmaster hybrid the first time this year I always like a hybrid and heard this is one is a good balance of flavor/yield equation.

Well, I was back at Hicks so I bought two more Bloody Butcher (Potato Leaf) since the one I have is setting tomatoes already and I like the idea of early fruit. While I was there I also found a hybred variety called Super Tasty and bought two of those. I mean how could I resist something called Super Tasty? Its supposed to be sweet with excellent flavor. We will see.

So I also got to the other nursery that had the Caspian Pink tomatoes last year (Hicks Nursery doesn't seem to have them) and I bought two of them also. While there I saw another Heirloom called Moskvich Tomato so I bought two of them. Tag said a very appealing extra early Heirloom variety so again I couldn't resist.

Then in front of a supermarket that I went to today but don't usually go to they had a big rack of tomatoes in cups. They only had two varieties, a yellow variety and they had Big Boy, another of my old standby favorites so you know I bought some of them too.

What am I thinking buying all these tomatoes but I never can resist. I wind up with tons of plants every year so matter how hard I say I am not getting anymore. If I had lots of land, I am sure I would plant at least a hundred tomatoes and then wonder what to do with them all.

Rita,

You gotta try to learn to stay outta Hicks. They're like a big black hole for your green money.

T--who has already spent her Mother's Day Hicks Gift Certificate and is looking forward to the one for her birthday, followed by Christmas Hicks and Valentine's Day Hicks, and who is grateful to everyone at Hicks for how nice and warmly they treat Hubs when they see him come in the door ;-)

i'm growing 2 early girls, 1 hybrid plum, 1 san marzano, 1 brandywines and 1 red lightning with another brandywine, san marzano and a russian black going in soon on the roof of my brownstone (i have the best landlord ever).

i just have to be careful b/c i have a crazy squirrel who likes to dig up everything i plant.

here's hopin'.

Gee Carolyn, your post sounded like a summer prayer for the tomato season..how lovely..

ruth

trudi- Staying out of Hicks seems impossible for me but at least this time I didn't get any tomatoes. I was there twice more and bought an azaela shrub, five lilacs in bloom (smelled wonderful), some late dutch honeysuckle vines, some Clematis vines, two roses in bloom, and some small annuals like snapdragons.

My five plant garden:
Caspian Pink
Cherokee Purple
Sudduth Brandywine
Amish Brandywine
Celebrity

Eldonut - As I have never grown 2 kinds of Brandywine in the same season, I am interested in how they compare in taste and productivity under equal conditions...

Oh, man whatever was I thinking buying all these tomato plants? Last year I had lousey production so this spring I got compost delived by truck and put it on all the tomato rows before I planted. The tomatoes wound up planted in such great compost they just loved it and grew and are still growing like crazy. The tomatoes have already started and the production is super great. All my heirlooms have tomatoes and they are starting to turn ripe.

I am going to have to start selling them in front of my house, I have so many. Kidding about the sales table but not about the rest. This year I can say that my heirlooms are producing like crazy. Tasting pretty good too.

I am loosing track but I have been eating tomatoes since very early july and that never happens.

I'm sure you can find a home for those extra tomatoes.

Island Harvest

Long Island Cares

I started with the locals and gave bags of tomatoes to my neightbors yesterday. Made me pretty popular. I have never had lots of tomatoes to share this early, usually have to wait until at least the second week in August.