Because of horrid taste:

Tiny Tim
Silvery Fir Tree
Sub Arctic Plenty
Garden Peach

Doesn't grow well here (rots before it ripens) LOVE the taste though:

Brandywine red
Brandywine pink

Hey let's be nice to Mr. Stripey! For me this season, huge fruit, very productive, great flavor. But it's been a good season in the Hudson Valley for all tomatoes, and I'm growing in a brand new bed, so no diseases on any of mine.

We all seem to agree about Yellow Pear. I'm not even picking them.

Hi all, How is your garden doing ? How is your weather ?!?

I almost quickly glanced over all the posts.
There are name that I am not that familiar with, some that I have heard alot (never grown) some that have grow.

From the ones that I have grown:
--Jet Star, Juliet, Rutgers, Brandywine are on my NOT AGAIN list. Especially Brandywine. It disappointed me first time(shame on her!) I tried it again(shame on me !). Other NO, NOs are Roma and San Marzano, Viva Italian. No Italian Tomatoes for me, even if they had invented the tomato. (grin). Also forget all those with "German " and "Russian" fixes in the name. I rather grow "Fourth of July" with pride, regardless of the taste, as long as it gets RED.(smile)

---From those I have heard a Lot:
SunGold is on my "GOT TO HAVE IT" list for the next year. Mortgage lifter is another. I admire Radiato Charlie.
Bout Cherokee Purple and Mr. Stripy Jury is still out.

O. By the way , there are some other maters on my "NEVER, NO NOT FOR ME" list that I have not compiled yet and they include every and all of the BER prone ones.

Well you've made some broad generalizations but I agree, I won't be planting Juliet again. Hate green zebra, mr. Stripey was off my list from last year. No Roma types for me either. Still not sure about B W.

Oh I forgot about Green Zebra. Apparently, it shouldn't be allowed to get too yellow. It was quite productive, but I'm not growing it again.

Kellogs Breakfast wasn't worth the real estate for me so that won't be back.

Linda

Banana Legs has to be the grossest thing ever, followed by sicky- sweet Celebrity and gasp- Sun Golds.

I am blaming the heat, if this were my first year with Black Krims it would be my last, the biggest one was smaller than a tennis ball and most are just slightly bigger than a golf ball. >>>>>>>>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

same here about BK. I got some fruits no bigger than 2" in diameter. Plus, slow(took 90++ days), plus cracks, plus bad color.

Brandywine failed miserably. The second chance, it had.

GREEN ZEBRA: Have never grown it. I bought some from store, tried it. It is not the best tasting but I will plant it as ornamental. Plus, when sliced into some reds, it can give a nice contrast and less vinegar dressing needed. lol

no ROMA of any kind; BER problem and not tasty at all.

This post was edited by seysonn on Tue, Nov 12, 13 at 3:01

My tomato report... first keepers.

Pink Brandywine: i had about 20 fruit and flavor was very nice.

SunGold: Fantastic production and flavor. It grew 5-6 feet tall and most of the way to the other end of my 10' raised bed. I am not kidding when I say that it may have produced 800+ wonderful cherry tomatoes. It receives my "best of show"!

Cherokee Purple: Keeper. Very nice flavor, but it took a while to produce (early August).

Beefmaster: Good production and taste.

Good, but may or may not grow again.
Roma: produced well and were used exclusively for canning.

Several slicing hybrids: produced well, but not my favorites.

Black Krim: flavor and production were average - good, but will not grow for a 3rd season.

Will not grow again.

Bonnie Plants - Black Cherry... it ended up being a black pear and flavor was just so-so. Just so disappointed!

I have room for 10 - 12 tomato plants. the first 3-4 in my list are keepers/repeaters and will try 6-7 different varieties, mainly heirlooms.

Tom

Bump:

Agree with everyone on the Yellow Pear, not because of the taste, but because every single one cracked. I am trying a variety called Fargo Yello Pear this year that is not supposed to crack...we'll see.

Tigerella...what a waste...all juice and seeds, all tartness and no tomato flavor...they would spurt any time I cut into one. Lesson learned.

Indigo Rose? I'm a sucker for anything blue/purple. They would all fall off the vine before anywhere near ripe and they never ripened inside...just rotted and molded.

Pink and Red Brandywine just rocked it last year...most delish and huge, along with Caspian Pink. Calf's Heart has become a new favorite for awesome flavor and so few seeds and large size, perfect for canning and sauces...what a beautiful tomato to hold in your hand so you can see the heart shape.

Amish Paste, Stupice and Siberian Red...still keepers.

Genovese Costoluto...beautiful bright red clusters on the plant, but don't keep well once picked (rotting at stem end). Very thin skins make them so you don't have to peel for sauces/canning...need to process them quickly.

Zapotec Pleated...really cool convoluted fluting shape..BUT, absolutely flavorless...as in cardboard, at least here in Southern Maine last season.

Trying many new varieties of heirlooms this season. This thread gave lots of great info.

Have to agree about Zapotec. Awful taste and did not hold up well. Never liked green zebra either. Never had any luck with it. Black Russian was pretty awful. Loved sun gold, aunt gerties gold, Anna Russian. Trying a myriad of new ones this year.

I have already said what is my ZAP list but say it again:

--- BLACK KRIM, BRANDYWINE, EARLY GIRL, SWEET 100.

BK: Not productive in my garden, late, very small fruits, cracking..nugh said !!. Substiture: Chrokee Purple

BW: just total disappointment. Didnt/couldnt pick even a single ripe tomato off of it.

EG: Not early at all, inconsistent fruit size, taste wise, nothing to write home about. I have more than 6 EARLY substitutes, all with very good reviews( Bloody Butcher, Matina, Stupice, Siletz, Early Treat, Legend, Siberian). All planted out already except STUPICE.

Sweet 100: Fruits were too tiny.
Substitute: I am growing Sungold and an unknown heirloom red
I will know by early July how they are/will be doing. I'll peep you posted.

Seysonn,

Unless the Sweet 100 that you planted was an imposter, I think you will find that Sungold cherry tomatoes are the same size!

I grew S.100 last year, but not this year because I am looking for something with more flavor.

Linda

I'm growing Sun sugar, a hybrid, instead of Sun Gold. Haven't grown S100 for a couple of years - decided to try Risentraube instead along with Jaune Flamme and Amy's Apricot. Of course Black Cherry is in there too. Keeping the fingers crossed. So far, the seedlings are doing really well.
I had good luck with BW last year. This year I'm trying the BW Yellow platfoot and OTV. Mind you, last year BW was better for me than in past years, so I decided to give it another shot this year. We'll see.
Seysonn, I wasn't growing Bloody Butcher this year even tho I told you it was a good early tomato, but I ended up sowing some seeds, so it's going back in the garden!

This is a newbie, no season reject. What I am never going to do is plant tomato seeds that come on ebay in "kitchen garden packs" of many vegetable seeds. I have no idea what the variety is at all. Asked seller, he replied "organic". Thanks for nothing, friend. So I have plants that are growing so slowly my teeth ache and I have no idea if that is because they are small plants overall, or I'm doing something wrong or if this is normal an I'm being impatient. No way of asking for advice because I have no idea what variety of tomato advice I need. Henceforth, no tomato seeds purchases without total pedigree or at least the "ASL" version of tomatoes - "Bush/dwarf, Determinate/Indeterminate, size, blah, blah"

I only wish I'd read growing information and realized there were so many tomatoes and that it mattered which ones I grew. Now got new seeds of cherries and Romas and etc and I give the reluctant seedlings a glare several times a day wondering whether to uproot and trash or keep my non-violent facade and find out and email that seller to prevent headaches for other unsuspecting buyers.

Tomatoes I don't plan to grow again include these:

• Bush Goliath (pretty normal tomatoes that take until the first frost to ripen in my climate/soil; they formed all at once, and there weren't loads of them; try Early Girl instead)
• Park's Whopper (it isn't very productive in our yard, but the tomatoes are great)
• Pomodoro San Marzano (too prone to blossom end rot)
• Martino's Roma (too prone to blossom end rot)
• Cherokee Purple (it doesn't seem to like our soil and/or climate; the plant is seemingly smaller than when I first transplanted it)
• Husky Cherry Red (F1); it's a decent tomato, and really early, although it splits easily and tastes a lot like Roma, at first, but the F2 plants have potential to be extremely unproductive (and I don't want these crossing with my other tomatoes)
• Texas Wild Cherry (not as heat tolerant as I was hoping, or else it's a much later tomato than I was thinking; try Galapagos Island, Solanum cheesmanii, instead; it's early and sets fruit well in heat)
• Lemon Boy (it's not as early, tasty or productive as I'd like and the vines are enormous; prone to splitting; it's an okay tomato, though and has decent heat tolerance)

I recommend these most, out of those I've grown, so far:

• Pruden's Purple (heat/cold tolerant, larger, even though I gave it heaps of rockdust without enough nitrogen; plant matures quickly)
• Black Plum (heat tolerant; fairly productive)
• Galapagos Island (heat tolerant; big tomato flavor; early)
• Yellow Pear (yes, I like this tomato; I haven't tried all the strains, though; they're fun tasty tomatoes that look/smell good with taste that reminds me some of what tomato oil smells like; very productive; heat/cold tolerant)
• Early Girl (heat/cold tolerant, productive, really early, tastes really good and acidic when orange on its way to red)

I should note, though that although I like Early Girl a lot, it is a hybrid and I'm planning to potentially replace it with early and/or parthenocarpic heirlooms and open-pollinated varieties for next year. I have seeds of lots of varieties.

I should note that my climate is often too hot (in the day) and sometimes too cold (at night) for standard tomatoes, and we have gray clay-loam soil that is probably nitrogen deficient, and probably has a high PH; our summers are very hot, usually (the hottest I know about for my area is 116° F. and that was this year in June, strangely; late July and early August are usually the hottest periods), dry, and kind of arid, but nighttime lows are usually 30+° F. cooler than the daytime highs. The growing season is usually from early May to early October. Elevation is about 2300 feet. It usually gets down to about -5° F. to -10 at the most in winter, but the record in my lifetime was about -25° F. It's usually wet in the early spring. Wind is common all year. The UV index is about a 7 during the growing season.

Shule,... I am also going NOT to grow Bush Goliath. Very poor producer.

I also have a relatively short season, as far as tomatoes are concerned. Although our April and May are frost free but are cold and rainy, the kind of weather that tomatoes do not grow much. So I do couple things:

--- Use something like WOW.

-- Cover the beds with mini hoops

I have a lot of NOT TO GROW AGAINS. I have a thread called :

Zaps and Keeps ... for 2015

You might find some thing that you like in the thread.

Sey

It makes me feel better to see a few people list Zapotec Pleated as a zap, because I just pulled my 7 foot beast out of the ground. I'd like to comment on taste, but never saw a single fruit or I would have left it growing if I saw even ONE. But nope, with our snowman 95-100 summer Heat and a few bouts to 104-105 for a day or two here and there, this particular tomato just never grew a single fruit despite the huge number of flowers and incredible size and lush foliage. It takes up space and can't handle some stressors, then it's a goner.

If the poster from Maine got flavorless Zapotec, and me in 9a and significant heat got no fruit, I suspect this will do okay in moderate temp areas? I don't know, but if anyone wants the seed packet, let me know. I will not be doing that again.

Talikng about pulling , I have pulled the following:

==== Big Beef OP

==== KB ... I had 2 plants. I pulled the one with ZERO fruits. The second one has few tomatoes. I let it be.

== Black Cherry: Pulled one of the 2 .

Tempted to pull Druzba but it has 3 tomatoes on it.

=== Bush Goliath: It is in a pot, Just ignoring it.

The following also won't come back next season :

=== Arbuznyi

=== Bear Claw

=== Big Rainbow

=== Rutgers

=== Rio Grandie

Sey

In the future, I will NOT plant dwarves and early tomatoes.

Last year, the dwarves / bush grew too high - almost 4 ft. needing support (which was not planned.) I thought dwarves / bush grow less than 3 ft. and no need for support.

The early tomatoes, were NOT early at all, and the fruits much SMALLER than expected. Here is my experience with early tomatoes, last year:

Early tomatoes - B.I.G. disappointment

Late season tomatoes ripped BEFORE early season tomatoes

Others' opinions here:

How are your EARLY tomatoes?

If you plant dwarfs in ground, one of those 3-ring cages ( 3 bucks ?) can provide enough support. I am growing 5 dwarfs in pots and they are about 3ft tall. That is why I like them, save real estate.

Sey

Sey, making a support for some dwarfs tomatoes, is not exactly a difficult task for me.

The point is that the dwarfs were making SHADE for some transplants I put in the back of those dwarfs. I didn't know that they grow so fast and so high, and the transplants were not happy.

I thought dwarfs are... BUSHES...

LOVED my German Johnsons last year. This year went with Red Pear Piriform. Not bad, but not as good as the GJs. Always do Amish Paste for sauce. Weirdly, this year, both varieties grew HUGE tomatoes. I just had one that was 1 pound, 13 ounces. Even the Amish Pastes are huge--never seen 'em this big.

I notice a lot of you are talking about hot conditions. [We had a record-breakingly hot day in June (116 degrees F.) and it's been really hot, really early, otherwise, too. The rest of the summer has been hot, too, although it started to get to be a cooler hot after a while.] So, I thought you might appreciate these lists of tomatoes that I have heard are heat tolerant (as well as other information in the link): http://gardening.stackexchange.com/questions/20138/which-tomatoes-grow-the-best-in-high-temperatures

Speaking of Bush Goliath (since I brought it up initially), I've read reviews on the plant, and it sounds like it can do pretty well in some conditions. My yard last year just wasn't ideal for it. I think it needed a lot more phosphorus to help with earlier ripening and production. It probably needed more nitrogen, too (but it was more in need of phosphorus than nitrogen, it seems).

I've hyposthesized and read that phosphorus helps fruits to ripen sooner. I hypothesized it before I read it. Here are my reasons for the hypothesis:

• Seeds are high in phosphorus. If the plant doesn't have enough phosphorus for the seeds, it stands to reason that the fruit might stay unripe until it gets what it needs for them.
• My plants didn't seem to get a lot of phosphorus this year (but rather lots of potassium and basalt rockdust) and all my tomatoes and peppers this year are rather slow-ripening (except for Galapagos Island and to a lesser extent, Black Plum). To illustrate this point, none of my Early Jalapeno fruits have even turned red, yet (Georgescu Chocolate is just starting to turn brown now, though). I imagine more phosphorus and nitrogen would help. One advantage of the low nitrogen diet, however, is that my plants don't take up much space (which is nice, considering I planted a whole bunch of them where we only had a few last time). Anyway, last year, things ripened a lot faster, except Bush Goliath didn't ripen until about the time of the frost.

I've also heard that too much nitrogen can delay ripening. So, be careful when adding both.

I imagine Bush Goliath just needs a cooler climate and more phosphorus than a lot of tomatoes do.

Guess what, though. I have a cross between Early Girl and, I believe, Bush Goliath. (Lemon Boy and Park's Whopper are also potential fathers, but the plant behaves more like Bush Goliath than either of them).

Anyway, the seedlings of my interesting hybrid were enormous (larger than any other tomato seedlings I've seen that age). However, after they grow a little, they slow down a lot, for a long time, even under bright fluorescent light (indoors). However, they eventually started growing like semi-determinates (some time after being planted outside), and that's when they start growing flowers and fruit. The fruit this year took a while to start to ripen. at least in the high potassium and high basalt rockdust conditions (I used worm castings and rock phosphate, too, but that is slow-release phosphorus); they might ripen quickly under more normal conditions for all I know). However, it is heat tolerant (meaning, it sets fruit when it's quite hot; it was between 90-110 degrees F. when it started to set fruit, and for a long time afterward). However, it is almost two months earlier than the regular Bush Goliath was for me. I just picked the first ripe one, and there's another ripe one I'm letting ripen more (for the seeds' sakes).

As for the taste, well, it doesn't taste like Early Girl (the mother plant). It has a lot more flavor than Bush Goliath had for us last year, though. I'm not sure how to describe the flavor, other than that it has a lot of it (however, we didn't water it much, and that tends to increase flavor in some tomatoes). It's not acidic like Early Girl, though. It's something else. It still makes me feel good in an awesomely healthy-seeming way like the acidic still-slightly-orange Early Girl tomatoes do (except that feeling is delayed a lot, rather than immediate). My sibling quite liked the taste. Anyway, the tomato was still kind of orange. These turn orange before red, like Early Girl, except the hue is more uniform on these than on Early Girls (and it's a different kind of orange).

The fruit size is about the same as Early Girl, but I think it has potential to be larger, given more ideal soil conditions. The seeds are enormous. Early Girl seeds are big, too, but these look bigger to me.

The fruits don't all ripen at once, which I like. It's still producing more. It's not loaded or anything, but it has a low-moderate amount of fruit growing (and given more ideal conditions, I'm hopeful that it would provide more fruit).

I'm waiting to see how it tastes after it ripens even more. I know Early Girl tastes a whole lot different if you let it ripen completely (I prefer the less ripe ones, though).

If anyone wants seeds to experiment with, let me know and I can try to save some.

ilovecucumbers, I loved my German Johnson too.

Nice big fruits. Good taste.

[ NOTE: pictures bellow from 2014. ]

German Johnson: 22 oz.

I always thought that my 21 oz. - 1 lb. 5 oz. - Rose was the biggest tomato that I had. I see that German Johnson was 1 oz bigger...

This is my last year for Early Girl. Cherokee purples (best tasting tomato I know of) seem to ripen two weeks earlier, and I never need to buy seeds.

Creek-side, What kind of climate (day and night lows; humidity levels; rainfall) and soil do you have? That sounds bizarre to me that Cherokee Purple would ripen before Early Girl. Early Girl is about the stated 52 days where I'm from, and my Cherokee Purple plants don't even have little green tomatoes now (granted, they needed different conditions than I gave them). What kind of fertilizer and/or soil amendments are you using with them? How early is Cherokee Purple for you?

And how many tomato generations have you grown your own Cherokee Purple seeds that you've saved on your land?

It's true! Cherokee Purple can sometimes be very early! When I grew it I was stunned that it gave me a lovely big early tomato, but after that I had to wait and wait and wait for another. Production isn't all that great, but the taste is amazing.

Last year, I grew Indian Stripe. Same taste as CP but more productive!

Linda

Linda, if I hadn't heard Cherokee Purple was supposed to be heat-tolerant (at least in humid areas), by your description I would think it likely that it actually was an early tomato, but that it just wasn't heat-tolerant (tomatoes like that may produce early and stop once it heats up and continue producing after it cools down).

Strange isn't it! CP isn't supposed to be early and they love it down in NC so it must be heat-tolerant.

Linda

My CP is about on par with Black Krim. The seeds were planted on the same day (June 1) and overall, it and the BK are identical in size--almost too identical. While BK technically set the first fruit by at least a week (and those two are bigger now), CP has about double the number of fruit now. Smaller as of yet, but so far it looks like it will outdo the BK right next to it in terms of production. But it's so early for me that I can't say for sure.

I'm on my first year of saving my own CP seeds (and a few other heirloom varieties), so this year I planted a mix of seeds bought in 2014 and seeds saved from last fall. I fertilize only with horse manure. I live in central Iowa, so I have great soil in an area that has never been developed. I don't keep weather history, but it's easy to look up in many places. This was a very cold summer, just like last summer, but my plants fared better than last year. Our normal planting date is May 10th, but I didn't get my tomatoes in until the last week in May. I didn't keep track of dates for blossoms, setting fruit, etc. The first tomatoes I have every year are the only hybrid I grow, Sun Sugar. Those things are unbelievable in their production and longevity. We had an extremely late first freeze a few years ago and I was still picking them the first week of November.

Creek-side, thanks! That's very interesting. I wonder if the cold summer is what made Early Girl later. It's supposed to be cold-tolerant to 40° F. but that might be more later in the season for all I know. I know it is heat-tolerant for sure, though. As far as I remember, we've always had hot summers (although the night time lows can be 30+ degrees lower than the daytime highs; so it is sometimes cold at night for some tomatoes).

Last year did not care for red or green zebra, and copia. Sungold had lots of cherries that cracked easily. I really have no use for small fruit. This year napoli is awful looks bad didn't produce one edible fruit. Indigo rose is very productive of late ripening bland dry small tomatoes. Waste of space for me. Going to throw a few in the dehydrator as a trial. I love Brandywine and mortgage lifter, and all hearts. Paul Roberson is very productive, pretty, and tastey. Dwarf purple heart is great. Cyrils choice is awful, small flavorless fruit, but it did get shaded out a bit from others since it is the smallest about 2 feet maybe. Woods brimmer is a zap as well. Still waiting for a black trifle. All in all a decent year I do have lots of tomatoes. Next year I will try not to over crowd and use a fungicide at very beginning of year.

Look at this nonsense:

A high of 107 is not fit for human survival, never mind tomatoes. With weather like this, it's really impossible to accurately gauge what does or doesn't produce well. I have a good number of tomatoes out there especially on the Black Krims, though CP is holding its own, too. But any blossoms on them right now...they're going to drop. The poor CP has tons of blossoms....it just never stood a chance, LOL.

It's supposed to cool down starting tomorrow back to earth temperatures, so I guess today, I will go shake all the plants, do a pollination dance risking dehydration in the process and pray to the fertility gods.

107!!!

Hahaha.I didn't get 100 tomatoes from it but I got some extremely large ones. I don't have a scale since the only person I'm in competition with is my dad, however I had some I would swear were close to 3 pounders. Large conversation piece tomatoes and a great taste too. I'll grow again.

Had a larger one but I gave it to my uncle.

I don't think my area is good for ML. Takes too long.

I will never grow Indigo Rose again. Beautiful, distinctive large cherry tomato, but flavor that is very very average or even below average. I literally had to put them in stews and things to use them, because they sure weren't made to be eaten raw.

fcivish,

I agree with you in Indigo taste. It is about average.

But I will grow it again for its ornamental feature. I have one in a 4 gallon pot and it has been producing non stop. It is a small plant and does not take much space. Actually it is more compact than my dwarfs. I think it has been better than Black Cherry in my garden.

Sey

My plants aren't small or compact. Reg tomato size except they stopped growing up at about 5 feet. Maybe it's small because it is in such a small pot. Mine are in ground. Waste of space. I made sauce with all of my tomatoes mixed together and canned it.

I grew 2 Opalkas this year and so far have picked 57 almost perfect tomatoes and they are still growing. Hungarian comes in first with 64 tomatoes and still growing. I grew 2 plants of each. Carolyn is right what is good for one is not so good for another. These were my best pastes.

Yes, Robinava, different growing conditions can produce different results. But when I have ones that doing just fine and the ones that are not (in the same bed) I just ZAP the latter group. I search for varieties that do fairly well in my garden. That is how I have close to 10 varieties on my ZAP list and about 5 on my KEEPS list this year. So the next season I will grow no more than 10 varieties.

Sey

Vince, I was actually surprised at how well Mortgage Lifter did for me especially since it was one I started foolishly late! But it was one of my favorites for flavor and they were really gorgeous!

Sey, I would grow both KB and BR again. In all cases I didn't get TOO many fruit but what I got was great. The Pineapple, however, I would not bother with - except, I don't think what I got was really Pineapple. It was crossed or stray or something, it did not have the characteristics of Pineapple. So, maybe I would grow it again, with seed from a different source. Too bad it was so. freaking. prolific.

My Cherokee was early and I would definitely, definitely grow that again. Those plants are just plain tolerant of everything!

What else would I not plant? Anna Russian. Not impressed. At all.

Wgirl, last year I grew 2 Stupice plants, one had less than 10 the other had over 100. If I grew 2 Mortgage Lifters the results may have been different. One should always grow at least 2 to have an opinion on weather or not to grow again. One day I might try ML again.

As you Jenn and Vince know , we had the HOTESR summer on record. But for some reason I had problems with getting early fruits. I just picked my first CP, yesterday. Ananas Noire still not blushing. But Big Beef, Brandy Boy, Azoychka beat even Siletz.

KB, BR , Bear Claw and Rutgers are yet to produce a single ripe fruit. Geeeeez, I planted them out in April, that is more than FOUR months ago. Warum !!! hehe

Sey