You're welcome, Sammy. I haven't even reviewed the list myself, and it is an old list. I suspect I still grow some of the plants on the list now, but I also know that I have found even more that produce great here since 2008. With thousands of varieties to choose from, we have many options, and most of them will perform here in a typical year. It can be harder to get great production in an extremely dry year or an extremely hot year, especially if the heat arrives early. One factor that seems to matter more than the variety selection is simply getting them planted early enough that they have plenty of time to set fruit before the heat arrives. Brandywine Sudduth's is still my own personal favorite, but it produces erratically---great in cooler, rainier years and not very well at all in hot, dry ones. I tend to grow it anyway most years on the chance that maybe this year will be the year a cool, rainy spring helps it be very productive. Although it wasn't on my Grow List for this year, I saw them in a store yesterday and promptly bought two. I probably jinxed myself by buying them and we'll probably have an insanely hot spring, but I hope that doesn't happen.

Well, we got some rain a week or so back and now the foliage on my tomato plants looks pathetic. I guess it is that time of year any way, but it had been so dry that we hadn't had much disease problem yet. Well, we've got it now. Spider mites are showing up, but....it is July and we're having a drought, so I'm not surprised. Here's the latest variety report: These tomatoes have done well this year and I'll plant them again next year. They all have had good to excellent flavor. LARGE-FRUITED: Black Krim--excellent flavor, high producer Black From Tula--very good flavor, medium producer Black Prince--very good favor, average producer Brandywine--excellent flavor, low producer Brandywine OTV--excellent flavor, low producer Mortgage Lifter--excellent flavor but low producer Mortgage Lifter VFN--excellent flavor but low producer Better Boy--very good flavor, high producer Big Boy--good flavor, high producer Beefmaster--good flavor, excellent producer Early Girl--good flavor, excellent producer Celebrity--good flavor, excellent producer Dr. Wyche's Yellow--very good flavor, fairly large number of fruit Jubilee--very good flavor, lots of fruit, also very early for its size Nebraska Wedding--excellent flavor, although milder than most, takes a long-time to ripen Cherokee Purple--excellent flavor, productivity varies Arkansas Traveler--very good flavor, good producer Boxcar Willie--very good flavor Aunt Ruby's German Green--very good flavor Azoychka (flavor was very good, but plant has sparse foliage and seems to struggle. Still I'd give it another year.) SMALL FRUITED: Super Snow White (cherry) excellent flavor Riesentraube (cherry) very good flavor and very reliable Sweet Chelsea (cluster) excellent flaor Sun Gold (cherry) absolutely the best cherry Rosalita (grape)) (similar to the 2005 AAS winner, Sugary, in appearance but has much better flavor) Sweet Million (cherry) monster plant with heavy production and flavor that is superior to Sweet 100 Ildi (grape) simply wonderful Black Cherry (plum-shaped grape) very yummy Porter (because it produces in the August heat when not much else does) Yellow Pear (next year might be its last year here, as Ildi tastes so much better and has better disease resistance) WHAT'S NOT COMING BACK: Green Grape--bland Green Zebra--OK, but nothing special Lime Green--OK, but nothing special Sugary--not nearly as good as the similar Rosalita Sweetie Red Cherry--flavor is good, but not very disease resistant Southern Night--no disease resistance Black From Tula--poor performance in comparison to other black tomatoes with lower production and less disease resistance Delicious (if size were the only goal, this would be a keeper, but I like tomatoes with flavor, and this one doesn't have much) SunSugar FT--not as tasty or as disease-resistant as SunGold Sioux--nothing special Super Sioux--also nothing special Zapotec Pleated--the only tomato I've ever grown that I know for sure had Tomato Mosaic Virus Oxacan Pink--bland flavor Super Boy--plants produce round, fairly bland fruit in huge abundance but it had foliar problems from the start. If the fruit had better flavor, I might be more inclined to put up with the sorry appearance of the plant. Mexico--only average flavor German Queen--slow to produce, no disease resistance Old German--slow to produce, no disease resistance UNDECIDED: These plants have been slow to produce ripe fruit, so the jury is still out on them. In some cases, it is not their fault the fruit is late--they were planted really late or in the worst soil in the garden. In some cases, they were planted later than the others AND the others got big quicker and sort of crowded them. All of these will PROBABLY get a second chance next year. Cherokee Chocolate Earl's Faux Aunt Ginny's Purple Marianna's Peace Galina's Yellow Paul Robeson Kellogg's Breakfast Ceylon Marglobe Mule Team Russian Persimmon Opalka You know, it doesn't matter how good the tomato plants look in mid- to late-June, they always start going downhill rapidly in July. Between the heat, the common foliar diseases, and the spider mites, it is a wonder any of them make it through July alive. That said, there are some that seem stronger and better able to handle the typical July challenges. I'm at the stage now in the garden where plants that are really struggling will get yanked out and replaced with something else for fall. Overall the tomato plants have produced well. We eat tomatoes literally every day and have given away tons and tons. I'm not preserving as many for the winter as I usually do--but that's partly because I already have so much other stuff put up in the freezer and pantry. Dawn

In 2006, when I first grew Lime Green Salad, I thought OMG! how is this little plant gonna hold up all the tomatoes when these blossoms all set??? But fact is, you only get about 10% blossom set as I've found out after growing about four plants in 2006 and 6 in 2007. The best plants only gave me about 1 tomato for every 10 blossoms even though all plants expressed those huge multi-floral flower sprays. As far as the amber blush ... yeah, I get the same general colors as Lee shows in his pictures. The insides stay that beautiful dark lime green tone though. Some of the tomatoes seem more oblate and some plants seem to give larger sizes than other plants. See that one up above the golf ball? I've tried to select for plants that give more of that size fruit with more seed cells (four or more locules is what I look for). But then I've only been selecting for two summers so far. This will be my third try and right now I only have three plants selected for best seedling vigor from seeds saved from largest fruit producers. BTW, I find the ones let go 'til amber are softer and much sweeter; while I prefer them firmer and zingier and pick them before the amber blush for my tastes. When they go amber, I either give them away or save them for seeds. Bill

I bought BHN-589 from Tomato Growers Supply this year. It is a tomato spotted wilt tolerant variety with improved taste (over the other BHN line). Productivity wise, it's a monster on par with Big Beef. It produces a large quantity of 12+oz tomatoes. Disease tolerance seems to be quite good for this variety as it is performing consistently well as others go down to disease... including TSWV! Taste wise, I'd give it a 6 out of 10. (I give Celebrity a 7, and Better Boy a 6, with Big Beef getting an 8.) I'm gonna give the later ripening varieties a better taste test as most of my maters have tasted better on the second and subsequent fruits. Lee