I'm thinking about getting some plain, old Romas. Hybrids. I've had bad luck with my heirloom paste types and really want to get about 250 lbs to can.
I do have some of those gold speckled paste seeds, can't remember the name but somebody posted the prettiest picture and I just had to get them. I'll start them for fall planting. I've yet to have a single fruit set on my San marzano resortas or Andes.

There are TONS of threads here about paste tomatoes but I'll just list the ones that I think are really good, commenting that most of my tomato friends don't use paste tomatoes for sauce. They use the BEST tasting varieties they have since most paste toimato varieties are not noted for excellent taste and just cook the sauce down a bit more and they also try to use any dense fleshed non-paste of which there are many including some excellent heart varieties.

Anyway, here are some paste varieties that I think have decent taste eaten raw that you might consider for sauces if you want to stick to just known paste varieties. All are red and high yielding and have wroked well for others.

Heidi
Mama Leone
Ludmilla's Red Plum
Sarnowski Polish Plum
Opalka ( Jersey Devil is about the same as are several other long reds or similar)
Tadesse or Wuhib

I've grown Borgo Cellano and don't like the taste at all but maybe it's just me.

And you speak of disease tolerance. ON LI you shouldn't be bothered by any of the systemic tomato diseases such as Fusarium, Verticillium, etc., which leaves you with the same problem all of us have and that's the foliage diseases and with just a few exceptions that aren't of use for the home gardener, there are no varieties, hybrid or OP that have any significant tolerance to the common foliage diseases.

In addition, most paste varieties are very susceptible to Early Blight ( A. solani) and BER which is why so many folks use some non-pastes for sauce. And some use pastes AND other non-paste varieties for their suace.

Hope that helps.

Carolyn

I have grown Jersey Devil in the past but wasn't impressed with it in any way. Amish Paste, San Marzano and Opalka taste better in sauce IMO and out produce it.

Lots of variables affect production levels as you know but San Marzano is ALWAYS an extremely heavy producer for me and the only disease problems I ever have with it are Early Blight and some initial BER - just like any other variety. Never tried your other two.

Like Carolyn, I'm one who prefers a sauce made from a variety of fruits - the more variety, the better - rather than just paste types.

Dave

This year I decided to try san marzano, opalka and amish paste in addition to Roma. While the Romas are getting lots of fruit, the others are lagging and most of the san marzano's germinated but have not grown. Opalka was much the same. Even after planting out most are lagging. The Amish Paste are struggling to grow as well.

Do these perhaps need higher heat and/or humidity than other varieties? Or maybe more water? Most of my other non-paste varieties are thriving -- and I've got about 50 plants out.

Caryl

No Caryl they don't need higher heat or humidity. I'm in a zone 5 and have grown all of them as have many many folks in zones 4 and 5 and they do just fine.

So there are probably other factors involved as to why they aren't performing well.

I can't help commenting that I have never considered Amish Paste to be a paste tomato; much too juicy IMO. There are other varieties that have paste as part of the name that aren't paste varieties either and Lillian's Red Kansas Paste comes to mind as one of them. ( smile)

Carolyn

hi,
thank you all for your advice.
i do agree with you that alot of non pastes
make great sauce, the problem is with limited
space getting enough to can, also in canning production
it gets tiresome cooking them down to the desired
thickness. the best tasting sauce i made with cherry
tomatoes also a costoluto type, but the oxhearts also
great. maybe for taste and production i should use
an old hienz or campbell variety. what do you think?

marcantonio

I grew roma last year and this year I am growing opalka and amish paste. Both opalka and amish paste are growing nicely setting fruits. I think I had more fruits on roma this time last year but that could be because roma is determinate and opalka and amish paste are indeterminate. Determinates set their fruits around the same time. I harvested a lot of fruits from roma in August and early September but the plant basically gave up at that point. I suspect that if I can keep my opalka and amish paste healthy (knock on wood) they will continue to produce into October.

I plan to mix in some brandywine, cherokee purple, juliet, and sweet tangerine when I make my sauce. I don't can my sauce. I just make a pot and freeze it. So it isn't such an issue that I don't get TONS of tomatoes at the same time.