Damon

I am growing sun sugar, sugar snack, and sungold so I will let you know how they rate against each other.

Looks like sugar snack is going to ripen first.

tammy- sounds good, lets us know...........

Sun Gold 8.0
Supper Snow White 7.5
Tommy Toe 7.5

Still waiting for Brandywine, Brandy Boy, KBX, Applause, Cherokee Green, Cherokee Purple,Indian Stripe, Tom's Yellow Wonder, Kimberly, Goose Creek, Ben Gantz, Mule Team, Momotaro, Kelloggs Breakfast, Brandywine Red, Brandywine x NAR, NAR and Spears Tenn Green. So the jungle grows and I spray every week and wait for the blushing to begin and prepare my first BLT. Thank you all for your helpful assistance this year.

George

Taste:
Sun Gold 10
Cherokee Purple 10
Brandy Boy 8
Super Beefsteak 8
Virginia Sweet 7
Viva Italia 7
Lemon Boy 6

Productivity:
Sun Gold 10
Lemon Boy 9
Viva Italia 9
Brandy Boy 7
Cherokee Purple 5
Super Beefsteak 5
Virginia Sweet 4

So far (some plants haven't even set fruit yet, hence low ratings...lol):

Cherry Red: 9.5
Early Girl Hybrid: 8.5
San Marzano: 7.0

Carmello for both taste and tremendous productivity.

Just had my first taste of Hungarian Heart, it was 1 pound 10 oz. I give it a 7 out of 10. It didn't blow me away at all but was it ok. I'm seeing a trend here with larger tomatoes, they seem to be less flavorful than the smaller ones, I wonder why that is.

Olena Ukrainian, Ukrainian Heart, Anna Russian and Crnkovic Yugoslavian on deck.

Damon

Damon, you have no sympathy at all for those of us in the NE. LOL

I rate everything as a big fat zero b'c my plants got out three weeks late b'c of the lousy weather, are still less than a foot tall and I don't know if I'm going to get anything here this season.

And I can't even remember right now if there are any new hearts in the growouts, which I know would interest you. LOL

Carolyn

No ripe fruit yet to taste down here - likely some this next week will blush - but 3 first timer for me varieties are a big disappointment so far. Paul Robeson, Royal Hillbilly, and NAR.

The PR's are the only plants (3) out of 90 plants with any early blight, slow growth, and no fruit set.

The 3 Royal Hillbilly are huge and healthy but no fruit set.

The 3 NARs are slightly stunted in growth, have 1 tomato between the 3 of them and it has BER, and the aphids (likely cause of the stunted growth) seem to have singled them out for attention.

Will still give them more time of course and the NARs have graduated from water blasts to soapy water/neem oil spray for the aphids but even good old stubborn Brandywine Suddth and Pruden's Purple are leaving these 3 varieties in the dust when it comes to overall performance/production.

Impressive performing first time varieties are German Giant, Anna Russian, German Red Strawberry, and Giant Oxheart. Good growth, good health, great fruit set on all.

Dave

No ripe fruit yet, but old faithful sun gold is 5' tall and should have ripe fruit sooon! Cherokee purple have 3" diameter fruit, prob. be 3 more weeks, and finally some decent fruit set on the fussy brandywine suddith strain. Opalka are looking sick as usual but normal for them. Very hot here for this time of year. Does anyone know if shading brandywine can improve fruit production and help decrease blossum drop?

does anyone know if shading brandywine plants during 90F or higher helps improve fruit set? Is there anything that does help other than ideal soil/water conditions. Also, how can you improve the brix level besides thinning friut and holding back water.

I just sliced up Olena Ukrainian and put it on a sandwich. Great flavor with a nice balance of sweet-n-tangy, I give it a 9.0.

Damon

Had a Anna Russian late last night as a snack. By far the best tomato I'v had this year, I give it a 10!!! Juicy with perfect sweet/acid ratio. Here are some others I've had recently:

Black Cherry 9.0
Aunt Gerdies Gold X Sandul Moldovan F1 9.5
Green Doctors 9.0 (better than Green Grape for me)

On deck: Ukrainian Heart, Tsar Kolokol, Paul Robeson, Gianini and Reif Red Heart.......

Damon

I'm not one for ratings, but...

I've been munching on Sungold, SS100, and Better Boys for about a month. The earliest Better Boys were outstanding, the most recent ones subject to high temps have harder skins and are a bit watery. The two cherries are both outstanding, though my SS100s are oddly inconsistent.

Husky Red Cherry, Yellow Pear and Porter's Dark Cherry all ripened up in the past few days. I really like the Porter's, the Husky was a pleasant surprise and my mom just raves over them (I "had" 11 in a bowl that turned into her dinner yesterday). I'm no Yellow Pear hater and look forward to a bigger harvest of them for salads, salsa and roasting. I think they get way too much grief. I was expecting a spitter and rather enjoyed them.

It appears I got twelve heirlooms in the ground too late, but there's some (as in very few) fruit set on half of them. Celebrity still hasn't ripened except for those with BER and internal bugs. Two Goliath hybrids are loaded with medium to smallish sized fruit. Champion looks great, has a nice set, and has gained size impressively in the last week during a brutal heatwave. I'm looking forward to them more than any other.

Happy growing.

OK so first ripe fruit are in:

Black Cherry* 8.2

Ildi** 7

* Rating might change after I eat a few more and take in their full splendor. Good flavor with interesting complexities that come in after a few seconds.

**This variety doesn't seem to be true; no multiflora trait - regular small trusses of large grape, yellow/orange sweet-flavored fruits. Good tomato anyway, should be great in salads or eaten off the vine.

catman- Changing ratings is totally understandable because as you probably know any specific variety can get better as the season grows on.

Damon

The tomatoes are rolling in and I only have a few more to sample. Here is the latest arrivals:

Ukrainian Heart 9.5 (very sweet)
Tsar Kolokol 9.5
Paul Robeson 8.5
Gianini 9.0
Reif Red Heart 8.5
German Red Strawberry 9.5

Damon

Of my 33 varieties of OP and Hybrid, Black Krim have tasted great, followed closely by Cherokee Green. The Black Krim succumbed to the elements and diseases so something may surpass them before the season is up. Black Cherry has been as good as advertized. Flavor dissapointments have been Carbon and Royal Hillbilly; which incidently have both been my two most productive plants. They have been a little bland, but I am hoping that as the season wears on they will give up some production for more taste.

~~~ Flavor dissapointments have been Carbon ... They have been a little bland, ~~~

I've only grown it once so far but our experience was that the earlier were pretty bland but flavor improved nicely through the season.

Nothing to rate here yet. BER might be slowing down. Six 2 days ago, 3 yesterday, 4 this a.m. A few are starting to get that yellowy green just prior to blush. Fingers crossed.

Well my Robesons are a 9.5. Prolific, low maintenence, and very good taste and texture.
Homer Fike's yellow Oxheart.....8-5.
Black Ethiopian.................9.0
Green Giant and Big Zac.........JSO(Jury Still Out)

Oh fun! Since my spring/early summer harvest is done, here's a full report. Ratings are on taste alone.

10-Black Cherry
10-Gardener's Delight
9-Goose Creek
9-Momotaro
9-Mule Team
9-Sun Gold
8-Heatwave II
8-Isis Candy
8-Neves Azorean Red
7-Stupice (10 cooked)
6-Costoluto Genovese (9 cooked)
6-Heartland
6-Mrs. Maxwell's Big Italian
6-Sweet Baby Girl
3-Hawaiian Tropic
3-Super Sioux
I'd rather have store-bought Romas than these last two.

On another note, I think I might have found THE most heat tolerant variety: Cold Set. I put out two seedlings just for the heck of it in late May. They are setting fruit like crazy and our days have ranged between 95 and 105, nights 75 - 85 daily for the last two weeks. Amazing. Can't wait to sample when ripe! Two Sheyennes are setting fruit too, but not as many.

7.8 for Homestead. I'm sure there are better ones, but it's a good tomato.

azruss- Cold Set the heat tolerant variety! Wow that is amazing, lol.

Damon

sprtsguy76
If you think large Tomato's don't taste as good as smaller ones you must not have tried Neves Azorean Red.

My plants are done for the spring:

Beefsteak
6-Better Boy
6-Big Boy
6-Brandywine(Ferry Morse)
8-Gardener's delite
0-Jelly Bean
8-Rutgers
8-SS100
5-Super Beefsteak

On Deck for Fall:
Black from Tula
Brandywine(Sudduth)
Brown Berry
Cherokee Purple
Isis Candy

Compost Pete:

You asked a question about shading and BW production. I've found that shading tends to lower the temperature a few degrees. If you have lower humidity and nights that cool off, a few degrees in the afternoon may make all the difference. I have a BW this year that set better than any other ever has for me (total production will be more than 20 toms from this plant) and the things I did differently for it were: 1 shade it once it started to get hot, 2. put it in a spot that by about 4 p.m. it is in complete shade from the house for the rest of the day. Where I am, 4-6 is the hottest part of the day and this year temps have typcially exceeded 100, and this plant has shown its appreciation for the shade by much better production than BW (suddeth) has in the past.