Your definitely warmer than us here in the bay area, but I know what that central valley heat is like because I lived there a for two years. I want to try more paste tomatoes next year. The only one I'm trying this year is Long Tom. I would love to give Opalka and maybe Amish Paste a run next year. Favorites for me have been all heart tomatoes. Anna Russian and Kosovo to name a couple. So if you like sweet tomatoes I would suggest those two heart varieties. Good luck to you.

Damon

For me, it's been Marianna's Peace and Cherokee Purple. The production this year as compared to last is truly shocking.

'08 standouts:

Taste: so far prudence purple, cuostralee, russian 117, & black cherry (but awaiting several to ripen like neves azorean, lucky cross, & persimmon)

Yield: carbon, gary o'sena, and black cherry

Disease Resistance: neves azorean, carbon, gary o'sena, & black cherry

I think gary o'sena could perhaps be the perfect tomato if it just had a touch more flavor -- don't get me wrong, it's good, but not up to par w/ the sudduth's or earl's faux's grown last year. But then again it was pretty wet during early summer here this year...hmmmm...

I grow a variety of tomatoes each year. My nice surprise this season is the Hawaiian Pineapple heirloom. We spend each winter on the Big Island and planted this variety as an after thought on a pleasant whim. As it has turned out, they are my most productive plants to date with very large, grapefruit sized fruits. Since they haven't yet ripened, I cannot comment on their taste. I would be happy to report back at a later date.I would like to hear from other HP growers who have saved seeds from this variety to hear their experiences.

Standout varieties for me in taste and productivity, this year:

1. Burgundy Traveler, same as last year.
2. Indian Stripe.

Biggest disappoinment: Galina's cherry. I do not like the taste of it and would not grow it again. In fact, I don't know I would even give them away.

Best overall production this year: Stupice, Champion, and Bloody Butcher. Smallish but in huge numbers and both Stupice and BB are early and tasty.

Best size and taste this year so far: Brandy Boy, Giant Belgium. Still waiting on H. Pineapple and K. Breakfast. Marianna's Peace is ok.

Best paste type: Opalka and Sam Marzano We have canned more than 50 pints of sauce from just 3 each of these plants.

Biggest disappointment so far: Black Cherry and Sweet Cluster. Good production on both but rather blah taste.

Best surprise: a rugose determinate called Red House Freestanding. Beautiful dark green self-supporting plants 3' tall that produces perfect, medium-sized red fruit full of a deep rich flavor. Adding these to my every year list if I can get more seed from Seeds of Change.

Dave

cherokee purple is great my first year growing it and i like.
sun sugar? cherry tomato i think thats the name excellent my 3 yr old nephew loves them too and calls them berries

disappointment is the brandywine all of the fruits are ugly and malformed and cracking nothing blushing yet so can't comment on the flavor, my moms looks the same way so not sure its something we're doing or the variety.

I am extemely happy with KBX. I ate my first this morning and yes they are exactly like KB. So bye bye CRUD! And these PL plants are laughing at the disease outside in my garden. They are loaded with fruit and over the 7 foot tall mark now tying Chapman with biggest plants in the garden category.

Thanx to all who recommended it to me and especially Lee who provided me the seed...:)

Good ones this year so far are La Gulf State, Druzaba, Southern Nights and German Black. All set in the early heat until about 1st of July. They are still growing and have started new blossoms due to the cooling in to the 90's and 80's in the night the last 10 days. Started my seeds for the 2nd or fall season and they are transplanted out and growing. The cool down was good for the peppers also and they are blooming and setting on real well.

I'm only growing three varieties I know the name of this year and it's still early for me to tell which tasted the best but I'm happiest with the thick growth of Amana Orange. But I have yet to get a fruit from any of them.

Black Cherry and Marianna's Peace have both been very good for me in terms of production and taste. The taste of Marianna's Peace blew my socks off! And it's outproducing all of my other tomatoes (other than the cherries). Still waiting on Cherokee Purple and my other larger tomatoes though.

This is only my second year growing tomatoes, and I've been disappointed in Opalka. It's prone to blossom drop, wilting, and has produced only one tomato so far.

To give it the benefit of the doubt, however, it's my only tomato in a black container, so it's been having more trouble with the heat than the others.

My Sausage in my self-watering container is the biggest and has produced more tomatoes than all the other plants combined. But it's also had more tomatoes with BER.

My Orange Banana grew big and beautiful, then wilted and never really came back. Hasn't set fruit yet.

My Roma is large and has produced tons of flowers. I see four tiny tomatoes developing. I'm optimistic about it.

My Viva Italia and Sunmaster are handling the heat best, and they're also the only ones in white containers.

I have only a couple tomatoes blushing, so I haven't tasted anything yet. I look forward to an entire freezer full of tomato paste this winter.

I'm excited about the Opalka, I won't say the production is huge, but it's decent. Nothing to cry about certainly! One had to be removed because of a disease (never figured out what it was, but the whole plant was sickly).

The San Marzano I picked up at the local store is knocking the socks off Opalka in terms of production. I'll have to put them side by side next year :D

My Roma are huge and loaded with fruit. I've even gotten a few ripe ones from it already (woohoo!)

Cherokee Purple, both plants are LOADED with fruit in varied sizes. I find it amusing that the plant itself is just now a lean 5 ft tall (when all my other ones are 6+ and HUGE).

Jeff's Mystery Pink Oxheart, took forever to set fruit, but it's trying to make up for it now. Don't think I'll grow that one again, but I've got Lots more hearts to try next year :D

Purple Russian, havn't tasted it yet. Just got my first ripe one yesterday. I was kind of bummed that it wasn't darker LOL It looked like a paste version of cherokee purple :)

All in all everything is doing well...I'm excited and can't wait for a few more weeks when everything really starts getting ripe more often :)

Laura

My and my friends' favorite this year as well as the past 2 years in Cherokee Chocolate...it is soooo tasty though I'm not getting the yields I did from the past...

bigdaddyj, Glad you like KBX. A very good tasting variety as
you say. I just wish I could get more fruit out of it. I'm
glad it's doing well for you.

As for me, the tomatoes have been mostly ok this year. Even the typically pheonmenal ones have been just average. And that included Cherokee Purple and Cuostralee.
The recent fruit though has started to pick up in flavor. Had
one Cuostralee the other night that tasted marvelous. It had the "This is why I grow my own" flavor!

Standouts also include Spear's Tennessee Green and Stokes County. SC is a real nice 8~12oz. pink globe shaped tomato that has a good balanced flavor with great production. 2 years in a row with success of this heirloom from NC.

Other standouts in my garden include a new OP variety called
striped sweetheart. The name says it all, 6oz orange/red striped, heart shaped fruit that have a juicy sweet mouth-watering flavor. This is from the same line that
brought out Lucky Cross and Little Lucky!

And of course the two Orange Heirlooms I had before the plant got knocked out by Cucumber Mosaic Virus were excellent tasting. Nice fruity 12oz beefsteaks comparable
to the best orange varieties around, such as KBX.

Lee

After thinking the darn thing wasn't going to set fruit at all, Pineapple is determined to prove me wrong. The plant is loaded with green fruit, yesterday I got a 12oz tom off it that looks to be ripe tonight, and today a got an 18oz one. I had to find another food scale to weigh it because my first one only goes to a pound.

Again, thanx for the OH and KBX seeds Lee.

I find OH to be a very nice variety. Excellent taste. One of my two OH plants got hit pretty bad with disease and is only about 4 feet tall but still producing a few toms. The other is a full 6 foot plus and cranking them out pretty good.

Comparing my two OH plants to my 3 KBX plants I have found the taste to be excellent for both but KBX are bigger on average. I'd say my average KBX is around 12 oz and my average OH is about 8 oz. KBX far less disease as well probably because of it's PL. BUt both are great tasting varieties...:)

I, too, found the Cherokee Purple extremely good. The Celebrity made the first BLT's ring out with pleasant memories. The 5 different cherries gave salads a great eye appeal. I'm still waiting on most of the beefsteak types. Cooler spring/summer turnover seemed to slow everything down. The Husky Red Cherry is okay. I grew it in the shade (mostly) and it was super. The Golden Jubilee, Better Boy, Yellow Pear, and Roma were so-so, but the neighbors said they were great. The Super Tasty was not so tasty and the Siberian was a true spitter. The real surprise was the SubArctic Plenty. Fruit averaged 3.5 Oz and had a good ol' fashioned taste that reminded me of my younger days. I grew it in half shade and it loaded the branches.

My best performers so far this summer are Big Beef, Early Girl, Big Zac, Carbon and Tidwell German.

These may be the only varieties I raise next year. I am tired of early blight on most varieties.........and tired of paying a high price for Daconil to combat it.

Here are my notes so far.

Small plants, Early season,

Red Robin, Gave us our first and helped stem the frustration of waiting. Tiny plant, super easy to take care of. Tasty enough, I'll probably never be without it. Thank you Bigdaddy.

Early Wonder, Is OK, unremakable.

Sprite, Those that like sweet toms have enjoyed it very much. The Wife says I'll be growing this again.

Small, Midseason,

Taxi, Inconsistant. Some were very good, others just OK. Will probably grow again.

Health Kick, Will not be growing this again!

Carolina Gold, Idiot proof, Good production, mild, meaty, slightly sweet. Workhorse.

Midsize plant, Midseason,

Grampa's Minnesota, Will not plant again!

Jet Star, Workhorse, Reliable, early for me. Not the best taste but not bad considering its other attributes.

Yellow Pear, This is really a very large plant. Another of the Wife's "must grows".

Missouri Pink Love Apple, A new favorite. Sweet and fruity at the same time as rich and salty. Never tasted anything like it.

Tall plants, Early season,

Gardener's Delight, Yes it is!

Tall, Midseason,

Sunset Red Horizon, Good taste. Big toms, I'll grow it again but it hasn't yet impressed me with outstanding flavor.

Brandywine OTV, Good size, decent production, Very good taste.

Lemon Boy, Practically idiot proof, early for me, reliable workhorse.

Carbon, Easy plant, taste getting better as season progresses. Not as good as Cherokee Purple but good.

Aunt Gerties Gold, Still waiting. Not huge production but not bad, good size.

Cherokee Purple, What a great plant and tomato! Some folks look at it funny but when they taste it, they're cured :-) Good size and production.

Huge plant, Early season,

Black Cherry, I still get a fuel like, after taste but its on the Wife's must grow list.

Huge, Late season,

German Queen, A returning fav. Don't expect huge numbers and do expect some BER but the taste is very good.

Mortgage Lifter, Tasty, early for me, good size and numbers but I think this one will have to go to make room for new varieties. Its good, just not exceptional.

Varieties I'm thinking to try next yr.

NAR, Bloody Butcher, Cherokee Green.

My 1.5 pound pink Tidwell German is a winner for me this year in both size and flavor. Best pink tomato I have ever eaten?