Sarnowski Polish Plum would be great as a paster. Good to excellent taste even for fresh eating, super productive, not very many seeds. Probably the most productive variety in my spring '07 garden. I'm really impressed with it, produces more fruit than I know what to do with.

IN addition to Opalka that Keith mentioned above, as well as the Sarnowski Polish Plum that Suze mentioned, I'd add:

Heidi
Martino's Roma

......and these two above as mainly meaty pasters.

But for salsa and other purposes I'd just use the best tasting meaty varieties that I could get my hands on. Which is what most of my tomato friends also do.

If you were going strictly with making sauce, then the ones mentioned in this post, including Opalka and the Sarnowski one would be OK, but honestly, using great tasting meaty ones works just as well and even better. Just cook down the sauce a bit more to the consistency you like.

Carolyn

San Marzano!! Hard to beat for sauce. Huge production on indeterminate plants with a longer season than many others.

Dave

Here's a few, with pics:

Opalka:

{{gwi:1359724}}

Kalman's Hungarian Pink:

{{gwi:1363726}}

Joe's Plum:

{{gwi:1349488}}

Wagner's Italian:

{{gwi:1363727}}

Uncle Steve's (from rxkeith):

{{gwi:1351695}}

Horvath:

{{gwi:1363728}}

Blocky Marzano:

{{gwi:1363729}}

Yugoslavian:

{{gwi:1363730}}

Ernie's Plump:

{{gwi:1351705}}

These all were some of my best varieties for fresh use & canning/salsa/sauce over the last few years.

Also, consider heart types--they can be used as slicers, dicers, and saucing, virtually "do-all" tomatoes for multi-purpose use. Most are solid with few seeds.

{{gwi:1363731}}

Hope this helps.

Mark

I'm growing four pasters in containers kind of as an experiment -- Roma, San Marzano, Opalka, and Black Plum. They all look healthy, and the Roma and Black Plum are over two feet tall. But I don't see any sign of any flowers, much less tomatoes. Is there something wrong with the tomatoes, or am I just too impatient?

Yes, I'm using container soil.
Yes, I fertilize regularly with an organic fertilizer.
Yes, the pots are BIG.

I also spray weekly with Spinosad or Pyola. That keeps the bugs off the plants and allows the plants full reign to grow.

They don't get full sun all day. Could that be the problem? I could move them. But like I said, they're growing big and they look quite healthy. Just no flowers.

There are many great determinate ones that are commercial in nature. When these are allowed to turn red ripe they are really good tomatoes. It's just that rarely are they every picked ripe nor is seed sold beyond the commercial grower industry. They are bred to be rich and high in soluble solids (which makes them more profitable for the growers).

Many of the Campbell's or Hunts varieties have extremely rich taste I dont find in any of the ones mentioned above which tend to be more about being sweet for their soluble solids.

Ill make sure I send some to try.

{{gwi:1363732}}

{{gwi:1363733}}

{{gwi:1363734}}

One of the finest paste types I've grown is Kalman's Hungarian Pink, it is just luscious.

{{gwi:1363736}}

Here is a link that might be useful: TT Late Season Page, scroll down for description.

There are many great determinate ones that are commercial in nature. When these are allowed to turn red ripe they are really good tomatoes. It's just that rarely are they every picked ripe nor is seed sold beyond the commercial grower industry. They are bred to be rich and high in soluble solids (which makes them more profitable for the growers).

Many of the Campbell's or Hunts varieties have extremely rich taste I dont find in any of the ones mentioned above which tend to be more about being sweet for their soluble solids.

Ill make sure I send some to try.

{{gwi:1363732}}

{{gwi:1363733}}

{{gwi:1363734}}

Hortist, Is that bottom picture is Speckled Roman I would like to comment that it's very prolific, very beautiful and fine eating cooked our fresh. I grew it a few years back, had high germination from my seeds and was avble to share many plants with friends. Everyone who grew the Speckled Roman loved it. It's a great winner!

Right now in my garden I have a plant of LaRossa paste that is near first ripening--the plant appears to be (so far) disease ressitant and will crop heavily. I can't report on the taste yet, but what I've read says it's supposed to be a very tasty tom. I hope so, it's a great looking plant.

Andine Cornue a french collector collected the seeds in the Andes Mountains. suppose to be a very large great tasting paste tomato.

also here

http://www.tomatsidan.se/TseeEng/SeedsEn.htm

http://www.organiccatalog.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21_22_43_120&products_id=1358

{{gwi:109056}}

Here is a link that might be useful: andine cornue

I have reconsidered which tomatoes I am going to plant next year, mainly because in my house(and friends) we use more paste type tomatoes. I think I will be planting at least five types of paste tomatoes to test next year.

Recommended paste tomatoes so far:
Olpaka
Gallo
Sarnowski Polish Plum
Kalman's Hungarian Pink
Joe's Plum
Wagner's Italian
Uncle Steve's
Horvath
Blocky Marzano
Yugoslavian
Ernie's Plump
Campbell's or Hunts varieties
Speckled Roman
Andine Cornue
Heidi
Martino's Roma
San Marzano

Thank you everyone so far.

Side Note: hortist - I tried to contact you very t-land but I am not sure the PM went through or not.

So I guess the lack of sun isn't a problem, then?

Olpaka

*****

If you look at several other posts in this thread you'll see that the correct spelling for that variety is Opalka.

I just thought I'd mention that if you were trying to Google it and/or find it at a seed source.

Several of the varieties mentioned are not all that common at seed sources so if I were you I'd save this thread and then perhaps contact the persons who mentioned certain varieties that interest you so that they can help direct you to a seed source or indeed they may have seeds they can share.

Carolyn

Anyone grow these?

Prince Borghese
Promodoro San Marzano-Lampadina

Dean

Principe Borghese is a small plum/large grape, used mostly for drying.

Sorry, forgot about Speckled Roman... great taste... but "the beauty is only skin deep."

Mark

{{gwi:1363738}}

The Speckled Roman has the flavor, but how does it produce?

That pic is from 1 picking, 1 day, 1 plant...

Speckled Roman is LOADED with toms, they're just as yum as they are lovely, this is probably the prettiest tomato I've ever grown. You will not be disspointed with it.

If you read the link below you'll see it's a cross between two other pastes, Antique Roman which I have not grown and Banana Legs which I have grown. If you want to try a non-red paste then Banana Legs is a great choice, it's more of orangey-yellow than a true yellow, with smaller fruits than Speckled Roman, but has insane fruit production. Banana Legs makes a massive amount of fruits.

Here is a link that might be useful: Speckled Roman

P.S. All the pics I posted were from 1 plant. Joe's Plum there were more maters... but I ate them. Cut a Joe's open and the aroma is wonderful.

Uncle Steve's I had to zoom out with the camera. Huge fruits. That double layer pile was about 7-8 inches tall.

Horvath has almost no seeds.

Wagner's has that great aroma & taste, plus it's pink, (most paste types are red.)

Ernie's Plump & Yugoslavian were very heavy production, and I only grew them in a 4 gallon bucket (likewise with most pictured--4 gallon buckets with drip--Opalka may have been the only exception, in a raised bed.)

All plates are 9-inch.

Mark

Here's a couple pics of some mentioned plus another couple:

Rosalie's Paste:

{{gwi:1363739}}

Martino's Roma (hi-output determinate):

{{gwi:1363740}}

Heidi:

{{gwi:1363741}}

Horvath inside:

{{gwi:1363742}}

I don't have pics uploaded yet of Wuhib (none ripe yet), Roughwood Golden Plum (Yellow Brandywine x San Marzano cross) or Sarnowski Polish Plum (actually, Sarnowski is in the first pic in the thread "Today's Harvest... Post your pics here...")

Hope this helps.

Mark

I am growing Principe Borghese for the first time this year. I have green tomatoes up to 2 inches long on my plants, and they're about 1 1/4 inch wide, so they're not too small. I grew Orange Plum last year and they were about the same size. My patio Principe Borghese has a tomato that's actually breaking, and it may be my first ripe tomato this year - it's been a late season! The three plants in my garden are loaded with fruit, too. I'll let you know how they taste.

Here's Wuhib, and Sarnowski Polish Plum, both mentioned above:

Wuhib:
{{gwi:1363743}}

Sarnowski Polish Plum:
{{gwi:1363744}}

Mark

I read a few threads on this topic, and Dr. Carolyn (your fame is complete now, I've read your name in several seed catalogs :-)), you mentioned using a good tasting 'meaty' tomato in place of paste. I'm growing a few tomato plants mostly for sauce, and I'd like to know what your recommendations would be for that 'meaty non-paste alternative', if you have time.

Best,
PJ

I apologize; I see Carolyn replied on a different thread about this, suggesting using the search engine to see these recommendations. Thanks.

Thanks again for all of the recommendations.

I will be trying many of them in the years to come, but at this point I have narrowed my list to the following:

Guajito: - Mexico - Md season - Medium fruit size and medium/heavy load , pear tomato, to 7cm long, sometimes nippled, red, meaty.intermediate.

Italian Paste, Large: is SSE tomato #1547, pole habit, 92 DTM, and came from Mary Ann Billera's grandmother according to the SSE 2006 Yearbook.

Opalka: 90 days. Meaty pepper-shaped fruits deliver a rich, sweet flavor that makes exceptional sauces. They are also tasty fresh. Indeterminate vines.

Orange Banana: -85 days. Lycopersicon esculentum. Plant produces good yields of 4" long by 2" wide orange banana shaped tomatoes. Tomatoes are sweet and very flavorful. Used in salads and gourmet dishes. Also used for making a nice orange sauce. Excellent drying variety. Indeterminate.

Perito: - 70-80 dtm, indet, reg leaf, with droopy foliage typical of many open-pollinated heart/plum/paste types. Produces 6-10 oz red plum tomatoes. Brought to the states by Matt Perito, originally from Italy in the early 1900's. very prolific sauce/paste type

Rio Grande: - 80 days, Very large, blocky pear-shaped tomatoes are borne in profusion, making for large harvests to turn into tomato sauce, paste, or juice. Deep red fruit is about 4 inches long. Vigorous plants are well adapted to extremes in temperature. Determinate.

I plan on 2 or 3 plants of each as myu family loves salsa(Fresh and Canned).

Dean

Does anyone have a source on: Sarnowski Polish Plum and Horvath?
They look delightful.

A lot of my sauce last year came from my 2 yellow hearts, Verna's Orange Oxheart and Herman's Yellow. Grace Lahman is a very productive and meaty pink. I also had a lot of Lucky Cross to make sauce from, after I cut off the cracked part at the neck. But it and the other tomatoes mentioned have exquisite creamy flavor, and make tasty very sweet sauce.

Horvath and Yugoslavian look fantastic, as does the Uncle Steve's.Now those are 3 more paste types to add to my ever growing list of 'must have seeds'. :)
I wish I had a bigger yard.

Me too! A larger yard - would be great... or less trees! :)

My wife loves Roma tomatoes since they aren't juicy. I prefer to grow indeterminates though so I am looking for other alternatives. I don't know too much about tomatoes and don't even like them myself (I know, that's blasphemy on this forum...my apologies), but looking through the seed catalogs I came across some (unfortunately) Burpee exclusive paste toms...

Little Mama
Big Mama
Golden Mama

Has anyone tried these? I don't have a problem with Burpee, but their costs (both for seed and shipping) are a little high compared with other places. But if anyone thought it was worth it, I will go ahead and order these. I will also check into the others mentioned already, but none of those names ring a bell. I may not be looking for the seeds from the right sellers.

A Bump for Carrie...

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/msg0714120610347.html?32

This is a very important thread that comes up every few months but it appears it can only be reached freom a bookmark and doesn't bump up to the front page, is there a way to fix it? Thanks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Paste tomato recommendations (won't move)

bump

Probably a little late to propose this question but, does anyone grow Burpee's Big Mama? I grew 16 this year for canning tomato sauce...just curious about what to expect.