Hey BigDaddy....

I'm also in Zone 7, on Long Island, and grew tomatoes for first time, and purchased the plants online. Grew some 30 heirlooms and 5 hybrids, and I'm down to about 11 plants also.

The ones that are thriving are SunGold, PurpleHaze, Matt's Wild (all cherry types).

I've been saving alot of the seeds this year to grow next season from seed, and took notice of your comments about winter sowing tomato plants in zone 7 outdoors. I was prepared to have to do it indoors (also, as a first time). Can you please elaborate on what to do about winter sowing? I figure you mean some sort of cold frame. Please elaborate on times, methods, etc. Because I think you may have saved me a ton of work. Also, let me know if this applies to peppers and eggplants from seed.

(P.S.--- if you would like to trade some Gary O'Sena seeds for Listada di Gandia or Lebanese Bunching eggplant, or for any tomato seeds I saved, or even from the true SunGold or Sweet100s f1 seeds I just purchased, I'm game, and I can let you know which ones I'm saving so you can choose...my email is ginodiclemente@yahoo.com)

Hi diclemeg, I pretty much used Trudi's instructions last winter when I Winter Sowed for the first time:

http://wintersown.org/wseo1/Tomatoes.html

There is also a GW forum you can check out at:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/wtrsow/

I did a controlled study on just one variety, KBX. The WS plants produced ripe tomatoes only two days later than my indoor started ones with a whole lot less babying! Since I have only limited experience WSing I plan on starting my tomato seeds both indoors and WSown next season as a further test. But at least I know that WSing tomatoes certainly can be done!

I have never tried WSing eggplant or pepper. I would ask that Q on the WS forum I posted above. That may be pushing the envelope as they both require more heat to get started.

I will contact you by your Yahoo Email. I'll send you some Gary'Os. No need for a trade unless you have any of these:

Mr Hege German, OSU Blue Fruit or Orange Minsk. These are on my 2010 Wish List.

OT I spent way more time on the Belt Parkway going to JFK than I care to remember! Boy I don't miss that traffic at all down here...:)

Since I'm on a break from my gardening. Here's my little list:

Amish Paste-Good, I liked it. On my 2010 list. Late blight got it.
Box Car Willie- Good. Might plant 2010. Late blight again.
Kellogg' s Breakfast- I know it's popular,but I did not like it.
KBX-Another popular one-Better than KB. It was OK.
Green Zebra-Firm tomato. Not on my 2010 list.
Aunt Ruby's German-Some really good, others OK. On my 2010 list.
Virginia Sweets-Grown in container. Didn't like it. Pretty though.
Nyagous--It was Ok. Nothing special.
Cherokee Purple-Tomatoes keep getting funky brown rotting spots.
Giant Belgium-Free seeds. Waste of space.
Black Cherry- Very good. Will grow again next year.
Green Grape-I was Ok. Will not grow next year.
Sungold-Very good. On my 2010 list.
Matt's Wild Cherry-Good. Not on my list, because it will pop up somewhere.
Brown Berry-Grown in container. Not enough flavor. Not on my 2010 list.

My 2009 tomato report:

Aker's West Virginia: got started later than others because I broke the entire top off by accident. Recovered nicely and just started producing recently. Excellent, bold tomato flavor.

Ananas Noir: Love this tomato! Beautiful, multi-colored with outstanding sweet flavor. Hands down favorite of family and friends. One the earliest to start producing and high yielding.

Banjan Roomii: Smallish, sweet red. Nice salad tomato but not super prolific.

Berkeley Tie Dye: Deceased. Something ate the plant shortly after I put it in the ground (my tortoise?).

Black Cherry: Loved the flavor of this one! Not a big producer, though.

Black from Tula: I've never met a black tomato that I didn't like, and this is no exception. Tasty and easy to grow.

Blue Ridge Mountain: An excellent sweet pink. Got some disease (early blight?), but seems to be recovering.

Cherokee Green: I really like this one! Abundant, sweet tomatoes, but mine were a little on the small side.

Cosmonaut Volkov: A basic red with moderate yields.

Crnkovic Yugoslavian: A nice, flavorful pink that produced a decent crop.

Galinas: I found this one to be disappointing. The flavor was just okay and the plant wasn't very productive.

Goji Faranji: Smallish, acidic red. Nice salad tomato. Prolific.

Huang Se Chieh: This plant is a machine! It was one the first to start producing and has been going strong all season. Nice, sweet, salad sized tomatoes.

JD's Special C-Tex: One of my favorites this season! Big, sweet, and prolific. No downside to this one.

Joe Thieneman's Australian Heart: Plant got some disease (early blight?), and was low yielding. The few tomatoes that I got were really good though: bold flavor with creamy texture.

KBX: Deceased. Got some wilt and died early on. It was very disappointing but I'll try it again next year.

Lithuanian: Some of my largest tomatoes this year. Huge, sweet, and fairly productive.

Matt's Wild Cherry: Wild is right! This plant will take over the yard if you let it. Nice, sweet flavor, but I found the tiny size to be kind of a pain when harvesting.

Neves Azorean Red: Got some disease (early blight?) and only got a few tomatoes, but they were fantastic! Very bold tomatoey flavor. Plant is recovering and still producing, though.

Red Ponderosa: Basic large red. Fairly productive.

Rhoades Heirloom: My largest tomatoes this year: 1-2 lbs. Huge plant that started producing late in the season but is still going strong. Sweet flavor.

Russian 117: Tasty and very high yielding. Started producing fairly early.

Shuntukski Velikan: Huge plant with big crop of large tomatoes. Nice acidic flavor. Good for sauce or canning.

Soldacki: One of my favorite pinks. Sweet but complex flavor. Moderate production. Got some disease, though.

Speckled Roman: This one was a last minute addition, and I'm glad I put it in. Pretty striped tomatoes with a surprisingly good, bold tomato flavor.

Sunset's Red Horizon: I liked this one! Very tomatoey flavor with creamy texture. Got a late start so can't speak to its earliness.

Ukrainian Pear: This is a good, all-purpose tomato! It is works for salad, sauce, sandwich, etc. Mild flavor and productive.

First off,we don't have blighys here on the West Coast (CA)
The first part are the plants that I liked and will grow again
CHESAPEAKE-Indet. RL OF/Tart What a Great tasting tomato
COSTOLUTO GENOVESE-Ind. RL I always grow this one
ABRAHAM LINCOLN(REGULAR)-Ind. RL Great Taste
BURCHAM'S NEW GENERATION Ind. RL Pink, which I don't usually like but I did like this one.
BLOODY BUTCHER Ind. PL Small VERY Productive OK taste
GRANDMA FREIDA'S-Ind. RL Really Great taste.
ROSE-Ind. RL Spectaular Taste! I always grow this one
MORTGAGE LIFTER RED;Ind. RL Incredible Taste. Now I can throw out all my other MLstrains and just grow this one.
GIANT ITALIAN RED WHOPPER- Ind. RL 1lb. fruits heavily ribbed, Decent taste.
SPEARS TENN. GREEN-Ind. RL Only green one I currently grow.
HEINZ 1439. Det RL grew taller than Det but has a Great acid/tart Taste
SHAH MIKADO-Ind.PL White/Yellow overly sweet I grow this for seeds to send out to others. I talked about it last year here and got several dozen requests for it in my email
SIOUX_ Det. RL ACID/Need I say more. I always grow this one.
EARL'S FAUX-Ind.PL Great Taste acid will grow again, and again.
CHIANTI ROSE-Ind. PL Decent taste Probably won't grow again
GRANNY CANTRELL'S-Ind.RL This was a great tasting tomato. I usually don't like "Hillbilly Types" as they are almost always really sweet. This variety had a much better taste.
LESCANA BEEF- Ind. RL Great Taste These were better tasting when not completely ripe.
LEVINO-Ind. RL Great Taste sweet?Tart Acid taste I'll Grow this one again.
The Paste Varieties that I also grew were
Grandma Mary's Paste OK
SHOWELL'S RED PASTE I'll Grow again
NAPOLI-Roma type Some plants had over 100 tomatoes per plant . I only saved seeds from these.
POLISH PASTE-Ribbed Pear shape
I no longer grow Bi-colours as I am not willing to waste the space.

I still have over 200 var.s that I have yet to grow and I buy more every year.

I bought Grandma Freida's to try next year. That's good it has
one good review. First time I heard it mentioned.

My list:

Cherokee Purple--everyone's favorite. Good production. Plants are still producing.
Champion--good production. 2nd round of fruit set ongoing. Bla flavor.

Crnkovic Yugoslavian--great tasting tomato and fairly productive. Setting lots of small fruit still. However, flavor has declined.

Huang Se Chieh--very productive. Pretty yellow tomatoes. Good taste, slightly tart.

Black Krim--good taste, but not equal to CP. Disease problems. Second round of fruit forming. Only grown in SWCs. Will return in-ground next year.

Persimmon--Biggest tomato (1lb 14oz) of year. Good flavor. Very pretty.

Neves Azorean Red--great production. excellent size and shape. very bland flavor. Only grew in SWC. Will try in-ground next year.

Stupice--fantastic production early on. Some disease now, but still producing. Good flavor. Small size.

Anna Russian--bland flavor but only grown in SWC. Disease knocked out after modest early crop.

Japanese Black Trifle--pretty tomatoes but lacking sweetness. Gray mold has almost wiped plants out.

Sungold--excellent in all ways. Still going strong.

"Knin" (oblate ribbed beefsteak from Krjina region of the former Yugoslavia)--some tasty earl on. Then disease hit. Too disease prone to bother with.

"Oxheart" (mystery ox heart from same region as Knin). Also disease prone, but less so. Nothing special on flavor.

Omar's Lebonese--nice production. Good size (almost beat Persimmon...off by an ounce). Bland flavor. Only grew in SWC.

"Brandywine, Amish variety" bought at nursery. Something mixed up at Nursery. Brandywine cross with both beefsteaks (smallish) and small hearts on same plant. Not bad flavor but not great. Huge plant and productive. Won't save seed.

"Coustralee" lots of small ribbed red tomatoes. Not what it's supposed to be and disease prone.

Disease this year:
Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus
Fusarium Wilt
Early Blight
Gray Mold
TSWV was the most problematic. Fusarium showed up in a few container plants first. Just now starting to appear on the in-ground plants. Blight and Mold not a real problem.

Can't wait to try again next year!

Wintersowed all of these this year (my second or third year for tomatoes so not much to compare to), all grown in buckets against a fence and tied when support was needed. I am hoping the cool summer is the explanation for what I consider a really small yield:

Sophie's Choice - Very early but very acidic and after the first few something happened and they seemed to succumb to something as they ripened. I didn't miss them much.

Amazon Chocolate - Best production in terms of number and size. Plant was robust, growing tangled in a coral honeysuckle. Taste varied from tomato to tomato - some were stronger than others. Some tasters like it, some didn't. I liked it for the most part.

Silvery Fir Tree - More like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree... poor little thing. Something must have liked the taste; the tomatoes were usually destroyed by the time I got to them.

Golden Jubilee - from seed I saved from last year's crop which was grown from a store-bought plant... this year not quite as tasty as I remember from last year. Will give it one more try next year.

Black cherry - from seed I saved from last year's crop grown from previous saved seed - just as good as last year's.

*** question *** Is there a full-size 'mater that is similar in taste to the black cherry? I love that flavor; would love to have it sliced on a sandwich! :D

What a fun thread! I have been keeping track of my tomato experiences on the computer. Lol, I didn't think anybody but myself did that! I am a chronic list/note-maker. ;-)

This was my first year with tomatoes. I have grown some of the commoner sort (Beefsteak, Early Girl, Roma) for many, many years. It just seemed like the think to do. Then last year I bought (by accident, lol!) a SunGold. I was bitten by the tomato bug! All of a sudden I wanted to try other interesting types. I spent the winter gazing at seed catalogs and dreaming of big, tasty, and unusual tomatoes- heirlooms especially.

Not having a big veggie garden, I decided to grow them in 7gal. pots. I learned that this wasn't the best idea. At first, in the spring, they did great and couldn't have been healthier. Then the BER struck. I got loads of good advice on this forum. I kept them watered (I was out there three times daily in the heat of summer! What I won't do for a plant...), mulched the pots, and kept some of the sun off of the pots by covering them with white trash-bags. None of that worked. So I tricked my freind into helping me move these potted monsters to various parts of my perennial gardens where the pots would be in shade, but the tops in sun. It has worked! It cleared up the BER!

I am now getting a good crop off of my tomatoes! I am so happy! The thing I like about tomatoes is that they are annuals. If you don't like it you are not stuck with it forever, and if you have problems there is always next year!

Here are the tomatoes I grew this year:

Cherokee Purple: Now I know what all the fuss is about. WOW! That is the best tomato I have ever tasted! And, unlike the others, the flavor seemed more reliable, even under stress, drought, overwatering, change of location, etc. Less BER than others too. And great production to boot. Will grow again!

Chocolate Cherry: Huge Plant. It even fell over during a windstorm. The foliage seemes to brown easily, but I think I have read that this is normal for this particular cultivar. VERY slow to produce fruit. Even the heirlooms cranked out some before this one. The fruit is pretty good- much better than some of the common red cherries- but not really memorable. Don't think I will grow this again. Is Chocolate Cherry the same thing as 'Black Cherry', or are they two different cultivars entirely?

Green Zebra: Very pretty tomato. All of my freinds disliked the taste, but I liked it. I did not find it 'zesty' so much as tangy. Fun to try, a novelty. But after the first dozen or so they start to become tiresome. Not the sort of flavor you lust for more of, like CP. Some of them taste a bit bitter, while others don't. I suppose the extent of ripeness has something to do with that. Don't think I will grow this again.

Kellogg's Breakfast: I think that, out of all the toms I grew this year, I was most looking forward to trying this one. I was very let down. There was little taste; very bland! I guess the stess of potted life/too much or not enough water could have something to do with this. I have been thinking of giving it a second chance next year, but there are so many others I would like to try! I am sure there are other gold/yellow tomatoes that will do better for me.

Pink Brandywine: Good procuction and large fruit. I don't really care for the flavor though. There is something almost tartly astringent about it. None of my freinds liked it either. Are all of the Brandywines like that? Or is this taste common to pink toms?

SunGold: Always a winner here! Does well in the terra cotta pot I have it in. Never falters, even during the heat of summer. It even got 12ft. tall, at least before the big windstorm last month. Love the sweet taste!

I also have a seedling tomato (from a mix packet) that could be one of six things. LOL! Still don't know what it is, as it has yet to ripen.

Fun thread. ;-)
CMK

Hey CMK; not trying to derail this fun thread,but Chocolate cherry ans Black cherry are diferent cultivars. If you didn't like Choc. Cherry you probably won't like Black Cherry either. Black Tomatoes tend to be overly sweet and Murky tasting.
Green Zebra and Brandywine (pink) are the two "most overrated tomatoes. If you don't like P Brandywine, neither do I, then you should try Red Brandywine RL much better taste and a better producer.
Kind of makes you wonder why so many people are singing praises for Kellogs Breakfast-Just so you know in the future All White, Yellow and Orange Tomatoes taste just like this one. This also includes Bi-Colors as well.

My list...

F1 SunGold.... produced very well
F1 Purple Haze.... produced very well, and ultra prolific
Matts Wild......started slow, but doing well
Brandywine Sudduth.... wiped out by blight
Neves Azorean.... wiped out by blight
Indian Stripe..... produced a few early in July, then stopped completely
Carbon....almost died due to blight, finally set fruit two weeks ago
Black from Tula.... just set fruit a few weeks ago
Mariannas Peace.....one of the first opens to produce, but then stopped
Black Krim....the first open to produce, but all fruit rotted
Heidi... two fruits so far
Opalka....... only just set fruit recently
White Tomesol.... wiped out early by blight
Aunt Ruby Green....still hasn't set fruit
Japanese Trifele....only just set fruit recently
Crynkovic Yugo..... still hasn't set fruit
Camp Joy.... produced well and early
Red Zebra.... produced a few small fruits but recently has alot of fruit set

Note...I'm in Long Island and it was ultra wet so blight was a big problem.

Black from Tula - Favorite slicer, not alot of production, but it has really picked up since I removed some mammoth grey stripes that were blocking it from full sun.
I'll grow at least 2 next year, also spudatula if I get the seeds.

Willard Wynn - 3 plants, not overly impressed. Some red hearts, small to medium, and some bicolor red skin, yellow meat that were much bigger.

Vinson Watts - Very big, not as prolific as I had first expected, big fruits.

Marianna's Peace - some what diseased, but very prolific, still going strong. Big fruits, big plant.

Early Ssusabakus Aliana - small, a little larger than grape. I prefer them over cherries sliced in a salad. The plants took off as seedlings they outgrew every other plant. Now less than 3 ft tall. Prolific, and was only a few days behind sungold.

Sungold - Very prolific, very big, earliest to fruit and ripen. I got a little sick of the taste after a while, also got tired of constantly picking them. I preferred them while still yellow more than fully ripe and orange, hard to get them at that stage, and they ripen quickly on the counter. Had alot of yellow leaves, probably from the excessive rain. After several prunings to get rid of yellow leaevs, cut it out to allow more sun to the peppers that were behind and under it.

Rutgers - very prolific, still setting fruit, but most of it came in July and August. I'll be growing several plants next year, maybe setting one out a month later.

Old German - Still hasn't set any fruit. Very big, lots of blooms on it again since the temperature has cooled off.

Green Zebra - might have been a mixed up seedling, had one fruit that I picked when it blushed yellow, with in a day or two on the counter it had started to turn red, w/ green shoulders. It was very tasty, still lots of green fruit on the vine w/ no stripes, not sure when to pick them.

Morado - Not overly impressive

Roman Candle - yellow paste, long, nothing to write home about.

Roller coaster - mixed red cherry/currant. I got a red cherry, tastes like any other red cherry. I won't be saving seeds.

This was only my 2nd season growing tomaotes on the farm. Next year the varieties will be much better.

Brandywine, Pink - with all the hype I was expecting alot more flavor. Next year I will be trying the Sudduth strain.
SS100 - got to 18ft! good for the kids
Gardeners delite - produced good til June, then caught the TSWV
Jelly Bean - yuck! no flavor at all, frail plant
Rutgers - good flavor, no disease
Big Boy - OK flavor, caught the leaf-curl virus
Better Boy - Tons of fruit, OK flavor
Super Beef - caught something, plant looked good, but fruits would just die shortly after being set.

Just purchased these for next year:
Cherokee Purple
Brandywine, Sudduths
Isis Candy
Black from Tula
Brown Berry

and what ever I get in the seed exchange.

This spring was cold in SFO and the plants got off to a slow start - Cherokee purple came in at 94 days from transplant. All my plants grew in the same soil, the only difference between good spots and bad spots being the amount of sun - bad spots getting half sun and the others getting full sun. My garden had very few pollinators this year, which may explain some poor fruit-set.

Beefsteak - Tied with Gardeners Delight for first tomato, mediocre yields though (not grown in the best spot).

Cosmonaut Volkov - Big vigorous plants, but I've only gotten a handful of tomatoes from them. May try again in a better spot (I have lots of seed).

Gardeners Delight Cherry - Lots of large cherries, grown in container. Good taste. Will grow again.

Italian Tree (trip-l-crop)- Grown in a poor spot, very late and low fruit set. Haven't tried on yet on account of slug attacks. Will try again in a better spot.

San Marzano - large plants but poor yield, grown in a good spot. Not coming back next year unless it pulls off a fall miracle.

Black Cherry - low yields for a cherry, decent taste, looks nice. Some plants had red tomatoes. Might grow again.

Black Prince - large plants, large yield, only plant to have a disease problem (late blight) but still one of the best performers this year. Good taste, but thick skin. Grown in a good spot. Will grow again.

Todina Maremmano - produced many early clusters of golf-ball sized tomatoes. Small plants with 3' vines, good producer, good taste. Will grow again. Grown in a poor spot.

Stupice - poor production, small thick skinned fruit, not particularly early. May give one more try since it wasn't in an ideal spot.

Cherokee Purple - late but huge production, large plants, great flavor. Favorite of 2009. Grown in a good spot.

Pruden's Purple - grown in the same conditions as cherokee purple, bigger plants, much, much, much less production. 2 fruit from 2 plants. Very disappointed in this one. Grown in a good spot. Will not try again barring a massive late fruitset.

Roma - huge yields that blew the comparable fruited san marzano out of the water. It'll be back next year.

Cosmonaut was from fedco. Beefsteak, roma, gardener's delight from big box stores and the rest of the seed was from wintersown.

-zebraman, thanks!
I can't say I found the Chocolate Cherry to be overly sweet, but I really like your description of 'murky'.

I will have to give the Red Brandywine a try next year. The pink ones arn't terrible (wonderful production), but they arn't exactly mouth-watering good either.
And wouldn't you know it, Kellogg's Breakfast is turning out to be the most productive of them all. Lol! Now I have to figure out what to do with a basket of tasteless tomatoes. Pawn them off on the unsuspecting neighbors?? ;-)

"Just so you know in the future All White, Yellow and Orange Tomatoes taste just like this one. This also includes Bi-Colors as well."
Sounds like you might be a fan of the Red Tomato, Lol! Do you mean to say that all white, yellow, orange, and bi's are tasteless? Or are you saying that they all have a taste that is typical of a yellow?
CMK

CMK, we all have different taste buds. I just go with what I like. Not what other people like. I LOVE KBX, you say yours are bland. Solution...Send your KBX to me! :)

In my garden Red Brandywine (Landis Valley)(TGS) finishes a distant second to Sudduth Brandy (Johnny's) in taste. Plus they are too tiny for a bigdaddy size BLT!

Hey CMK; White,Yellow,Orange and Bi-Colors all tend to be bland, insipid and overly sweet.If you want a truely fantastic tasting Pink/Red tomato you should try "Rose".

2009 Tomato Report

It was another great year here as we are really spoiled weather wise here in CA. Very little rain early spring and then dry for the rest of spring throught out the whole summer. And I agree with BD, cherrish every year for what they are.

Things I learned this year from my point of veiw:
1- A tomato plants appearance and overall visual health does not dictate taste. I had some half dead looking plants that produced some fabulous tasting maters.
2- Less water is better for flavor but not for size and plants over health. I'll take the flavor.
3-For my money, I'll take in ground grown maters over containered grown any day of the week.
4-The only thing I need to supplement my soil with for the next few years is nitrogen.

Reviews for the year in no order-

Kosovo- i love this tomato, not the most productive but it was my favorite tasting tomato of the year.

Anna Russian- i love it got have it, been growing it for three years now and it never lets me down in taste

Ukrainian Heart- truly a great tasting variety with a pronounced sweetness but man this variety has given me problems with ber every year and it doesn't grow out of it until the very end of the season. Real bummer cause i really like UH taste wise but i think its getting cut from next years list.

Anna Maria- to me its very similiar to Anna Russian, another fabulous tomato.

Red Brandywine- Not sure I got true seed here as the fruit were not completely globe shape and the taste was kind of funky.

Green Doctors- Soooooo damn good. I like it better than Sun Sugar and Black Cherry. Green Doctors is my new favorite cherry. GD took sometime to really get going but when it did it grew over 8 feet tall.

Orange Strawberry- was just as good for me as AGG. I'm torn between OS and AGG. Think I'll give AGG a go next year and maybe do every other year between the two.

Paul Robeson- solid tomato thats got good taste for a black and was darn productive. And tolerated some sort of desease and still produced. I think I'll give this one a go for next year.

Tsar Kolokol- very good tasting tomato and kind of a compact plant.

German Red Strawberry- one of my favs this year and will be returning next year.

Hungarian Heart- huge plant, huge maters and very productive. Taste was average.

There are few more i grew but these are the ones that stood out in my mind as I typed my review.

Damon

So far I agree with Zebraman. I haven't found a gold,yellow,bi-color that
I like ,except Sungold. I'm still going to try some more next year. Persimmon,
Pineapple, Annas Noir,Blondkopfhchen,Dr.Wenche's yellow,Aunt Gerties gold.
I like to experiment.

sportsguy, yeah I learned a long time ago that in the ground (Especially a raised compost fortified one)produces way better plants than containers. I'll throw peppers in that statement as well!

Thanx for all the reads guys...:)

My small report compared to others:

Cherries:

Sunsugar - Wow! Great tasting, extremely productive - still going.

Sweet Million - Tons of tomatoes - another keeper

Black Cherry - Larger than most cherries, and tastes more "tomatoey" and less sweet than most cherries - love it for the variety and a different tasting cherry.

Regular Tomatoes (all heirlooms this year):

Marianna's Peace - got blight early on, but recovered, and ended up being my late season work horse - still producing a few tomatoes a day (frost any day now I'm sure).

Neves Azorean Red - Was great mid season - got blight bad at the end and faded - but had a couple 1-2 lb tomatoes to show off - very nice.

Giant Belgium - Expected this to be my last beefsteak to ripen - and it was my first! Was great tasting, and VERY prolific - a keeper.

Cherokee Purple - was decent producer, and tomatoes were pretty good. Cracked more than I would normally like - will give it another go based on the reviews, but I expected better.

Stupice - Awesome early producer - very small tomatoes - but great for salsa and sauce - definitely another keeper. Early summer before beefsteaks came in I was getting 50 tomatoes a week - off two plants. Slowed way down at the end of summer to almost nothing - but that was fine as my beefsteaks came in then - was perfect!

Next year I want to add a yellow - but otherwise for such a cold and rainy beginning to the summer - I was, and still am, thrilled with the results.

2009 Tomato Season Report

The season started off with late frosts and leafhoppers delaying the tomato plant out. May was rainy and cold and by the time the plants were in the ground it was the second week of June. The Sweet 100 plant is the only exception as it was planted around May 15th. June was very wet with a record 8" of rain and no days above 80*. July was still wet and cool with only a handful of days over 85*. August was a little drier but still fairly cool. September was much drier and warmer which got a lot of the tomatoes to flower but it was to late for fruiting. October started off dry and cool but then turned wetter with temps dipping down to 31*. Most of the tomatoes got hit with disease and frost damage after the cold spell. The last part of the month was warmer with temps in the 50's and 60's but several inches of rain brought a bad tomato season to an end well almost anyway. The sweet 100 plant still has a couple more tomatoes ripening on the vine. I had no late blight in my garden a little bit of early blight and at the end of the season septoria leaf spot started showing up.

Brandy boy: - potato leaf, medium about 5-ft, average disease tolerance. No ripe fruit but it did eventually flower and produce a couple of tiny green fruit. They both Had severe cracking issues. Crack size: all the way in to the middle of the tomato. The cracking was partly do to uneven moisture but this variety was still very crack prone.

Brandywine Sudduth's strain: - potato leaf, medium/tall 5-6-ft, had a several disease problems especially later in the season. No flowers or fruit. Overall very disappointing.

Cuostralee: - Regular leaf medium/tall 5-6-ft, Not great disease tolerance but it was able to grow out of the disease. No ripe fruit but it did flower.

Japanese Black Trifele: - potato leaf, short 3-4-ft, top of the plant broke in a windstorm. good disease tolerance but not great. first ripe fruit october 30th after ripening indoors for two weeks, 1 ripe fruit. Taste:
Gel is sweet with a slight tang to it. The meat is very mild and a little bit bland but it has a faint smoky flavor to it. No problems with cracking.
I saved seeds.

Marianna's peace: - Potato leaf medium/tall 5-6-ft, good disease tolerance until the end of the season when both plants yellowed. No ripe fruit. both plants flowered .

Neves Azorean Red: - regular leaf, medium height 4-5-ft. It did get shaded by the brandywine plant next to it. Average disease tolerance but it would probably do better with more sun. No ripe fruit. the plant didn't even flower probably partly do to the weather and partly do to the shade.

Sweet 100: - regular leaf, tall 7-8-ft , average disease tolerance first ripe fruit mid August, ~ 45 ripe fruit. Taste:
Sweet with good "tomato" flavor. size small about an inch in diameter. Looks. perfect round bright red tomatoes in clusters of 5-10. Only cracks when ripe fruit are left on the vine during rain. Crack size : Just the skin cracks open not the whole tomato.

daylilyfanatic I hope you have a better year next year! I got my plants in the last week of April. Your having to wait until mid June I think played a part, along with the rainy and cool season of course, in your getting such bad results. Perhaps try a few larger sized (older) transplants next year?

FTR: There are some wonderful gold, yellow, orange tomatoes with assertive taste. Try Aunt Gertie's Gold, Persimmon, Limmony, Lillian's Yellow, Yellow Brandywine, Golden Dwarf Champion, or Dr Wyche's.