how many varieties/plants I grew this year: 17/18, including 5 cherries and 4 paste

favorites this year and why: Momotaro, sweet complex flavor; Opalka, great for tomato juice and good production; Black Plum, good flavor (though it was supposed to be a Black Cherry); Black Krim, luscious and relatively early; Sungold, because it's still healthy and green and producing

least liked varieties this year and why: Forest Fire, got it because it was 45 days (very early), but flavor was ok, not great; Green Grape, tomatoes were tiny; Black Pearl, too tart for me

what I did that worked: used walls-o-water to plant 2 plants in mid-February and had fruit in mid-June; piled a foot of horse manure and wood shavings on one raised bed in November and planted in March with 5 gallons of compost per plant

surprises this year: Heidi was twice as wide and dense as any other plant, but it started producing weeks later than any other plant (and never stopped!); one Momotaro produced fruit twice the size (but a third as many) as the other, and I haven't figured out why; Pink Cherry had fruits that varied in size from a quarter-inch to an inch and a half at the same time

what I'll try next year: fewer paste tomatoes (but one Opalka); fewer cherry tomatoes; some oxhearts, which I haven't tried yet; stay away from early varieties, and instead plant early with protection

Here's mine, but I have just a small garden:

how many varieties/plants I grew this year:
About a dozen plants not counting some experimental.

favorites this year and why:
The beefsteak and the romas-taste
The yellow pear-taste and lots and lots of fruit off one plant. nice add to salads, dishes, what ever.
The large red cherry-some became ping pong ball size. Great tomato taste and were ripe the earliest I have had.

least liked varieties this year and why:
From a salad mix packet from Amer Seed: small orange tomato-blah taste. Then a purple variety. Never found a use for it.

what I did that worked:
Started early, put in ground while still danger of frost, covered, and got some early jump on season here in Mn.

surprises this year:
Same packet from above, yellow pear, delicious off the vine, nice clumps, all ripe together.

what I'll try next year:
Less tomato, more vine things. Family just isn't tomato lovers unless it is salsa or a nice juicy beefsteak on a burger. (Let them beg from the neighbors next year)

how many varieties/plants I grew this year: 13 - 1 OP, 6 hybrids, 6 heirlooms including one that is a family heirloom

favorites this year and why: Big Beef (always good, early, and productive), Thessaloniki (lovely flavor and it did well), SunSugar (sweetest in the garden and very productive)

least liked varieties this year and why: Ultimate Opener (thank you for giving me a chance to rat on this one without appearing petty . . . I could have bought supermarket tomatoes with this much flavor!)

what I did that worked: Grew 5 large, 2 plum, and 6 cherries for some "depth to the bench" - which is what I try for every year.

surprises this year: Thessaloniki is a really fine tomato!

what I'll try next year: Mountain Fresh, Bloody Butcher, and Thessaloniki seed from a company that claims it is 60 - 70 dtm (??). And, more that I haven't even thought of yet!

Steve's digits

Grew: 12 plants/9varieties....some weren't what I was told they were. Another gardener and I also took over care of a neglected school plot with approximately 100 plants of various varieties with very poor labeling....more mystery varieties but they got me interested in heirloom and brought me to GardenWeb.

Favorites: Sungold, first year I hear about this. Great color, early, lots of fruit. The smell of the foliage is sooo different from other tomatoes. Early Girl was quick to fruit and produced heavily all season...maybe not the greatest taste, but it performed well. I haven't been involved much in gardening recently. It's good to be back.

Least liked: Early Pick, wasn't early and didn't produce well. I'd heard good things about it and was excited to buy a seedling at a fundraiser. I'm glad they also had the Sungold that I ended up loving.

What worked: The school garden looks like it may be revived next year since people saw a success there this year. The tomatoes there grew well, produced for a few weeks, and then got caught in a week of solid rain. After five days they all looked fine. By day seven, most were dead....I think it was late blight...which reminds me, I gotta post some pics and see if some of the GW experts agree with our diagnosis. Many tomatoes were donated to a local food pantry per the school's earlier plan before the fungus took hold.

Surprises: Two Mortgage Lifter plants given to me by an experienced gardener grew into very different plants. One is probably a ML. The other tasted great, but it was stripey yellow. That was unexpected. I was also surprised at how poorly I kept track of the few varieties I planted. My labeling system had serious flaws. Oh, the 100 dead plants in two days time in the school garden was also a huge surprise...and smelly and ALOT of work to remove in a timely manner.

I was also amazed to realize that for years I never knew I could easily take cuttings and start new plants from my tomatoes. How did I miss that for so long?

A fun experiment with a Wendy's Restaurant grape tomato was also a surprise. I planted 3 seeds from my salad tomato into a patio planter and had great plants in no time at all. They gave lots of fruit all summer...kinda bland...but cute.

Next year: I'll try several heirlooms from reputable sources AND LABEL THEM WELL! The school will get imput from us regarding varieties and numbers of plants to use. We will work to get more people involved with summer care. Non-red varieties will go in my home garden. The school garden will have only a few of the non-reds since the food pantry found the "weird" colored tomatoes were viewed as defective by their clients and were not taken. I'll work to have very early tomatoes as well as late season varieties.

how many varieties/plants I grew this year:
I grew 15 different varieties/ 58 plants to start with and then six more from rooted cuttings.

favorites this year and why:
SunSugar, taste, production still going strong
Goliath, vigor, size, coworker loves them
First Lady II, vigor, production
Champion and Celebrity, my mainstays

least liked varieties this year and why:
Opalka, got wilt (TSW??) early unfortunately because this year I finally had true seed!!
Pik Red, did fair last year, but not this year

what I did that worked:
Straw mulch and 2-liter irrigation bottles

surprises this year:
Goliath and First Lady II

what I'll try next year:
The Opalka in a new spot, Big Zac, either Russian #117 or Anna Russian Oxhearts

Added this: Gone for good:
Pik Red, Mountain Pride, most (if not all) hydrid determinants. I am still getting production out of almost all of my indy's and nothing from the determs. I can't find anything compelling for me to want to reserve space for them.

how many varieties/plants I grew this year:

45 plants of 39 varieties.

favorites this year and why:

Earl's Faux, Stump of the World, Neves Azorean Red, Aunt Gertie's Gold, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Dr. Lyle, Cherokee Purple, Lucky Cross, Big Rainbow All strictly cuz of taste and appearance.

least liked varieties this year and why:

Sunny Goliath and Early Goliath because they didn't produce for me as advertised. Big Bite because it's just sort of an average hybrid, altho very nice looking.

what I did that worked:

Started very early then potted into 8" pots and placed in the greenhouse. Gave me ripes about 1 month earlier than usual.

surprises this year:

My yield was enormous. Best year ever.

what I'll try next year:

Just a whole bunch of new (to me) varieties.

how many varieties/plants I grew this year:

10 varieties, 21 plants, 5 hybrid and 5 OP

Favorites this year and why:

Cherokee Purple, best tasting tomato I have had to date
Jet Star, productive and good taste

Least liked varieties and why:

Sungold, plant was prolific but the fruit just didnt taste good.
Brandywine, poor production and bland flavor

What I did that worked:

Got plants out early, mulch, soaker hoses and daconil regimen.

Surprises this year:

Yield, I am fairly new to this and had a great year production wise overall. Cherokee Purple, third time growing it and had bad results first two times.

What I will try next year:

a few new to me varieties

This is my first time gardening. I started with a couple of limp looking toms in mid July and stuck them in any planters that I had.

how many varieties/plants I grew this year:super fantastic hybrid (it was supposed to be a sweet 100), mr. stripey, sungold, sweet 100, yellow pear. All from the grocery store except Mr. Stripey (wallyworld)

favorites this year and why: Anything that actually grew. It has been exciting to know that I can alternatly neglect the heck out of things and water and feed them to death and they STILL grow! Gives me confidence for next year.

least liked varieties this year and why: Sungold wasn't that sweet but it probably didn't have much time to grow. Shot off like a rocket, though. Mr. Stripey took forever to get fruit. Yellow pear wasn't impressive. And the super fantastic still has 2 green rocks growing on it. Only the sweet 100 is still ripening fruit.

what I did that worked: I planted some of them in pots that were too small, and stuck american marigold plants in them belatedly, for good measure. (They're all the same, aren't they?)
I also ignored various leaf-chomping things, oddly colored leave, warping of stems, etc. (They are supposed to look like that aren't they?)

surprises this year: The volunteer romas that sprang from the tomatos my father tossed in a tiny planter. They are fabulous! Still producing lots of greens and a few reds.
Squirrel wars. Cats like to sit in the pots.

what I'll try next year: Everything! (Since I've been reading this forum and books, I decided to try ALL of the advice I've been given.)
I have a wish list of 30+ varieties for about 8 spots.
5 gallon buckets. FRENCH marigolds. More sensible watering. (Water on the leaves is good, right? They like that!) Composting. Composting/worm thinging. Companion planting (chaos at the outset, why not?)

Disclaimer: The above post is not intended for the serious gardener who knows what they are doing--only for the newbie who started late and doesn't know what a garden actually looks like, lol.

Shilohyn

how many varieties/plants I grew this year: 26 plants, 18 varieties

favorites this year and why: Kellogs Breakfast was my hands down favorite this year. Big (one was 1-3/4 lb) beautiful and tasty fruit. Lemon Boy and Sungold were both excellent. Cherokee Purple got raves from people I gave some to.

least liked varieties this year and why: San Marzano- mealy tasteless fruit. Made all my sauce with Brandywines and Lemon Boys.

what I did that worked: I topped the whole garden with 9" of composted horse manure (including straw and wood shavings) and tilled it in two months before planting. I used a 2 branch drip system- one for tomatoes and one for everything else. The tomatoes got watered once or twice a week, everything else was every other day. I had to use rebar stakes to keep the cages upright.

surprises this year: Little Brandywine (seed from Walmart) was a good hybrid. Good production of 8 to 12 oz fruit, good flavor. Had Cherokee Purple plants from two different sources One was upright in habit and had convoluted fruit, the other sprawled like crazy and had smooth fruit. Color and taste was similar.

what I'll try next year: One of the nice members here sent me some seeds of "Mr Bruno" the Aussie family tomato- I'm looking forward to trying that. Next year no paste tomatoes- I'll can yellow sauce from Kellogs Breakfast and red sauce from everything else.

Among the others mentioned I grew Better Bush which is similar to Big Boy but has more tomato flavor. If you like that flavor tomato in a slicer it is a great tomato. I grew Mortgage lifters again this year but this was probably the original mortgage lifter. I prefer the Red Mortgage lifter and don't know where I found the seed for it but I will figure that out.

I prefer the Red Mortgage lifter and don't know where I found the seed for it but I will figure that out.

****

Seed is sold, or used to be I didn't check, by Southern Exposure Seed Co; online as well as catalog.

Carolyn

In my 12 years of gardending, every year seems different.

15 plants this year, 12 varieties.
My usual dependables, Cherokee Purple and Celebrity, were very weak in production this year, CP especially poor.

Soil, amendments, and water were all the same. Differences seemed to stem from location, whether they were on the end of a row or in the middle.
Earl's Faux and Kelloggs Breakfast were the surprises, I'll grow them again for sure.

More of a Harvest forum tip, but the thing I did this year that worked was in what I did with them after harvest.
Trying to make a nice smooth, seedless, skinless, sauce from all the tomatoes took a great deal of energy (heat) for what I got out of it. The thing I did that worked was that I just coarsely chopped them in a processor, strained some of the water thru a fine mesh strainer, and froze the juice in 2-cup containers.
Juice was used in lieu of water in recipes like navy been soup, etc., and chopped tomatoes added to supplement sauces. Big difference in flavor and didn't waste the power.

Shilohyn, I'm very pleased to read your experiences as I'm pretty much trying your method this year!
I think I was under the impression that growing tomatoes was really, really hard- partly because there are so many websites & forums dedicated expressly to it, it all sounds so complicated. Every time I read a new webpage I become convinced that I've done everything wrong, and that I'm doomed to no tomatoes. Then the great big shrubs currently taking over my whole front yard spurt out a new branch of little green tomatoes and I figure that I'm either doing something right, or they're actually indestructible.
I think the truth is, tomatoes will grow themselves, but good tomatoes with good yield take some effort, and EXCELLENT tomatoes with EXCELLENT yield take some combination of magical powers & a degree in plant science. Does that sound about right?
I'm just hanging on & hoping that some of my chaotically planted (what went where again?), badly staked (they don't get taller than 3 feet do they?), haphazardly cared for nursery tomatoes will make it to to my dinner plate at some point. Then maybe next year I'll try doing it the proper way.

Slashy - Sometimes doing 'everything wrong' IS right. I've got gardening friends that think they're doing everything 'right' and they don't get half the tomatoes I do. Trying new techniques and varieties... The fun of gardening (I think) is the trial and error. How do you know your doing something right if you haven't done it wrong? Is it a fluke your getting big plants and lots of tomatoes or are you doing things 'right'? Growing tomatoes is not complicated (they are somewhat indestructable - shhhh don't tell anyone) - compared to growing other things... but there's so many forums and web sites on tomato growing - because it's fun and rewarding... and fun to talk about experiences with others who tomato grow. I think that thinking we're doing things right or wrong is a mistake (My friend says, "if you don't do it 'right' don't do it at all" thankfully I don't listen to him!) - what works for me, might not work for you and visa versa. I think it's important to recognize you are enjoying your tomato growing experience - and sharing it with us...

Just my two cents.

Tom-

Slashy, I don't remember how many times I've read on here that tomatoes are basically weeds. I'm still trying to digest that idea but it's probably true.

Some varieties seem to have a mind of their own tho' if they are just weeds. They don't like some locations or practices. But, the number of varieties is staggering! I once went thru and counted and the number I thought should work for my location, from 1 source, was 90! Let's see, each year growing 6 new varieties, I've got 15 years planned out for the garden (as long as nothing else shows up on the horizon ;o)!

Daddylonglegs, your idea finally got me up to do something in the kitchen with half of these tomatoes sitting around. I didn't use a fine wire strainer but the colander doesn't allow much thru except liquid. Ended up with about half fresh pulp and half liquid and have frozen both. That is, except for the tomato pulp I used for a very acceptable sauce for dinner last night.

You may appreciate the fact that I cooked the sauce in the microwave - trying to do things with as little energy consumption as possible . . . Using a low power setting makes it easy. I'll try the slow cooker, too. And, I'm looking forward to using the liquid as a "vegetable broth" in soups and stews and such. Thanks!

Steve

I'm envious when I read the "Which toms did great for you this Year?" posts.
My Sungold didn't taste all that great, all the bugs just laughed and called friends, all the plants except the volunteer romas turned yellow-green-spotted, and curled, dried, warped, fell over, and still hung in there with a few fruits.

NEXT year will be different. NEXT year I will know EVERYTHING!!!

Hi Tom- I completely agree with you about the fun of trial & error in gardening. This is my first year growing anything and I've gone a bit nuts to be honest- I want to try everything right now! Straight away! At the same time I want to do everything 'right' so I do my research... and then realise the research doesn't mean much unless I actually try it all out & see what works for my garden, my climate, my interests & my skills.

I'm still at the point where I take commemorative photos of every zucchini I get off my plants & every little bunch of leafy greens I harvest. I aspire to having 'favourite' tomato varieties- I still don't know what a garden-grown tomato actually tastes like, but hopefully I will soon (if the birds or caterpillars don't get them first). Good thing I have a whole lifetime to practise & try new things, eh?

hey Shilohyn, when you know everything, will you let me know? I'm pretty sure I'll need it too.

How Many? 7 varieties
Favorite and why? Neves Azorean Red,which was given to me in a 4" pot by the Mr's friend who had forgot she had it for several weeks. With advice from this forum I was able to nurture it back to health and it provided me with my new favorite tomato. It's the first tomato I've ever grown that I will grow again. In fact it will dominate my small tomato patch next year and thereafter.The taste IMO far surpasses any tomato in my short,70 yrs,lifetime.

Least liked and why? Rose and Moskvich. The Tomatoes were few,and very bland. These 2 were planted next to each other in large pots and they were the only 2 that seemed to get a fungal disease. Possibility this resulted in poor taste and productivity.

What I did that worked and surprises? This year was the first year I planted in the ground. The Mrs allowed me to plant 2 Sunset Red Horizon near the side in her raised garden. I'm in the PNW and I'm still picking large ripe tomatoes. I had several this year that were 7-8 inches in diameter. The ones I picked on Oct 25 were one pounders. They were very tasty and actually,except for Sungold, was the first Tomato she liked as well. She even decided to sacrifice some of her 160 pepper plants so that I can grow more in the Garden. Of course she claimed absolute rights to all of my pots,42 each.

Next Year?
NAR: 3ea
SRH/Rostova: 2ea
Black from Tula: 1ea
Mortgage Lifter: 1ea
Brandywine Sudduth: 1ea
An Orange variety: Any recommendations for an Orange variety that might do well in the PNW?

Jwr, although I have never grown it, Kellogg's Breakfast seems to always come up when orange tomatoes is the topic.

jwr6404-
In response to your request for an orange variety, you might be interested in one that I grew for the first time this year. I planted about 40 heirloom varieties, and the best one this year was a Persimmon heirloom. Good size, prolific, split-free, gorgeous color, firm, and, best of all, outstanding taste.

kudzu
At the expense of appearing foolish I have to ask are these two tomatoes or several fused together? Is this the normal growth habit? I will try it and the KB recommended by duajones. Thanks

jwr-
Not a foolish question. Most of them grew heavily lobed, and those are single tomatoes.

jwr-
Not a foolish question. Most of them grew heavily lobed, and those are single tomatoes.

****

kudzu, I've also grown Persimmon and have never had multi-lobed fruits.

How many seasons have you grown it and still gotten those same multi-lobed fruits?

perhaps the cool Springs in the PNW are responsible for that phenomenon with that variety?

Carolyn, who has to spend some time thinking of her fave orange varieties.

how many varieties/plants I grew this year:
9 varieties/20 plants  8 OP, 1 hybrid

favorites this year and why:
Togo Trifle  very, very tasty, vigorous grower, earlier than most of my tomatoes and extremely prolific. Unfortunately, the first hit by blight (most likely verticillium), but not until 120 days after planting in ground
Opalka  great flavor, very meaty paste tomato, easy to seed and I thought, very pretty. I did have to be careful around the plant because the tomatoes fell off the vine easily.

least liked varieties this year and why:
Heidi, but only because I also planted Cherokee purple, Black from Tula, Amish Paste, Green Zebra, Brandywine red and Sungold and like those better. Heidi was the least tasty of the bunch, but still had good flavor. It also was extremely prolific, held on the vine forever, completely resisted the blight and is, in fact, still producing tomatoes as I type.

what I did that worked: Raised beds roto-tilled (they were just made) with natural clay soil, lots of composted sheep manure (organic), shrimp compost (organic) and lime. Interplanted with Jolly Jester Marigold (grew tall, worked well), Tiger Marigold (too small), Borage, Basil and Cosmos. The whole garden was organic and planted with tons of pollinator/predator insect attracting plants. Plants were trellised or caged and I did not pinch back the suckers. I planted everything WAY TOO CLOSE (I didnÂt believe how big tomatoes would get on the east coast  now I do), but it worked this year by shading the tomatoes and preventing cracking during the rain and sunscald. I donÂt think IÂll plant that closely again  might be a recipe for disaster in a wet year.
Problems: a)Planting all my seedlings indoors before I even had a garden! I overestimated how quickly I could build the raised beds and didnÂt have enough room by the time they needed to go into the ground. b)Blight (possibly verticillium) about 120+ days after the plants went into the soil. It damaged slowly, only hit some plants/part of the plant and happened after IÂd already had a huge harvest. c) Not securing the cages well enough. They blew over in the wind on top of my peppers. Luckily the roots didnÂt rip out and the peppers survived.

surprises this year: How much bigger the plants grew than in California, how many tomatoes I harvested (lots!) and how incredibly tasty everything was.

what I'll try next year: Expanding the garden to have a dedicated, securely trellised (away from all peppers) area for the tomatoes. Add more compost and possibly Rootshield for the blight. Also maybe plant some plants later if the blight is time-in-ground dependent. Varieties  all from this year plus JoeÂs plum, black brandywine, orange strawberry and definitely more plants of Opalka. Also, I will make more salsa with the Togo TrifleÂs. I didnÂt make enough.

carolyn-
I have only grown it this past year. I got it in trade from a friend who has her own nursery business, so I presumed it was labeled correctly. However, there could be more than one variety that's called Persimmon, which could explain the differences in physical appearance between yours and mine. At any rate, whatever it is, I'm growing lots more next year....

carolyn-
I have only grown it this past year. I got it in trade from a friend who has her own nursery business, so I presumed it was labeled correctly. However, there could be more than one variety that's called Persimmon, which could explain the differences in physical appearance between yours and mine. At any rate, whatever it is, I'm growing lots more next year....

*****

Kudzu, I'm not saying it isn't Persimmon, I'm wondering why the huge lobed fruits. Were all of the fruits like that?

There is another variety called Russian Persimmon but the fruits are small maybe 5-7 oz fruits and in no way would what you're growing be that one. ( smile)

Carolyn

carolyn-
Thanks for the info. I thought a little bit more about your weather conjecture, and maybe there's some truth to it. This was a weirder-than-normal weather year in the Pacific NW, and among the approximately 40 heirloom tomato varieties I grew for the first time this year, there were several (e.g., German Pink, Black from Tula) that were also heavily-lobed like the Persimmon, and in standard photos they look much rounder and smoother than what I grew.

How many varieties/plants I grew this year: Only 10 tomatoes but 35 Peppers.

Favorites this year and why: Black Cherry & Black Krim Color. The cherry produced an enormous amount all season. I loved the taste and inside core of both!

Least liked varieties this year and why:

What I did that worked: Added Lobster Compost and didn't get BER.

Surprises this year: Tomatoes in pots regrew and new buds appeared in October! I now have flowers! I am shocked and suprised here in CT.

Wwhat I'll try next year: Having more than 10 varieties. lol

I've heard such good things about Persimmons. I'm really, really tempted to grow them, but haven't even harvested my first ever tomatoes off my (nursery bought) cherry tomato bushes yet- would attempting heirlooms now be trying to run before I can walk?

how many varieties/plants I grew this year: 50 varieties and about 100 plants give or take a couple, lost 1 Yellow Pear, 1 Red Brandywine and 1 German Pink to Curly Top Virus and lost 1 Purple Haze, 1 JD's Special Tex and 1 Dr. Carolyn's Pink to something wilty....never figured it out. Everything else far exceeded my expectations.

favorites this year and why: Absolutely loved Black from Tula, Cherokee Chocolate and Purple, Blk Prince and Pruden's Purple. I had never had a blk/purple tomato before and on the first bite I thought I had died and gone to Heaven! Also loved Earl of Edgecombe, Kellogg's Breakfast, White Queen and Lillian's Yellow...among many others.

least liked varieties this year and why: Did not care for Tigerella at all and the Brandywine Suddeth, Pink, Yellow and Red did not taste as good as I expected either.

what I did that worked: Raised beds and tons of home grown compost, aged manure, leaf mulch, coffee grounds, minerals and other organic amendments. Soaker hoses worked great and WOW's helped get a jump on the season and cattle panels made fantastic trellis. I invested in sturdy cages for some and they stacked great when the Brandywines kept growing to the moon.

surprises this year: It wasn't really a surprise as I knew 2 feet between plants was too close but I can honestly say I will NEVER do that again! A seed-grown plant of White Wonder turned out to be a yellow, lemon-shaped tom and 2 plants of seed grown Mexico was an early and extremely small pink.

what I'll try next year: Every black tom I can find! Many more raised beds or raised quickie lasagna beds surrounded by alfafa hay not fit for the horses or else I will get a five acre plot lying fallow in shape and do a real garden with 6 feet between plants. I will figure out a better labeling system too as magpies stole the large popsicle sticks at the base of the plants and the wind tore away the plastic on the name cards twist-tied to the cages and trellis. Maybe a garden diagram kept nice and safe in the house?

All in all it was a wonderful year for my tomatoes...first frost got them last Sat and I was almost relieved! The freezer is so full of gallon bags of them that my husband is asking where he is supposed to put our yearly cow and deer. Ripening toms cover the kitchen bar and there is a very large full box of green ones ripening in the mud room. I gave away more than I ever thought possible and probably more than I actually kept and even shipped an average of 20-30 lbs of them to my father and sister every two weeks from the end of August til mid-Oct once their plants quit bearing. Now I am busy making my seed list for 2008....I can't wait!