I grew Fabulous this year. It was fine, nothing to write home about concerning flavor, but it did seem to be a lot more disease tolerant than many other tomatoes in the garden. It makes baseball-size red fruits, fine on a sandwich or salad. I didn't cook them so I don't know how the flesh or flavor held up to heat.

I grew Mountain Glory again this year (2009) and it performed better and tasted better than last year (2008) even though this year was wetter and cooler.

Also grew Scarlet Red again this summer and it produced more and larger fruit than Mt. Glory but did not have quite as deep a flavor.

Both of those tomatoes still are average with regard to flavor. Better than anything I've bought in a store, but not as tasty as several other hybrids I've grown (Better Boy and Big Boy for sure taste better) and not nearly as deep or rich a flavor as many open pollinated favorites.

Personally, I think the breeders have gone so far with certain traits to build holding and shipping qualities, while ignoring flavor for so long, that even when genetically enhancing these newer hybrids, they still have quite a ways to go before recapturing whatever flavor traits they already have let fall out of commercial hybrids.

Next year I'll try Mountain Magic, but there you're dealing with a saladette or large cherry tomato and there are many hybrid cherry and a few hybrid saladettes that have superior flavor.

Oh, and I did pick up a few Fabulous tomatoes earlier this year like in April or May from Paul Mayse that he grew in his hoop houses and those were very tasty after I left them to fully ripen on the counter.

Scarlet Red sure seems to be 'sale happy' for the coming year. I have already gotten 4 emails from seed companies pushing Scarlet Red (on sale) as "the solution to all your tomato-growing problems" and similar claims.

Fer sure! I'm waiting for one of them to offer a guarantee on flavor. ;)

Dave

My Stokes 2010 Catalog arrived today. Mountain Glory and Scarlet Red are both listed on page 51.

Harris also lists Scarlet Red and I grew it last year. However, I was wiped out by LB and never harvested a tomato from it. The plant itself looked good and had quite a few good sized fruit when it bit the dust. Definitely not tolerant of LB. Trying again next year.
Happy Gardening,
Tom

I for one no longer have time, space or patience for varieties that don't taste just fabulous. I'm with Dave--I'll wait for a guarantee of flavor.

Well, I don't hear anyone RAVING about the taste of these so I guess they can't be TOO "flavor enhanced" eh?

I grew Scarlet Red (purchased from Harris) and was disappointed in the taste. Got some nice size blemish-free
fruits, very beautiful but taste wasn't as good as many of
the heirlooms. Overall, because of the very wet season,
all varieties had a watered-down taste but this variety
didn't live up to the high expectations I had for it.

Thanks for the opinions!
Sounds like nothing to run out and replace Better Boy or Big Beef with as my hybrids although I'm thinking of trying Moreton Hybrid and wonder if Ramapo F1 differs much from the F6 seeds I grew this season. Ramapo F6 turned out to be a very tasty and large, if somewhat later than Better Boy and Big Beef, tomato.

I'm glad to hear the F6 did well for you! I grew some too and thought they ere just wonderful.

RWK, if you grew Ramapo F6 side by side with Better Boy and Big Beef and got better results from the Ramapo, I'd stick with those rather than switch to something else, unless you have extra space and just want to try out Moreton (which I found okay but not as good as Ramapo - think mine were F4s or F5s - don't remember right now). But why even bother with Ramapo F1 if your F6s are that great?