looking for very large paste tomatos for 2008.

16 years ago

Hello -- this past year, I planted out about 140 tomato plants total, and got about 40 plus bushels. It was a very good year in Michigan for tomatoes. About a quarter of these plants were a couple of varieites of Roma -- I bought some of these at the Meijer garden center (Meijer is a regional superstore chain in the midwest, kind of like Super Wal-Mart.)

I like having paste tomatoes for drying and sauce, etc. But, it is very tedious picking and peeling all of those Roma's -- they're too small.

I would like suggestions for a large to very large paste type for 2008. I've seen a couple in the new Totally Tomatoes catalog. I am considering the following:

AMISH PASTE

GERMAN RED STRAWBERRY

OPALKA

POLISH LINGUISA

Can anyone comment on factors such as SIZE, FLAVOR, MOISTURE CONTENT (the less the better), YIELD, VIGOR, etc.

IF ANYONE KNOWS OF OTHER VARIETIES FROM OTHER SOURCES THEY CAN RECOMMEND, LET ME KNOW.

As far as I'm concerned, the bigger the better, faster to pick and peel, as long as it has good yields, good flavor, and low moisture content.

Thanks.

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Comments (21)

tom8olvr
16 years ago
GREAT choices for tomatoes (although some are not considered pastes)... but still excellent choices for saucing/canning/drying...

AMISH PASTE - grown it several years, an excellent taste, fairly dry (compared to some) tom... 2007 got a ton of toms for an oxheart... Oh, and Vigor - they plants were well over 7' tall. Typical oxheart foliage.
GERMAN RED STRAWBERRY - never grown it.
OPALKA - LOVE IT!! Can't give it ENOUGH praise. Good canning, good eating, good salsa, lucky to have 10 seeds in one tom - just a WONDERFUL TOM!!!! Vigor: also over 7' tall... wispy droopy foliage.
POLISH LINGUISA - never grown it, but similar to opalka - but I'd stick to opalka if you're going to grow something like this...

FYI: tomato growers supply is also an excellent seed source... I've also heard that Sandhill Preservation is good... :)

Good luck, keep us posted on what you decide!
diane62ma
16 years ago
The last two years I have grown from seed Burpee's Big Momma roma. This past summer was a great growing season. I planted 9 plants, everyone of them survived and I probably canned about 50 pint jars of tomato sauce and about 40 half pint and pint jars of salsa and bruschetta. The tomatoes are very meaty and have few seeds, and are easy to peel, they are about the size of a ladies fist.
I was very happy with them.
Diane
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chrisaggie
16 years ago
Check out the Sabre Ukrain from amish land seeds.
digdirt2
16 years ago
If you will do a search here for "paste tomato" you'll find that Opalka is one that is consistently rated #1 in all those previous discussions. It always ranks as a favorite for taste, size, productivity, etc.

I was a consistent Amish Paste and San Marzano grower until I tried Opalka - there is no comparison - Opalka wins hands down.

Dave
northernmich
16 years ago
I'm in Michigan...I'll send you some Amish Paste seeds and an unknown pink that I have for SASE. First pics...unk known pinks on front row and some Amish...for comparison Romas are in middle of pic on right side.

Earl
tom8olvr
16 years ago
Them are lovely toms, Earl!!!!

Tom-
HoosierCheroKee
16 years ago
OP = "I would like suggestions for a large to very large paste type for 2008."

Answer = Romeo, the ultimate in "very large paste type."

Both those tomatoes are 5 inches wide and both weighed 1 pound - 12 ounces each. The one on the left is Romeo from Peters Seed Research. It's very dense, has four very flat and narrow seed locules, hardly any seeds and next to zero gel, and produces whopper tomatoes running 1 - 2 pounds each.
winemaker1942
16 years ago
Hoosier, I googled Peters seed and I couldn't find Romeo listed...when did you get your seed?? Do you know another source...It's just my preference..

winemaker
HoosierCheroKee
16 years ago
Winemaker,

I got 2 packs of Romeo seeds from Peters Seed Research last year, and I think they were older seeds ... not real fresh. Peters says they're "restocking" this year and don't offer Romeo at this time. I really don't know if they're actively preserving this line as their catalog offerings seem to be shifting from their own stuff to more common varieties. Too bad really.

I have one unopened pack of Romeo from last year and sent the opened pack to another tomato grower along with some saved seeds from the ones grown here in SW Indiana this past summer.

If you want a few saved seeds, send your mailing address to tomatohead48@hotmail.com The Romeo seeds are protected and cannot be raised with the intent to propegate for sale or transferred for commercial purposes after receiving them. The offer is made only for growing the tomatoes at home and for home use, period.
barkeater
16 years ago
I consider most heart varieties the equivilent, if not superior, to any paste tomato. German Red Strawberry will give you some over a pound each. Wes can hit 2# plus!
winemaker1942
16 years ago
Hoosier, thanks for your gracious offer. I'll email you my address along with my list of trades...I don't seem to know how to post them on my GW page...
Thanks so much... Winemaker
HoosierCheroKee
16 years ago
Winemaker,

That's fine. I don't use the Garden Web seed trading page or the personal information pages anymore anyway ... which is really too bad since I have a heap of seeds for all kinds of tomatoes to get rid of. Problem is the GW email system hasn't worked for me for over a year and I have no idea what the problem is. But it seems to be a common problem affecting several of us. That's why I gave the hotmail addy for you to use.

Bill
jwr6404
16 years ago
denninmi
Are you a gambler?
If so I was given seeds(F1) from an accidental cross of Opalka & Mariannas Peace. Was going to try it myself but with only room for 10-12 tomatoes I seem to have run out of space. This years theme is BIG. If interested I'll send them.
Jim
sammyqc
16 years ago
I really liked a Giant Italian Paste that I tried this summer. Bigger than Amish and Roma, and meaty. I received the seeds from someone here, on the Canadian forums and I'm quite sure they are correctly ID'd. They were nice, I'm growing them again next year, I didn't get 1 lbers, but they can get that large apparently. Although they weren't as large as the Romeo pictured here.
tom8olvr
16 years ago
Those Romeos are beautiful, but how do they taste? Are they anywhere close to Opalka?

I agree with Barkeater with any heart shaped/oxheart variety being really good for canning - they have a great taste and they have a great seed/meat ratio. Don't count them out! :)

Tom-
HoosierCheroKee
16 years ago
"Those Romeos are beautiful, but how do they taste? Are they anywhere close to Opalka? " [Tom]

The Romeo tomatoes taste good. Not great. They are definitely a paste tomato, and have very very little gel. So, they don't have the acid tang I like in a slicing tomato. But they do develop more flavor as the seaon progresses. They have a way better taste than your typical Roma tomato ... including Heidi and such, which I consider Roma types anyway.

Heck no, they don't taste anywhere near as good as Opalka. No way possible! Opalka is special. Romeo tastes more along the lines of Polish Linguisa of which they remind me except that Romeo is a bit larger and has much denser flesh and less gel than Polish Linguisa.

I haven't grown that many heart or oxheart shapes yet. Let's see ... Golden Oxheart, Orange Oxheart, Spudayellow Strawberry and Amish Paste is about the extent of my "heart shaped" tomato experience. No, I don't consider Amish Paste to be a paste tomato. No way. And with regard to heart shapes I've grown, yes they taste better than your average paste tomato, but they don't come close to being as dense fleshed and low gel as Romeo.

BTW, I rather consider Opalka a "saladette" as that's the way I use it. It's too darned tasty and tender and wonderful to be tossing into a sauce kettle. But I intend to cross Opalka with Romeo next summer to improve Romeo's eating quality (I hope). Last year I had trouble crossing Opalka due to it's very slender and tender stamens. So, I'll be going the other way with Romeo as the seed parent in 2008.

Bill
tom8olvr
16 years ago
Funny how we catagorize in our minds what tomato falls into what catagories. I've always felt that Opalka falls more under oxheart (may be cause I love them so) - the wispy foliage and the wonderful taste in my mind puts it there - even though it's a paste type with NO seeds/gel to speak of.

Saladette makes me think of those Juliette tomatoes - because of their size... Funny.

I completely agree with you that Opalka is ALMOST too good to put into a sauce. But Bill, I'm telling you, it makes a fabulous sauce... very thick with no seeds and tastes fantastic. I grow enough Opalkas so that I couldn't possibly eat them all fresh. (I try to eat them all fresh - I make a 'tomato salad' every night in the summer (buffalo mozza cheese, fresh basil, tomatoes & vinegarette).

Good luck with your Opalka x Romeo cross. Keep us posted.

Thanks, Bill.

Tom-
sandy0225
16 years ago
Russian 117 is a great oxheart that's large and meaty. I liked it a lot this last summer. It would be good for canning.
tom8olvr
16 years ago
Love Russian 117 - but for me in zone 5 it can be a crap shoot whether or not I get any - they're late maturing - like 90 days or something... Zone 6, not sure how you'd do... but Russian 117 is an EXCELLENT tom!
"seed trading page or the personal information pages anymore anyway ... which is really too bad since I have a heap of seeds for all kinds of tomatoes to get rid of. " Bill (hoosiercherokee) what kinda seed are you looking to get rid of? Tom\-
HoosierCheroKee
16 years ago
Tom, contact me at the hotmail addy given above on Sat, Dec 8, 07 at 13:41
hemnancy
16 years ago
I like hearts too. Verna's Orange Oxheart is a great producer and also very early. Ukraine Heart, Herman's Yellow, and a Potato Leaf Heart (?) did well for me. San Marzano did well too but was kind of late ripening. I had a very similar paste from some saved seed that was much earlier, but was a cross from other tomatoes I have grown. I called it Curvy. I made lots of sauce last year. I have a food mill so I just run the reduced sauce through it to remove skins and seeds easily.

looking for very large paste tomatos for 2008.

Comments (21)

tom8olvr

diane62ma

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