Caarrie,
Most of my selections have been due to the influences of what I read here too. From last year's grow list I have about 6 returns and this year I have like 17 new ones. I read a lot of reviews before I pick a variety. The varieties that you have mentioned are real good choices. I am growing two of them: Brandy Boy and Fourth of July. I was looking for Big Beef seeds but could not find it. I have yet to read a single negative review on it. So has been the case with Brandy Boy.

Good luck with all your choices.

Seysonn

What a bunch of enablers we is, we is.

If you or someone you know needs help, call 1-800-TOM-ANON (tomatoes anonymous)

*flat fee*

dave

That's how it seems to work. Many, many years ago when I first wondered if I could grow tomatoes, I went out and got a pack of Better Boy and Big Boy (and those useless small, flimsy tomato cages - you know the ones).

Then I discovered the forums and discovered there are so many other varities out there, most of them not found on the local seed racks, so I started ordering new varieties every year, getting those most talked about on the forums.

My collection now is best described as the "forum's greatest hits". Oh, and after a couple of years, those cages went out in the trash.

Bragu, that was hilarious. 1-800-tom-anon. I'm still laughing.

Tell me about it. I don't even like tomatoes (well, I don't like raw tomatoes; cooked are okay) yet I'm constantly over here reading. And now they've got me growing Brandy Boy, which I wasn't planning on doing.

Rodney

Bragu, LOL !

I am tomatoholic . LOL
I try to grow too many in too little space. Then I end up pruning trimming and all sort of thing to make it work. Most of my choices are also based on reviews and recommendations made in this forum.

Seysonn

It is a secret plot of Mother Nature to encourage you to enlarge your garden or find more containers. :) You can't have too many tomato plants.

Dave

Yeah, right Dave.
Maybe it is a genetic disorder :-)

Seysonn

Better to think of it as the tomato plants selecting us to express the OCD-gene!

PC

"You people are a bad influence"

A few extra seeds? If you think that is the extent of your tomato jones, Ha,ha. Just wait.......

Last year, against Dave's advice, I planted 150 tomato seedlings (my husband made me). Trust me, nothing could shock me now.

No question about it. I am planting 5 varieties that I had never heard of before last year:

Black Krim

Bloody Butcher

Brandy Boy

Mortgage Lifter

Sungold

Now I do eat some raw tomatoes, like in a BLT or salad, but when I first started growing tomatoes from seed, I didn't even like to eat them at all. And I had no idea how to cook them and turn them into sauce. This was well over 20 years ago and I soon realized that I liked ordering all these different tomatoes from a cool catalog I ended up with (Totally Tomatoes) and that these things WOULD GROW hahaha! And grow they did. I have always been in awe of how tomato plants love to grow! I think I ended up cultivating a taste for them as a cover for my addiction =)

Harry,.. Those are the among top 20 , that you are growing. I have either grown or am growing all of those this season.
Thats some good influence. hehe

Harry - ya want another 10-20 suggestions? *wink*

Lucille, the biggest problem is? I have no self control. If there's a beer in the house, I'll drink it. If there are cookies in the house, I'll eat it ( might explain the 5 lbs I gained this winter). And if there are seeds in the house , I'll plant them. Just can't help myself lol. My solution? Sell the starts. My hubby's solution, you started them, now you have to plant them. I'll win that argument this year. Um honey, remember the 4 billion tomatoes last year? Lol, yup, I'll win rofl.

Carrie, 150 seedlings? Wow! You could have grown them and had a produce stand in your front yard. I have Amish Paste seeds from a trade, but I've never grown them. Is that similar to a Roma tomato?

They are both plum tomatoes, but the Amish paste is huge. Never grown Roma though, so haven't compared them.

I've never grown Romas either. They are the cheapest ones in the store now. They keep alot longer than the regular ones.

I am glad seed starting is OVER for me. The last of grow list (18 vars) just germinating. I resisted planting several that I had seed for it.
Lets face it, it take a lot of time to care for 30 or 40 plants: Staking, caging, watering, ferting, spraying, trimming (lower branches) ... waiting 75 days to pick a ripe tomato ..hahaha

Seysonn

How true. But it's all worth it. I don't like the grocery store maters flavor.

Grocery store tomatoes have flavor??????? :)

Well, yes they do. But it tastes nothing like a fresh garden picked one. My hubby eats them in the winter. I just look at them on the window sill and wait until I can grow my own.

I also don't buy any GS tomatoes, except some cherry type now and then. They seem to taste better than slicers to me.

Seysonn

I just picked up 3 more pots. Now to get more ProMix BX and Tomato tone.

Today is sanitation day of my small hoop growing area and tomorrow is day 36, and the conditions make it transplant day.

If all goes right I'll only be half done though, because I am trying to keep up with the Jones's and put a tomato plant in a pot on every place on the property that has a little bit of sunshine. Unfortunately that's not much but I should get over 30 plants plus some I put in the natural sand ground to "grow" for giggles.

PC

PC ,
Seems like your spring planting is well underway which is expected in central Florida. I think perhaps shade can be beneficial in the Sunshine state in the summer.
I am still waiting on my Bear Claw to germinate. I have already potted all my seedlings >>>>> T minus 5 weeks..... until lift off hehe .

Today is a gorgeous day., Sunny, high reaching 62F. Despite some lingering cold I will get out and do something. Like refurbish my hops and cold frame.

Seysonn

Thanks Seysonn, In Central Florida they probably are well on their way, but I had planned optimistically the third week in March. Coastal Georgia is a walk before sunset from here and I just checked the forecast and would do the same tomorrow if I had the Brunswick GA forecast too.

It is the most exciting moment though, like you said the countdown to liftoff. Gorgeous day here, too, but the wind makes a little chill and no doubt all the cold bleach won't be fun (and then the peroxide spraying). Good luck on Bear Claw, looks pretty huge and I hope it tastes better than its name. I threw away all but one of my Brandy Boys which is starting to show a little life, the others simply were much too little and too late, real bummer.

PC