Cherries:

Jagodka (compact and super early)

Early Annie (compact and early with great taste)

Sungold F1

Carbon Copy

Indeterminates:

Anna Russian (pink heart)

Indian Stripe (black)

Rose (pink)

Little Lucky (red/yellow)

Dwarfs:

Whereokowhai (yellow/red)

Rosella Purple

Sweet Scarlet

Sorry, I cannot count!

Linda

You all have nice varietie. mentioned up there.

Here is my top 10: Alphabetically

==Ananas Noire

==Azoychka (Gold/yellow)

== Big Beef (F1)

==Black from Tula (Brown/purple)

== Brown Heart (I named it)

== CP

== Grape Red (mini Roma)

== Large Red Cherry

==Siletz

==Willamette

------------------------------------

Those are for planting in beds. I will have several dwarfs in pots too

Really hard to limit to just 10 varieties (or even to only 10 plants for me). And since I never like to grow just one of anything since you often end up with none that means I'd have to choose only 5. So if I could only grow 5 (2 each) varieties none of them would be cherries.

Champion II

Indian Stripe

Kosovo

Big Beef

Mortgage Lifter

Dave

Dave, she said 10 varieties. Say you could grow as many plants as you like, what are your other 5?

Hoosier, I have already posted 10 varieties.

My others are:

== Indigo Rose (Dwarf)

== Purple Heart (Dwarf)

== Rosella Purple (Dwarf)

==Hahm Gelbe T (Dwarf)

== Kumato (F3)

All above go in containers, no burden on real estate.

NEW:

== Better Boy

Sey

<Dave, she said 10 varieties. Say you could grow as many plants as you like, what are your other 5?>

Sorry, missed that and read it as 10 plants. Thanks for correcting me. :-)

Bull's Heart

Bella Rosa (det.)

Boondocks

Giant Belgium

Park's Whopper Improved

Dave

Good suggestions above. My 10 are probably more standard.

Heirloom: Rutgers

Plum: Opalka

Gold: Aunt Gertie's Gold

Cherry: Large Red Cherry

Pink: Brandy Boy, Brandywine Sudduth

Blacks: Cherokee Purple, Black Krim

Sorry, I can't think of 2 more I would call favorites.

John A

I am not qualified to give you 10...but here is what I like best after 3 years of growing pretty seriously: Cherokee Purple, Brandywine Cowlick's, Big Beef, Black Cherry, Stump of the World, and maybe Box Car Willie (very mixed results with BCW).

Interesting to see everyone's choices. I don't have 10 that I would call failsafe or favorites. The ones I would list are:

Big Beef

Cherokee Purple

Roma VF

I will throw in Big Girl as I grew that for years and it was my favorite but is no longer available.

Still searching so thanks for the ideas.

I like this thread. Thanks to Lexxluthor. It is kind of "gardeners' Choice" polling. And a lot those participated so far are experienced gardeners. So I would think they know their stuff. I am a kind of gardener who does not pick a tomato variety that its name is not familiar and has not heard of it before, no matter how good it is reviewed by somebody. I'll let the others try it and then get a consensus. That is how I pick and try new varieties. The latest is BETTER BOY (F1) for 2016.

BTW: so far Big Beef (F1) seems to be the most popular variety.

Sey

I have changed my mind ... again .lol

here is my 2016 top 10

==Indian stripe (Brown)

==Azoychka (Gold/yellow)

== Big Beef (F1)

==Black from Tula (Brown/purple)

== Brown Heart (I named it)

== Black Sea Man (Brown)

== Purple Heart

== Riesentraube

==Siletz

==Willamette

Those are my top ten . I also have bottom 10.

What are your latest choices ?

I am answering this because most answers so far have been for tomato specialists who don't mind low production and difficult-to-grow cultivars.

If the average back-yard gardener reads this, they could be misled into thinking that they could stick one of those plants in a corner and get tomatoes all year. Since there is a fad among the public that wierd-looking, wierd-colored tomatoes are superior, a non-serious grower would be more likely to choose a hard-to-grow OP instead of a wonderful established cultivar unless someone throws in a vote for these.

I enjoy trying different ones, but I only keep growing cultivars that have the best taste AND reasonable production.

Because some hybrids are so ideal, I have difficulty understanding preudice against easy-to-grow great-tasting hybrids.

My favorites are about 50/50% hybrids and OP. But, if I had to choose only 4, it would be 3 hybrids and one OP.

------ Absolute MUST-HAVES in any garden. ------

Fabulous taste and years of proven success in so many conditions.

Supersweet 100

Big Boy (Worse Boy just does not have that perfect tomato taste)

Early Girl should be in any casual grower's garden because of earliness, good production all year, grows well in pots, reasonable tomato taste, disease resistance, long production season, and the size is absolutely perfect for slicing. The earliness allows tomato growing in less than perfect conditions when growth is slow. (Testing New Girl, Summer Girl)

------------- My other favorites -------------

Personally, I have another "must-have": Constoluto Genevese -- the highly convoluted one that was first introduced in the US. seedsfromitaly.com now uses this name for one that is only slightly ribbed, and they now call the convoluted one Constoluto di Parma. (Have to try the new one). People who have not grown it do not realize that CG's density makes it a better paste tomato than the plums. Production is nearly comparable to Big Boy, and taste is nearly comparable to Brandywine -- without the growing problems.

Brandy Boy. Although I love the taste of Brandywine, I won't tolerate the uneven ripening.

4th of July

Sun Gold

Snow White

Black Cherry

Isis Candy

tarolli2011..... Nice and informative. I am a relatively new grower to tomatoes and really have not explored quality over quantity. This year I plan on trying about 20 different paste maters to see which makes the best sauce and another 10 to 15 just for taste. This is a great place to learn a little more about different varieties and preferences.

tarolli2011, I'd go along with most of what you said but I have heard that Costoluto Genovese isn't great for fresh eating, but is absolutely wonderful cooked. I plan to grow it this year to make paste, so I guess I will find out.

I LOVE Brandywine, but I won't grow it any more because it is too late for me and therefore not very productive. Little Lucky has similar great flavour (BW is a parent) and, because it has smaller fruits, I get lots of them before frost hits.

Linda

Regardless of production (within reason)...I do not grow tomatoes that are not really-really good in the taste department. There are some maters (a couple listed above) that are productive....but I can buy lousy tasting tomatoes at the market. I tend to like the juicy, seed cell laden, old time tomato flavor of yesteryear. When you taste that complex flavor....you recognize it. This last season I fell in love with Brandywine Cowlick's. I enjoy searching for that elusive "awesome tomato".

Fireduck, you might enjoy Rose. It's very juicy and tasty too!

Linda

Fireduck,

You are lucky if you can grow solely for taste. For those of us in the more difficult climes some of those varieties yield 0 to a couple of small tomatoes. I have to admit to having rather dull taste buds but I have never grown any tomato in my garden no matter what the taste reviews that wasn't 100 times better than a store bought.

I'm with fireduck, but then again I also live somewhere I can risk it. Although, usually if something doesn't do well for you, you can find a comparable that should. I mean, sure, plant your canning tomatoes or those you HAVE to have, but I don't see why anyone, anywhere, can't experiment with a new tomato or two until you find things that work where you live.

Even here, I can't get a Cherokee Purple to spit out more than a tomato or two before crapping out. Finally decided I'd plant Black Krim instead since people suggested they have similar tastes, and it grows/produces like gangbusters for me. Glad I didn't just give up and grow some bland tomato just to have guaranteed (bland) tomatoes.

Humsi,

Oh yeah, I will keep trying new ones, but what are these bland tomatoes? I guess I have been lucky to avoid them or I just have an uneducated palate. :)

10 is a lot to choose from, I don't think I can list 10 category of tomatoes from the top of my head (white, yellow, orange, red, blue, purple, green, bicolor, currant, cherry, medium, beefsteak, oxheart, dwarf, paste), I would just grow the best one from each.

I can only grow 10 tomatoes since I have to grow all of mine in containers with a very limited area that gets adequate sun. So I rule out those categories I don't consider tasty enough. That would include cherries and grapes; pastes and plums; any color other than red, pink or purple/black; and any variety with greater than 90 days to maturity. I have tried many of those and regretted it.

Handy to read the review on the Costoluto Genovese. I'll now have to try that for one of my July starts. It seems recommended for drier & hotter areas. I cook virtually all of my tomatoes so that seems perfect.

My must-have is whatever is willing to grow for me. Whatever finally does produce has always tasted amazing, so I'm not so worried about particular varieties. But the reviews are helpful, maybe someday I'll have some go-to varieties to contribute.

My suggestions are varieties that I've noted are good producers and will provide lots of variety in terms of flavor and color:

Cherry

1. Sun Sugar Hybrid (Orange) - mouth wateringly sweet, productive, crack resistant

2. Gardener's Delight (Red) - large 2 - 3oz crisp cherry tomatoes, great for salads

3. Black Cherry (Black) - incredibly prolific with good large cherries that have great shelf life

Beefsteak

4. Indian Stripe (Black) - Great +8oz beefsteak that rivals Cherokee Purple but ripens earlier and is much more productive

5. Cowlick's Brandywine (Pink) - Huge creamy tomatoes that just keep coming and coming

6. Gold Medal (Bi-color) - consistent producer of delicious citrus-y flavored bicolor

Garden Slicer

7. Celebrity Hybrid (Red) - very prolific variety that produces 5-8oz tomatoes with impressive disease resistance

8. Manyel (Yellow) - strong producer of creamy tasting luscious yellow tomatoes

9. Chef's Choice Orange Hybrid (Orange) - America's Selection winner of an tomato plant that produces tons of orange tomatoes

Paste/Sauce

10. Earl's Faux (Red) - very meaty tomato that wins many flavor awards and does not suffer from BER

Well hoosier, you are absolutely correct! I am a lucky dog to have the weather that I do...for growing maters. Don't hate me because I live in California. haha. Actually, much of California has crummy weather. The key is to live within 15-20 miles of that big blue patch of water. Lab...thanks for the heads up on "Rose". I will investigate that one.

One weird caveat for all of us is: sometimes a variety will do poorly one season...but do awesome most seasons. The question then becomes: "is it time to dump this particular variety and move on?".

Climate makes a difference. Probably where Ed is , most tomatoes will do well. But in our PNW cool wet climate and down south somewhere in Texas with hot and dry weather , you have to find the ones that do well. Then with cool weather, less sun , you cannot expect a great flavor. So have to understand that and compromise.

Sey

If I could only grow 10 tomatoes....

In no particular order:

Big Rainbow

Cherokee Purple

Texas Star

Isis Candy

Sungold

Tommy Toe

Brandywine

Dr Wyche's Yellow

Red Ponderosa

German Red Strawberry

Cherokee Purple has always been one of the most productive tomato plants in my garden other than Cherry toms. The least productive variety on my list is Brandywine. Production on Isis Candy is not so great either, especially for a cherry but still worth growing for taste. All of the other varieties I have listed are moderate to very good as far as production goes at least in my growing conditions and climate. I live in southwest Ohio btw.

based on my meager experience with 30 - 40 varieties, here are my 8 (in alphabetical order):

1. Amana Orange - Good production, very good taste.

2. Big Beef - very good production, good taste

3. Cuostralee - excellent taste, good production.

4. Indian Stripe - very good production and excellent taste.

5. Kellogg's Breakfast - Good production and excellent taste.

6. Neves Azorean Red (NAR) - decent production, excellent taste.

7. Paul Robeson - decent production, good taste (considered leaving this off).

8. Sungold - excellent yield/taste - prefer over sun sugar on both counts.

German Red Strawberry & Opalka almost make the list.

Regards & MERRY CHRISTMAS!

tom