Steak Sandwich (Burpee). Compared to all my other varieties they are weak, small plants with low production of what is supposed to be a super beefsteak.

Dave

Vintage Wine, by far. Tasteless, scarred exterior skins, never would get soft and juicy.

My biggest disappointment was the Black Prince. It quickly becomes mushy, and didn`t have a lot of flavor. Sungold did too much splitting. My favorite new tomato this year was Park`s Whopper.

shp: Big Rainbow is usually a good one for us as well. Sungold is usually prolific for us but splits like crazy. I wouldn't grow it if our customers didn't demand it. Growing tomatillos is fun. You don't need but a couple plants to keep yourself in salsa verde. The first time I grew tomatillos I grew 8 plants. Big mistake. I tried selling them but most of the folks in our area don't know what they are and are afraid to try them (or try anything new in general).

dig: I've never grown Steak Sandwich and now probably never will.

nc: Vintage Wine was not good for us either.

pat m: Black Prince is not good in our garden. It's a mushy, cracked and split mess. Pretty much a disaster. I have never grown Park's Whopper. I've seen the plants at the BBS but never bought one. I looked at my database and I don't have any Parks seed. Don't know why.

Tigerella. Round small-ish tomatoes (1-2 oz), red with orange stripes. A bit mushy and slight odd taste to it. Do you know when you have a tomato that is rotted in one spot, and you cut it away, but there's still a slight rotted taste in the rest? That's how Tigerella tastes. I tried eating them at all stages of ripeness, nothing, it's just always there.

Hungarian Heart: Very BER-prone.

Steak Sandwich: Same reasons as digdirt.

-sweet 100: not very disease resistant, fell victim to fusarium wilt whilst all other tomato plants were alright; very prone to splitting.

-apollo improved: not very productive

Replacements for this season:

-sweet million and ferline F1

I grew Cherokee Green last year for the first time and it was a great tasting tomato. I saved seeds from it and am growing it this year but have so far been disappointed. The first few fruits succumbed to BER and I have yet to see any other tomatoes get to decent size.

donna .... What you describe is the frustration with growing tomatoes. Great tasting fruits one year then disappointments the next. Great production one year then nothing the next. There are sooooo many variables. The WX is the biggest variable. That's why we endeavor to persevere on the annual and relentless quest for idyllic consistency. For example ..... 2017 for us was extremely productive but our fruits were bland to us (not our customers .... most do not know the difference). Our 2016 fruits were fantastic but the production was low.

We have Cherokee Green and Cherokee Lime in our 2018 grow list. We have previously grown Cherokee Green with mixed results ..... mostly in productivity. We're growing these mostly for our own consumption, friends and family. Most of the buying public (with the exception of some restaurateurs and chefs) think they're unripe fruits. We have not grown Cherokee Lime and we're excited to trial it.

This is our preliminary 2018 grow list (no doubt there will be changes). The biggest change is .... we're going to try to wean ourselves off of Sungold. We'll grow Sunsugar instead. I know it's not a great leap but it's a start. I'll probably add Jaune Flamme as well because I just noticed it wasn't on the list and it's one of our most consistent producers and has that WOW punch when you bite into it. Aunt
Gertie's Gold
Aunt Ruby's German Green
BKX
Bulgarian 7
Camp Joy
Candy's Old Yellow
Cherokee Chocolate
Cherokee Green
Cherokee Lime
Cherokee Purple
Couilles De Taureau
Cow's Tit
Duggin White
Galina's
German Queen
Indian Zebra
Isis Candy
KBX
Large Pink Bulgarian
Lillian's Yellow Heirloom
Lucky Cross
Medovaya Kaplya (Honey Drop Cherry)
Milka's Red Bulgarian
Morado de Fitero
Nefertiti
Orange Russian 117
Pineapple
Pomodoro Ciliegio
Purple Dog Creek
Riesentraube
Scatolone 2
Stump of the World
Sun Sugar
SuperNova
Tarasenko 6

Teshchin Yazyk

Shell

As always Big Beef did great again. Orange Jazz produced some huge fruit and is on pace to yield about about 32 fruit weighing 28 lbs. per plant but the fruit don't hold very well and many ripened unevenly. Black was not that productive at about 20 lbs. per plant but hold well and are very tasty. My biggest disappointment was Black Opal cherry which was bred from Black Cherry. Not a great producer, large fruit but they don't hold at all and need to be eaten in ~2 days. Not very consistent in taste either.

LoneJack .... Big Beef did fine here again this year. It's consistent for us but does not produce the large fruits that others have talked about. I would say that all of our BB fruits were 10-14 oz. My Orange Jazz as well as my Jazz plants became disease ridden early and we pulled them before fruits. Tell me more about Black. I have seed for it but have never grown it.

Shell

Shell - Black is very similar to Black Krim in taste and productivity but seems less prone to cracking. I only grew one plant but it was the first to ripen a fruit. According to my notes I picked the first one on July 7 at 78 days from plant out (DTM is listed as 85). It almost seemed semi-determinate because I picked the first 18 fruit weighing an average of 13 oz. by July 25. Since then it has been a trickle of somewhat smaller fruit here and there. For the season it has produced 31 fruit totaling 21 lbs. for a ~11 oz. average. I picked 2 of them last night.

My BB usually end up averaging around 8 oz. by season's end but that is with the small end of season fruit added in. For most of the season they average in the 10-12 oz. range with a few reaching a pound or a little over.

I used Texas Tomato food for the first time this year and I do think it has improved total fruit set and average size. My peppers and cucurbits really seem to like it too.

My biggest disappointment was Homesteads, but it is a double edged sword. They seemed to pick up the septoria very early in the year and that spread to the rest of the garden. But they also are my wife and my favorite taster of what we grew this year. Despite the septoria ridden plants they did a decent job production wise. I think if I applied fungicide earlier and more often I would have had a better run with them and I'll probably save some seeds for growing next year.

Roma, Early Girl, Early Pick will be off the list for next year - they all did below average.

I am just starting to wean off of Burpee Home Depot seeds and venture into some of the more interesting varieties so my adjustments for next year naturally would likely get rid of those varieties. I also grow seedlings that I sell for charity so I'll probably still have to have a few of those 'name brands' in the mix that people can identify with - but they wont be in my garden - at least not more than a plant each.

Yellow Pear and Big Boomer cherry did below average but I put them at a disadvantage with where they were planted - they did not get the full sun that cherry tomatoes like.

Big Beef was the clear winner in the overall category - best producer and great taste. Cherokee Purple, Giant Garden Paste, and Pink Brandywine were up there too.

LoneJack. Thanks for the information on Black. We used to grow Black Krim but we got fed up with the concentric cracking in our garden. Then we switched to Margaret Curtain. I think it was actually worse for cracking. Both were great tasting and just fine for personal consumption but only our "heirloom knowledgable" customers and a few chefs would buy them. They were just too ugly for the standard buyer not to mention that they aren't round and red.

Concentric cracking is characteristic of black fruits in our garden due to rapid changes in soil moisture here. It doesn't just rain here anymore ..... when it does rain, it comes down in torrents.

Black also sounds a little larger than our Black Krims and Margaret Curtain's were.

I'll give Black a trial. I've confirmed that I've got seeds in my inventory. My seeds are from TGS.

My DH was in old Mexico earlier this year and he picked up some much larger black fruits w/green shoulders, 14-18 oz. They looked like Black Krims on steroids with no concentric cracking and they tasted great. Not sure what the variety is or if it was a F1 hybrid ..... I saved the seeds ...... We'll see what the grow-out looks like in 2018.

We grew Chyornyi Tarasenko this year. It's a nice black in the 12-16 ounce range. Less prominent green shoulders. Good taste. Little to no cracking. Moderate production. Probably deserves to return for another year.

Kevin, IMO Big Beef is a good overall tomato. I see you had Pink Brandywine in 2017. Were they from Burpee seeds? I've grown out those Pink BW from Burpee seeds and they produced some huge fruits.

Shell 6A

Three cherry & one grape varieties have not made the grade this year for different reasons. Indigo Blue Berries are attractive but have almost no flavor and burst when picked if they are slightly overripe. Esterina resembles an unripe Yellow Mini and doesn't look as good with other varieties in boxes. Sweet Aperitif seems to lack vigor and fruit appear grainy. Flaming Burst is just a poor yielding, blah tasting yellow grape.

I believe I'll cut back on the number of cherry/grape plants next year. I had 193 this year and they are producing about 6 bushels every week since mid-June with no letup in sight. Sadly the red varieties that I like best are the last to sell at markets.

Of the large fruited varieties I probably will only drop Italian Giant Beefsteak, American Original Beefsteak and Beefsteak varieties. There are 65 varieties that I won't begin to list that have performed well. I've been given ripe fruits to save seed for a few other varieties that may add to list. Anyone ever hear of "Girl Girl Wierd Thing" or "Flathead Monster"?

Barrie .... We have grown Indigo Blue Berries and Esterina with similar results. I can't imagine 193 cherry/grape plants. We are a much smaller operation.

We grew Girl Girl's Weird Thing in 2016. Seed source was Delectation of Tomatoes. I saved seeds and have quite a few in inventory. It's a multi-colored dark tomato similar in appearance to Chocolate Stripes or Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye. Mine were dark red or brownish in color with green and redish vertical striping. Medium to large fruits. I would say 10 oz to 16 oz. It was early here in Northeast Kansas and had decent production. Taste was very good. Skin was a little thick and they kept well. No major disease issues noted. They look stunning. We had a little trouble selling them though. Our more adventurous customers tried them and liked them. We didn't grow them this year and had several customers asking for them. It's definitely worth a trial.

Shell

Thanks Shell. When I saw the Girl Girl's Wierd Thing I told the man that it reminded me of Pink Berkeley Tie Dye or a unsegregated Copia. I just never picked a 2 lb. PBTD or Copia like the GGWT tomato he gave me.

Barrie. We have not grown Flathead Monster. Which Flathead Monster did you get? I think there's black, pink and orange varietals in both PL and RL. I also think stability has been an issue with this one but not sure.

Shell

Barrie, Found a picture of some of our 2016 representative Girl Girl's fruits ......

I guess I'll be confused cause the Flathead Monster appears to be red.

My gift Girl Girl's WT is also more irregular than yours pictured.

Barrie .... Maybe the GGWT you've got is resultant from a megabloom. Ours showed no irregularity. Pretty much traditional beefsteaks with minor catfacing. Otherwise the coloration is right on.

Don't know what to think about the Flathead. It looks red to me as well (yellow epidermis). Maybe orange?

http://www.delectationoftomatoes.com/store/p125/Flathead_Monster_Pink.html

http://www.delectationoftomatoes.com/store/p331/Flathead_Monster_Orange.html

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Flat_Head_Monster

Shell

Bali. They started off pretty good, but after those first fruits, they just ended up being sour with not much else going for them.

Others have called them sweet with a "spicy" aroma. I do get a very herbal note from them, which I normally like, but aside from that, the flavor has been thin and sour.

As I said, the earliest ones were OK, so maybe it's just a bad summer for them environmentally, but I don't think I'll grow them again. They're not particularly versatile--very seedy and don't keep at all. Therefore, they're not great for canning, and they don't really taste good enough to eat fresh when I have great tomatoes from my other varieties. So if they need very specific conditions to taste good, then they're not worth the space, IMO.

OTOH, they're prolific. So I have tons of little tomatoes I don't particularly like. I've been turning them into juice and using that as a sub for vegetable broth in recipes or just drinking it. I should probably buy some vodka for bloody marys, actually. The herbal overtones are good as juice.

They sure are cute, though.

Later fruit, waiting to be processed as juice.

Kellogg's Breakfast was a bust for us--every problem possible plus fruits never got very large. Good taste but the vines were rather spindly and we lost some fruit due to lack of vigor. Happiest with Lemon Boy and San Marzano this year. Big Beef and Black Cherry did well also. Yellow Currant cracked a lot. Matt's Wild Cherry produced well and had a great taste. We lost Black Krim and Brandywine early in the year to bad weather. If I'd known it would be so cool for so long, I would have planted Oregon Spring again! Maybe next year. :)