Nearly impossible to see anything but if you are referring to what look like tiny black flies (which appear too big to be aphids) they could be any number of flies. When you say "attacking" exactly what kind of damage are they doing if any? If a better pic and more details is possible I'd suggest posting it over on the Tomatoes forum here. Dave

"Hmmm. "The cage is about 2 steps above just letting the thing sprawl." I don't think so. :)" Yeah, I saw that too, I think I ignored it because it wasn't backed up with anything and overall the descriptions were fairly spot-on otherwise. It's a step up in effort over letting them sprawl, since you do need to put the cages in to begin with and, occasionally, you'll need to pull the plants back inside the cages, but honestly, that's hardly "work." It's mostly just walking through the garden looking the plants over, which I'd want to do anyways... There's a hidden benefit too, no matter how much I wash my hands after handling the plants, I smell like tomatoes for the next few hours, lol. My dad always used to talk about the scent of tomato plants, he wished he could "bottle it" and would joke about making cologne from it, lol.

There are many 'favorite tomato' threads here you may wish to browse through. I linked some of them below. As a seller I can only say that the answer to your question will depend a great deal on your location, your region, and on how well educated about tomatoes your local market/buyers are. So where are you and what is the nature of your market?Will you be selling locally or shipping nationwide? I only sell through local distributors and local farmers markets. On your list above only Brandywine would sell for me and it would be a very limited sale and have to be specifically Brandywine Pink. I have a very small heirloom/OP market here although I have been able to expand it somewhat over several years. Hybrids outsell OP by 20:1 here. Reds/pinks outsell any of the colors 40:1 with only a few interested in yellows. I love Black Krim but only sold 4 of them over the past couple of years. That's fine as it left more for me to plant. :) OP sellers for me: Mortgage Lifter Arkansas Traveler Beefsteak Ozark Pink Bradley Boxcar Willie Brandywine Pink Pink Ponderosa So if you are interested in hybrid sales my big sellers are: Brandy Boy Better Boy Park's Whopper Early Girl Jet Star Rutgers Big Beef Champion Goliath Jetsetter Supersonic Dave Here is a link that might be useful: favorite tomato discussions

I think it's good to remember that if someone says a varity is sweet, it was for that person in that season, and maybe more seasons depending on where the person lives and gardens and all the other variables that go into determining taste, of which the genes that a variety has are most important. Below I've given a clickable list of just heart ones which one can get off the first page of Tania's data base, as well as lists for different shapes, colors, and so much more. As I think I've said before the only way someone will know if a variety is sweet is for that person to grow it. I thought I'd listed some heart varieties that I thought were sweet but I guess I didn't. Again,it would be just me making a list as to what I personally thought was sweet. Carolyn Here is a link that might be useful: Heart Shaped Varieties