What tomatoes will you grow this year (2017)?

Celebrity is my favorite. It has the perfect balance of taste for me.

After 6+ years of tomato growing I am pairing back my varieties to the strongest ones for our climate. Here are the seeds I have going now:

Paste tomatoes:
Super Marzano
Speckled Roma
Amish paste

Fresh eating:
Black Krim
Sweet cherry tomato
Super beef steak
Better Boy
Big beef

I had close to 100% germination rates this year and need to pot these up this weekend. Can’t wait to feast!

Is there only one variety of celebrity Auburn? I have some older celebrity seeds and may start a few if you think they are that good!

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Tomatoes for 2017. Thank you @Drew51 and @thepodpiper for seeds.

-Romeo
-Polish Linguisa
-Red pear Franchi
-Hungarian heart
-Yablochniy Lipetskiy*
-Carbon
-Amazon chocolate
-Chocolate stripes
-Super Sweet 100
-Dina*

  • means that I’ve grown this tomato before.
    I can share seeds of the following tomatoes if somebody willing to try them.
    Dina, very good golden-orange oval tomato, very meaty, my husband’s favorite.
    Red Pear Franchi (seeds of Italy) they have so many seeds in the packet I would never use them all.
    Yablochniy Lipetskiy, red beefsteak, late, not very productive, but very meaty, the best tasting.
    Korol Sibiri (King of Siberia) light yellow heart, very productive, meaty, mild fruity taste.
    Mexico pink beefsteak, productive and tasty.

Cherokee Purple
Stupice
Black Krim
Kellogs Breakfest

Might add a cherry tomato.

You’re right about both tomatoes, but they surely taste good to me. I have never successfully grown a tasty beefsteak type tomato!

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Has anyone tried Sweet Million? I tried it a couple years ago, but it was in a bad location. I might try it again since I have lots of seeds left. It’s supposed to be a small sweet tomato, and produce for a long time.

Pink Oxheart
Lehrertomate - “Teacher Tomato”
Beefsteak
Stupice
La Roma OMA III VFFNA Hybrid

I have heard the same, worth trying again.

I think I may. I had vowed to only grow six tomato plants this year. I’m now at double that. Why can’t I stop? :wink:

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I am cutting down too, I usually grow 17 different tomatoes, and I’m only growing 10, but I might add more :blush:

Kelloggs Breakfast is a really good yellow.

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Chef’s Choice
Black Prince
Ferris Wheel
Andrew Rehnarts Jumbo
Ashleigh

Of them all we love Chef’s Choice it is an orange tomato that I tried for the first time last year. My husband is not a lover of fruit in colours that they do not normally come in, yet he had one of these and after that he went into the greenhouse and picked them off the plant as soon as they ripened.

I like all the heirlooms I’m seeing in the posts above but many of these listed that ive grown don’t produce much. Old fashioned tomatoes like rutgers produce and still have a good flavor. I’ve also noticed some are not overly disease resistant. The moderately to highly productive heirlooms such as Brandywine I grew for many years because they are truly exceptional. Nearly none of them have VFNT resistance which are extremely common problems. Tomatoes like celebrity though are highly disease resistant. I’m not discouraging or disuading anyone from growing tomatoes like Cherokee purple because the flavor is exceptional. I am saying if I was a beginner reading this thread I would want to know Cherokee purple could produce less than half a dozen tomatoes per year in the a same soil celebrity will produce 40. Wanted to bring these things up for those people who will benefit from the advice. I’ve grown tomatoes since I was still in diapers and my family took me to the tomato patch with them. By the time I was 3 the family had showed me cut worm damage and how to prevent it, fertilizing with cow manure, fear of grasshoppers, etc. So I have some experience since I’m now in my mid to late 40’s. I love old heirlooms but if you want production early girl, celebrity, roma etc. will produce. Heirloom such as yellow and red pears will produce lots of tomatoes but you should know if it rains they will crack like nothing you can imagine.

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Country Taste for its vigor and productivity and relatively good taste (by far the most productive tomato in my climate- ever with fruit that keeps coming until frost).

Sun Gold for its early fruit that keeps coming- although its low acid can get boring it is always fun forage fruit.

Stripped Roman, because it is productive, beautiful and at least looks like a paste tomato with the required low seed rate.

Brandy Boy (or other brandywine hybrid), because it tastes as good as Brandywine but is 3 times as productive.

Two or three other experiments.

This is for SE NY. Your results would vary, depending on climate, I’m sure.

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Sorry about the late reply. I’m no tomato expert but to my knowledge there is only one Celebrity.

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I’m growing the Artisan creations striped cherries. I grew the Orange one and they were great and crack resistant.

I’ve mostly switched to hybrid over heirloom, this season I’ll be growing Big Pink, Big Daddy, Big Boy and a Chocolate Cherry. I grew Big Pink last year and enjoyed it.

I’m tired of inconsistent production and reduced disease resistance

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Yeah to each his own, I prefer the heirlooms warts and all. I grow enough I don’t need higher producers. Plus I get lucky from time to time and get heirlooms to produce. I just cannot settle for the mediocre tastes of many hybrids. Some are great, and agree with all said, just different strokes for different folks.Even with good taste, I prefer to grow something with history. I’m growing early Detroit no 17 this year. I will never stop growing heirlooms.Plus I think it best to maintain these heirlooms for future breeding.
First offered in 1931, a deviation from early Detroit, which was first offered in 1909.
When I bought the Detroit tomato, the seed seller said this

“Sadly, the USDA for whatever reason, has discontinued maintaining ‘Early Detroit No. 17’. We are doing our best to keep it available to our gardening friends, but if this is one of your favorite varieties, you may want consider saving seed.”

I’m not going to let things like this disappear, or tomatoes like
Aunt Lou’s Underground Railroad. Somebody has to keep growing them.

Also new breeders are creating tomorrows heirlooms. In the last ten years over 1000 new open pollinated tomatoes have been created. Many are very disease resistant, yet you can still save seed. Many still need to be tested long term. Over 60 dwarf tomatoes were created in the last 10 years. I grew Tennessee Suited and it was one of the most disease resistant tomatoes in my garden. Although it was a white fly magnet. It looked better than most hybrids. It did not contract any leaf problems. But I’m a very experienced grower, your mileage may vary.
A very productive tomato that produced all year, and just because it was dwarf, doesn’t mean they are low producers, they are not!


Something to remember too, all hybrids are made from heirlooms, and all disease resistance comes from heirlooms. Hybrids are only disease resistant because heirlooms were used in making them. The breeders of hybrids also have to maintain the heirlooms to make the hybrid seeds each year. If we lose some heirlooms we are losing future fantastic hybrids too.

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Good info, Drew.

I’d like to try this one just due to the fact that I’m in Tennessee!