My father is very picky about his tomatoes. We had a neighbor that grew tomatoes he would share with us and my father loved them. He always described them as a medium to large “slicer” tomato that was sweet with a classic tomato flavor. Does anyone have any suggestions? I realize its probably impossible to narrow down the exact cultivar from that information alone.
Thanks!
What color was it? Black Krim, Cherokee Purple are both excellent
2 Likes
You can try a few to see which work. Lynnwood, Druzba, and Nepal would be possibilities.
2 Likes
I too really like the black tomatoes as they are often called. I found Indian stripe, Black Seaman, and Carbon easier to grow than other blacks. These tomatoes are called black but they are a deeper darker red. They taste like regular slicers except sweeter. Fantastic fruit! Heirlooms can be harder to grow and black tomatoes even more so. Although it is the only tomato besides cherry that I grow. I like these so much more than traditional red tomatoes.
2 Likes
Pink brandwine is hard to beet.
Delicious wonderdul flavor and wonderful smooth texture.
Cherokee purple are great too… but much more prone to split with rains. I grew one last year and more than half the fruit split and rotted.
I had the tomato row mulched deep with old hay… but the CPs split anyway. Will not grow them again.
1 Like
Yeah all the cool heirloom varieties get crushed by disease for me, Berkeley tie die, Cherokee purple and its relatives, etc. however the couple Berkeley tie die that I got before the plant succumbed to a variety of diseases was the best tomato’s I’d had.
1 Like
We like Better Boy. It fits the description and at one time was the most popular tomato in the U.S. They are still readily obtainable.
1 Like
I agree the blacks I mentioned do better but are still not easy to grow. Still split sometimes just not as bad. Too good not to grow.
1 Like
My Dad always grew better boys and they were good producers tasty tomatoes.
I think for a hybrid Big Beef is hard to beat… to me they have a little better flavor than most hybrids but are awesome producers. Loads and loads of nice tomatoes. They just keep on producing until frost.
5 Likes
Yes those are good. I discovered something really strange. When I put some extra plants in my blackberry bed I couldn’t help but notice they didn’t get septoria spot. These were unsupported and sprawling on the ground and still didn’t have it.
I think it’s not the blackberries but the lack of care. I now fertilize with organics in the spring but not anymore. It seems pushed growth from fertilizer is a lot more susceptible. I’m seeing less leaf diseases holding back on fertilizer. .
2 Likes
I found this video many years ago on the Big Beef tomato that shows off their production potential. Gobs and gobs of nice sized tomatoes… with better than average flavor for a hybrid.
Pink Brandwine herloom tomatoes do taste better… but here in my garden… 1 brandywine plant may produce 12 really good tomatoes.
1 Big Beef plant will easily produce 50+ tomatoes.
This is what one blossom set looked like last year on my big beef.
3 Likes
Those are great looking.
2 Likes
I didn’t even use my remaining seeds of them this year but I’ll try that with my remaining unplanted seedlings. Last year I interplanted some stuff in my “food forest” and it did much better than in my veggie dedicated raised beds
3 Likes
I grew Pink Brandywine for a number of years. They were not particularly stand out and quite bland. My favorite ‘sauce’ tomato was the cuore di bue, italian tomato. I loved the taste and still do of green zebra. Small but tasty. Nothing beats our market fresh tomatoes here in the summer. Huge tomatoes, all colors all taste great! I only grow cherries now. The sweet 100’s and grape cherries do really well here. The sungold-series are very sweet but have very tough skins.
3 Likes
@mrsg47 … rare to hear anyone call brandwine tomatoes bland. They are definately not bland here… they are the best tasting tomato I grow.
Different climates or growing conditions… different results I guess.
I like the Super sweet 100 and sungold cherry tomatoes… both are very productive here and have good (and different) flavor.
3 Likes
The worst tomato I have grown (in contrast to the topic I’m sorry) is by far the black strawberry. It lured me with being a cool looking photo on the seed packet, and they are a very nice looking tomato. The skin however is super thick and almost hard to bite through, very productive but for a cherry style tomato they are a little too big and just the flavor I found very unappealing. The only tomato I will never grow again
2 Likes
Each of us have a different flavor preference for tomatoes which can be described in 4 groups. It is a sliding scale.
- Mild sweet - Generally like Brandywine and similar
- Rich “acidic” tomato flavor - Generally remember old tomatoes like Rutgers, Akers West Virginia, or Box Car Willie
- Balanced flavor - Crnkovic Yugoslavian and Lynnwood tick all the boxes for me
- Tart flavor - Green Zebra, Goose Creek, and Jaune Flammee rock for these lemon loving people
2 Likes
I heard lots of good talk about black cherry… but tried them here and was not impressed. Sungold is my fav cherry.
SS 100… Is a good tasting red cherry and a super producer for me. It just keeps on going making so many nice red cherries.
2 Likes
Pink tomatoes have a gene that affects two very different biopaths in tomato. Skin changes from yellow to clear and usually is thinner. Flavor intensity drops by an order of magnitude. When pink is combined with decent sugar accumulation, you wind up with tomatoes like Brandywine, Eva Purple Ball, and Prudens Purple. All of this from one single change in a gene way up in the sequence of activation that changes skin color and flavor. Color and flavor are directly linked!
2 Likes
Thank you all for the input! I should have mentioned my father only likes red tomatoes. I grew better boy last year and he liked them but didn’t love them.
Does anyone know if the pink brandywine everyone is talking about is the same as the “Sudduths” strain that Baker creek sells?