Its all about the soil and climate they grow in. I fed my tomatoes well. Brandywine would produce perfectly beautiful tomatoes. But they tasted like water. The large pink Brandywine, just did not work. The red Brandywines were a bit better in flavor.
1 Like
Hey Mike!
Mine did too! I went from day one to final harvest disease free. Actually the last few years have been nice.
Yeah last year I had these tremendously huge plants at the end of the year my yard looked so nice with all that green disease free foliage.
3 Likes
Exactly right. Don Shor in Davis California the legendary horticulturist, nursery owner, radio show host goes over this well. It is a well known issue some breeders are working on.
He doesn’t go over exact reasons but has on other parts of his web site and on his podcasts.
From his website. He is speaking about his area and his customers out of Davis, CA.
So, is it ever too HOT for these vegetables?
Not for them to grow, but fruit production may be inhibited temporarily by heat waves. Flowers of tomatoes, peppers, and beans will be damaged above 90 and will drop off without setting fruit, so with our typical cycle of very hot spells followed by periods with cool delta breezes, we get fruit setting every few days. Long hot spells may lead to periods later with little fruit. Some varieties are more sensitive than others. The flowers of the ‘Beefsteak’ type tomatoes will be damaged above 85, which means it’s a rare summer day that they’ll set fruit here! They grow just fine, even to 8’ or more, but usually don’t yield well. By contrast, ‘Heat Wave’ is a new tomato introduction that will set fruit even above 90.
Extreme heat when corn is flowering can actually kill the pollen and prevent ears from developing. This is rare, but it did happen to gardeners in 1999 if their corn was flowering during the extreme hot spell we had in July.
1 Like
For sheer intensity of flavor, grow Costoluto Genovese. Flavor is so intense I almost can’t eat them. Don’t expect much if any sweetness. Do expect an overwhelming sensory overload of tomato flavor. Sauce and salsa made from CG is off the charts for making pizza, spaghetti, and similar cooked dishes.
3 Likes
I agree that one tastes great. But mine died after having one or two tomatoes. Next year I’m grafting haha
2 Likes
I enjoyed following along with this thread a couple years ago, I don’t recall seeing one last year though:
2 Likes
You’ve taught me something I didn’t know about tomatoes, Fusian and Drew. When I lived in S. CA I always had vegie gardens but never noticed hot weather reducing fruit set of tomatoes- probably because heat spells were never quite long enough to matter and nights tended to be cool. My problem here is always when weather gets too cool early and cuts off the season. Fruit that has set doesn’t ripen properly.
1 Like
I used to listen to this podcast from Ohio called gardening with Angelo. He suggested when temps turn to cut plant down and hang in garage. Let them ripen. I never tried it.
1 Like
That I do here and they aren’t as good, of course, but better than what’s selling in stores in Nov. I’m not sure if keeping them on the vine when harvesting them green improves their flavor or not, never really tested it. Sometimes I harvest the vines with the fruit, sometimes I don’t. I’m sure the difference, if there is any, is subtle.
1 Like
+1 on Costoluto Genovese! Really excellent flavor but for us here in Z10 CA it didn’t produce much. I might try it again this year but I haven’t started seeds yet. So many varieties to try and so many are good.
Juliet and Valentine are great cherry red tomatoes with intense flavor.
Sungold is a family fav and in planning on a bunch of plants of it this year.
We are also trying Brad’s Atomic Grape this year. We will see.
Sunchocola is one of our top ones for flavor, color, and massive production. It’s a bigger, rounded-ish, cherry that’s brown-ish/reddish. It’s made our list of “grow every year” along with Blue Berries tomato (also a cherry) from Wild Boar Farms. A lot of their varieties are excellent.
Sweet Carneros Pink has also been excellent for us with excellent production and taste.
Chef’s Choice Orange is one of the better orange tomatoes with good flavor too. What’s cool about this one is that it keeps the color when you cook it.
Celebrity is a solid red tomato and producer. Flavor is nothing to write home about but good production.
Solar Flare was good flavor and good size but low-ish production when we tried it in 2022. Haven’t tried it again yet.
Principe Borghese (cherry) produced a LOT and we sun dried some of them but unfortunately the tomatoes in oil rotted before we could try them. They are supposed to be an amazing flavor when sundried but average to insipid when fresh.
Momotaro was also very very good. Would recommend this one and New Girl produced well for us as well though the flavor was nothing special.
We are trying Pineapple and Cherokee Purple this year. Let’s see how they fare and produce here.
1 Like
Thanks for the strong rec for Brandy Boy. I will add it to my list of ones to try here. Brandywine doesn’t do well here IIRC but I haven’t tried it myself. Mostly because a bunch of folks told me it didn’t do well here. But a cross might fare better.
I’m happy to see Stump of the World mentioned. In 2021, I planted many many varieties, then we had a major heat wave earlier than I was prepared for (mostly water issues) and most of my tomatoes died. But not Stump, and the flavor was amazing. The next year, we had a very cool spring, and many tomatoes were delayed and didn’t produce well, but Stump just cranked out its delicious tomatoes like nothing was wrong. I’ll always grow it.
3 Likes
Is that the one you have for sure? Asking since you had a ? at the end of your comment 
Could it be this one:
I’ve had my eye on this one for a bit. Haven’t bought it yet since I keep forgetting to sit and research it.
1 Like
Very cool @scottfsmith . Thanks for the rec. Never heard of this one. Wonder how it does in CA. I’m going to look for the seed and try to try it.
I’ve never tried that either but I’ve definitely tried harvesting a whole bunch of green ones off the vines when I decided it was enough and needed to flip the space to my winter veggies. Then I’ve layered them in a cardboard box with paper towels or brown paper between them and put in a ripe banana and mostly closed the box and put it in the garage (this is CA so it’s not a very cold garage - but it’s still not heated). I had to check every 2-3 days to find any that were originally bruised and now rotting but in general got about 70% to ripen well and used them for sauces/freezing/etc.
Nice to see this 2nd rec. I’m definitely going to have to try this one now. Thanks!
Stump OTW is an excellent tomato. It is very productive and has very good sweet tomato flavor. Its only flaw in my garden is a tendency to produce variable size fruit, particularly near the end of the season. It is not very tolerant of foliage diseases. If you want a good tomato to compare with Stump, get Daniels. It produces large numbers of consistently large fruit with excellent flavor. When people complain about Brandywine’s low production, I suggest Daniels. When people complain about Stump’s variable size, I suggest Daniels.
2 Likes
Ah nice! I just put in an order for Stump and a few others from Tomato Growers. Didn’t see this post before I clicked submit … Will add this to my list to look out for next.
My 2 cents:
At 2200 feet in the Sierra Nevada near Placerville.
My winners were
Esmeralda Golosino. Super intense green tomato flavor. Just awesome imho.
Amarillo Cherry (F1 Hybrid from neseed.com) Literally over 1000 tomatoes from one medium size plant. Orange cherry, sweet, never splits.
Candy Bell (F1 Hybrid from neseed.com) . Pale Pink to rose colored. Perfectly round. Mild flavor but very sweet. 100s from a supposed determinant. It spralled everywhere!!
Patty’s Striped Beefstake- best flavor but only got one!
Absolute looser…Black Blue…never again.
1 Like
A local lady sells them at her greenhouse and they have been in her family since pre-depression. Some local doctors, lawyers etc have tried to get her to take them public but she wont do it. She just grows a few flats out and enjoys the repeat customers that she can talk to.
These that i grow may be a new cultivar… or may be the one i linked as its the closest i can get to a description.
I dont want to get too nerdy with them but i do know that they are fantastic.
1 Like
That’s very cool.
Anyone tried growing Rugby tomato? I was just listening to the Davis Garden Show podcast and Don Shor is now recommending it highly as a canning/cooking tomato.
Seems like it’s this one: