I have about the same results. I grew Supersweet and either Sun Gold or Sun Sugar last year, plus what I think was Black Cherry. The yellow was the best, and Black Cherry the worst in both climate tolerance, quantity, and taste.
The Black Cherry never did well after the hottest part of the summer, and suffered the worst from late season black spot/wilting.
I tried Golden Nugget cherry tomato last year and it was terrible, very bland and cracked like crazy. Itās one I will avoid going forward.
One of those things to know about tomatoes is that the flavonoid biopath is also the carotene biopath, meaning that more color usually is linked with better flavor. Yellow tomatoes are known for having poor flavor. Yellow Pear is a well known example of a yellow tomato that is totally insipid. I grow Yoderās German Yellow which is a slicing tomato that tastes pretty good.
It is entirely possible I just donāt really like tomato tasting tomatoes, preferring little balls of sugar. Or Black Cherry is just poorly adapted to my local climate.
I basically just eat them raw, whole, with small slices of feta and some olive oil.
TheGrog, taste is a personal thing. I always try to find a tomato that delivers the flavor a person prefers. Sungold, Sugary, Sweet 100, Hibor, Zima, and others should fit your flavor profile. If you want to try some larger tomatoes, get Momotaro, Crnkovic Yugoslavian, or possibly Tasti-lee.
Well, I always liked the flavor of Yellow Brandywine, but since it was a shy bearer for me, I donāt grow them anymore. And although itās called Orange KY Beefsteak, mine always ripen into yellow and itās one of our favorite overall varieties.
I do agree about Yellow Pear, tho, very productive, but forgettable flavor.
Top three overall varieties for us are: Chocolate Cherry, OKB, and Big Beef
Move over to the wild side subdood. Get seed for 20 or 30 varieties you have never grown and give them a trial. With a bit of luck, 4 or 5 will wind up on your āgrow every yearā list.
For yellow tomatoes, I recommend these in order of preference: Yoderās German Yellow, Dr. Wycheās Yellow, Nebraska Wedding, Yellow Brandywine Platfoot, Lillianās Yellow, and Manyel. For salad tomatoes, Galinaās Yellow Cherry and Yellow Submarine are usually very good. There are a ton more yellow tomatoes including a few hybrids, but as above, most are lacking for flavor.
I think I recall sending you some seed for a few unusual varieties a couple of years ago. How did they turn out?
I think I trialed Danielās and it didnāt do so well for me last year, I donāt think it was as productive as my other beefsteaks. I think I also sowed Brnkovic Yugoslavian seeds, but they didnāt do well the year I planted them (two years ago), but none of my tomatoes did well that year because I was working at Appharvest caring for greenhouse tomatoes at the time and didnāt care about my garden toms for some reasonā¦
Oh, also tried Cherokee Jumbo last year, and they didnāt do so well either, but we donāt have good luck with dark varieties, other than Chocolate Cherry. Or maybe Iām a hack gardenerā¦
I havenāt tried the 1884 variety you sent yet. Maybe this year, altho weāre not planning on a big tomato garden this year after our record breaking harvest last year. Nor green beans. Nor pumpkins.
Iām a sweet tomato lover who usually plants transplants from the local garden store. This year I am growing from seeds for the first time. I bought all my seeds from Tomato Growerās Supply. This year, I am trying Sun Sugar, Sun Orange, Matina, and Momotaro.
In the past Iāve grown Sun Gold, and it was my very favorite, but it would crack badly here. So, this year, I am trying Sun Sugar instead as my orange cherry tomato, since I heard itās a crack-resistant Sun Gold dupe. I was disheartened by the taste-test video above that showed both tasters didnāt like Sun Sugar as much. Has anyone here tasted them side by side, or have any opinions on the relative taste or productivity of Sun Sugar vs Sun Gold? Iām having a little buyerās remorse!
I got momotaro due to the recommendations on this thread and other threads in the growing fruit forum. Iāve never tried it, before, so hopefully I like it, and itās productive for me!
I got Sun Orange because the website description:
Sun Orange Hybrid Tomato. If you love Sun Gold or Sun Sugar, you will also love Sun Orange. It has unbelievably good flavor. The breeder has taken the same great flavor package, but increased the size of the fruit, and improved crack resistance. High yield potential is obvious once you see the elegant trusses brimming with fruit. Indeterminate. 65 days.
Has anyone tried Sun Orange before? Does anyone know how big the tomatoes get? Any insight as to its taste or productivity?
As for Matinaā¦ Historically I have always planted an Early Girl, even though I donāt love the taste, because the taste is āgood enough,ā and the plant is SO reliable and productive. Truly a set-it-and-forget-it tomato, bearing early and right through frost. This year, I bought Matina as my early-bearing tomato instead of Early Girl (again) due to the website description, and because it is an heirloom so I can hopefully save the seeds.
Matina Tomato. This very early variety bears loads of 2 to 4 oz. red fruit with terrific flavor normally found only in a huge beefsteak. The fact that its fruit is ripe up to a full month earlier than many beefsteak varieties makes Matina really special. Potato-leaved plants put on large clusters of abundant tomatoes, and even though they start early, continue to bear throughout a long season. Heirloom from Germany. Indeterminate. 58 days.
Has anyone here tried Matina before? Even though the fruit will be smaller than Early Girl (which I actually prefer!), does anyone know if Matina would be a good early-bearing replacement for Early Girl?
Momotaro is a very productive sweet tomato that pleases most people with a sweet tooth. They are okay to me, but my preference is for more balanced tomato flavor.
Sun Sugar does not have the tropical fruit flavor of Sungold. Otherwise, it is very similar.
Matina is an old favorite that Iāve grown off and on for 20+ years. Given your flavor preferences, you might like one that is a tad sweeter. Generally, pink varieties will have better sweet flavor while red varieties will have more robust tomato flavor. You might try Clear Pink Early from TGS.
If you want a couple of other varieties that would fit your taste preference, Crnkovic Yugoslavian is a large pink slicer with sweet juicy flavor. Prudens Purple is another that you might like for large fruit. I would also recommend Dr. Carolyn Pink for a smaller but sweet tomato. Knapps carries the large Dr. Carolyn Pink which I am partial to. Tomato Seeds- D - Knapp's Fresh Vegies
I grew Sungold and Sunsugar side by side one year and I canāt tell them apart. They both tasted great and cracked in similar manner. Maybe in a larger field, someone collects data for research purpose, there might be some differences in productive, fruits size, cracking rate etc. . But for a backyard grow, the difference is small enough to ignore
Thanks! Your info is invaluable!
Based on some of your earlier posts, I had looked for Hibor and Crnkovic Yugoslavian, but I couldnāt find them (at least, not at a store where I could also get momotaro and the āsunā series tomatoes, which I really wanted also). Do you know where I could get those?
What are your thoughts on the chefs choice series of tomatoes? The website descriptions make them sound awesome, but I never read any praise for them from the gardeners here.
I will go on a tangent by saying several of Fred Hempelās tomatoes are very good. Maglia Rosa and Blush are two that come to mind. That said, the Chefās Choice tomatoes are a result of breeders tapping into the palates of chefs who have a unique perspective on what tastes good. They developed breeding lines that emphasized both flavor and productivity and crossed them to produce hybrids with enhanced traits. I personally wonāt grow them because they are hybrids. I can get excellent flavor and outstanding production from growing the open pollinated tomatoes that are already present in my cell trays and will be set out in my garden a month from now. If you want to read about someone who put in some time figuring out why grocery store tomatoes taste like cardboard, do a search for Harry Klee.
With that said, get some seed and grow them. See what your taste buds say.
I donāt know of any vendor currently selling Hibor. Iāve sent seed to Glenn Drowns at Sandhill Preservation in hopes he will carry them. Meantime, if you would like a pack with a few seed, send me a message with your address. I donāt have many seed left so canāt make this a general offer. I will grow enough this year to have a bunch of seed next year.
Sandhill carries Crnkovic Yugoslavian though Glenn has it marked unavailable this year. https://www.sandhillpreservation.com/pink-tomatoes
I havenāt seen anyone mention Prairie Fire from Baker Creek yet, so Iāll give it a plug here. For whatever reason it is not the same tomato as the Prairie Fire from Tatianaās tomatobase. It is incredibly sweet, productive, and fairly early for an OP variety. It is a great size for snacking, and is very popular with my whole family. Itās one downside so far is that it does crack fairly easily with uneven watering, but thereās so many tomatoes it doesnt really matter if some end up going to the chickens. Iām kicking around the idea of crossing PF with a crack resistant cherry, but I might wait until I stabilize the line of tomatoes Iām working on already. Anyway, its totally worth growing in my garden.
I have some tomato seedlings that are in 3"x4" biodegradable bags held upright in a tray. Iāve been growing them in my sunniest indoor window, with a small CFL 100W desklamp shining on them (the best I can do in terms of light at the moment). But they are still growing kind of spindly.
My forecast for the next week is highs in the 70s-80s, and overnight lows in the 50s. Should I put the little seedling tray outside in a sunny spot for the next week, so that they hopefully grow more robust (and less spindly)? If yes, at what overnight temperatures should I bring them back inside again?
Right now I have seedlings of Sun Orange, Sun Sugar, Matina, Momotaro, Prudens Purple, and Lorelai Cherry. They are currently about 3" tall, with their first set of true leaves growing at about 1/2" long.
Thanks!
Window glass filters much of the ultraviolet light so your plants wonāt be hardened off for full direct sun. Take 3 days to get them hardened off and you will be good to go. Give the plants an hour of direct sun the first day, 2 hours the second day, and 4 hours the 3rd day.
Temperature is the deciding point in growing tomatoes. I leave my plants outside if temps are 45F or above.
Thanks so much! Iāll start acclimating them today, put them in full sun on Friday, and then check the temperatures daily to see when to bring them back in.Youāve been such a big help with my tomato-growing journey!
good looks on growing the sun sugar(sun sugar and sun gold are some of my favorite varieties to grow)
currently growing green pear (an hard to find variety that used to be sold by baker creek)
sun gold (golden cherry with fruity flavor)
and super sweet 100ās (red cherry)
going for a green, orange and red cherry tomato selection respectively
they are approximately 2 months old from day of wetting seed. started feb 11th and kept in a window sill and moved outside on sunny days.
the weather seems to be nice and not dip below 45 degrees for the foreseeable future, wish me luck
today will be their first day in their new pots
edit: ill try to post some pics later if i can
I have not yet seen green cherry tomatoes in France, I would grow them!
ive grown green pear side by side other tomato plants and the bugs leave them alone whereas the other tomato plants get destroyed by bugs (stink bugs attack the fruit)
i guess the bugs just dont like green pear tomatos