I concur about yellow pear. Not only is the flavor lacking, but the texture isn’t very good either. They sure can produce though!
Have you tried Golden King of Siberia? Baker Creek carried it for a time. It also has a more proper Russian name that eludes me at present. The seed seemed to produce somewhat variable offspring. I think the true to type would be medium/large and pointed at the calyx end. Some were bigger and cat faced more like a brandy wine. I grew them for several years. They’d start ripening about the 3rd week of July- about 75 days or so. I find the flavor excellent. Very meaty / fleshy, little seed or pulp. Great slicer. The Brady wine -ish ones tend to be in the 1lb. + range, with a couple each year ranging over 2 lb. I’m growing them again this year after a multi year hiatus
there are also sun green tomato seeds available which i’ve never tried
and emerald green cherry tomato
maybe i should do a green pear tomato seed run so people can try them, im almost certain they will be enjoyed more than yellow pear based on the reviews im reading
they look alot like emerald green cherry tomatos when fully ripe
maybe they are related based on what im reading and since green pears are no longer available maybe someone can try them
I’m trying Siberian pink this year for the first time. I usually go with yellow pear for snacks while working, San marzano for my canning, and some kind of big red for sandwiches. not sure how the pink will go.
I like that “sour” or funky taste a whole lot, but haven’t found seed for any yet to try that are sure to have it.
high heat in summer is my nemesis, after July they do not want to pollinate as it gets over 100 every day. I tried shade cloth last year to no avail, this year I got my starts going really early in hopes they’ll pollinate before and after our Month of Hell.
I can’t put all out until likely may 5 this year as that’s last projected frost, I always hold some back until the 15th of May just in case (we have had surprise frost here, rarely, in mid May)
I’ve grown all three. Hungarian Heart is a low producer. OTV and Big Beef are regulars in my plant sales. All three taste good, but IMO, there are better hearts to grow than Hungarian Heart. Kosovo and Tastiheart are examples.
It is hard to go wrong with 1884, Crnkovic Yugoslavian, Daniels, Omar’s Lebanese, Polish C, or Prudens Purple. All can tip the scale over a pound and tend to have a very good sweet flavor. If you are interested in very sweet pink tomatoes and willing to grow a hybrid, give Momotaro a try. If heart shape is interesting, Anna Russian and Kosovo are outstanding. I particularly like Daniels because it is very similar to Brandywine Sudduth strain but Daniels is far more productive. Sandhill has most if not all of these.
Gardeners Sweetheart has been the best Cherry Tomato Ive grown. Large trusses of tomatoes. I think it came out in 2014. They are a little bigger, blocky, and dont split. Great flavor. I think they were a cross between a cherry and a paste.
Gardeners Sweetheart was also one of the parents for Summer Sweetheart that came out two years ago and one of the first tomatoes to have resistant genes for LB, EB, and Septoria Leafspot. Brandywise also has the same genes. They wont be available until next year due to a Brown Rugose virus outbreak at last spring at the California greenhouse that was hand pollinating the F1 hybrid. Unfortunately it was the only company given rights to producing them. I think they came from Cornell.
Northern Lights
Stupice
Siletz
Oregon Spring
Buckbee’s New 50 Day
Legend
Oregon Star
Sasha’s Altai
I took Silver Fir Tree tomato out of my cart at Tomatofest.com because you said it is sour and tasteless.
You stated that Sasha’s Altai is a beefsteak tomato, but it looks smaller to me in the pics. Are you sure it is a beefsteak variety?
I have been looking at these types: short-season, self-fruiting and possibly short in height (short for covered raised beds, covered with hardware clothe to let pollinators in but now there is a height restriction on growth). But, if it is not a good tasting tomato, none of that matters. I can get unlimited crappy quality tomatoes at the grocery store.
You should have seen how amazing my Brad’s Atomics looked before getting wiped out by a 22F plunge. Brad’s takes FOREVER to ripen.
Of your list, Stupice, BuckBee’s, and Sasha’s Altai are decent. A few others are worth growing, but usually are not highly flavored.
Beefsteak is often misinterpreted. It is what a tomato looks like that has the “fasciated” gene. It is basically a tomato with multiple locules not arranged in specific order. Generally, they will be larger and meatier than most simple structure tomatoes. Sasha’s Altai is a beefsteak, but a small beefsteak. It has very good flavor and decent production in short season areas.
Here are a few suggestions specific to your climate:
Gregori’s Altai - pink, medium size beefsteak, decent production, good flavor
Bloody Butcher - Stupice is a rampant indeterminate where Bloody Butcher is more compact and better flavor
Early Wonder - early, pink, compact, good flavor, medium size fruit
Siberian - almost bulletproof in your climate, but caution they are mediocre flavor, I use in sauce
Heidi - Determinate, highly productive, disease tolerant, excellent flavor, best for sauce, paste, or diced
Lynnwood - mid-season, very productive, very good flavor, compact indeterminate
Check out the Harry Klee lab work at the University of Florida. Its a great approach to better commercial tomatoes…blind taste tests followed by science.
If you give a donation they’ll send you some seeds to try out in your garden. They also have set up a system to give them some feedback.
Regarding Black cherry and Aunt Ruby’s German Green: I have learned not to grow tomatoes that are hard to find when ripe. Pink and orange cherry types are easier to see even than the reds. There are so many cherry tomatoes to choose from that ease of picking is important. ‘Pink Princess’ is very sweet, orange ‘Katinka’ is sweet and tart. I like 2 bite cherries for being actually useful if canning, like ‘Pink Ping Pong’.
