What tomatoes will you grow in 2018?

General Gardening
21

heres what i can remember from the top of my head

chefs choice green
“black” from tomato growers supply
sungreen
sweet millions
cuostralee
hawaiian pineapple
opalka
juane peche
chefs choice pink
principe borghese(determinate)

edit:

also the french millefleur tomato
and green pear
and golden jubilee
and bonny best
and ananas noire
and black zebra
and thorburns terra cotta
and aunt rubys german green
and indigo apple
will probably put 12 in a bed and give room to grow and put others in a pot just to try

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22

Have only enough room for 1. So super sweet 1000 it is.

23

Yes, I grew it for the first time this season and I was very impressed with it. I also like Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, Girl Girl’s, and Indian Stripe too. All dark.
Black Cherry is a little late for a cherry, but it’s excellent, I do though prefer Carbon Copy, it looks exactly the same, but it’s sweeter. Carbon is supposed to be a good one too, never grew it, have seeds though.
I also like the black tomatoes, and I found the blood red ones are also awesome, hard to grow here. I don’t know of many either. Rebel Yell is one, it’s a late season, and was not productive. It had an excellent taste.
I don’t care for yellows, and on the fence on pinks. I don’t care for green when ripe either. I am done experimenting for the most part. I have found enough I like at this point. I will still experiment, although on a much smaller scale.

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24

@Stan,

Out of your list I grew Carbon and Black cherry. Black cherry is a prolific bearer of greenish black tomatoes. It is good but I prefer red cherries because red color looks better in salads, cooking and dry tomatoes. Carbon was later and shorter plant than the other varieties. The color was dark pink or purple without green gel, the best fruits were sweet. It was slow growing and less prolific than the other varieties, but it might be fine if you have long growing season. The other blacks I grew this season were Amazon chocolate and Chocolate stripes. I liked Chocolate stripes. It was early very colorful brown red with green gel, it stopped producing when it got too hot.
My favorite varieties which I want to grow next year, they are all mid-late to late, but once they start they produce continuously through the hot weather. They all have very good taste.

Hungarian heart, very large pink hearts, meaty with few seeds, multipurpose, if I could grow the only one tomato it will be this one.

Yablochniy lipetskiy made large red salad tomatoes, very productive.

Dina my favorite golden orange tomato, it made loads of oval medium sized meaty fruits. It tastes and looks more like real fruit than tomato. Crack resistant, keeps for a long time at room temperature. It will be a very good choice for someone who sells tomatoes on the market, because they are very attractive.

Red pear franchi, large red meaty pears, multipurpose. They are probably less productive and less disease resistant. But they grow well in heat, no cracks, keeps well.

Romeo, this is the only variety that tastes mild and bland. But it is a great paste variety for drying and sauces. Huge dense red tomatoes, very few seeds. I called them pigs. :slight_smile: Probably needs good heat and long season to show great production. Keeps for a long time.

I was so fed up with tomatoes that I will grow less next year and it will be the proven varieties that I liked before: Hungarian heart, Dina, Romeo, some red cherry, and some other red variety (Red pear tranche or Yablochniy lipetskiy or Mashenka)

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25

I grew Hungarian heart last year and didn’t care much for it, what people call “meaty” tomatoes are just not my cup of tea, personally I would call them “mealy” instead of “meaty”. Russian Anna is similar in shape and texture to Hungarian heart and I also wasn’t impressed with it. I prefer juicy tomatoes with intense flavor, these are mostly black and purple beefsteaks for me.

I wanted to try Yablochniy lipetskiy this year but couldn’t find any seller of its seeds. What was your source for the seeds?

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26

@Stan I bought it from Tatiana tomatobase. I can send you seeds if you wish. Yablochniy was juicy tomato. I process a lot of tomatoes so I like meaty ones. Even in salads juicy tomatoes give too much juice. Tastes difference.

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27

I bought seeds this year from Tatiana’s tomatobase, but Yablochniy lipetskiy was nor available this time. Thanks a lot for your kind offer, I already have enough varieties for 2018, will look again for YL next year.

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28

Maybe my favorite yellow is Orange KY Beefsteak. Yah, it says orange but it can be kinda yellow. A big sweet, little bit tart, tomato. We’ve grown it for the last three seasons and will again next year.

We tried Dr Wyche’s Yellow last year, and it produced well, and the taste was OK, but I think it was in poor soil and would do better in richer soil. We didn’t grow it this year, but may try it again next season.

Siberian Pink Honey is a fine tom, very productive, and good tasting. It has that wispy, wimpy look to it, but is a tough plant. It’ll probably get a shot next year also.

Yellow Brandywine is a very vigorous, beautiful, potato leaf plant with good tasting fruit. But, since it’s been so unproductive, it doesn’t get a spot anymore.

BTW, I think Girl Girl’s and Indian Stripe will get another chance next season. Nice looking plants and good output, but deer got most of them. But, the fruit that I did get was good enough to give them another chance. And we’ll have to try Romeo too, so thanks for all the seeds. Let me know if there’s any you might want to try.

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29

Yoder’s German Yellow is arguably the best yellow I’ve grown. Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom can beat it for flavor but not production. Nebraska Wedding has good production but the flavor is not quite as good.

It is tough to talk about good pinks. There are so many of them. Eva Purple Ball has the best production and is a nice size to can. Brandywine and Stump of the World make superb slicers. Give them very rich soil! Omar’s Lebanese is a nice big slicer.

Blacks for me are Black From Tula potato leaf aka Spudatula, Bear Creek, and Black Cherry.

Green when ripe is Aunt Ruby’s German Green and Green Giant.

Orange is KBX and Kelloggs Breakfast. Sungold is an outstanding orange hybrid cherry.

Red is crowded. Box Car Willie, Druzba, Picardy, Neves Azorean Red, Red Mortgage Lifter, and a few others are a good start.

If growing hybrids, Big Beef has to be at the top of the list for a nice size very productive tomato.

4 Likes
30

I do like the pinks, just so many of them.
@Fusion_power nice list of good tomatoes, the ones you mention I have tried, I can 2nd they are good for what they are.

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31

I think I sent you those Siberian Pink seeds. Give them a shot, I think you’ll like them.

When should I start my super hot peppers, I know it takes a long time to get them going. I have a heat pad for my seed trays, just was wondering when to start. Is there a trick to help them along, or just does it take a lot of heat and time to get them to sprout?

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32

They like heat, that works really well. I start them late myself. And thanks for the seeds, I have so many I forget what I have! Some start in February I wait till March.
They tend to grow slow, but once of size produce like crazy. So I start about the 1st of March at the earliest. @thepodpiper is the expert, see what he says?

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33

Something to think about is how many are you starting and do you have lots of room under your lights. The sooner you start the bigger they will be at plantout.

Pubescens and chinense species are usually the slowest to grow so start them first. also any wild varieties because some take forever to sprout.

I have had some chinense species of peppers take up to a month or more to germinate.

I like to germinate on the high heat side but if your setup is not real accurate you risk the chance of frying the seeds and I think 125 deg will surely fry them. I like 90 deg but 80-86 is good.

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34

Stan, it’s supposed to be 75 days, but in my experience, it’s more like 90. Though I’ve had trouble the last two years up here in the Hudson Valley, even with full sun, tomatoes aren’t really growing as fast as usual.

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35

The Cherokee Chocolate is indeed a “more stable” version of Cherokee Purple, though the coloring isn’t that much different. It’s a terrific tomato by any standard.

Aunt Ruby’s German Green changed my mind about green tomatoes 10 years ago when we started trying more heirlooms. It is rich, and spicy, almost with a black pepper vibe. Absolutely perfect with olive oil and salt.

The Brandywine OTV is a seed that came from the Off The Vine club and released by Carolyn Male, who wrote my favorite book on tomatoes. She says “it is not a strain of Brandywine, but is the result of an accidental cross between Yellow Brandywine and an unknown male parent.” However, it is indistinguishable from the Brandywines everyone knows and loves, except even more buttery and substantial in my opinion. It is straight-up red, and is about as prolific as any yellow or pink Brandywine.

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36

Thanks for the info. I may have to give Aunt Ruby’s another shot then next year if it’s that good. We tried it last year, and it was a beautiful big plant with huge leaves. It produced a few mammoth fruits, but we didn’t get enough ripe ones to judge it.

We grew Cherokee Purple the first three years here. The first year was the best as far as flavor goes, the next couple seasons, we never really got any properly ripened ones.

The BW OTV sounds interesting. Is it more productive than a regular BW?

37

Thanks. I just have a couple Ferry Morse heat mats, they’re not adjustable, but get pretty warm. I guess just plant them in the soil medium, and make sure they’re sufficiently moist. I have a hex pod planter with about 72 pods, with a plastic greenhouse lid. That should keep them warm and humid. Guess I could put a thermometer on there to see how warm they get.

When do you typically start your chinense versions?

38

I use a thermostat in the soil that cuts power off when temp is reached, and back on etc.

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39

Cherokee Purple in my experience is very stable and consistent. Brandywine OTV is more productive than the other Brandywines, but not more than Eva Purple Ball. If given a choice between OTV, Druzba, and Box Car Willie, I would grow Druzba first and Box Car Willie second. This does not mean OTV is a poor tomato. It is an excellent flavored slicer. I just prefer the flavor of Druzba and Box Car willie.

When starting super hot peppers, bottom heat is very important. I’ve found that they germinate more consistently if I water well when I plant the seed, then let the soil dry out before watering again. The second watering for some reason hits the sweet spot for super hot peppers. The soil should not entirely dry out, just dry enough that it is visibly dry and crumbly. Do NOT plant the seed deep. They should barely be covered over with good quality seed start mix. Peppers benefit from light as early in their growth as possible. Shallow planting helps them get that early light.

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40

Thanks for your (and @thepodpiper) tips on peppers. Do you use a light on them while they’re also on the heat pad?

What is on your list for 'mater’s for next year?