Tomato reviews

[Barbee]

While my salsa is cooking and I'm stuck inside the house, I thought I'd take advantage of the time and do some tomato reviews.

I didn't have a great season. I got plenty of tomatoes, but not like normal. I'm blaming it on the weather and will grow most of the varieties again next year before deciding on whether to keep them. Here goes.

Black Krim- This is a staple in my garden. Taste was so so this year, but in a normal year they are one of my favorite tomatoes. They'll be back.
Black from Tula- This plant didn't produce many tomatoes and what it did produce was small. But it was very tasty and with all the rain we had, I'm anxious to try it in a normal year. It will be back.
Better Boy- lost early on. No tomatoes set. Will not be back and will be replaced by something else.
Earl's Faux- Tasty tomatoes, but on the small side. Not much production. It may or may not be back next year.
Marianna's Peace- Low production, but in a normal year, this one pumped out the tomatoes for me. And they taste great. It will be back.
Costoluto Genovese- This is a pretty tomato and while production was not great, it works well for making sauces. It will get another chance next year.
Delicious-Lost early on. Plant struggled with disease from the get go. I'm over it.
Box Car Willie- Tiny tomatoes and low production. I was talking to a guy at CHOPTAG and we decided that we may have the imposter BCW. I will order seeds from somewhere else next year and try it again.
JD's Special C-Tex- Low production but taste was outstanding. It will be back for another try.
KBX- Low production but great taste. It will get planted again.
Ed's New Millenium- Low production, very good taste. It will be back for another try.
Aunt Ruby's German Green- Good production, but I'm just not crazy about the taste. Tasted Speers Tenn Green at CHOPTAG and loved it. I think I'll replace the ARGG with STG.
Noir de Crimee- Earl and I discussed this at CHOPTAG. We traded off plants at the swap and each grew both NdC and BK this year. Conclusion was the taste was pretty much the same as Black Krim. I will probably drop this one and stick with the BK.
Black Brandwine (regular leaf)- My earliest ripe tomato this year. Nice looking, tons of production. Taste was so so. I think I'll try it again before deciding.
Berkeley Tie Dye- Haven't tasted one yet. I have a ripe one sitting on the counter, so I'll have to edit my post after trying it.
Goose Creek- Okay in taste, low production. I will try this one again. Maybe not next year, but I will give it another shot.
Yellow Red Butt- A tomato machine. Gorgeous to look at and taste is very good. It will be back.
Burrackers Favorite- Taste is about like Yellow Red Butt. Tomatoes are huge and plenty of production. It will be back.
Lucky Cross- Haven't gotten to taste this one yet. Picked my 2nd ripe one today. The first one went to CHOPTAG and I was too busy yapping and when I went to taste it, it was gone. So I'll have to get back to you on it.
Just had this for lunch. Wow! This is one good tomato. It will be back.
Big Yellow- Plenty of production and the name is fitting as the tomatoes are giant. Taste is not to my liking. It won't be back.
Stick- Fun to look at the plant, but taste is bleck. Not coming back.
Aunt Lou- Plenty of production and decent taste. I'm just not sure I'll grow it again. This was a local heirloom and I passed the seeds on to Gary so he can keep it going.
Earl's Mystery #14- Ugh. Enough said.
Cherokee Purple- Low production but outstanding taste. It will get another grow out. I was expecting it to look like a black tomato and it's really a strange color. I will call it brownish red.
Lynwood- This was a substitute from Darrel (replacing NAR). I liked it a lot and the production was great. It will be back.

[montanamato]

Thanks so much for the review....Seems this year no one is giving much info from taste tests or home grow outs....
Reviews are my favorite part of vegie discussion groups...
I had a very bad year, but should be able to detail my tomato and pepper grow outs in a few weeks...

Jeanne

[Barbee]

I need to pick up a couple of early and mid season varieties. All the ones I grow seem to be lates and I am about to die for some tomato goodness much earlier in the season.

I love the reviews, too, because while everyone's taste buds are different, usually whoever is doing the reviewing has grown something I've grown before and I can get a good idea if I will like a tomato by their likes or dislikes.

And while my season was cool and wet, you wouldn't know it by my peppers. Good grief, I've got peppers everywhere and they are huge and beautiful. I planted 4 jalapeno plants and I'm picking 50+ peppers off each plant so far. Same with the bananas, pimentos, and the squash peppers. The sweet bell peppers are not putting as many peppers on, but what's on there are huge. My white hab is loaded with peppers, too, I have just been holding off picking them as I don't know what to do with them I think I'm going to try pickling some jalapenos and give them away as Xmas gifts LoL

[Blueaussi]

Where did you get your Yellow Red Butt seeds? You're the second person I've seen speak highly of it, and with a name like that it sounds fun to grow, too.

[rsg2001]

I'm not done yet with the season, but at best have a couple of weeks left. I'd say my harvest of regular and larger tomatoes was half of what it usually is due to the rainy cool conditions of June and some disease (mostly early blight and gray spot), however, I'm not complaining because I know this is still better than many in the northeast this year. As I have a moment, here are my reviews:
Eva Purple Ball. As usual, one of the best producers in my garden. It's early to midseason here in zone 6. Mid-size pink-purple tomato with a winey, juicy taste, and has always been very easy to grow. This is now a staple in my garden and one of my all-time favorites.
Black. First time I grew this. It was a good producer of medium black tomatoes and a classic black tomato taste, very good, juicy and savory. It was going good guns (15+ tomatoes) but then was stricken with a similar condition that I've seen with Black Cherry, where branches just start crisping up - it doesn't seem to be one of the diseases that are pictured in any of reference web sites. Definitely not late blight. I will grow this again.
Cherokee Chocolate. This did better for me last year; I've gotten just a couple tomatoes out of one of the plants this year, while last year I had a medium amount. And the second plant that was supposed to be Cherokee Chocolate was something else, small plum shaped (bigger than a big cherry) tomatoes that grew in clusters of three to seven. I believe it's Black Plum, and I saved some seeds to grow out next year to see if it grows true.This mystery black tomato is very delicious and also quite prolific.
Hillbilly. Big disappointment this year. Last year, I had loads of large bicolor tomatoes from this variety, but this year virtually nothing.
Kimberly. Delicious small tomato, moderate production, on the early side. This produced consistently the two years in a row of grown it and it will be back.
Lemon Boy. Good production, some disease resistance, and utterly delicious medium round yellow tomatoes.
Brandywine. Produced very late (no surprise there) - three nice looking big tomatoes on the plant; can't wait till they turn ripe so I can taste them.
Big Raspberry. Also a late producer, there are five big ones coming - first year I've grown it; haven't tasted it yet.
Sungold. Dependable, large production of tangy sweet orange cherry tomatoes. Production is down around 20% this year, but still great. I plant two of them in a big self-watering pot - last year, the yield was around 450, and I have 325 so far with just a few remaining to be picked - the plants are just about at the end.
Black Cherry. Also great production; the first few were not very tasty, but now almost at the end of the season they are outrageously good.
Yellow Currant: Big disappointment. The two plants got sick pretty early - looked like early blight - though they did produce a moderate amount of tiny yellow cherry tomatoes. I found them pretty tasteless, and they won't be back. Oddly, while one plant was in the ground and one in a pot, not near each other, they both had the same disease.
Moravsky Div - wonderful small tomato (bigger than a cherry), delicious, full, red tomato taste. Good yield.
Pozhar - small to medium pink-red tomato that's scrumptious, moderate yield.
Marizol Purple - I got one big tomato out of this plant before it gave up the ghost. The tomato though was a very special beefsteak and I'll try this one again next year and try to plant it in a more favorable place in the garden.
Royesta - This too was planted in the back row but has managed to produce two very pretty medium to large tomatoes. I haven't tried them yet, but hope they taste as good as they look.
Lime Green Salad - I grew two or three in a pot and they usually provide a good yield of green when ripe small to medium tomatoes. They are fun when you cut them up in a salad with tomatoes of other colors.
Riesentraube -I tried these for the first time, planted in a pot. I was disappointed with the production (large cherry tomatoes, round with a point on the bottom), but they are very tasty. Not sure if I will try them again.
Indian Stripe - jury is out. Just getting the first tomato out of this.
Jaunne Flamme - I was pretty disappointed in this one but it may not have been its fault - I believe it succumbed to fusarium or verticillium wilt. The few small orange tomatoes were very tasty but it swooned pretty quickly.

[Barbee]

I first tasted Yellow Red Butt at the CHOPTAG tasting in 2008. It won best tasting tomato that year. I believe it is an Atwood heirloom...which is local to our area.
I picked a plant up at the CHOPTAG plant swap this past spring.
I don't know if the seeds are available to buy anywhere or not? Maybe one of the CHOPTAG'ers in the know will read this and respond.

[Barbee]

rsg,
Thanks for the info. I have heard several people mention both Eva Purple Ball and Kimberly as being excellent early tomatoes. I'm writing both in my little tomato journal so I'll remember it this winter.

[Blueaussi]

Originally Posted by Barbee

I first tasted Yellow Red Butt at the CHOPTAG tasting in 2008. It won best tasting tomato that year. I believe it is an Atwood heirloom...which is local to our area.
I picked a plant up at the CHOPTAG plant swap this past spring.
I don't know if the seeds are available to buy anywhere or not? Maybe one of the CHOPTAG'ers in the know will read this and respond.

Good information! If it's local to your area, it might not do as well here in the Great Mildew State. Thanks.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Barbee

rsg,
Thanks for the info. I have heard several people mention both Eva Purple Ball and Kimberly as being excellent early tomatoes. I'm writing both in my little tomato journal so I'll remember it this winter.

Barbee, Eva Purple Ball I see as a solid midseason variety, not an early, but yes,Kimberly is an early and similar to Matina and Bloody Butcher and Stupice in size and shape but I prefer the taste of Kimberly. Sophie's Choice from Edmonton, Canada is another good early with large fruits, unlike many of the earlies.

I don't deliberately grow early varieties anymore ( sometimes I get a new variety and don't know it's an early) b'c I feel with just a couple of weeks more I can have some really great tasting midseason varieties since I've found that the taste of many so called earlies leaves a lot to be desired re taste, at least for me.

[Barbee]

Good info to know Carolyn and thanks!
I tasted Stump of the World at CHOPTAG and loved it. I thought it was a mid season tomato but when I came home and looked it up, it appears to be a late season.
When looking for a mid season variety, should I look at DTM or?

[garnetmoth]

We loved your Black Krim!
Stump was a good one, sorry to read that it is later...
greatly enjoyed black cherry
coyote is neat tasting, but if Im going to eat something that sweet, I think I prefer the complexity of ground cherries!
at our place, Marmande VF is OK, DeBarao black volunteer is good, and the Romanian tomatoes are pretty good.
Clear Pink Early always makes me happy

[rsg2001]

Carolyn wrote: "Eva Purple Ball I see as a solid midseason variety, not an early..."

In my garden, EPB produces on the earlyish side; this year of the non-cherry varieties the order of getting ripe tomatoes was 1) Moravsky Div, 2) Kimberly, 3) EPB, 4) Black.

Moravsky started to produce tomatoes under the grow lights, actually.

[spyfferoni]

Eva's Purple Ball was one of the latest tomatoes I grew, but I've only grown it one year. It must not like the hot dry summers we have and that causes it to set fruit later. It is amazing how location and climate can effect DTM.