Need help with my list

[happydog]

If you can stand to read yet another list

Thanks mainly to brokenbar and a couple of other generous folks, and some trades, I have more tomato seeds than I can plant this year. I have to narrow this down. This is ridiculous. I HAVE TO set a limit. So my limit is 70 varieties.

Here are the first 45 that I'm definitely growing this year (unless somebody says they won't produce in my climate or there are better choices):

Paste
*Cows Tit
*Amish Paste
*Opalka
*Gallo Plum
*Wes
*Sarznowski’s Polish
*Polish Linguisa

Ox Heart –
*Reif Red Heart
*Anna Russian
*Thielmons Australian Heart
*Oleyars German
*Quoro d’Toro/Bull’s Heart
*Erdie Family Oxheart

Beefsteak –
*KBX
*Earl’s Faux
*Sicilian Saucer
*Kellogs Breakfast
*Goji Faranji
*Marianna’s Peace
*Brandywine Sudduth
*Pruden’s Purple
*Red Pear Beefsteak

Culinary –
*Canestrino #1
*Costoluto Genovese

Black –
*Black Bear
*Paul Robison
*Tula
*Black Krim

Other colors –
*Spear’s Tennessee Green
*Berkeley Tie Dye
*Eva’s Purple Ball
*Pineapple

Misc (clearly I need help with tomato categorizing) -
*Redfield Beauty
*Bonny Best
*Oregon Spring
*Thessaloniki
*Limmony
*Siberian

Cherry –
*Black Cherry
*Isis
*Aunt Ruby’s German Green Cherry
*Blondkopfchen
*Tommy Toe Red
*Riesentraube

Storage Tomato –
*Yellow Out Red In

Now I only need to pick the best 25 out of the following list. My preference is for tangy, full flavored tomatoes. I'm also going to be drying a lot and making sauces and salsa. Can you tell me which of the following are MUST HAVES? Or which aren't that great? Or if none of them are spectacular maybe I should just plant more from the above list?

Nicks
German Red Strawberry
Sylvan Gaume
Palestinian
Mrs Underwood PG Giant
Russian Rose
Holyland
Brandywine
Walters Candy Stripe
Bisignano #2
Landino Di Panocchio
Russo Sicilian Togeta
Old German
Amana Orange
Black Prince
Black Master
Cherokee Black
Black Pineapple
Tim’s Black Ruffles
Noire de Crimee
Russian Black
Big Rainbow
Great White
White Queen
Rose Beauty
Purple Calabash
Golden Pineapple
Green Sausage
Pink Boar
Striped Serendipity
Fantom Du Laos
Guernsey Pink Blush
Clear Pink Early
Striped Red Boar
Pink Peach
Faded Tie Dye
Voyage
Druzba
Super Sioux
Guernsey Island
Royal Hillbilly
Butterworth’s Potato Leaf
Extreme Bush
Rutgers
Verna Orange
Speckled Striped Roma
Carol Chyko
Chinese
Principe Borghese
Pink Brandywine
Jelly Beans
Chocolate Cherry
Medford
Henderson's Pink Ponderosa
Paquebot's Roma
Zapotec
Coursen Roy’s Stuffing
Schimmeig Striped Hollow

And heaven help me - I still have a want list, although it's very short but I'll probably end up with these, too: Shannon’s (well I have to have this one, it's my daughters name), Stupice, and Sioux (cause hey, it's all about the flavor.)

ok, to be perfectly honest, I really have a want list of about 30 more but really I MUST develop some measure of self control.

[stormymater]

I have some extra Sioux - if you would like some, shoot me a tomatomail - it's a full-flavored red workhorse - nice on a platter and great in salsa & sauce. I'm growing it again. (So much for self-control - I actually got access to unused garden space already tilled with water access LOL).

[happydog]

Thanks for the generous offer, I sent you a tmail. I thought I had Sioux already but when I went through my seeds I found I had Super Sioux instead. And I really NEED Sioux.

I received a pm about Erdie Family Oxheart (which I had misspelled.) I got it in a trade and don't recall how it jumped onto my *To Plant* list. I can't find much online about it either except for one place that describes it as "Large pinkish red heart shaped variety. Few seeds. Meaty texture and great flavor." Anybody know of it?

Anyhow, thanks for any contributions to my list. We're expecting snow (AGAIN ) and tomatoes are my only reason for living right now.

[habitat_gardener]

I'd add Druzba to your must-haves. I've grown it 2 years and it's been a great-tasting red that's productive and reliable until frost for me.

[PNW_D]

Haven't grown a lot on your 2nd string, but I would add Sylvan Gaume to your must grows ......

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Sylvan_Gaume

And, a wee clarification - Speckled Striped Roma?? this is different from Speckled Roman? - another one I would recommend

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Speckled_Roman

really good roasted

[dipchip2000]

Grow the Royal Hillbilly, my all time favorite and very productive with 12 to 16 ozs very common. Flavor to me is unbeatable.
Also grow Carbon if you can get it. My wifes all time favorite and I dont mind eating it either. Good producer of med to large very dark to purple beefsteaks with excellent flavor.
Dont worry about the addiction to growing tomatos because it is terminal, so just run with it.
ron

[piegirl]

I would eliminate the Old German - great tasting but very very low production, Purple Calabash - I think there is another post regarding PC, and the Speckled Striped Roman - haven't grown it but we sampled it at our Tomatofest - while certainly one of the most take- your-breathe-away beautiful tomatoes - the taste was awful, maybe it makes good sauce? Principe Borghese is a workhorse - not matter what the weather - we get very high humidity here(most of the summer) high temps and droughts - she always, always performs, disease resistant. Piegirl

[barefootgardener]

Carol Chyko is supposed to be excellent for drying. I am growing it this year..Also Russo Sicilian Togeta is supposed to be excellent for drying, I am still looking for a few seeds for this one..

I love Old German. . The taste is outstanding and it is a large tomato!
Production can be a crap shot though..some years I get a pretty good production for OG.. and others so-so...But I grow it regardless because of it's excellent taste...and I have the room to grow many diff. varieties , so it is not a problem for me to choose..(until I get older and cant keep up or get up anymore! )

Ginny

[stormymater]

These are 2 from your list I grew last year & LOVED.
Sylvan Gaume
Royal Hillbilly
White Queen

Liked Big Rainbow a lot but production was low for me (I had 3 plants) - I suspect too hot & humid here - I would give 'er a whirl in Boone (big bicolors love western NC).

I was underwhelmed by Chocolate Cherry - both in production & flavor - not a spitter though. Would grow again in a raised bed or container as it was hard hit by root knot nematodes where I had it - to be fair.

Oh,& that Purple Calabash - we liked it alot ... enough to grow again this year (so we fall into THAT camp LOL)

[chalstonsc]

How tall do the Royal Hillbilly plants get?

[dipchip2000]

Chalstonsc,,
The plants get large but only 4 to5 feet tall but get 4 ft wide also. They do not get 6 or 8 ft tall like Brandywine and some others I grew. By all means try them and you will have them back every year.
ron

[nctomatoman]

I will take a whack at your list from my growing experience. I can suggest a baker's dozen from the back up (second tier) list -

German Red Strawberry - one of the few red hearts, great flavor
Brandywine - worth trying just to find out why so many people love it - be sure to go for the Quisenberry sourced Brandywine.
Bisignano #2 - really fine variety, a favorite for many years for us
Great White - probably the best large white, very uniform/smooth fruit
White Queen - one of the first commercial whites, from the 1940s. nice flavor for a white
Clear Pink Early - I've not grown it but heard good things about it
Druzba - very reliable yielder, nice looking tasty medium red
Super Sioux - again, I've not grown it but heard good things - a nice standard red
Rutgers - historically important and still around, so worth checking out
Verna Orange - not the best flavored orange heart, but really heavily yielding
Speckled Striped Roma - real name probably just Speckled Roman (long, pepper shaped red fruit with jagged gold stripes) - if so, a nice variety
Principe Borghese - if you want to do sun dried tomatoes, this is supposedly "the" variety
Henderson's Pink Ponderosa - first commercial large pink, worth checking out as a benchmark


Comments on two others -
Cherokee Black - what is this? There is Cherokee Purple and Cherokee Chocolate...Cherokee Black doesn't (or shouldn't!) exist. Probably a rename.
Pink Brandywine - same as Brandywine, above

hope that helps...just one person's opinion!

[Tormato]

KBX (PL) and Kellogg's Breakfast (RL) produce the same tomato. So, you could drop one of them, and add one more variety.

Tormato

[nctomatoman]

Actually, Tormato, not at all in my experience. I find Kellogg's Breakfast to be less oblate/rounder, more deep orange, milder in flavor - it is not one of our favorites - while we find KBX to be more like Yellow Brandywine and Aunt Gertie's Gold in color and flavor and shape.

It is another case where it wasn't a simple leaf flip....it is either a stabilization of an outcross, or a mixup.

[Barbee]

I grew Black Krim and Noir de Crimee both last year. To my taste buds, they are the same. A very good tomato but you could probably grow one or the other and cut your list down a bit.