What are the most overrated varieties? - Page 6

Suze · October 22, 2009

Marianna's Peace. I've grown this variety three times and it always fails to deliver.

What happens in my garden/growing conditions is that (a) it seems to be more susceptible to early blight than many of the other varieties I've grown, and (b) it takes awhile to start setting fruit. That is a major double whammy here in Texas.

So - basically, by the time the plants have set (few) fruit, the plants are so diseased that fruits don't reach their full potential for flavor or size, and/or they get sunscald. Just my experience.

creister · October 23, 2009

I've never had great luck with Mariana's Peace as well. For me, the most reliable large pink for taste and production has been Earl's FAux. Some years Aunt Ginny's Purple does well, some years not. I think season to season variation really is the major variable in my area.

b54red · October 24, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

I've seen several posts reflecting poor flavor or other traits for varieties that I grow and enjoy. There are others that I can't stand, real spitters.

Yellow Pear - this is the blandest tomato I've ever eaten.

Caspian Pink - hyped to the moon several years ago as a really good tasting heirloom by a major seed company, but the flavor is insipid at best.

Juliet - too firm, no juice, absolutely bland flavor for me.

I could name a dozen more, but most of them are hybrids.

What was the very best tasting tomato I tried this year? Hang on to your hats folks, it was a small bicolor elongated cherry tomato that came out of a cross of Sungold X Little Lucky. The sweetness was in the candy tomato range, the flavor was the very best of Little Lucky. It is not available yet because the seed are only at F3 and have to go out a few more generations to see if they can be stabilized.

Cecil, if you can send me an email, I have an open pollinated tomato that I would like you to try. It seems to perform best under challenging conditions. please include BBEPB in the email so I will remember which seed to send.

DarJones

Though I don't like Juliet it is wonderful compared to one called Early Challenge which not only has no taste but will not ripen even when it turns color on the outside it remains hard as a rock and green on the inside. The only tomato I've grown that has less taste and worst texture than a bad store bought tom in mid winter.
The best tasting for me this year other than cherry types was Paul Robeson. The Brandy Boy was close and the only tomato with the word Brandywine that has ever produced a tomato for me.

b54red · October 24, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Suze

Marianna's Peace. I've grown this variety three times and it always fails to deliver.

What happens in my garden/growing conditions is that (a) it seems to be more susceptible to early blight than many of the other varieties I've grown, and (b) it takes awhile to start setting fruit. That is a major double whammy here in Texas.

So - basically, by the time the plants have set (few) fruit, the plants are so diseased that fruits don't reach their full potential for flavor or size, and/or they get sunscald. Just my experience.

You might want to try setting Marianna's Peace out much latter than you would some other varieties. This past year was an awful year for disease so I planted most of my heirloom varieties at 3 or 4 different times. The MPs I planted in April got early blight bad and died. The ones I planted in mid June did terrific. The ones I planted in early July did fair. The one I set out on Aug. 4 has set some nice sized fruit if it has time to finish.
Some of the ones I put out in mid June withstood disease better than some of my Big Beefs. Cabernet, and Celebrity. It set fruit even when temps were above 100. I've saved some seed from the one that did the best (though I didn't bag) to see if next year I can reproduce the results from that remarkable plant.

creister · October 24, 2009

I may give that a try. What zone are you in?

camochef · October 24, 2009

I've been growing tomatoes for 50 years now. Over that amount of time my locations have changed quite a few times. I was still able to pick out what I felt was the best each year , do away with the real losers, give some on the edge a second or third chance, and eventually have a pretty good sized list of favorites.
I've been living where I am now for 27 years, and while I rotate crops and change garden locations, the soil conditions remain pretty much the same. There are major differences from year to year because of weather conditions. I've learned over the years that certain varieties do better under certain conditions. The amount of water they receive is very important to their taste and texture.
I had a friend that brought me a Mr. Stripey, the large beefsteak variety, not the english tigerella. It tasted fantastic. the next year I planted 7 of them. They were all "spitters", bland and mushy. I then found out that he never ever watered his gardens. What nature supplied was what they got...period.
I also grew Kellogg's Breakfast that same year, mushy and bland after the 1st or 2nd that actually tasted good. It dawned on me that it was the water. The next year I held back on watering those two varieties and the difference was like night and day. They both did much better as far as taste and texture.
This year I planted all my favorite varieties first, started planting them in the garden on April 28th and continued through May 22nd. I then began planting the "new to me" varieties on May 24th in the other garden. Continueed planting until June 6th. replaced some damaged plants on June 23rd. calling it quits with about 230 some odd tomato plants of 77 varieties.
It was a very cool and wet year hear till August when we finally got to see the sun and warm up a little. Almost all of my early planted "favorites" did terrible. There were a few exceptions, Amazon Chocolate and Sandul Moldovan both stood out as tasty tomatoes even in the cool and wet conditions, but it was the much later planted "new to me" varieties that really produced well and tasted so much better.
JD's Special C-Tex did exceptionally well as did Dana's Dusky Rose, and Lillian Maciejewski's Poland Pink. Barlow Jap and Black Master as well as Mrs Benson and my old favorite Cowlick Brandywine did well too but Cowlick, which is usually my #1 tomato dropped al the way to #9.
Tarasenko6 and Preacher Joe were great and Swisher Sweet rounded out the top dozen. There were many new varieties that have been added to my all time favorites this year, and will be part of future gardens.
Cherokee Purple which has been in the top 5 for quite a few years, taking the #1 spot in 2008, dropped all the way to #43 this year, they just had no taste at all. Brandywine -Glick's which has riviled my Cowlicks for the last few years as far as taste, came in at #14 this year, and even though they are always fairly large and meaty, this year they were sensational, almost every one was over two pounds.
Going the other direction, Black Brandywine, which I thought was the best "black" tomato last year out of close to 30 black varieties I had planted dropped to #56 this year.
I had one tomato that I didn't get to taste the first one until the 15th of September that was quite delightful and might have been the best tasting tomato of the year, except most of its competition was gone and I wouldn't dare try to place it going on just my memory alone. It lists as being a golden yellow with some having pink overtones. Those I picked at such a late date were all pink, which I read could be contributed to the cool wet weather we had. It was a very tasty tomato.
I also got to pick my first Daniel on Oct 4th, another tasty tomato, but no competition on that one either.
The last three plants to have tomatoes on them this year were: Cowlick's Brandywine, which also produced the very first ripe tomato this year, Indian Stripe, and Cherokee Purple which was a total shock as most years it's one of the first plants to call it quits.
So, I apoligize for being long-winded, but wanted to point out how much weather effects tomatoes even growing them on the same 5 acres. We also had a devil of a time this year with diseases in this area. I didn't get anywhere near the seeds I usually save and almost all of them are already spoken for.
Camo

b54red · October 25, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by creister

I may give that a try. What zone are you in?

I believe I'm in zone 8b. This year was kind of crazy weather wise. Our hottest was in late June and early July with too much rain from mid July til now. I had so many badly split tomatoes the ground was covered with them. Even so it was better than those years when watering was a constant problem.

OmahaJB · October 31, 2009

Camo,

As a still fairly inexperienced outdoor gardener, I'm curious if your friend who never watered his plants had much trouble with BER. Maybe he didn't mention whether he did or not but I'm curious.

During the 2008 growing season, which was my first for outdoors, I did not water on an even enough bases. Maybe twice a week. The plants looked like they really needed watering by the time I made it to the garden each time I visited. Then I probably over-watered a little because I knew I wouldn't make it over there until 3 or 4 days later. It led to alot of BER. I mean ALOT.

This past summer I watered more often, maybe every 2 or 3 days depending on when they needed it, and gave the plants less water each time than I did the previous summer. Absolutely no BER problems this year. We had a pretty mild summer in this region of the country, so that may have played a part as well.

Anyway, that's what came to mind when reading your post. Just curious about your friend's method of not watering.

Jeff

Farmer Matt · October 31, 2009

This is the first year that I have planted alott of hierlooms, in California we do not get any rain in the summer. So watering my plant's was a adventure, because where I live we get alott of 95to 100 degree day's and the night.s stay warm. So I had to water evey 3 days with 1 gallon emitter's, for 2 hrs., in the early morning about 6:00 am or after dark. If I watered in the heat of the day all of my tomato's would split. My best tomato's this year where Aunt Gina's Purple, Cherokee Purple, Kellogg's Breakfast, Hawaiin Pinapple, Juliett was one of my customer favorate's also sungold.
Some that did not grow good with mussy mater's where Hughs, Aunt Rubys German Green. Maybe it was the heat.

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October 22, 2009	#76
Suze Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Texas Posts: 3,027	Marianna's Peace. I've grown this variety three times and it always fails to deliver. What happens in my garden/growing conditions is that (a) it seems to be more susceptible to early blight than many of the other varieties I've grown, and (b) it takes awhile to start setting fruit. That is a major double whammy here in Texas. So - basically, by the time the plants have set (few) fruit, the plants are so diseased that fruits don't reach their full potential for flavor or size, and/or they get sunscald. Just my experience.

October 23, 2009	#77
creister Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Abilene, TX zone 7 Posts: 1,478	I've never had great luck with Mariana's Peace as well. For me, the most reliable large pink for taste and production has been Earl's FAux. Some years Aunt Ginny's Purple does well, some years not. I think season to season variation really is the major variable in my area.

October 24, 2009	#80
creister Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Abilene, TX zone 7 Posts: 1,478	I may give that a try. What zone are you in?

October 24, 2009	#81
camochef Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Posts: 707	I've been growing tomatoes for 50 years now. Over that amount of time my locations have changed quite a few times. I was still able to pick out what I felt was the best each year , do away with the real losers, give some on the edge a second or third chance, and eventually have a pretty good sized list of favorites. I've been living where I am now for 27 years, and while I rotate crops and change garden locations, the soil conditions remain pretty much the same. There are major differences from year to year because of weather conditions. I've learned over the years that certain varieties do better under certain conditions. The amount of water they receive is very important to their taste and texture. I had a friend that brought me a Mr. Stripey, the large beefsteak variety, not the english tigerella. It tasted fantastic. the next year I planted 7 of them. They were all "spitters", bland and mushy. I then found out that he never ever watered his gardens. What nature supplied was what they got...period. I also grew Kellogg's Breakfast that same year, mushy and bland after the 1st or 2nd that actually tasted good. It dawned on me that it was the water. The next year I held back on watering those two varieties and the difference was like night and day. They both did much better as far as taste and texture. This year I planted all my favorite varieties first, started planting them in the garden on April 28th and continued through May 22nd. I then began planting the "new to me" varieties on May 24th in the other garden. Continueed planting until June 6th. replaced some damaged plants on June 23rd. calling it quits with about 230 some odd tomato plants of 77 varieties. It was a very cool and wet year hear till August when we finally got to see the sun and warm up a little. Almost all of my early planted "favorites" did terrible. There were a few exceptions, Amazon Chocolate and Sandul Moldovan both stood out as tasty tomatoes even in the cool and wet conditions, but it was the much later planted "new to me" varieties that really produced well and tasted so much better. JD's Special C-Tex did exceptionally well as did Dana's Dusky Rose, and Lillian Maciejewski's Poland Pink. Barlow Jap and Black Master as well as Mrs Benson and my old favorite Cowlick Brandywine did well too but Cowlick, which is usually my #1 tomato dropped al the way to #9. Tarasenko6 and Preacher Joe were great and Swisher Sweet rounded out the top dozen. There were many new varieties that have been added to my all time favorites this year, and will be part of future gardens. Cherokee Purple which has been in the top 5 for quite a few years, taking the #1 spot in 2008, dropped all the way to #43 this year, they just had no taste at all. Brandywine -Glick's which has riviled my Cowlicks for the last few years as far as taste, came in at #14 this year, and even though they are always fairly large and meaty, this year they were sensational, almost every one was over two pounds. Going the other direction, Black Brandywine, which I thought was the best "black" tomato last year out of close to 30 black varieties I had planted dropped to #56 this year. I had one tomato that I didn't get to taste the first one until the 15th of September that was quite delightful and might have been the best tasting tomato of the year, except most of its competition was gone and I wouldn't dare try to place it going on just my memory alone. It lists as being a golden yellow with some having pink overtones. Those I picked at such a late date were all pink, which I read could be contributed to the cool wet weather we had. It was a very tasty tomato. I also got to pick my first Daniel on Oct 4th, another tasty tomato, but no competition on that one either. The last three plants to have tomatoes on them this year were: Cowlick's Brandywine, which also produced the very first ripe tomato this year, Indian Stripe, and Cherokee Purple which was a total shock as most years it's one of the first plants to call it quits. So, I apoligize for being long-winded, but wanted to point out how much weather effects tomatoes even growing them on the same 5 acres. We also had a devil of a time this year with diseases in this area. I didn't get anywhere near the seeds I usually save and almost all of them are already spoken for. Camo

October 31, 2009	#83
OmahaJB Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Toledo, OH Posts: 1,821	Camo, As a still fairly inexperienced outdoor gardener, I'm curious if your friend who never watered his plants had much trouble with BER. Maybe he didn't mention whether he did or not but I'm curious. During the 2008 growing season, which was my first for outdoors, I did not water on an even enough bases. Maybe twice a week. The plants looked like they really needed watering by the time I made it to the garden each time I visited. Then I probably over-watered a little because I knew I wouldn't make it over there until 3 or 4 days later. It led to alot of BER. I mean ALOT. This past summer I watered more often, maybe every 2 or 3 days depending on when they needed it, and gave the plants less water each time than I did the previous summer. Absolutely no BER problems this year. We had a pretty mild summer in this region of the country, so that may have played a part as well. Anyway, that's what came to mind when reading your post. Just curious about your friend's method of not watering. Jeff

October 31, 2009	#84
Farmer Matt Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Tracy, California Posts: 63	This is the first year that I have planted alott of hierlooms, in California we do not get any rain in the summer. So watering my plant's was a adventure, because where I live we get alott of 95to 100 degree day's and the night.s stay warm. So I had to water evey 3 days with 1 gallon emitter's, for 2 hrs., in the early morning about 6:00 am or after dark. If I watered in the heat of the day all of my tomato's would split. My best tomato's this year where Aunt Gina's Purple, Cherokee Purple, Kellogg's Breakfast, Hawaiin Pinapple, Juliett was one of my customer favorate's also sungold. Some that did not grow good with mussy mater's where Hughs, Aunt Rubys German Green. Maybe it was the heat.