Your best variety this season?

[sjamesNorway]

All things considered, which variety do you regard as your best this season, and why?

Steve

[sjamesNorway]

I'll go first. For me it was George Detsikas Italian Red. It was productive outside in a summer with few nighttime lows over 10C (50F), and the taste is old-fashioned with just the right touch of sweetness. We also like the creamy texture. Sukharnyi Pudovichok (also grown outside) was a very close second, being a bit sweeter in taste, and might have won if it hadn't had quite a bit of concentric cracking. I'm going to grow both outdoors and in the greenhouse next season.

Steve

[Cole_Robbie]

I had a tomato seed pack come to me in a swap simply labelled "Russian." From a market grower perspective, it was perfect. Big, red, round and unblemished fruit on a very compact plant that would have done fine on just a stake. Taste was excellent. I'm growing a lot more of it next year.

[Ricky Shaw]

Crnkovic Yugoslavian

An excellent balance of taste and production. with habits that respond well to containers and my fertilization methods.

*Big Beef and Cosmonaut Volkov were the only toms that produced better in my 2016 garden, but the Crnkovic Yugoslavian had far the superior taste.

[MendozaMark]

Black Plum for me, it was by far the strongest tomato plant in the garden. It was in full production until frost got it. Taste was good, I really wish i had dehydrated some. It did get foliar disease later in the season but it did not stop it from producing like crazy. In my Mendoza garden, only cherries, olpaka paste and the Russian black types did well.

Purple Russian was really good, and produced really well early in the season. When the hot weather hit, it died off pretty quickly. I was one month late getting my 30 % shade cloth up, and would have tried it again.

[Labradors2]

It was a toss up between Margaret Curtain and Russian Rose. Both were very productive in my garden this season.

In a taste test, MC didn't have quite the fabulous flavour of Indian Stripe RL. MC also suffered a lot of radial cracking which IS did not. These varieties are very similar.

Russian Rose had delicious flavour, but just a little too much acidity for me to enjoy raw. It was fabulous cooked.

Linda

[MissS]

Daniel Burson was my best tomato of the season. I will have to qualify this though. Only my two later planted plants pulled through as the best tomatoes of the season. Those that were planted early did not produce well due to the cold and were cat-faced. In fact none of the varieties that were planted early did well for me at all.
My later two plants are still producing fantastic tomatoes. Each plant has produced over 60 fruit and they all taste great. When I am in the garden searching for a tomato for dinner, it is Daniel Burson that I look to first. There are a few other plants that rival DB taste wise but can not beat the texture or the production.

[Moshou]

Top 5 this season:

MAR-NAR
Neves Azorean Red
Bucovina - a Romanian heirloom tomato
Dana's German Johnson - Benton Strain
George Detsikas Italian Red

[slugworth]

red defender
Was supposed to be a determinate type, but grew tall and is still producing when all other plants in the garden are dead.

[jtjmartin]

Virginia. Unusually wet, cold spring. Near record hot, dry July & August - so an unusual year. My winners:

1) Black cherry - still coming in
2) Black Krim - great taste and production v. Purple Cherokee
3) Golden Jubilee - a surprise - set fruit even during the heat and became one of my favorite slicing tomatoes.

I already have about 20 new-to-me varieties to try in 2017 (thank you TV community!). I'll test them against these 3.

[nicky]

I would say that it was close between;

Deep Space 9
Indian Stripe Potato Leaf
Piennolo

Loved them all for different reasons, but they all produced very well this year.

[garyjr]

Originally Posted by jtjmartin

Virginia. Unusually wet, cold spring. Near record hot, dry July & August - so an unusual year. My winners:

1) Black cherry - still coming in
2) Black Krim - great taste and production v. Purple Cherokee
3) Golden Jubilee - a surprise - set fruit even during the heat and became one of my favorite slicing tomatoes.

I already have about 20 new-to-me varieties to try in 2017 (thank you TV community!). I'll test them against these 3.

JTJ, Same here. Black Krim was excellent. Nice size and flavor. Black cherry coming in as well but lacking in the flavor dept. Not sure why. I will have to try Golden Jubilee next season. Thanks for the tip.

[joseph]

I consider Wild Zebra to be my most successful tomato this season. It is a variety that is unique to my farm. It is tied in first place for the best tasting tomato that I grow. It thrives here, and was my primary market tomato this year. It's pretty too.

[NewWestGardener]

All my usual big varieties failed this year due to strange weather. However, New Girl F1 gave me some harvest at least. I also harvested 3 big George Detsikas Italian Red from 1 plant, all over 1 lbs, it has good potential to be super productive in a better year, average taste though.
My green tiger was the best ever though, super fruity, sweet and productive. Blush and Maglia Rosa were also great.

[carolyn137]

Strongly noting that this was THE worst summer, here are the ones I liked the best,of those that actually ripened a few fruits.

Daniel Burson,seeds from Bill Jeffers,Travis here,which I grew many years ago when Bill sent it as an experimental, but it turned out to be stable, so I grew it this year and only had two fruits,so can't speak to productivity,but I loved the taste.

Arad's Pink Heart, from Romania,again,just a couple of hearts, loved the taste and shape

Little Dixie,bred by Bill Jeffers,a new one,a small red kind of cocktail size, juicy and very tasty.

Sheryl's Portuguese Heart, very tasty large red hearts,all 2 of them,really bad year here

Rosedale, another new one bred by Bill Jeffers,a lovely med size pink,great taste.

Of the above, all will be offered in an upcoming seed offer,seeds produced by my seed producers and ones that Bill bred,all seeds from him.

There is another new one bred by Bill called Eva Ste. Wendell,which I really really wanted to try, but there was a goof between the seeds that I gave to a local person to raise seedlings for me, and no seedlings of Eva made it here to my home, but I have the seeds Bill sent and they too will be in the seed offer of Carolyn and Shawn.

Carolyn