Favorite market heirlooms for the grower

[AKmark]

I have selected these from several hundred varieties that I have grown in a greenhouse for markets. I want tomatoes that have few # 2's as we call ugly, catfaced or cracked fruit, and the taste must be consistent, and awesome.

Red beefsteaks - 1) Chapman 2) Delicious, or Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red. These produced good yields of super tasting, and near perfect looking heirlooms. I think Chapman may taste the best, maybe... but Delicious is a monster yielding strain for me, just awesome.

Pink beefsteak- 1) Crnkovik Yugoslavian 2) German Johnson, Benton's. GJ Benton's is very meaty, few seed cavities, but the flesh is tasty. CY rarely cracks, and it is super good.

Yellow Beefsteak- Yellow Brandywine, Platfoot strain, massive yield, pick off ugly tomatoes, I did not grow enough of these, customers always came back for more after buying one upon my suggestion to do so. I have learned these do like the south side much better than the north side of my greenhouse.

Standard reds- 1) Maidens Kiss 2) Druzba 3) and you can't go wrong with E. Girl hybrid from Burpee. MK threw me some good yields of very good tasting 5 oz fruit

Purple- 1)Eva Purple Ball, 2) Momotaro hybrid is very good too, and I got better yield than EPB

Orange beefsteak- I like the look of Amana Orange, but KBX is really good to, and both taste great.

I did a u pick cherry this year on small scale, where folks can come and just pick their own, this may be a good labor saving idea it seems so far, and people always fall over when they see the other tomatoes anyway. lol
That's all I have to report

[Cole_Robbie]

Wow, good for you getting yield out of the yellow brandywine platfoot. I don't think I picked a single tomato off my one plant. All of my brandywines were duds this year. Red Brandwine, Landis Valley, was another disappointment.

Titan Red was the yield winner among my heirloom experiments this year. It's going to be my early red high tunnel tomato for next year. Taxi remains my yellow, and I am going back to Orange Blossom F1 as my early determinate orange.

Cosmonaut Volkov remains my best heirloom answer to Big Beef. I also have a medium red indeterminate from China called Ten Hung Tan Chieh that is an excellent producer of attractive fruit. I would rate both of them higher than Big Beef in regard to flavor, and I like Big Beef a lot.

George Detsikas Italian Red was a good producer; I'm going to grow it again. All of the Jazz varieties from Fred Hempel show a lot of promise as market varieties, too.

[AKmark]

Cole, do you prune? I strictly prune, I have 20ft vines on YB, we drop the plants down as we harvest fruit and coil them, and the plants keep producing, the leaf portion is never more than 6-7ft, this really helped me.
I imagine have got more than 20lbs per plant up to this point, I have not done as well in the past with them though, but not bad either. They like the sunny side, and start them early, for me they seem to take longer than many others
I grew BW Landis this year too, it is a huge yielder for me of perfect fruit, but the taste is not as good as the one's I mentioned, nether is Cosmonaut, but it is as good as Big Beef. I used two sources for seed and have grown it two years, for me, the others I mentioned are superior in taste, have bigger fruit, and are nearly as pretty, not quite though, CV never throws ugly fused tomatoes for me .
I will try the others you mentioned thanks for the suggestions. I will post some pics when the wife gets back with my camera

[Cole_Robbie]

Sure, I will have seeds of all of them to share. And those plants did get pruned, but not strictly enough.

[BigVanVader]

Thanks for posting this, the you pick cherries is a good idea. The Bumblebee varieties produce so much its hard to keep em picked. I'm trying to transition to full time market growing and these sorts of post are an invaluable reference for me. I will definitely be trying out some of these next year.

[AKmark]

I should add Mountain Fresh Hybrid in there too, it does have heirloom quality taste and perfect tomatoes, some over 1.5lbs. I will have to look, but I'm quite sure they are listed as a determinate, they grow like one, but they produce over a long season for me. I only grew four to check them out this year, built me these cute little rope teepee things that just got crushed under the weight of the fruit.
I also grow Brandywine Sudduth's and Cowlick's, as well as Stump of the World, for market, and next year I am going to market them as BW, and will ask a 1.00 more a pound. I think they are that good when grown correctly, especially a good Sudduth's, unbelievably good. They are much harder to maintain that pretty fruit though, watering and fertilizer has to be perfect, every day, they also throw many more fused blossoms.

I wholesale to others who take tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, etc to farmers markets, and to restaurants, where they resell them at premium prices. Those guys pick the cherries, or no deal, I am not going to grow them if I have to pick them or pay someone to pick them, too labor intensive.

I have many Delicious seeds I will share, some came from a perfect shaped 3.5lb tomato. I have seeds of everything else too, and can collect more