what percentage of new-to-you varieties do you grow?

[kath]

This was a really interesting and fun idea for a thread and I'm surprised by the consistency of my results. I only included the years since I joined Tomatoville and became tomato-crazed. Before that, I only grew a few hybrid varieties each year and Sungold was the only repeat so the % of new varieties was always very high back then.

In 2010, 130 out of 137 varieties were new-to-me: 95%

In 2011, 213 out of 224 varieties were new-to-me: 95%

In 2012, 94 out of 128 varieties were new-to-me: 73%

In 2013, 58 out of 80 varieties are new-to-me: 73%

Sungold will forever be on my grow list and the other repeats have usually been either black slicers, pink hearts or beefsteaks, and the favorite bi- or tri-color at the moment.

In the future, the reduction in total varieties grown and % of new-to-me varieties will continue because I don't think I need to try many more than 500 varieties to find my staples.

This is the 3rd or 4th year for growing the following varieties that have repeatedly been real winners for us here:

Amazon Chocolate (PL)
Barlow Jap
Fish Lake Oxheart
Giannini
Hawaiian Pineapple
Hays' Tomato
JD's Special C-Tex
Sungold F1 (for many years)
Terhune
Work Release Paste

There are several others that have been brought back from last year that have real promise as keepers, too, so this year I'm looking for the "best of the best".

kath

[joseph]

Depends on the year...

Each year I trial 1-2 plants of many different varieties. I might trial 10 to 70 cultivars per year. (Up to 20% of the plants.) I don't keep track of what I have previously trialed, so I can't tell if they are new to me. (I know that I have stopped trialling beefsteaks, brandywines, and heirlooms, but I don't pay much attention other than that.)

Because I grow landrace tomatoes, and encourage promiscuous pollination I figure I get around 60 new (genetically distinct) hybrids and segregates per year due to natural cross pollination (Around 15% of the plants.)

Around 75% of the patch is the same varieties that I grew last year.

[Tormato]

I've averaged about 90% new tomatoes every year (90+ out of 100+ plants).
It was once all new varieties. The past few years it's been mostly new, unknown experimentals (F2's, F3's, etc...). So, the new tomatoes (the 90%) are now about 90% new experimentals, and 10% new varieties.

Dr. Lve Apple

[clara]

I think I have always about 95% new-to-me varieties (about 120 plants per year). I'd wish I could grow more plants because I still have quite a bunch to try (and I should re-grow older varieties to keep them going). I need more space (and a better back...)! clara

[Patihum]

Roughly 50% of 23 varieties are new to me this year. Depending on how the "have always grown" do this year I'm looking at maybe 75% next year.

[COMPOSTER]

Last year was the first year I discovered heirlooms. I grew 20 plants and the 2 heirlooms I grew were Brandywine Pink and Marglobe. The rest of the plants were hybrids. This year I'm growing 50 plants and only re-growing 1 plant of Marglobe. I tried Brandywine red instead of Pink this year. So that makes it 98% for me. Brandywine Pink was a real revelation for me! I'm really looking forward to the adventure of tasting the new tomato varieties this year! I think I'm addicted.

Glenn

[tnkrer]

100%
Though I don't think I am the targeted audience for this poll I grew 2 varieties (2 plants) last year. And this year I am growing 5 varieties (6 plants) all different from last year. I think I am going to be limited by the area that receives enough sun. So in future, I might be able to have up to 15-20 plants and I am hoping that I will have 50% repeats and 50% new to me varieties for initial few years.

[MissS]

I am growing 90% new to me plants. After 30 years of growing toms, for the first time ever I do not have any Brandywine plants. I hope to find another keeper that I enjoy just as much. I am trying to find just my favorite 6 varieties. I just am gettin on a bit and want to enjoy the best tasting tomatoes to me and not have so much work growing so many plants.

[dfollett]

66 Plants
43 Varieties
39 New-to-me
91%

[pinklady5]

44% New this year.

Sungold, Black Cherry and Cuostralee will always be in my garden.

[nnjjohn]

I am 95% virgin to my variety this season too. I sure hoping the weather we been having doesn't add the last 5% of uncertainty to the equation

[bower]

2/30 are repeats this year, so 93 % are new.
I had to ditch a couple of favourites this year, I had too many new ones to try! I do miss them, but very excited about new faves...

[Hilary]

100%. This is the first time I've been able to grow tomatoes in many years. Here some of the varieties:

• Black Krim
• Paul Robeson
• Indigo Rose
• Amish Paste
• Garden Peach
• Costoluto Genovese (sp)
• Lemon Tree: succumbed to some dread disease very early on
• San Marzano: got blossom-end rot and early blight
• Volunteer, probably Campari, suffered from early blight

[themarta]

It varies from year to year for me. I am growing less tomatoes this year and out of 20 plants, 5 are new to me. So 25 %.

[mysidx]

I would say 40% are new, I like to keep the winners from the year before and add at least ten new varieties each year. I also sprinkle in varieties from past years that I wasn't sold on before, just to be sure it was a bad year for those.