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

[spacetogrow]

90% of mine this year were new to me.

[camochef]

Having been growing tomatoes for well over 50 years, the answer varies each year. When I first started growing tomatoes, back in the fifties, I only grew "Jersey Beefsteaks" or "Beefsteaks" from seeds my Step-dad had saved. Why mess with something that was so successful?
After moving to Pa in the late 70's, I developed an interest in the many different varieties available at local fruit stands and roadside markets. I tried many of them and found I had more than a passing interest. Particularly in heirloom varieties.

It didn't take long before I was buying seeds from everywhere, places like Tomatofest, Mariseeds, heirloomtomatoes, Victory Seeds, Seed Saver exchange, and even Amishland, among others.
At that time I probably had 99% as new to me varieties. I planted 840 tomato plants that year. I had developed an interest in every type of Brandywine I could find to say nothing of the new to me Black tomatoes that I devoted another year to.
As the years went by, I began trying highly recommended varieties from those I was swapping seeds with, dropping my garden size down to having 350-400 varieties of which maybe 10-15 % were new to me.

Lately, I decided to decrease my gardens to less than 100 varieties but still kept trying a small percentage of new tomatoes from friends. Last year I got down to a much more manageable number and out of twenty three varieties only three were new to me. That included my first grafted tomato which was a tomato I'd been growing for a number of years, German Johnson-Benton strain grafted to maxifort rootstock. It was quite impressive and soon became my favorite tomato of the year, both in taste and production. Outperforming my favorite pink Brandywines and the previous years winner...Purple Dog Creek.

This year, I only planted 20 tomato plants, all of them my favorites from past years. Not one "new to me variety" With increasing age and decreasing health, I've been forced to eliminate many of the varieties that I've enjoyed for years and to concentrate only on those that have done very well year after year in my gardens. I've already lost a few, including my Tarasenko6 and Liz Birt-p.l. and my Purple Dog Creek and German Johnson-Benton Strain from grafted tomato seed are barely hanging on after severe winds from one of the many thunderstorms that have been sweeping through here almost daily.
I'll leave the growing of "new to me" varieties to others who are still trying to find there favorite tomatoes, or even worse, are caught up in the need to try every "great" tomato that comes down the pike...even if those recommending them have less experience than they do.
There are times I wish I could grow a few more of the favorites that I've discovered over the years, but then reality sets in, as not every day is a good day, and I know that those I have selected will provide more than enough tomatoes for me and my wife to enjoy.
I regret that I cannot share seed with others, worldwide, as I had in the past, but hopefully will be able to save enough seed to start myself next year.
I hope everyone has as much enjoyment from their gardens as I've had over the years.
Enjoy!
Camo

[Tania]

8 out of 331 varieties are repeats this year. That's 2.4%. The rest are new.

[amideutch]

This year all of my grow outs are new.