What are the most overrated varieties?

[velikipop]

Just a bit of an opinion on Brad's tomatoes from a region that had a good year. The Pink Berkley Tye Dye was a great producer with decent tasting fruit, but I really couldn't tell the difference from BTD which I grew last year. Will probably have to grow both together for a better comparison. The best were Brad's Black Heart and Pork Chop for taste. But the production was low, perhaps to due to some issues with fertilization. The taste of Pork Chop was fantastic for a yellow, better than Tom's Yellow Wonder in my opinion. Brown and Black Boar was late but again decent fruit with nice taste.

For me this year's big dissapointment was Purple Haze F3. Variability in taste and nowhere near the taste of Black Plum or Black Cherry. From past grows Eva Purple Ball was never a great producer or one that tasted great. Middle of the road average tasting tomato for me.

Please take this with a grain of salt since taste is a product of so many variables that effort to establish a consensus would be difficult.

Alex

[Moonglow]

In fairness to Large Barred Boar (LBB), it's super early here (please note that Corte Madera is less than an hour away from WBF) and actually tasted really good IF that's LBB. I grew five (5) LBB's, gave one to my boyfriend, and all five plants produced similar fruits, but not the same.

The one that I liked was reminiscent of Black Krim and has very few seeds. I saved those seeds.

My boyfriend's LBB produced fruits that are nicely textured, and wouldn't say overly meaty. Flavor was just average for homegrown tomatoes. His words.

My BTD (grew 3 plants) fruits all look different as well. Really pretty though.

[Barbee]

I grew BTD for the first time this year. Here's my experience with them.
It was one of my latest tomatoes to ripen but I planted it late along with Cherokee Purple, Lynwood, and Goose Creek. All plants bought from Darrel. I'd have to get out my notes and compare DTM to be sure, but I'm thinking that it's just a later tomato than the 3 mentioned above.

The striping....I didn't think I was going to get any stripes either BUT.....that came late, almost like the striping comes in while the fruit is ripening up. How to describe better...um....once the fruit starts to ripen (soften) up, that's when the striping started and if you didn't let it ripen to the striping point, it was sour. If you let it ripen to stripe stage, it was delicious.

Just my newbie 2 cents

[cottonpicker]

I reckon, after all is said & done, the most overrated varieties for me are the ones that don't grow well under my local conditions and satisfy my personal perception of taste.......LOL.....

[b54red]

Agree Big Beef is rather bland most years but it is a dependable. long season, heavy producing, disease resistant variety; so I grow a few each year. Juliet and Early Challenge will never see my garden again.

[Wi-sunflower]

Why don't you like Juliet ?

Juliet has become a staple in my field for market gardening. It produces like crazy and doesn't split like a lot of other small tomatoes. It also keeps well after picking. Plenty of customers seem to like it too, even tho it may not be the tastiest tomato I grow.

Now if I could just get my Hubby to call it a "saladette" rather than a "roma" which it isn't.

Carol

[Frog]

Originally Posted by eyolf

But nobody asked about favorites; which one was the most dissapointing to me? I have to say it was Trifele Black. Tart, almost bitter, and mostly just a bag of seeds and juice. Tried seeds from another source...just the same.

JBT is one of my all time favourites, rich thick flesh with a deep savoury taste, not a hint of bitterness. I grow in dim, damp and cool conditions. It is very clear that climate, soil type and watering regime make a huge difference.

As for me, well I was always disappointed by Gardener's Delight, heavy cropper, but they all split and taste like supermarket cherries, not one for me. I am also always disappointed by very early cropping toms, but hey, we grow them to eat something early, so I cut them some slack.

[cecilsgarden1958]

Originally Posted by Wi-sunflower

"..........It produces like crazy and doesn't split like a lot of other small tomatoes. It also keeps well after picking........"Carol

Mine cracked like crazy this year. The cats thought they were invaded by UFOs, because of the amount I through over their heads and out of the yard.

CECIL

[b54red]

I don't like Juliet because the tomato doesn't have much juice, is too firm and the taste is lacking for me. I had a Small Fry this year that made about a quart of tomatoes every two days for nearly two months and they were very plump, juicy and flavorful as they were for the last 3 years. As far as production goes I don't know if there is another cherry that produces like a Juliet. The last one I grew was huge and wore me out picking the abundant crop of toms that I didn't care to eat.

[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

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by travis

Overrated by whom? By the breeder? By the vendor? By garden writers in periodicals or extension horticulturalists in local newspapers? Or by gardeners who rave online about their favorites?

I'm going to go back to this post by Travis, b'c for me the crux of the issue is overrated by whom.

I flipped thru this thread today for the first time and all I read was this did terrible for me or this was great, etc.

The posters here represent many areas of the country and many microclimates within an area and no two grow tomatoes the same way, and soils differ and amendments differ and most importantly as I see it, no two season are the same.

Someone loves Jaune Flammee, someone doesn't, so what does one conclude?

All the variables I mentioned above as well as individual perceptioons of taste which actually has a human genetic component as well.

If a variety comes to me highly rated and it doesn't perform the first year I always grow it a second year.

let me give you just one example from this year. I was sent seeds for a new variety called Ste. Colombe, from France, and the person sending it loved it as did all who grew it in several neighboring villages in France, and she had brought seeds back to the US and so I looked forward to it. it was a lousy year here and I got but one fruit of it and didn't think much of the taste.

bcday who does almost all my seed production lives in WNY and more southerly than me and she said the taste was "outstanding", which matches what I'd been told. I don't know if we'll get enough seeds for me to list it in the SSE Yearbook, or even offer it here at Tville for my annual seed offer.

And there are two other brand new ones, new to all, that didn't match up to what was said about them, but so what b'c it was a lousy year here and there's no way I'm going to trash a variety just based on all the variables I listed above.

So overrated by whom?

We here at Tville share information and have individual opinions. Folks who sell seeds seldom say anything negative about a variety b'c they're running a business.

There are a couple of seed source sites where I think varieties are not always praised, which I think is great b'c the only way that anyone will know if a variety works for them is to grow it. And if the recs have been great and it doesn't perform, then grow it a seond time.

[rigdond]

I was new to heirlooms this year and was disappointed with Pink Brandywine. The season started out with a long drought and although they were watered every day, they really needed more water. The shoulders of the tomatoes developed bumpy looking scars THEN the rain started and just wouldn't stop and these bumpy, scarred tomatoes started splitting. The taste was amazing but it took a lot of carving to get one slice out of these pathetic looking tomatoes. The yield was low, averaging 1 - 4 fruits per plant.

[Wi-sunflower]

I agree with Carolyn - overrated by whom?

I guess my response has been -- by other posters here. But as we have seen, what one poster thinks is great, another thinks is a spitter. Personally I don't like "red" tomatoes much at all.

I also agree with most of her observations and I do much very similar.

I posted earlier in this thread about how many new-to-me varieties didn't seem to perform up to what I expected from comments about them here. But just because they weren't all I thought they should be doesn't mean I won't try them again.

Many factors for that too. Mainly because I also saw many varieties that I've grown before also not grow up to their past greatness this year. Also because I have as much land for planting as I want / need. We have a 100 acre farm, plus 20+ acres we use from a neighbor.

Most years I try to plant at least a few of the "original" commercial seeds if still available along side of my own saved seed plants. That way I can compare to see if things are growing OK or if there is some cross or something else going on. This year my greenhouse was an over-stuffed mess due to another house coming down during the past winter. I lost track of quite a few varieties and sold out on a few before I realized I need some for planting. OOPPS.

After the crummy growing season it was no big loss. I still have seed for most if not all so I can and will grow them again.

As it is, I grow some varieties I think are stinkers but get plenty of requests for from my plant customers. Just another example of overrated by whom? We all have our opinions and seldom will they be the same as someone else's. And the differences of opinion may just show us that a variety is more varieable or not well adapted to ALL growing conditions or is fussier than another variety. We can learn from all the comments, good and bad.

Carol

[geeboss]

For me growing tomatoes is like going out on a first date....the person/tomato doesn't have to WOW me...I just need to say hmmmmm I need to know more about you. So if a tomato doesn't live up to my expectations based on what I've read ..as long as its worth eating,,, I'll give it another shot. Maybe not the following year but will want to try it again.....who knows it might be the beginning of a longterm relationship.

George

[Wi-sunflower]

That is a great way to think about it. And it makes a lot of sense too.

Carol