End of Season - Best of my 100 varieties

[natural]

Wow! Its great to be online again. My computer and my back both went offline about 2 months ago. The computer is fixed. The back is not (that's another story). Anyway, here are my end of season "Best of" results from my 100 tomato varieties (700 total plants).

In order for Best Taste ,

1 Cherokee Chocolate (would be my last meal)
2 Kelloggs Breakfast (would be my next to last meal)
3 Anna Russian ( spouse's favorite )
4 Lucky Cross (worth the long wait and all of the anxiety - I lost all but 2 plants early)
5 Dr Lyle (the best pink/deep pink tomato I've had)
6 Black From Tula (outshined Black Krim, my previous fave)
7 Black Cherry
8 Cuostralee (best red, but low production)
9 Caspian Pink (who would have thought?)
10 Dr Wyche
11 Cherokee Green
12 Black Krim

In order for Best Production ,

1 Black From Tula (pumped'em out all summer)
2 Black Krim (ditto)
3 Prudens Purple (early and often)
4 German Johnson (RL) -(buckets full)
5 Kelloggs Breakfast (I couldn't believe the number of huge tomatoes coming from these plants)
6 Dr Lyle (see KB)
7 Caspian Pink
8 Noir de Crimee (though many were ugly later in season)
9 Black Pear (produced like crazy then died a quick death)
10 Pale Perfect Purple
11 Azoychka
12 Brandywine Red (the only red to produce heavily)


All in all, a pretty good season, though very hot and very dry. My drip irrigation system saved me. We missed the few heavy summer downpours that our neighbors received. I think I was the only person with basically NO cracked or split tomatoes.

In general, my black/purple/pink varieties all produced like crazy, but I cannot seem to grow a large crop of any red tomato to save my life (and I've tried many). Maybe I am subconsciously planting the "cool colors" in the best beds?)

[cecilsgarden1958]

Cherokee Chocolate was your best tasting? Do you prefer Blacks altogether or was it just something really good this year?

What killed your Black Pear? I was thinking of growing that one next year.

CECIL

[Tomstrees]

I'm glad to see this report as
I have a number of your top 12
on my list for 2007 ~

Tom

[username5]

Originally Posted by cecilsgarden

Cherokee Chocolate was your best tasting? Do you prefer Blacks altogether or was it just something really good this year?

CECIL

Speaking for myself only, I consider cherokee chocolate the 2nd best tasting 'full size' tomato I have had to date. The best was Brandywine Sudduth, but it varies year to year and this year wasn't anything special for me. Maybe it was the seed source, who knows?

Cherokee Chocolate and Neves Azorean Red of perennial must haves for me.

[natural]

Cecil,

I definitely do favor the 'black' tomatoes. I've grown some of the varieties for years. Cherokee Chocolate was new for me this year. What set this tomato apart from the other blacks were a few more flavor characteristics. Also,there was definitely a saltiness. This really stood out. It wasn't present from just one plant either. I had 12 plants total (4 each in 3 different beds). The flavor was consistent among all of the plants.

The Black Pear Plants. These were the stockiest and most healthy looking in the garden early in the season. They EASILY produced the most tomatoes early on. Perhaps it was stress from too much fruit set all at once? I don't know. I'm still really new at this.

Tom,

I'll be interested to hear your results with these varieties after next season. I'm already in the planning stages for next year(It never ends!). I know several of my tops are no surprise, but a few suprised me because I had not heard their praises as much. Isn't it sweet when you 'try' a new variety and it produces loads of large tomatoes that also taste great! It doesn't get any better.

Bill

[CLa]

Sounds nice, where did you get your cherokee chocolate seeds?

[Grub]

I agree. Cherokee Chocolate is better than Cherokee Purple. They tell me it might be a brain/colour association thang. But, personally, I don't think so.

[Mantis]

Bugger, I had many of yours in my patch last season. They all came on so quickly and my blew me over.
Standouts are Kellogs Breakfast (only got two last year), Soldacki, Zogola (haven't one in this year, death of only seedling, bugger again), Anna Russian, Prudens Purple, and Mortgage Lifter.
But... the real standouts were Cherokee Green and Grubs Mystery Green. First time with green when ripes and I am hooked.

[Tomstrees]

re. Bill

Cherokee Chocolate - no ripe fruit - diseased plant - may use someone elses garden to grow for 2007

Kelloggs Breakfast - 2006 was "ok" for me ... not rock em sock em ... but "ok" ... not coming back 2007

Dr Lyle - 2007

Black From Tula - our "next to last meal tomato - will be back in 2007

Caspian Pink - 2007

Cherokee Green - 2007

Black Krim - 2007

[natural]

CLa - I purchased the seed for Cherokee Chocolate from Victory Seed

Grub - I agree. My wife doesn't have a 'jones' for black tomatoes but she also prefers the Cherokee Chocolate. She says the flavor reminds her of bacon. She doesn't get that from the Cherokee Purples. I did get my Ch. Purple and Ch. Black seed from different sources. Perhaps this explains some of the differences (see notes regarding Black Krim below).

Mantis - This was my 1st season growing a large 'green when ripe' tomato. I grew the Cherokee Green and loved it. Now I want to try some of the others that this forum lauds. I also really liked Mortgage Lifter. It ranked close behind German Johnson and Caspian Pink.

Tom - Your note about Black Krim reminded me of something. I have grown Black Krim for many years from seed that has been saved in our area every year for over 12 years. Just for fun, I purchased some BK seed from 2 other places just to compare. I started several plants from each of the 3 sources (my seed and the other 2). And I did plant them and harvest all at roughly the same time. The overall health of all plants was consistent, but there were flavor differences. I even conducted blind tastings with other people (since I had obvious prejudices). The vast majority preferred the Krims from my seed. I know the flavor among varieties can obviously vary from year to year, but these results really opened my eyes (and mouth).

[Tomstrees]

Natural -

Are your saved seeds from the
same company when they were first purchased ?

~ Tom

[natural]

Tom

My saved Black Krim seeds were originally obtained about 5 years ago from an organic farm in Georgia (where I worked for a year). The farmer had previously saved the seed every year for about 8 years. I do not know how he originally obtained the seed.
If I ever run out of Black Krim seed , I can always source it from him.

Bill

[gardengalrn]

Natural, thanks for the report. Of the varieties you listed, I have not tried Dr Wyche or Black from Tula. I will have to try both of those since I agree with your assessment, in general, of the others in your list.
For some reason (and I've said this before) the Cherokee Chocolate and Purples do not do well for me. The fruits I do get are so delicious that I persist in growing them. The plants are usually the first to fall to disease even though I've tried several sources to rule out bad seeds. I tried Black Krim this year and agree 100% that it was a leader in productivity for me as well. Carbon is another good black that tends to be productive with larger, more uniform fruit.

[natural]

Thanks Lori.

I grew Carbon this year and it was not a good plant for me. Maybe it was the seed. The germination % was low and the seedlings that did come were the smallest of all the blacks. Lowest production as well. I think I will try to get some Carbon seed from another source and try it once again. Paul Robeson was another black that I trialed. It did better for me but not as well as Black From Tula.

Bill