Old Favorites

[seaeagle]

Been kinda slow here the last month or so, so I went back to the beginning of Tomatoville and looked at 2 years worth of data in the General Discussion section.Just read the favorite tomatoes and best tasting posts and it still took a while but very interesting reading.Didn't take notes so all is from memory, accuracy not guaranteed.

Best Reds

Aker's West Virginia

Neves Azorean Red

Coustralee

Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red

Interesting that Aker's WV was the most popular then but don't hear a lot about it today.

Best Dark Tomatoes

Cherokee Purple

Carbon

Paul Robeson

Black From Tula

Certainly Indian Stripe would be included today but was just getting started then.

Best Pinks

Brandywine Suddeth

Earl's Faux

Stump of the World

New Big Dwarf - which surprised me, but lots loved it then

Yellow-Orange

Aunt Gerdie's Gold

Kellogg's Breakfast

Not much interest in these in those 2 years.

Green When Ripe

Green Giant

Cherokee Green

These were the top 2 by a large margin

Bi Color

Lucky Cross

Cherry

Sun Gold

Black Cherry

I have tried 6 on these lists and they are easily among the best tasting tomatoes I have ever grown, so I'm thinking it is a pretty good list.

[Tormato]

I tried them all, many years ago.

Carbon, Paul Robeson, Black from Tula, and Cherokee Green were 0.0's.

The rest were 9's.

Just me, being me.

Tormato

[Mr.Krim]

Black from Tula and Carbon were ok but not the taste I was looking for.I thought they would taste better.

[Gardeneer]

Seaeagle ,
The following either I have grown in the past or are in my 2017 list.


Coustralee
Cherokee Purple
Indian Stripe
Black From Tula
Brandywine Suddeth
New Big Dwarf
Kellogg's Breakfast
Sun Gold
Black Cherry

A few of them are in my future grow list : Neves Azorean Red ,, Stump Of The World ,,,
So I think that your picks are on the mark in popularity.

[seaeagle]

I remembered writing this post and wanted to find it to see what tomatoes I need to put on the grow list. Bumping for those who may have missed it and the new readers.

[Tormato]

The only thing I can add to my previous post is that SOTW is now a 9.9!



Hosting a large swap gives me some insights into popular "wanted" tomatoes, and popular "have" tomatoes, judging by requests and donations of seeds.



In a category not listed in the original thread, striped tomatoes, I've seen the most variance over the years. There once where dozens and dozens of relatively popular striped varieties. Today, it's basically down to four extremely popular ones; Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, Girl Girl's Weird Thing, Maglia Rosa, and Lithium Sunset.

[wildcat62]

Lots of good ones on the list. I've tried 12 of them.

[Spartanburg123]

Of the ones listed, Aker's WV is not only my favorite tomato, but also my favorite plant. Resistant to just about anything, forms stocky, thick trunks that stay fairly compact. I would say GGWT is my second, followed closely by Terhune

[seaeagle]

Originally Posted by Tormato

The only thing I can add to my previous post is that SOTW is now a 9.9!



Hosting a large swap gives me some insights into popular "wanted" tomatoes, and popular "have" tomatoes, judging by requests and donations of seeds.



In a category not listed in the original thread, striped tomatoes, I've seen the most variance over the years. There once where dozens and dozens of relatively popular striped varieties. Today, it's basically down to four extremely popular ones; Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, Girl Girl's Weird Thing, Maglia Rosa, and Lithium Sunset.

Girl Girl's Weird Thing is a very tasty tomato, as well as being beautiful. Growing 2 plants this year. Was only going to plant one but when I potted up I was so amazed at the size of the taproot I planted 2. I have never seen such a large taproot on a tomato. Looked more like a taproot on a squash. One is 8 feet tall and one 7 feet tall and haven't pruned anything. Added on to the 5 foot cages so one is now 7 1/2 feet tall and other 7 and GGWT is growing over the top of the 7 1/2 foot one.



Stump of the World is on my grow list.
Aker's West VA going on my grow list too

[IronPete]

From the Dwarf Tomato Project I would add Uluru Ochre. It is the ugliest thing you have ever seen. Boy, does the taste make up for it!!
Pete

[Gerardo]

Originally Posted by seaeagle

Girl Girl's Weird Thing is a very tasty tomato, as well as being beautiful. Growing 2 plants this year. Was only going to plant one but when I potted up I was so amazed at the size of the taproot I planted 2. I have never seen such a large taproot on a tomato. Looked more like a taproot on a squash. One is 8 feet tall and one 7 feet tall and haven't pruned anything. Added on to the 5 foot cages so one is now 7 1/2 feet tall and other 7 and GGWT is growing over the top of the 7 1/2 foot one.



Stump of the World is on my grow list.
Aker's West VA going on my grow list too

SOTW's productivity will blow you away.


GGWT is a big, sturdy plant, thick stems. Fruit is tasty, colorful, Girl-Girl had good taste buds, a canine as I understand it.

[jtjmartin]

Hey, thanks for the list!

I really liked a number of the tomatoes on the list. I fell in love with dark tomatoes with Black Cherry; even the dog eats Sungold; GGWT & ISPL are super productive and wonderful here.

New Big Dwarf was surprisingly wonderful.

I'm growing 4 more on the list . . . but this year has just been strange weatherwise. I'll grow Aker's, SOTW, AG Gold, and Neves again next year.

I concur with Paul Robeson and Green Giant. Two great and impressive flavors in my garden (2015). I like Cuostralee a lot, but I'm surprised it ranked so highly on a favorites list like that, but then I may have overwatered it. Black from Tula's flavor didn't impress me, but I probably overwatered it. New Big Dwarf had reasonable flavor, but I'm surprised to see it there, too. I probably overwatered it, too. All those I overwatered were grown in 2016.

I can see Kellogg's Breakfast being on such a list, but I'm surprised KBX wasn't there along with it (or instead). I grew Kellogg's Beefsteak (2015), which was probably the same variety, and it had great flavor.

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by shule1

I concur with Paul Robeson and Green Giant. Two great and impressive flavors in my garden (2015). I like Cuostralee a lot, but I'm surprised it ranked so highly on a favorites list like that, but then I may have overwatered it. Black from Tula's flavor didn't impress me, but I probably overwatered it. New Big Dwarf had reasonable flavor, but I'm surprised to see it there, too. I probably overwatered it, too. All those I overwatered were grown in 2016.

I can see Kellogg's Breakfast being on such a list, but I'm surprised KBX wasn't there along with it (or instead). I grew Kellogg's Beefsteak (2015), which was probably the same variety, and it had great flavor.

You have to take that list in context, as it is likely from about 2006-2007. Cuostralee was very popular at the time, and KBX may not yet have been widely known.

[b54red]

I have tried them all and over the years found some others that I liked even more than some on the list and found some on the list that didn't thrive down here in our hot humid conditions. One that everyone seemed to like but in my garden years ago when I grew it came out tasting very bland was AKWV; but since lowering my ph, improving my soil, and fertilizing with TTF and finding it did affect the flavor of many of my favorites in a very favorable way I am growing AKWV again this year. I didn't start it as early as I would like and so I haven't gotten any fruit off it yet but the two plants I have out now that were started the first of June are loaded so maybe I'll like it more now. As for cherries I just no longer grow them nor do I grow any super sweet tomatoes like Lucky Cross. I have also dropped any yellow tomatoes from my grow list but KBX was the last to go even though they made huge beautiful fruits I have never thought even the best of the golds or yellows could compare with the best of the pinks or reds. I am a big fan of the black tomatoes though and my favorite would be ISPL even though there are tastier and bigger black tomatoes that I also grow ISPL is the most dependable fruit setter and most productive tomato in the heat of summer so it is a mainstay of my mid summer through late summer tomato garden. Stump and Suddith's are always in my garden as is the wonderful Neves Azorean Red and I have grown them every year since the first time I tried them.

Some others that need to be on the list are Limbaugh's Legacy, Couilles de Tareau, Dester, 1884, Spudakee, JD's Special C Tex, Granny Cantrell, German Johnson, Red Barn, Giant Belgium, Brandywine Cowlick's, Arkansas Traveler, and Gary O' Sena.

I know this is heresy to say but over the years and trying several hundred different varieties I found that there are far more tomato varieties that I don't care for than that I like. I have several criteria for deciding which ones make it onto my grow list and first, second and third are taste and texture. After that it is production and how well a variety copes with our weather, disease, and pest issues. It took a long time to get my list down to my 30 or so favorites because you can't just give a variety just one season and judge it on that because some years even the best varieties under-perform or don't taste so great that year. Some tomatoes stayed on my grow list for years before dropping off due to me finding one that was even better to replace it with. GGWT sounds interesting but I have never had the chance to try it.

Bill