What is the best tomato to grow?

[lazy gardener]

Absolutely. What works for me this year, may fail dismally for you. And what worked for me last year may be a failure next year. My favorite is Amish paste for canning. Lovely HUGE tomatoes fill up that canner fast!!!

 

[henryraven86]

I usually grow coustralee tomatoes
In my garden you might want to try those.

 

[Arielle]

Absolutely. What works for me this year, may fail dismally for you. And what worked for me last year may be a failure next year. My favorite is Amish paste for canning. Lovely HUGE tomatoes fill up that canner fast!!!

You are the second to advocate for AP..... it is on my list but probably for next year.

I usually grow coustralee tomatoes
In my garden you might want to try those.

These are on my list too!!!! I have a VERY LONNG list and not enough time or TIME. lol Did I say time??? I see easily a hundred varieties to trial!!!

 

[ShrekDawg]

I had no idea there were so many tomatoes! I assumed a tomato was a tomato lol

 

[tmarsh83]

I'm not big on slicer type tomatoes. One plant can give me all I need of those in a year. Same with cherry or grape types.

I grow tomatoes to can them, to sauce them, or to salsa them.

The last couple years I had grown the Easy Sauce Hybrid from Gurney's. I was very happy with it for my purposes.

Then I found opalka, and I won't be looking back. In addition to being an heirloom, so I can keep and grow my own seeds, they are nearly seedless, and the skin can almost be pulled off without blanching. I was amazed.

I'll still put a beefsteak out, and a cherry plant on the porch, but I'm making the switch to opalka.

In the end though, it really comes down to what you need. If you need a sauce type, you're looking at very different tomatoes than if you want a summer full of BLTs and caprese salad.

 

[melishkia]

I like Roma tomatoes, they are an all around great tomato. Most people use for canning, I use them in rice, salsa, guacamole, pasta, etc.

 

[lazy gardener]

Have you tried Amish Paste??????? If you like Roma, there's even more to love (literally) with Amish Paste.

 

[tmarsh83]

Have you tried Amish Paste??????? If you like Roma, there's even more to love (literally) with Amish Paste.

Opalka is similar in it's uses. Worth trying.

 

[melishkia]

Interesting, Amish Paste sounds tasty..

https://www.totallytomato.com/C/60/PasteTomato

I found a small description of all 3 tomatoes, they both sound better than Roma. I'll have to try them out next season, we already planted for the spring!

 

[lazy gardener]

Quote: That is one that is on my must try list for comparison. I'm assuming it is OP? I always grow multiple kinds of tomatoes, in case one variety succumbs to disease, so have some of the smaller Roma's, but hands down, AP is so much easier to process b/c it works up so much faster.