What is the best tomato to grow?

[lazy gardener]

Like Rutgers. New favorite, for canning: Amish Paste. Heirloom.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm a firm believer that every tomato garden should have at least a few Brandywine in it. Voted the best tasting tomato over and over by many tomato growers for many years, they are hardy, good producers of large, sweet slicing tomatoes. Of all the varieties I've tried, the Brandywine is one I keep coming back to year after year...I doubt I'll have a garden without them from now on and they form the largest part of my crop.

Quote from Better Homes and Gardens Top Heirloom Tomatoes:
A few others we find to be reliable and flavorful producers~Yellow Stripey, Jetstar, Rutgers, Sweet One Hundred or One Million(cherry tomatoes).

Tried Pruden's Purple this last season but was not real impressed...every single tomato cracked and allowed bugs and bacteria into the fruit before they were even ripe enough to pick, so won't be using those again.

My best advice is to try some of the suggestions you get here and every year try another new variety to see how it does for you....that's how I found out about what I can depend upon and what I cannot and that goes with chicken breeds as well.

 

[lazy gardener]

I'm a firm believer that every tomato garden should have at least a few Brandywine in it. Voted the best tasting tomato over and over by many tomato growers for many years, they are hardy, good producers of large, sweet slicing tomatoes. Of all the varieties I've tried, the Brandywine is one I keep coming back to year after year...I doubt I'll have a garden without them from now on and they form the largest part of my crop.

Quote from Better Homes and Gardens Top Heirloom Tomatoes:

A few others we find to be reliable and flavorful producers~Yellow Stripey, Jetstar, Rutgers, Sweet One Hundred or One Million(cherry tomatoes).

Tried Pruden's Purple this last season but was not real impressed...every single tomato cracked and allowed bugs and bacteria into the fruit before they were even ripe enough to pick, so won't be using those again.

My best advice is to try some of the suggestions you get here and every year try another new variety to see how it does for you....that's how I found out about what I can depend upon and what I cannot and that goes with chicken breeds as well.

What she said. so true about all of gardening and farming. Over time, I've found some things that I will never change, but even with those, I tweak around the edges. For example: though I have my favorite chicken breeds (EE and Dom), I continue to play with new breeds, to hold them up for comparison, as well as to put new genes into my flock. I want a hugely varied gene pool, so that as I breed forward, I'll have plenty of traits to play with, still focusing on small combs and variety of egg colors. Have had some wonderful crosses when 2 of my favorite squash varieties crossed. Red Kuri x giant buttercup = giant red buttercup. Have not been able to duplicate that in the F2 generation, so... will continue to play with squash crosses. I have giant red buttercup grown with blue hubbard last year. Looking forward to seeing what that cross yields!

 

[Arielle]

Been learning more about tomatos myself.... Big Beef F1 is touted as a good variety to start with for most areas. I also looked at the Johnny Seed Supply and liked thier evaluation and reasons for the heirloom selections offered. In addition, hybrids for big production are also listed.

 

[lazy gardener]

Before spending your money there, check out Fedco Seeds. They have lots of heirloom seed at a fraction of the cost.

 

[Arielle]

Before spending your money there, check out Fedco Seeds. They have lots of heirloom seed at a fraction of the cost.

I also found a number of small seed companies, like maybe 10 seeds, or 15, 0r 20... for tomatos to trial OP types. I figure to balance my loses to use both hybrids with good disease resistance and OP varieties, many which are old heirlooms or recent crosses. What I learned that because of the expense of investigating a varieties ability to resist diseases, the non-commercial varieites are not tested. I can learn from another growers experience. Amd JSS has testing results on a few heirlooms.

I will look into Fedco again......I keep forgetting about that company!! ( must do better)

Ive been lurking at a forum that is just tomatos, and when some of the best growers and critics provide input, learning curve is greatly shortened. Best tomato variety can be VERY regionall.

 

[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