What is the best tomato to grow?

[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.

 

[tmarsh83]

It is. I know jung seeds has them.

 

[rachelk99]

My favorites for pure taste are Brandywine and Supersweet 100. I don't have much luck with growing Brandywine from seed but get a few ugly tomatoes with wonderful taste from them. Also discovered Burpee Sun Gold hybrid last year at our community garden and got my own seed this year. It was probably my favorite last year. Yellow pear always performs for me and although not my favorite tasting (the yellow are good for people with acid sensitivities, but I prefer the full flavor of the reds) but looks nice in an heirloom tomato salad and is great for drying. Makes a nice dried treat for snacking after the season is overl...

 

[Louise Waffles]

I like black krim, cherokee purple, and orange amana. This year I'm trying yellow pear tomatoes and some supersweet 100. I'm losing my mind over the tomatoes in the Baker Creek catalog and the Johnny's catalog.


Has anyone grown white tomatoes or blue tomatoes? I'm really curious about them.

 

[henryraven86]

I like black krim, cherokee purple, and orange amana. This year I'm trying yellow pear tomatoes and some supersweet 100. I'm losing my mind over the tomatoes in the Baker Creek catalog and the Johnny's catalog.


Has anyone grown white tomatoes or blue tomatoes? I'm really curious about them.

i haven't heard about white tomatoes before but black krim is real a good tomato you might want to try out coustralee tomatoes from pinetree.