# Garden roll call: Tomatoes



## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

I'd love to learn what types of tomatoes everyone is growing, how well the different varieties do, and what folks do with them. What tomatoes have a good flavor, and which would you not bother growing again? Please chime in! 

I'm in southern Ohio, zone 6, second year growing tomatoes, growing the following:

Amish Paste: grown two years, seems prone to blight and BER, but a good producer of paste tomatoes
Bellestar: VERY productive, needs solid staking as the tomatoes are heavy - but with rot (?) I have yet to be able to try one of these
Big Mama: super healthy looking plants, vigorous, no disease (none ripe yet)
Health Kick: supposedly higher in nutrients, very healthy plants, no disease, good (but not exciting) flavor
Heinz 1439: REALLY healthy and vigorous plants (none ripe yet)
Jelly Bean: cute little jelly bean sized 'maters, extremely prolific, good (but not exciting) flavor
New Zealand Pink Paste: my new favorite, HUGE tomatoes, very weird shapes, extremely meaty with few seeds, great flavor
Opalka: started off very healthy but now struggling with blight (my fault, didn't stake soon enough), (none ripe yet)
Oxheart - red: pretty sure this is the same as my pink oxhearts (below) - they look identical 
Oxheart - pink: washed out-looking, skinny little vines with pink 'maters, VERY prone to cracking, but makes a good sauce (cooks up red, not pink)
Roma: last year's was weak, but this year's is strong and healthy, smallish tomatoes that make a nice sauce (some say it's a boring flavor, but I like it)
Sweet Snack: Okay flavor, but very weak plants and probably will not grow again
Tangerine Mama: poor germination and slow to start, but healthy once they got going, productive (none ripe yet)

We also have some 'mystery' volunteers that sprouted in the spring and we moved them into our new tomato rows. Based on what we grew last year, they could be:
Cherokee Purple: sickly vines and lost all 'maters to sun scald (I believe)
San Marzano: okay 'mater, but didn't try growing again because there seem to be better choices
Bush Cherry, Large: my mother LOVED these cherry tomatoes, very sweet, probably a hybrid but will still try to save seeds

All we do with our 'maters is make sauce (and we consume a lot of that). So I'm on the lookout for good sauce/paste tomatoes, and would like to try making some yellow and white sauces. I'd like to settle in on some good staple varieties (OP) and try to get better at growing just those varieties. 

I'm growing some hybrids this year mostly because I couldn't resist them in the catalogs - but there are enough heirlooms out there that I'll concentrate on that (and seed saving) in the coming years.


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## PamsPride (Dec 21, 2010)

I am NE Ohio Zone 5b....I think.

I grew:
Amish Paste: They did good for me. My first pickings were bigger than my later pickings
Beefsteak: They were beautiful this year! Hardly any cracking
Oxheart orange: They did not want want to get fully ripe on the top part of the fruit and were fully ripe on the bottom. Nice and large with very little cracking.

So far I have picked 80 gallons of tomatoes from my 48 (??) plants.


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## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

Pam, I have not seen oxheart orange - how does that taste? How do you preserve your tomatoes - can Rotel style, make sauce, dehydrate...?


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## timmie (Jan 14, 2012)

we like atkins,celebrity and most of all brandywine. i do not like the roma so i'll be trying some different ones nex year.


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## Sentry18 (Aug 5, 2012)

Finally a topic in this section I can join in on! I have one single plant that produces food. Yes, one. It is a Honeybunch Cherry Tomato plant and it sits in a pot right outside my door. My youngest girls think it is the single greatest plant in the entire world and it's entire production is dedicated to hand picked snacks during outdoor play time. While I am aware that this post is hardly helpful, I do know that next year our raised garden bed will complete and there will be a whole section of Honeybunch plants.


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## Immolatus (Feb 20, 2011)

I have a bunch of different tomato plants, all producing like crazy but I dunno know the names of any of em.
Cherry tomatoes, regular big red ones, I know I planted a purple tomato or tow but havent seen any, and I have tons and tons of little pear shaped yellow ones.
I bought a bunch of plants this year, and after I planted them a ton of different varieties popped up all over the place from last year. I dug out almost all of them and gave them away to the guys at work.
I really enjoy the small ones cause I can just chow them down straight off the plant, but the girl doesnt like any small ones, so theyre all mine. The cherry tomatoes are very good, the little yellow ones dont have much flavor.


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## pixieduster (Mar 28, 2012)

I like the roma and cherry. Cherry because we eat them like grapes, easier to get kids to eat them, can plant an couple in a big pot and keep close to the back door(kitchen). Roma because I like how they stay firm, easy to slice for salads. My sister brought me 20 pounds of a very delicious kind I don't know the name of, dark red(almost maroon), kinda small and held up well for canning, salads, not to many seeds, very meaty.


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## Wanderer0101 (Nov 8, 2011)

i just planted Early Girl, Carmello, Celebrity and Juliets for fall tomatoes. I've used Early Girls and Carmellos quite a lot for summer tomatoes and they've done very well. I also usually plant Mortage Lifters, Geman Pinks, Golden Cherry, Cherokee Purples and several other varieties of Black tomatoe. My absolute favorite is the Black Krim which has a unique and very delicious flavor. Every year I plan to plant paste tomatos but never seem to manage it.


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## siletz (Aug 23, 2011)

For anyone who lives in a cool summer climate or one with short seasons, I would recommend Stupice (pronounced Stoo-peach-ka). I have tried several tomatoes over the years, and Stupice has out performed them all. It's an OP indeterminate variety. It has always been the first to ripen for me and produces a lot of tomatoes.

The only hybrid plant in my garden is the Sungold cherry tomato. It is just so sweet and productive! It seems to have less acid than the red tomatoes. It has reached the gutters on the house and would keep going if I didn't cut them off there.


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## Wanderer0101 (Nov 8, 2011)

Wanderer0101 said:


> i just planted Early Girl, Carmello, Celebrity and Juliets for fall tomatoes. I've used Early Girls and Carmellos quite a lot for summer tomatoes and they've done very well. I also usually plant Mortage Lifters, Geman Pinks, Golden Cherry, Cherokee Purples and several other varieties of Black tomatoe. My absolute favorite is the Black Krim which has a unique and very delicious flavor. Every year I plan to plant paste tomatos but never seem to manage it.


Hah! The Juliets already have little tomatoes and nearly everything else is blooming. About every other year I get decent fall tomatoes.


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## kejmack (May 17, 2011)

I grow Romas for tomato sauce. I like Amish for ketchup. Early girls are what we use for fresh tomatoes. I also grow "Solar Fire" tomatoes. They do better in the searing Texas heat.


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## Catullus (Sep 17, 2012)

Roma for Sauce. Then a mish mash of heirlooms for plenty of variety. This is making me hungry. Too bad my tomato plants did terrible this year...


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