Heirloom varieties you really like?

[MarkFD]

I planted 28 plants this year and I still buy tomatoes from our local farm. Of the 28 some don't produce and some produce only a few. Plus it's always nice to give some away. I have been printing tomato recipes to make on the grill once they start coming in.

[Brandywinegirl]

I bought most of my heirlooms from QVC. I have:

Green Zebra
Mortgage Lifter
Brandywine - my favorite so far
Dixie Golden Giant
Sugar Lump
Yellow Perfection - died for no good reason (R.I.P)
Cherokee Purple - my first ripe tomato this season! YUMMY.

I also have Razzle Dazzle that I got from Burpee. All in all I have 16 plants.

[bflocat]

I got 16 plants from a man nearby who deals only in heirlooms. The plants were beautiful when I picked them up, and have done really well since I put them in the ground. I've got:
-Italian Tree
-Green Zebra
-Chocolate Stripes
-Homer Fike's Oxheart Gold
-Lahman's Pink
-Sun Gold Cherry
-Black Krim
-Stupice
-Vintage Wine

The Sun Gold Cherry, Stupice and Green Zebras are covered in fruit. The rest of the plants have just a smattering of fruit thus far (but I'm in Zone 4-5). The Vintage Wine appears to be putting all its energy into just one tomato - anyone ever grown this one before?

[obbligato]

I am growing,
1. Manyel
2. Japanese Black Trifele
3. German Strawberry

[Itswett]

I'm new to this forum and this is the first posting I've done.
I grew/am growing about 21 varieties this year, added a few new ones and got rid of a few that didn't perform so well in the past. One really good one is the Paul Robison black tomato, really a dark, dark red with a purplish tone near the top. Had some cracking issues but nothing much deeper than the skin. Great flavor med. size plant and fruit.

Old Fashion Red is pretty good, no cracking, no end rot, etc. Have always liked the San Marsano Redorta for sauces and tried the Super San Marsano this year; a lot smaller fruit and not nearly as good but the plant set close to 50 or more as compared to only about 10 of the Redorta's.

Tropic set really well this year as did the Glacier (golf ball size).

Aussie is one of my favorites but it only set about 3 this year. We had a really hot spell mid bloom and most all the blossums dried on the vine.

I've always had an end rot problem so this year I added a bunch of calcium to the soil and pruned off the bottom 8-10 inches of leaves for air circulation and it seems to have helped a lot. Very little if any end rot.

Always good to see what everyone else is planting and how they turn out. Thanks, Randy.

[TZ -OH6]

This year I planted the following
9 black varieties
5 cherries
4 green/white
7 pinks
7 reds
5 yellow/bicolor

These consisted of popular "big name" heirlooms and all were tasty and productive, at least 20-70 fruits per plant counted in early August.

My overall favorite is Black Krim for taste, and it is a mid-sized 5 ft plant, above average production ripening early in the midseason. Japanese Black Trifele also was a cut above in taste but a little late to ripen here. Prudens Purple was the earliest of the big pinks and comparable in flavor to the rest. Big plant w/ lots of big fruit over the whole season.


Pink Ping Pong surprized me with its wonderful sugary flavor.

A stray seed turned out to be what I think is Lemony. A pale yellow w/ white flesh...1 lb beefsteak. Tastes like a SweetTart candy when first ripe. It should make some awsome salsas etc. Everyone should try it for a change.

I could see no difference between Nyagous and Black Prince except for a little more cracking with BP and a little more fruit with Nyagous. Identical flavor. Both are slicer/salad tomatoes with too much gel/juice to cook with so high productivity is not much of a plus in my circumstance.

Black plum is a huge plant with hundreds of fruits, the flavor is good but not exceptional (but the plants only get 6-8 hours sun). Unfortunately the fruits are too small to provide enough for cooking/preserving at any one time. It acts like a cherry in that way.

[Naehu808]

I enjoyed reading all of these postings...I have four "better bush" plants ranging from 8" to 14" in height and no flowers yet, nor have I pruned anything off of them. I did not start them from seed. and what exactly are the "suckers"? After reading about the different varieties and breeds, DOES anyone know of a website that may have pics to go with the different breeds and varieties and maybe summaries? Would like to do more research and get an idea of what might be good for my area and size of yard, etc...for next season. (Zone 10, I think?) Any info you can impart would be totally appreciated!


Aloha, Vicki

[TZ -OH6]

Suckers are simply branches that arise from leaf axils.

I think that one of the best sites for information is Laurel's heirloomtomatoplants. She lists plant and fruit size, days to maturity (DTM), and how well they do under different conditions (cold, hot etc). As far as DTMs go, plants can't count, so pretty much ignor the value and look to see if it is early, mid or late season. Of course anyone selling tomato seeds or plants is going to say how wonderfull each variety is even if it is a spitter, but all Laurel's favorites are high on most people's lists. I'm not going to spend $5 on a mail order plant so I go elsewhere to buy seeds.


TomatoFest, Sandhill Preservation, Mariannas seeds, and Tomatogrowers supplies all have large lists of open pollinated (nonhybrid) varieties. Victory Seeds is also excellent

[Sören]

and I got:

Noire de crimmée
Black plum
Jersey Devil
Native sun
Garden peach
Travel ( reistomaat)
Black zebra
Fuzzy wuzzy
Roman candle
Red zebra
Evergreen
Zapotec
Ananas noire
White beauty
Pink accordeon
Tigerella
Orange banana
White cherry
Lime green salad
Debarao geel
Dix doigts de naples
Rode peertjes
Green grape
Black cherry
Green zebra
Tinny tim
......
.....


grts
Sören

[JoeThumb]

The top three flavors of heirloom tomatoes are; Caspian Pink, Marianna’s Peace, and Brandywine Pink. That being said, each individual has their own preferences and there are many wonderful flavors of heirloom tomatoes.

If you want larger, nicer fruit then I would recommend taking off the suckers. If you want a carefree way of growing tomatoes, then just leave them on the tomato plant.

[Trish-A]

As for heirloom we only plant the Brandywine Pink. This year they were as sweet as candy with some fruits weighing nearly 4 pounds. The plants were over 8 feet tall and we keep them at least 50 feet away from other tomatoes to keep the seeds true.
Life can't get much better than to have a hamburger from the BBQ with a slice of tomato that's larger than the bun.

[Ole Dummy]

I grew Brandywine tomatoes for the first time last year. They produced a lot of big tomatoes and had a lot of flavor. The only problem I had was they rotted real fast, but think I am going to try them again this year.

[jusme]

Save a few of the seeds. If they are heirloom and not cross-pollinated, you should be able to grow as many as you want. Be sure to keep them kind of isolated or bag the blossoms when the time comes to keep them from accidentally cross-pollinating and you can have those delicious toms forever.