What is your favorite Tomato ?

[southerncomfort]

I know there are a lot of different varieties but what is your favorite ?

I always seem to grow Better Boys along with others and I like trying new ones each year. This year I am trying Early Girl.

[lakngulf]

I know there are a lot of different varieties but what is your favorite ?

Red, sliced, and lapping over the edge of white bread

[applestar]

If you haven't seen these, you have to take a look just for the experience

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=142269#142269

[hendi_alex]

With tomatoes, it is hard for me to limit it to a favorite tomato. In the small category my current favorite is 'Juliet' because of balance between flavor and productivity over a long season. Am experimenting with a black cherry this year to see how it compares. In the large salad category, about 1.25 inch diameter, I like 'Sweet Cluster' which has terrific flavor and is very productive and disease resistant. Once again am experimenting with a couple of new competitors this year. Honorable mention would go to '4th of July' and 'Super Sioux' in this size category. For larger slicing tomatoes I won't give a single answer, plus could be broken down into various categories. After all how do you compare a black, to a green, to a red or yellow. Also, should super disease resistant hybrids be compared to heirlooms. But anyway, after last year's test, I have to say that we love most any blacks better than other slicers. Each year I grow blacks from a mixed pack of seeds and take what comes. The bag includes 'carbon', 'black from Tula', 'Black Krim', 'Cherokee Chocolate', 'Cherokee Purple'. I haven't had a bad one yet!

[rainbowgardener]

There are several threads around where people have listed out what tomatoes they are growing, which I assume would be their favorites:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=244335#244335

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=216387#216387

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=192628#192628

The tomato fanatics, it's really hard to get them to narrow it down to ONE!

[Yellowsnow]

I grow different varieties for different purposes, but I'd have to go with Mortgage Lifter as my favorite. It grows well in my garden and is larger than a slice of bread. You can slice, dice, juice, can, or sauce them. The end of the year Green ones make great pickles.

[gardenvt]

If I could only grow one tomato, it would be Sungold.

[dustyrivergardens]

#1 thats tough ok I will go with Chocolate Cherry #2 Juliet hybrid #3 Sungold hybrid good thing I can grow them all....Lol then come the later tomatoes...brandywines blacks there to many types kinds favorite sauce tomato San Marzano....

[lakngulf]

Celebrity for nice uniform tasty tomatoes, most of them ready at same time. Great for freezing, separate or cooked with some okra.

Better Boy for tasty sandwich and steady producer.

Brandywine from Monticello for a change, large meaty maters

Sweet 100s for pop in your mouth

So many folks on here have raved about Beefsteak, etc. that I am trying it this year.

[southerncomfort]

A lot of choices ! Thanks for the links. I'm looking forward to checking out some of the other forums on this site. Looks like a lot of good information.

[ruggr10]

I actually think about this tomato a lot when my wife is making sandwiches. I only got a few tomatoes ready to eat last year since I never could tell when they were ripe.

The winner, aunt ruby's german green. the green looked so wrong but it tasted so right!

[Brant]

good choice! Early girls are my favorite.

[Ruffsta]

currently I just buy tomatoes at my grocery store where I work (I am a cook by trade), so most of the time I don't know which ones they have due to them being from different sources.. tomatoes are produce whereas I work in grocery - 2 different departments.

but I am growing super beefsteak tomatoes, razzleberry tomatoes and ladybug cherry tomatoes.. no matter which tomato I eat - there has to be salt on the table unless it's cherry tomatoes in a salad.

[treehopper]

I have to agree with the juliet as a "must have" but, if I could make a wish, the Earlirouge tomato from back in the early 80's was my biggest producer, most resistant...I miss that one.

[btrowe1]

Belgium giants Love the size a real bread coverer, orange wellingtons really cool color and sweet tasting, beef steak, romas for my sauces. I've always had good luck with these, I've done some herilooms but they always seemed to get a disease. so now I just stick with what works. I usually try a new type in a container on my deck last eyar was chocolate cherrys good tasting but not so good in a container on the deck.. Early girls are always a good producer also..

[SPierce]

I haven't decided on a favorite tomato yet, but this year I'm trying out 6 varieties, so I'll have a better idea by the end of the season ;D

[jal_ut]

Celebrity

[Ozark Lady]

OSU Blue will be very difficult to beat out as my favorite, for taste, vigor, disease resistance, and on and on.
I am trying many new ones this year.
I do NOT grow hybrids, so I will have no comment on those.

[TheWaterbug]

I've only ever grown four varieties, but I _really_ like the Cherokee Purple I grew last year. Pretty good production and terrific flavor. I never knew I liked tomatoes until I grew some

[tedwilson]

I'm interested in trying some hybrids next season and am considering Fourth of July, Jet Star, Big Beef, Sun Gold, Brandy Boy, and Early Girl.

[MaryDel]

I'm interested in trying some hybrids next season and am considering Fourth of July, Jet Star, Big Beef, Sun Gold, Brandy Boy, and Early Girl.

Early Girls aree like grocery store tomatos. 4th of July is a much tastier early tomato, but has a very tough skin, and they are on the small side.




My favorite all around tomato is the Rutgers. Great off the vine, but even better for sauce.


My favorite sauce Tomato is San marzano


Favorite eating tomato would be Delicious, or Cherokee Purple

[hendi_alex]

'4th of July' is one of my favorite larger salad tomatoes. They have a very nice, for me, acid bite. The skin is tough, but the tomatoes are large enough to peel. Actually later in the summer the tough skin is bonus because the stink bugs and leaf footed bugs tend to favor other varieties with thin skin. Since the piercing bugs don't bother them much, the tomatoes hold up for a week or longer when brought inside. For me 'Sweet Cluster' is a bit better than '4th of July' but both are standouts in the 1.25-1.5 inch round red salad tomato class. Both give very early harvests as another plus.

[PunkRotten]

I see Cherokee purple is a popular choice good thing I am growing it this year. But I have yet to eat one, but very soon I will get that chance. I have not grown enough varieties to really have a favorite. Last year I grew a hybrid called JetStar and really liked them. The size, flavor, and versatility is what I liked. And the plants produced really well with little to no problems.

I grew Roma too and like those as well, I hear a lot about San Marzano and wanna try those soon.

[Avonnow]

Well I personally now like the Abe Lincoln and Julia Child for taste, I love the Golden Boy for a change from the typical red. It is just too much fun waiting and tasting. This year I planted a ton of different ones, each time they were harvested, we would slice it up and have a family tasting, I would take pictures and make notes in my journal. I will never remember next year what I thought. The Juliette which was mentioned by others is great for a smaller tomato and produces a ton. I had a Johnnie's Hybrid Salsa that made me so happy in canning salsa this year, great production and quality.

[GeorgiaTiger]

I know there are a lot of different varieties but what is your favorite ?

Red, sliced, and lapping over the edge of white bread

OMG, YOU are from the SOUTH! One thing you forgot on that sammich is DUKES Mayo. No other mayo will suffice. And salt and pepper. And a glass of sweet tea.

[Francis Barnswallow]

A hybrid cherry tomato. I'm on generation 4 with these little guys, and they grow and produce more and more every year.......and that includes the ridiculous amount of pests (bugs, animals, and humans) eating the tomatoes.

[jal_ut]

Celebrity has been a good one for me.

[gixxerific]

I see a lot of Cherokee Purple. All of you should plant Spudakee next year. It is the potato leaf version od Cherokee Purple. It is as productive if not more with less to no splitting.

[dustyrivergardens]

that is good to know the splitting is why I started growing Carbons but if I could get better production I will switch to Spudakee

[mattie g]

I actually don't like tomatoes except in sauces and salsas, so I tend to go for paste tomatoes. I've got a San Marzano that's going nuts this year - already picked over a dozen tomatoes with probably 50 or so still on the plant - so I'm pretty stoked about that. Other than that, I just like growing various bigger heirlooms because of the variety in colors and shapes. I'm growing a Cherokee Purple and Valencia this year - one of the Valencia plants is the most "perfect" tomato plant I've ever grown - tall, strong, single stem, and with plenty of plump, round tomatoes.

[TheWaterbug]

Countdown to BLTs in 3, 2, 1, . . . .:


This is a Mr. Stripey. I think Mr. Stripey's were my wife's favorite from last year, and I'm not 100% about that because last year's fruit didn't look anything like this year's, and I'm growing from purchased plants, not seeds.

Last year's Stripeys were deeply grooved/lobed, and this year's are pretty smooth, so I can't be confident that these are actually the same variety as last year's, regardless of what the tag on the pot says.

But last year's Stripeys were incredibly sweet, almost like a dessert tomato.

[dustyrivergardens]

Mr Stripey's are one of my favorites also they did so well in my garden last year and there flavor was every bit as good as my brandywines.

[img]https://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj163/hunt-john/gardening/IMG_1688a.jpg[/img]