A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum The Tomato Forum Looking for new (to me) varieties

I've grown a lot of better boys, romas, cherry and beefsteak tomatoes over the years. I'm looking for a few new to me varieties that are proven producers with few problems and good flavor that will grow well in Kentucky. I use them raw, as salsa and sauce.

I'm reasonably happy with Better Boys. But more disease resistance and fewer ripening problems would be welcome.

I want to get away from beefsteak because their uneven ripening and weird shapes. Bragging about a big tomato is one thing...having one that is shaped well for making many good sandwich slices is another.

I've grown Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes for several years. They're good producers but I've had a significant number of splits. I'm ready for a change.

Roma is a good canning tomato. Do you know of other varieties that produce a high flesh to seed ratio and produce well?

I've heard they grow some sweet varieties in California that I would like to hear more about.

I don't know where abouts in KY you are, but I recently moved from Cincinnati where I grew some very tasty tomatoes. I moved away from standard varieties (although I still had some this year) and into heirlooms. I'll recommend three of them.

German Johnson is a HUGE tomato that, at least this year, ripen early for such a large variety and continued to produce. I think the biggest one was about 2 1/2 pounds. It has an interesting shape, but is very symmetrical.

Pink Shipper is another that I liked. And I should tell you that even though I grew huge numbers of tomatoes, I never much liked them until I started to grow heirlooms! It's a medium sized fruit, nice color, mild taste-- but flavorful.

Golden Dwarf is another I'd recommend. To my taste, it is an excellent salad tomato-- slice them up, add a few odds & ends from the herb garden, a good homemade dressing. Perfect.

Pick Shipper & Golden Dwarf seed from Botanicalinterests.com

A word about disease & heirlooms. I was cautioned to *not* go the heirloom route b/c of disease resistance, etc. Poppeycock. The I had a row of early girls in front of the German Johnsons. Guess which the aphids liked?

Didn't pay attention to flesh to seed ratio. When John gets ready to stew tomatoes, combinations are based on color & taste. We use what we have. I'll pay more attention to this.

It should be easy to find San Marzano, a tomato that, to me, tastes better than Roma and is a easy to find for cheap, but it's an extremely popular paste tomato in Europe.
Marmande or Super Marmande makes a nice slicer, again, it's easy to find the seed.
A nice, trouble free tomato is Arkansas Traveler, and Cherokee Purple is excellent, but not round or red...many people like the Sudduth's strain of Brandywine better than anything...again, it's shape isn't regular, but it's flavor is, to me, the best you can get. You really sacrifice space for taste with Brandywine, but some (including me) would grow out a plant for even one ripe fruit. (I loved Ark. Traveler and CP and can't complain about taste or production.) ")
Your best bet for disease control is good cultural practice, primarily using mulch and not wetting the leaves when you water.
I may be able to help more later, but I've been ill. I usually try to respond to tomato and pepper questions.

You have received several good suggestions. And like with most things opinions and suggestions will vary. First remember taste impressions is different for each individual. And I feel you have to rate each tomato by it's class. That is use, shape, size and even color.

I'm in a semi arrid region which has experienced severe drought the last few years. We have high temps with high winds. So things get stressed here and what does well else where may flop here. So when reading my suggestions remember in your garden results can be better or worse. And taste like wise. What makes Vidalia onions taste like they do is the soil. I grow the very same varieties in my garden and although good they don't taste just like the ones grown in Vidalia.

Many that I like that do well are what I call the darks. Cherokee Purple RL and PL, Indian Stripe(good disease resistance) , True Black Brandywine(good disease resistance) and Black from Tula, Amazon Chocolate and Carbon are some of my favorites that do well.

Smaller dark would be Korney's Cross Good disease resistance. A very good tomato that can be used as an all around mater.

All around reds in the 4-7 ounce range two good ones are Glick's 18 Mennonite and Heinz 1439-Det

Larger reds I grow are Chapman, Neve's Azorean Red are some of the first to come to mind.

Money Makers is one in the plum size range that is disease resistant and produces heavy.

Hybrid Red slicer types I like are Goliath, Old Fashioned Goliath and Porterhouse.. Another that was a good slicer with average flavor is Jetsonic. The Goliath's have shown good resistance in the previous 7-8 years I've grown them but both went down this year. Jetsonic never blinked an eye.


Pinks I like are Todebusch Pink(PL with disease resistance, large 12 ounces up to 2 lbs) one of the few large maters that produce many for me. Picked around 12 and had anohter 15 or so on the vine at frost, Brandyboy(Hybrid with good disease reistance that I must grow every year(, Hege's German Pink, Caspian Pink to name a few.

Other colors
Kellogg's Breakfast- A large beefsteak type. In the 10-16 ounce range and a heavy producer. A must grow every year. Flavor in the top 3 I grow
Emerald Evergreen - Very good taste. This was the first year. Size was around 3-4 ounces but flavor as good as Cherokee Green.
Juane Flammee' - Plum size orange-golden tomato. Good disease resistance and a heavy producer every year. Great flavor.

I have tried the Brandywines here off and on for the last 8 years. I tried 8 different strains this year. I have yet to find one that will produce and that unbeatable taste has been elusive here. Again climate, soil and gardening practices make a lot of difference. True Black Brandywine is by far the best I've grown along with Brandyboy a hybrid version. I will try two new hybrid versions this next year.

If I was to raise a plant for one fruit it would be Lucky Cross. The best tasting tomato I've ever tasted.

I have an inventory of over 400 varieties so could name many more. These were just what came to mind first. And many of these are available only as seeds. i have seeds for most if not all if you want to start your own. Free if requested.

Dave glad to see you posting. May God Bless you. Jay

Here is a link to pictures I took this summer of plants and fruits. Might give you a better idea of what I'm talking about. Jay http://s76.photobucket.com/albums/j40/elkwc36/