comparing tom varieties - quality, taste and yield

frivolous_fay

Primrose wrote: »

Fay - My Alicante this year have been very stunted for some reason, with very few tomatoes but in my experience the tomatoes are average size (just over an inch in diameter). Did you grow from seed or get from a garden centre where often plants can oven be mislabelled by customers fiddling with them and mixing the labels up. In my experience most cherry type tomato plants grow quite tall. Gardeners Delight (a slightly larger than average cherry tomato) often grows at least six feet high and in normal circumstance I would have expected your Alicante to be taller than 1 metre.

Well... the in-laws gave us two plants (I suspect the runts! ) when they were ooh, not even a foot tall?

I moved one into a larger pot earlier than the other. That one is now 1m tall. The other is about a 3rd of the height. The tall one has much bigger leaves, and lighter coloured than the small one.

When I mentioned the difference, they said 'Well, we thought they were both golden cherry, but you might have ended up with an Alicante'

But now the toms on the tall ones seem so small, maybe there wasn't any mixup! But the foliage seems so different

foreign_correspondent

I have just had a 'white queen' tomato sandwich... then another one! Was lovely, a really nice tasty tomato flavour! Will grow a few of these again next year!

in fact out of this lot that I grew this year...

Tigerella
Gardeners Delight
Marmande
White Queen
Golden Gem
Carbon
Paul Robeson
Purple Russian
Green Sausage

The only ones I will grow again will be:

Tigerella - regular sized toms, red with yellow stripes, pretty, heavy croppers, reliable

Gardeners Delight - cherry toms, small and red, sweet and tasty

White Queen - big white ribbed beefsteak, attractive, unusual and tasty

Golden Gem F1 - cherry tom sized, (about as big as gardener's delight) oval, bright orange tomatoes, lovely sweet and fresh flavour

ETA - all of the above were generally healthy plants, (apart from some that were damaged from herbicide drift) and produced good quantities of fruit without significant wastage due to blossom end rot, splitting or other defects.

Some of the other varieties I grew produced lots but had some wastage (like golden sunrise - loads of tomatoes split) and others produced fruit that were sparse (purple ukraine), or distorted (paul robeson and marmande) and some were just a waste of time (green sausage - plants looked ropey, fruits were few and far between and many had blossom end rot, and those that were ok tasted rubbish!) - last year I grew San marzano and costoluto fiorentino (also distorted loads) too, and had problems with blossom end rot in both of those...

To an extent, as I always grow several varieties, which are always treat the same re: feed, watering etc, I do think that some of the things we blame ourselves for (blossom end rot, for example) are actually largely caused by poor varieties, or sub standard seed.

Primrose

This year I have grown the following varieties. All outdoors in the soil. mostly up against a south facing fence.

Gardeners Delight - a regular favourite of larger size cherry tomatoes which have done well. Lovely flavour
Moneycross - an improved version of Moneymaker. Good cropper. Juicy for cooking. Largish tomatoes.
Cherry- very small tomatoes. Not really a good cropper and not as tasy as Gardeners Delight if you want a small tomato. Won't grow again.
Black Russian - ugly fruits, the top half of which is wasted because of its cracked greeny shading, slight smokey flavour. Very poor cropper. Most of the flowers on each truss didn't set. Won't grow again.
Sun Gold - cherry sized yellow tomato, very tasy but smaller than Gardeners Delight so lower cropper.
Yellow Tumbler- low bush variety for growing in containers or hanging baskets. Very early ripener and masses of fruit. Good flavour but not quite as 'tangy' as Gardeners Delight but will definitely grow again.
Red Tumbler- low bush variety like its red counterpart. Early ripener. Lots of fruit.
Ildi - huge clusters of yellow grape shaped fruit. Reasonable flavour. Would grow again if I had spare space.
Roma - Italian plum variety, Very dry. No juice. Waste of time.
Alicante -performed very poorly with very few fruit., Big disappointment but has performed better in previous years.
Ailsa Craig - performed poorly. Produced one truss of small fruit then died. Has done OK for me in previous years.
Ferline F1 - very healthy plants with huge trusses of juicy tomatoes. No sign of blight. Will definitely grow again as another alternative to Moneycross.

I have sprayed all my tomatoes against blight this year. Some have shown odd traces and I have removed damaged leaves immediately. My Ailsa Craig and Alicante effectively died off before the blight season arrived so don't know what caused them to fail.

Primrose

Mrs. McCawber - I was flicking back through this thread to the earlier photos of your tomatoes and other things in pots and would be intrigued to know what you are you going to do with all the compost at the end of the growing season? Do you try to reconsitute it or use it again?

foreign_correspondent

I grew:
Tigerella
Gardeners Delight
Marmande
White Queen
Golden Gem
Carbon
Paul Robeson
Purple Russian
Green Sausage

out of these, I am still picking tomatoes off all varieties, however, green sausage, purple russian and the other black tomato, which I think is paul robeson have yielded very small numbers of fruits... also, all of those three are !!!!!!s to pick, as the stalks do not snap easily above the calyx. Will not bother with those specific varieties again.

I am still picking plenty of tigerella, which I have to say are probably my favourite variety overall...

I wouldnt mind a recommendation of any small (ish) fuited, decent white or green varieties.. white queen are nice, but very big!

Lotus-eater

I really must try tigerella next year, I've heard so many good things about it this year.

I have so many mixed feelings this year over my toms.
Ferline have done well as usual, they will be my mainstay next year as usual, although they didn't do quite as well as normal, but I think I didn't give them enough feed.
GD lovely and perfect (as usual ) one is up to 7 mature trusses now and continues to grow.
Purple Ukraine, for me anyway this ripened very early, inside and out, the one outside I had, ripened faster than some others inside the greenhouse! Taste ok, will grow one or two of these again. Makes good sauce.
Scatalone, plum tom, very bland, but nice and big for sauce, won't grow again.
San Marzano, much smaller than the Scatalone, but nice tasting and more prolific, would be better with more feed I think, very prone to BER though, will grow a couple to try again and see if I can control the BER. Late to ripen.
Garden pearl, Lots of tiny toms that my DD loved (she wants to grow some next year now) but without a brilliant taste for me, OK, but not great, very useful as a large potted tomato as you can move it about easily. I have 2 now in my porch while the weather gets worse to finish off ripening. It is the best small bush I can find for containers though, unless anyone has any ideas?

Primrose

I'm still harvesting Ferline, Gardeners Delight, Sungold and a variety I've never grown before - Ildi, which have slightly frilly leaves and masses of grape shaped yellow tomatoes on each truss - over 30 per plant on the biggest trusses. The fruit go slightly translucent like grapes when they're ripe and have a pleasant flavour. Also, I noticed that although one of these two plants developed a little blight, it didn't spread at all although I've never seen it advertised as a blight resistant plant. Have just picked my lack Black Russian tomato - like all the others it was cracked. So next year I'll probably concentrate on:
Ferline, Gardeners Delight, Sungold, Ildi, a red or yellow tumbler and Black Cherry for my experimental one.
Lotus-eater - I think you're right about Ferline needing plenty of feed. They produce such a big crop that they undoubtedly need a little help in this respect. I've been feeding mine every week/10 days since the first fruit formed but have stopped now, even though a few tiny tomatoes are still trying to form. I think after the end of this sunny forecast week-end I'll probably pick the remaining tomatoes and let them ripen indoors, unless we have an exceptionally favourable weather forecast.

foreign_correspondent

has anyone grown 'Green Grape' or 'Green Zebra' before...? I am looking for a decent green coloured tomato for last year, and would be interested to see how people have found thses...

I grew green sausage this year, and wouldnt bother with it again - limp, jalf dead looking plants, less than a handful of edible fruits a week, and they don't taste great either!

foreign_correspondent

gardeners delight and ferline seem to be universally popular - I am getting organised for next year now, having bought some reduced seeds in Wilkos and the T&M sale...

so next year I will be mostly growing...

my favourites:
Tigerella and Gardener's Delight

From this years saved seed I will grow:
White Queen and Golden Sunrise

I will be trying out some new varieties, the seeds I have so far are:
Golden Cherry f1
Sungold f1, (which most people on here seem to like)
Berry f1 (strawberry shaped)
Principe Borghese (medium plum)
Black Cherry
Falcorosso f1 (cherry plum tomato)

I also have some Balconi red and yellow, but will probably sell those as plants, rather than grow on.

May also get some Golden Gem F1, as I loved the flavour, and they are a lovely vivid, bright orange colour, and almost all are perfect.

I will not bother again with Marmande (thick skins, nothing special to recommend them), Paul Robeson (about half a dozen fruits a plant, hard to pick - cannot snap the stalk off and leave the calyx on, and cracked fruits) Green Sausage (taste like nothing! plants look half dead, low yields) or Purple Ukraine (half dead looking plants, low yield and hard to pick - again, cannot snap the stalk off and leave the calyx on)

System

Can see activity on this thread has stopped for the year, we'll probably get enthused again next year. As it's been a mild autumn have only just removed my last plant yesterday. Noticeable that some of the F1s kept going happily. Suncherry premium yellow and Santa especially.
Black Krim yield not good, tasty, tended to split. Blighted maybe as it was by the polytunnel door.
Marinda (F1 Marmande variety) respectable yields on enormous trusses. Had to add further support as the stems sliding down string under weight. Good but missing the wow factor you want from a large beefsteak.
15+ fruit at 200gm

Japan Noir (Raymond Blanc pick) umpteen 90gm fruits, extremely juicy with nice tender flesh but wet & not very tasty. Had to grill/roast. Will give it one last try with seed from a different source (a heritage grower who says this is fabulous)

Suncherry Premium F1 excellent yield as usual, sweet fruits, reliable plants.
15gm fruit 10 per truss (first truss enormous) 10+trusses.
Suncherry Premium Gold F1 - This years winner with visitors, very sweet, plants in great condition and allowing them to keep setting trusses. Put an extra wire and trained them across the greenhpouse roof in the end. Stripped lower leaves in October as they started to yellow, left the fruit to ripne on the plant.
15gm fruit, 10 per truss (or more), 15 trusses.
Orange Santa F1 Good flavour, mini plum, firm - fruit holds for ever, doesn't split.
20gm fruit, 10 per truss, 10+ trusses.
Sunray Gold - Heritage large yellow variety from Organic garden society - fruits 200 - 400gms. Wonderful taste/good acidity and juiciness. Plants managed 8 or 9 fruit on 3/4 trusses and were then done for.
Burpees Delicious - Heritage - Has been the tops for flavour in previous years
truss limited to three fruit, weighed in 800gm+ for the truss. Again 3/4 good trusses, then tapered off.
Country Taste F1 Last minute sowing saw it sounded promising, suggested beefsteak size and good flavour which it was.
Didn't record weights (not a fair comparison as it was later than rest)
Tender skins, good balance of sweetness and acidity, reckon flavour up there with the heritage varieties, regular cordon plant with three large fruit per truss, Looks more like a conventional tomato, showed no sign of running of of steam. Extremely promising and will be growing lots more next year.