comparing tom varieties - quality, taste and yield

MRSMCAWBER

Taye wrote: »

how do you count and weigh the ones that pop uncontollably into your mouth while your trying to harvest them?

Ahhhh now there is a point..they will be like the peas -counted as "gardeners perks" :rotfl:

Leopardlady

Hi all, i am interested in this thread as i am growing toms this year having lost all mine to blight last year.

All mine are being grown outside, most in the ground, but OH has taken some to grow in grow bags at work!

We have about 30 plants of Gardeners delight, so excited that everyone thinks these are good.
One tumbling tom,
6 Indian tom variety unknown (from my mother)
1 Blonde Kopfchalen? (yellow cherry tomatoe)
2 Sweatpea cherry tomatoes

The last two were free seeds sent from one of the offers i found.

I don't eat many toms from the supermarket as i don't like the taste, but having family from championship tomato growing in Guernsey, i am really excited about all the delicious little toms i may get this year. I will just have to make sure i get some before OH devours them all

Lotus-eater

Primrose wrote: »

An interesting question for all you tomato growers - does anybody weigh the crops they get from each variety of tomato to see what the average crop yield is?
Because I like to try and stock up the freezer for the year ahead with tomato purree/sauce I obviously always hope for a good crop and wonder whether I would get more cooking tomatoes from a cherry tomato plant type like Gardeners Delight, or one of the bigger varieties? Any thoughts?

Although I don't weigh the fruit I get, I do have a good idea. GD toms you will get a fair few, but in weight a larger tomato is generally better. Having made tomato sauces from various tomatoes over the years, I find large ones like Ferline are better than the normal tomatoes. As I said before, this year I am growing San Marzano specifically for cooking, I find the std tomato sauces are a bit thin.

foreign_correspondent

As well as yield, you need to consider the variety and whether it suits your purpose - as lotus-eater says, for sauce you want a paste/plum tomato, or a beefsteak, as they have more flesh and less seeds and gel. I found some of the tomatoes with lots of seeds (such as GD and tigerella) were lovely for eating raw, but a bit watery for cooking, and the seeds can give a slightly bitter/sour taste if you whizz them up in a blender.

Primrose

Thanks to those of you who have given feedback on cooking tomatoes - this is very helpful. In the past I've tended to cook up a mixture of varieties, but usually saving more of the GD's for salads because of their good flavour, but you've given me cause for thought about too many seeds causing bitterness/sourness when whizzed up in the blender because I've sometimes blamed the bitter/sour taste in the past to lack of ripeness and added a little sugar, whereas perhaps that wasn't the reason at all. I'm going to try growing some San Marzano next year for cooking - I imagine they probably arn't much use for salads because of their texture?

foreign_correspondent

Primrose wrote: »

Thanks to those of you who have given feedback on cooking tomatoes - this is very helpful. In the past I've tended to cook up a mixture of varieties, but usually saving more of the GD's for salads because of their good flavour, but you've given me cause for thought about too many seeds causing bitterness/sourness when whizzed up in the blender because I've sometimes blamed the bitter/sour taste in the past to lack of ripeness and added a little sugar, whereas perhaps that wasn't the reason at all. I'm going to try growing some San Marzano next year for cooking - I imagine they probably arn't much use for salads because of their texture?

yeah, they taste bland and are quite pulpy raw so not much cop for salads at all. I am trying Marmande, a beefsteak this year, and will see how they fare both raw and cooked. Will let you know!

katiel

[FONT=&quot]Am also growing quite a few different tomatoes. The two that haven’t been mentioned on this thread yet are:[/FONT]
-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Millefleur – Said to produce “Hundreds of translucent yellow tomatoes on a single huge flower truss about 2ft across”. Bred from a wild tomato L Humbolidii[/FONT]
-[FONT=&quot] [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Matina – an organic tomato that so far doesn’t look like a tomato plant at all – the leaves are all wrong![/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Not tried either before so will report back on how they get on. [/FONT]

HappyIdiotTalk

Whenever i make a tomato sauce I just use the whole tomato, minius the skin and have never had a bitterness problem, but then I dont whizz the sauce in a blender, I just cook them until they break down on their own, and then reduce to get a nice consistency... or add pasta water if they get too thick.

I dont have any specific plans for the varieities I'm growing, I'll use whatever I've got for sauces and whatever else... but then I just luurrrvvvv tomatoes and will eat them however they are! I just wish the damn things would just hurry up and grow!

angelavdavis

Last year so many of my plants were lost to blight before the tomatoes matured, that I have been looking out for blight resistant varieties.

I can't remember all the varieties I have planted this year, although I have planted Gardeners Delight and Tigerella again because they have always been pretty successful in my garden. I have tried hundreds and thousands this year to see what it is like, as well as tumbling toms in baskets.

Unlike last year, I have built a polytunnel for some of my tomatoes and am trying San Marzano and Costoluto Fiorontino in there, like foreign correspondent - last years were pretty awful and succumbed to both blossom end rot and blight.

I am a big cook and fancied making my own passata - hence trying the San Marzano. I can't remember getting more than three toms last year before the BER and blight took over.

If they are rubbish again this year, I will ditch them forever!

Mooksville

Nice idea for a thread - will be interesting to see the different results across the UK (we're trying a similar project on our allotment).

So, we've got 6 plants outside -

2 which my Dad gave me (I'm chasing him for the variety - he also gave me an 'unusual tomato' which turned out to be an Augergine!)

2 Gardener's Delight, a Moneymaker and a Shirley (?).

Girlfriend's Mother has all the above planted in the ground inside her greenhouse plus one called Sunshine...Sunburst...(?)

Grown from Thompson seeds I believe.

Looking forward to the results!