[Lee G]

Does anyone remember seeing a TV program some time ago with Rayond Blanc, he did a taste test with tomatoes grown in his own kitchen gardens, I think Marmande came out top?
I've been growing it here (amongst half a dozen other varieties) and think it's lovely: paper thin skins, lots of flesh inside and loads of flavour, not too acidic, perfect for pasta sauces and cooking but perhaps a bit big for a salad (one tomato is easily enough for 2-3 people!)  I'd recommend giving them a try 

Cheers,
Wayne.

Great news, I've got a few Marmande plus gardeners delight, sweet millions, tumbling tom and Roma.  Went a bit crazy after missing out last year (didn't get my plot until May last year), the kitchen currently has almost 90 little plants crammed on the window sills!!  My OH can't wait for the new greenhouse to go up, little does she know I'll be swapping the toms with the pepper seedlings that have just germinated, plus the chilli seeds I've just bought!!

[dougsta]

so true - a different answer from everyone I think
Moneymaker have not had good flavour for me - great yields though (perhaps that's why it has that name )
Cherries: Gardener's Delight is a delicious flavour as are Sungold
And for larger tomatoes the flavour of Ailsa Craig is hard to knock IMHO
This year I'm going for Shirley cos it seems to do so well in the shows (very consistent) and the new breed, midsize older brother of Sungold - forget the name.  (Sungella?)

[sclarke624]

gardeners delight for me, hated the marmande.  Who doesn't go mad with growing the toms, I thought I would try a few different varieties and have ended up with 44 plants eeekk!

ildi
sweet million
red alert
sungold
gold nugget
gardeners delight
roma
balconi red
golden sunrise
moneymaker
orange banana
black cherry

curse those 50p sales hehe

[lightyears]

whoa, 1 day and so many replies lol. im gonna go for moneymaker and some tumbling toms for hanging baskets

[DD.]

I refer back to my comment in the third post!

As someone else posted, you may be disappointed with the flavour of the Moneymaker, although it's far superior to the supermarket ones.

Moneymaker was the first one I grew over 40 years ago & there wasn't much more choice then, most of the varieties I've grown since have had a much better flavour.

PM me with your name & address, I have quite a lot of seed of a few varieties & I'll send you a few different ones to try, let me know how many you're thinking of. I'll be away now until Tuesday though so I won't be able to reply straight off.

[JulesJ]

It just hit me how economical growing toms is. Your average tin of toms costs 33p and contains maybe 3 or 4 plum toms, but think how many toms you get off a single plant whose seed only costs a fraction of that. I'll be making as much pasta sauce as poss this year.

[mumofstig]

Your average tin of toms costs 33p and contains maybe 3 or 4 plum toms,

and at that price they are the cheapies yours will taste much better as well as being cheaper

[Chiswickian]

Does anyone remember seeing a TV program some time ago with Rayond Blanc, he did a taste test with tomatoes grown in his own kitchen gardens, I think Marmande came out top?
I've been growing it here (amongst half a dozen other varieties) and think it's lovely: paper thin skins, lots of flesh inside and loads of flavour, not too acidic, perfect for pasta sauces and cooking but perhaps a bit big for a salad (one tomato is easily enough for 2-3 people!)  I'd recommend giving them a try 

Cheers,
Wayne.

There was an article by Ramond Blanc in The Garden last year - he tasted toms and Floridity came out top. I can't recall if Marmande was included but Nigel Slater rates it. Gartenperle came bottom - I only read the article after I had sown some free Gartenperle that I got in a magazine last year. 

[funkydelia]

Has anyone tried Alicante?

I got a kit (first time growing toms from seed) which included Alicante, Gardener's Delight and Marmande

Alicante are the only ones so far that haven't done so well, lost 2 seedlings when I put them out into the greenhouse.

What are they like?