[chimaera]

I have grown toms for a couple of years now and tried several varieties, but with hundreds of types out there I would like to know whether others have tried varieties that do not have the flaws of the ones I have tried:

in unheated greenhouse
Gardener's delight. Great, no problems at all Will grow again. But I also want some larger varieties.

Sungold. Pretty but I found the texture poor and the taste poor. Not growing again.

Tigrella. Fast growing and heavy yield but taste poor and with a hard core that needs cutting out before eating. I would like something of this size, resistance to problems and productivity but with a better flavour.

Purple Ukraine. Fantastic taste- I have tasted nothing like it, and great colour BUT seems impossible to water properly as almost all fruit get blossom end rot and/or split. I would love something like this but more tolerant to me not being able to water more than once a day.

Gold medal (beefsteak). Great taste and colour but low yield and with rough scars on skin that have to be cut off. Did not ripen outside. I would like a smoother skinned form with higher yield.

Millifleur. Great taste and yield in greenhouse, yield poor outside. Too fiddly to pick indoors.

Outdoor.
Roma. Great yield and taste, but slow ripening and habit hard to handle. Is there a cordon type that is otherwise similar?

Latah. Fast growing and potentially good yield and taste but died first when blight struck last year.


Charlie

[pigeonpie]

I always grow Gardener's Delight which I love but I usually try to grow a few other varieties to try them out.  I've enjoyed Shirley and Big Boy this year.  (Is it just me or does that sound very wrong!?!)  Shirley has been very sweet and lovely size fruits, perfect for slicing for sandwiches or grilling.  Big Boy is a good cooking variety, roasts lovely for tomato sauce.
I'll have a look through my notes and see if I can find any others that I've found good.
One thing I always do to keep the flavour after picking them is to not put them in the fridge.  The cold takes all the sweetness out of them and can turn a really good tomato to an average one.   

[Kagganz]

Moneymaker for me, lovely sizes and delicious too......

plus the clever little blighters stopped growing all by themselves when they had 5 trusses on too !   

[Goosegirl]

This year is the first I haven't raised my own plants, and out of the ones I got, Vanessa was brillisnt as an indoor plant with great tomato taste and a nice size too.

[theakston_uk]

I grew yellow pear tomatos this year, they are small but very tasty

[Babstreefern]

Vanessa - have always grown it.  Great taste, great abundance and great everything else.  I've grown 16 plants (roughly one packet of seeds), and have made bags of pasta sauce (takes a lot of toms), have given pounds away to neighbours and friends.  Would recommend it

[digalotty]

yhis year i have grown gardeners delight and marmande and shirley f1 that have been recomended by lots of people for flavour

[grenhouse]

I have tried a few different varieties over the last couple of years.

Favourites : Ildi - small grape size yellow tomatoes, very sweet and i have had 50 to 80 on each truss.

Black cherry - beautiful cherry tomatoes, very sweet.

Have also tried - tigerella (not bad, seems better for cooking), gardeners delight (ok, but not a patch on black cherry and ildi). Moneymaker, alicante, roma, yellow pair, all pretty average!!!

Steve

[mumofstig]

I grew yellow pear tomatos this year, they are small but very tasty

It's funny isn't it, but I've grown this for the first time this year and won't grow it again, put it that way

Black Cherry is still my favourite....so far

Has anybody grown Old Brookes or Thessaloniki.....both inclined to be tart...which is what I'm looking for, I don't like sweet tomatoes much.

[JohnB47]

"Sungold. Pretty but I found the texture poor and the taste poor. Not growing again."

Curious - I've grown Sungold for about four years now and it's my favourite. Perhaps you're picking them a bit late - they can go a bit soft and loose some of their tang if left too long on the plant.

Trying Shirley and Alicante this year - Shirley tastes pretty good but Alicante aren't ready yet but crop looks good.

[fatcat1955]

Shirley have been superb in the tunnel and Inca f1 plum type has been excellent outside

[veggirl]

I bought a couple of Andine Cornue from a farm shop specialising in heritage varieties, and the flavour was so fantastic I'm going to try them myself next year. They are long, red and quite large.

[chimaera]

Some good stuff here, thanks.
I know that in many ways they may be better but I try to avoid F1 as i like to see what variation I get (one of the Roma I have this year has round fruit rather than oval and seems to be ripening faster; whether it is a mutation or a natural cross i don't know but I will save some seeds to find out) and to keep seeds if I like something. Unfortunately most recommendations are for F1.

Charlie

[Lardman]

Out of the 20+ varieties I've tried so far this year  By far the best for being what I would consider a proper tomato is money maker.  The others were nice enough but not right.

Incidentally MoS my black cherry grown outside were considerably more tasty than those grown in the greenhouse.  :blink:

[shokkyy]

This year I've grown:

Sungold - a lot of the fruit has been splitting, not keen on the taste

Gartenperle - super in baskets, huge crop of very sweet fruit, early to ripen

Red Alert - my personal favourite, tough bush plants with good crop, good taste, and early to ripen

Legend - enormous fruit, heavy crop, slow to ripen but not surprising given their size (i've ripened some with bananas). Taste is ok but I'm not sure such big fruit are a good idea on a bush, makes it hard to support them.

Alicante - good size and crop, ok taste, but lots of blossom end rot

Pomodoro Roma (Nano, not the VF sold by SoI) - big fruit, heavy crop, slow to ripen but again, not surprised given size. Ripen fine with bananas. Haven't been eating fresh as I grew these for cooking. Not that easy to support, but it's semi determinate rather than determinate so not surprising.