Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Potato & Tomato Popularity Polls => Topic started by: JayG on December 02, 2010, 19:23

Title: Home-grown Tomato survey 2010 : THE RESULTS!
Post by: JayG on December 02, 2010, 19:23
Although we encourage people to search the forums for information, having tried to discover recommendations for tomato varieties to grow next year I found the threads were scattered far and wide, so I thought a ranking list of member’s favourite varieties might be helpful to many of us.

There are literally hundreds of different types of tomato seeds to choose from, so rather than trying to set up ready-made polls for so many potential choices I would like to invite you to add a reply to this "sticky" nominating your choices.

Please make no more than two choices, which can be either cordon (indeterminate) or bush (determinate) and can be anything from large, plum-shaped and red, to tiny, round and yellow, but remember this is a survey of recommendations, not failures!

Against each choice, please give a rating out of 10 for yield and flavour so that they can be included in the final list.

Your entry should therefore look something like:

Red Firecracker; yield 8, flavour 10
Yellow fever; yield 10, flavour 7
  

I will collate the results into a table after a few weeks, and will have a go at adding information such as fruit size, colour, shape, and whether cordon or bush.

If we get a good response I will ask Aunty to find a more permanent home for it on the forum.

Thanks!  :)




Thanks to all who have already posted, but we need MORE RESPONSES to make the results really meaningful (can there really be only about 30 tomato growers out of 15,000 members?)

Will let it run for another couple of weeks before collating the results.

JayG




Here are the results of the “Home-grown tomato survey"; thanks to all those who took the trouble to participate.

A few points about the results:

1) Only those varieties which received more than 2 votes have been included in the “top ten”; these are shown in red and have been listed in order of the overall combined average scores for yield and flavour. I was unable to find any information for “Italian plum” (generic?) or Lucibell.

2) The number of votes received was too low to make these results statistically significant, but they do give at least some indication of some of the varieties being grown “out there” and what you think of them.
I’ll leave you all to draw your own conclusions!  :)

3) I have done my best to classify the varieties according to whether they are bush/cordon (determinate/indeterminate) and also an indication as to fruit size, shape and colour. I will gladly correct any major errors, but please don’t split hairs when it comes to “pear-shape” versus “plum-shape”, or semi-bush versus semi-cordon (these terms are often used quite loosely by different websites!)

Hope the survey has been of some interest and possibly help to visitors and members.

JayG  (Jon)


Variety             No.of votes Av yield Av flavour Overall (y/f)   bush/cordon   Fruit type
Sungold F1          
100's and 1000's
Sweet Million F1
Moneymaker
Shirley F1
Red Alert
Black Cherry
Gartenperle
Brandywine
Gardeners Delight
Rio Grande
Golden Sunrise
Golden Cherry
Russian Black
Sprite
Tommy Toe
Tigerella
Ildi
Marmande
Bambino
Costoluto Fiorentino
Costoluto Genovese
Giant Belgium
Matina
Rosada F1
Saint Pierre
Canestino di Lucca
Sweet Olive
Alicante
Sioux
Ailsa Craig
San Marzano
Gold nugget
Purple Ukraine
Roma
Italian plum
Lucibell
10            
4
5
3
4
3
4
4
3
6
1
2
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
9.8          
10.0
9.6
10.0
9.0
9.0
7.8
9.0
7.7
8.5
10.0
9.5
9.0
9.0
9.0
10.0
8.5
10.0
9.5
8.0
8.0
9.0
8.0
8.0
9.0
8.0
7.0
8.0
8.0
7.0
7.0
6.0
5.0
3.0
3.0
9.9                
9.0
8.8
8.3
9.0
8.7
9.5
8.3
9.3
8.3
10.0
10.0
10.0
10.0
10.0
9.0
10.0
8.0
8.5
10.0
10.0
9.0
10.0
10.0
9.0
10.0
10.0
9.0
8.0
9.0
8.0
9.0
8.0
10.0
7.0
9.9          
9.5
9.2
9.2
9.0
8.8
8.6
8.6
8.5
8.4
10.0
9.8
9.5
9.5
9.5
9.5
9.3
9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
8.5
8.5
8.0
8.0
7.5
7.5
6.5
6.5
5.0
cordon            
bush
cordon
cordon
cordon
bush
cordon
bush
cordon
cordon
bush
cordon
cordon
cordon
bush
cordon
cordon
cordon
semi-bush
bush
cordon
cordon
cordon
cordon
cordon
bush
cordon
cordon
cordon
semi-bush
cordon
cordon
cordon
cordon
semi-bush
medium gold
cherry
cherry
medium round
medium round
small round
cherry
cherry
beefsteak
medium round
pear
medium yellow
cherry golden
medium round
cherry
cherry
medium round
mini pear yellow
beefsteak
cherry
beefsteak
beefsteak
beefsteak
medium round
plum
medium round
pear
medium round
medium round
medium round
medium round
plum
cherry golden
plum
plum
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: arugula on December 02, 2010, 19:36
How about I kick off with:

Gartenperle; yield 9, flavour 9
Golden Nugget; yield 5, flavour 8

:)
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: AndyRVTR on December 02, 2010, 20:14
Well for what it's worth....
Moneymaker: yield 10, flavour 8
Matina: yield 8, flavour 10
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: cob nut on December 02, 2010, 20:21
Sweet Olive.....yield 8.....flavour 9

Sweet Millions.....yield 9.....flavour 9
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: Ice on December 02, 2010, 21:26
Well it's hard to keep to just two but a couple deserve a mention.

Sungold F1, Flavour 10 yield 10
Black cherry, flavour 10 yield 6

These are the two I would grow year after year for flavour and colour if I get the growing conditions right.  There are others, but these are the two I would nominate as special.
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: mumofstig on December 02, 2010, 22:08
Black Cherry flavour 10......... yield 8
San Marzano (only use cooked) flavour 9............ yield 6

Still try different ones as well each year in the hope of finding the 'perfect' one though  :D
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: rem858 on December 03, 2010, 07:50
sioux yield 7 flavour 9
lucibell yeild 8 flavour 8
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: chimaera on December 04, 2010, 11:38
Gardener's delight ; yield 8, taste 7
Purple Ukraine; yield (ignoring end rot) 3, taste 10 (sharp, slightly unripe) and 10 (v sweet, well ripe)

Charlie
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: Kleftiwallah on December 04, 2010, 16:54
Pasta tom' "Rio Grande"  yield - 10, flavour - 10.

Beefsteak tom'  "Brandywine"  Yield 7, flavour - 10.
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: Nige2Plots on December 04, 2010, 17:20
Alicante                           Yield; 8     Flavour; 8
F1 Sweet Million               Yield; 10   Flavour; 8
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: shokkyy on December 05, 2010, 18:44
Gartenperle - yield 10, flavour 9

Red Alert - yield 8, flavour 10
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: Paul Plots on December 06, 2010, 00:32
Gardener's delight: yield 8, taste 7

Bambino: yield 8 taste 10!!!
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: Jen on December 06, 2010, 16:35

Sungold :  yield 9  flavour 10

Shirley :     yield 10  flavour 9


these are my "stock"  varieties,
grow lots of others as well.
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: bappelbe on December 06, 2010, 16:52
Brandywine: yield 7, flavour 10
Black cherry: yield 8, flavour 9
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: Stoatus on December 06, 2010, 17:33
Costoluto Genovese: yield 9 flavour 9: beef tomato best for sauces but also ok in salads http://www.harvestwizard.com/2008/08/costoluto_genovese_tomato.html

Sweet Million: Yield 10 flavour 9: cherry tomato sweet and tasty
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: waddecar on December 06, 2010, 18:14
Shirley yield 7 flavour 8
Gardeners Delight yield 8 flavour 8
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: Crusty on December 10, 2010, 18:15
Red Alert - early, yield 9, flavour 8
Sungold, yield 10, flavour 11
Sweet Million, yield 10, flavour 9
Brasero (not now available unless from saved seeds), yield 10, flavour 8






edit as only 2 recommendations allowed
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: FN on December 10, 2010, 18:49
Sungold F1 yield 10, flavour 10
Tigerella yield 8, flavour 10
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: spot1986 on December 11, 2010, 14:42
Russian Black : Yield  9  -  Flavour 10

Tommy Toe    : Yield 10  -  Flavour  9 
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: ecky on December 11, 2010, 21:53
Golden Sunrise Yield 10  Flavour 10 sweet
Money Maker Yield 10  Flavour 9
Not tried anything else yet
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: viettaclark on December 15, 2010, 22:14
Sungold 9 and 10
Marmande 10 and 8
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: swaine on December 18, 2010, 11:46
Tumbler Yield 9 Flavour 9
Gardeners Delight Yield 9 Flavour 9
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: peapod on December 20, 2010, 19:09
100s and 1000s Yield 10 taste 9
Italian Plum Yield 4 taste 7
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: Nikkithefoot on January 02, 2011, 10:37
Ildi,  Yield 10, Flavour 8
100's and 1000's,  Yield 10, flavour 9
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: Kathie on January 02, 2011, 14:24
100s and 1000s Yield 10   taste 9
Italian Roma Yield 3    taste 7
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: Brambles on January 02, 2011, 14:55
Moneymaker:  Yield 10      Flavour 8

Costoluto Fiorentino:  Yield 8     Flavour 10*
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: DD. on January 02, 2011, 16:43
Shirley - Yield 9 Flavour 9

Brandywine - Yield 9 Flavour 8

Whilst here I have to admit suprise that Moneymaker is scoring in the flavour stakes. They are the variety I first grew years ago.

Once I'd tried other varieties such as Alicante, I never touched them again.
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: TheSpartacat on January 03, 2011, 19:34
Whilst here I have to admit suprise that Moneymaker is scoring in the flavour stakes.
Me too! Found them great yield but missing something in the flavour stakes.

My picks for flavour are Black Krim and Purple Cherokee... and Sungold for cherry toms...
Can't really put a number on yield, as it has varied from year to year... I usually have more tomatoes than i can use, so after that I stop counting  :lol:
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: rhysdad on January 04, 2011, 13:16
Mine last year (and thus this)

Sungold F1 yield 10  Flavour 10
Ailsa Craig Yield 7 flavour 8 (lovely with strong Cheddar in fresh 'home made bread' sandwiches....)
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: TheSpartacat on January 04, 2011, 21:48
Brasero (not now available unless from saved seeds), yield 10, flavour 8[/s]
They're on the seedsbysize website!!!! (extremely expensive though- only worth it if you really wanted to grow that type and save seed) I suspect they get around the "not being on a EU list" by automatically giving membership to everyone who orders, same as realseeds do?
http://www.seeds-by-size.co.uk/tomato-red-fruited-varieties.html
EDIT: Hang on, they've listed them as an F1? Hmm.... strange that there IS an F1 variety thats not available commercially elsewhere- that doesnt make sense, does it?
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: Kristen on January 05, 2011, 00:12
Whilst here I have to admit suprise that Moneymaker is scoring in the flavour stakes.
Me too! Found them great yield but missing something in the flavour stakes.
And me. Grew them for a number of years, but once I tried other varieties I have not grown them since.

Shirley and Gardeners Delight are my choice.
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: robbodaveuk on January 06, 2011, 10:56
Giant Belgian, yield 8 flavour10 a really big beefsteak, very few seeds, great taste and the best fried tomato I have ever tasted.
Sprite, yield 9 flavour 10 a small cherry tomato, really strong sweet tomato taste and profusions of fruit.
I have grown both of these for the last two years and will do so again this year.

  Robbo.
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: Dabhand on January 06, 2011, 22:22
sungold flavour 10 yield 8
gartenpearl flavour 9 yield 8
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: JayG on January 07, 2011, 15:43


Thanks to all who have already posted, but we need MORE RESPONSES to make the results really meaningful (can there really be only about 30 tomato growers out of 15,000 members?)

Will let it run for another couple of weeks before collating the results.

JayG
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: fivespud364 on January 07, 2011, 19:23
for me it is always Sungold First

Sungold yield 10 flavour 10

another I have recently discovered is very tasty is

Rosada F1 yield 9 flavour 9

Having said that after Sioux was voted best for flavour by Which Gardening we were swamped with people wanting it last year and it out sold Sungold in the end I cannot comment on sioux myself as I have lost all mine to Blight for the last 2 years I am hoping to do a huge trial on tomatoes this year so the results of this poll will be interesting.
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: Springlands on January 09, 2011, 11:29
Gardener's delight - Yield 8 Flavour 9
F1 Sweet Millions - Yield 9 Flavour 9

These are my two favourites but also like to try new varieties just to ring the changes - trying to decide on this years wild card - will maybe wait until this survey results are available and then make up my mind.
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: brady on January 09, 2011, 15:47
Sungold yield 10 flavour 10
Golden Sunrose yield 9 flavour 10
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: Hobnails on January 10, 2011, 22:43

Canestrino di Lucca : yield 7 ; Flavour 10

Saint Pierre: yield 8; flavour 10
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: grenhouse on January 12, 2011, 20:58
Black Cherry : Yield 9 ; Flavour 9

Ildi : Yield 10 Flavour 8

Got another 5 varieties for this year!
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: sarajane on January 16, 2011, 21:20
Sungold  10 yield and     10 flavour
Marmande 9 yield and 9 flavour  -  Brilliant roasted with onions and garlic, mashed for tomato sauce (great for pasta sauce andfreezes well for the taste of summer in the winter)
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: Colin of Oxford on January 16, 2011, 22:56
Shirley: Yield 10; Flavour 10
Gardeners Delight: Yield 10; Flavour 10

But I have some very close runners-up
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: Debz on January 17, 2011, 10:19
Golden Cherry - Yield 9 taste 10
Tigerella - Yield 9 taste 10
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: please nominate your two favourite varieties.
Post by: operabunny on January 17, 2011, 19:17
100s & 1000s 10:9
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: THE RESULTS!
Post by: JayG on January 18, 2011, 18:06
Here are the results of the “Home-grown tomato survey"; thanks to all those who took the trouble to participate.

A few points about the results:

1) Only those varieties which received more than 2 votes have been included in the “top ten”; these are shown in red and have been listed in order of the overall combined average scores for yield and flavour. I was unable to find any information for “Italian plum” (generic?) or Lucibell.

2) The number of votes received was too low to make these results statistically significant, but they do give at least some indication of some of the varieties being grown “out there” and what you think of them.
I’ll leave you all to draw your own conclusions!  :)

3) I have done my best to classify the varieties according to whether they are bush/cordon (determinate/indeterminate) and also an indication as to fruit size, shape and colour. I will gladly correct any major errors, but please don’t split hairs when it comes to “pear-shape” versus “plum-shape”, or semi-bush versus semi-cordon (these terms are often used quite loosely by different websites!)

Hope the survey has been of some interest and possibly help to visitors and members.

JayG  (Jon)


Variety             No.of votes Av yield Av flavour Overall (y/f)   bush/cordon   Fruit type
Sungold F1          
100's and 1000's
Sweet Million F1
Moneymaker
Shirley F1
Red Alert
Black Cherry
Gartenperle
Brandywine
Gardeners Delight
Rio Grande
Golden Sunrise
Golden Cherry
Russian Black
Sprite
Tommy Toe
Tigerella
Ildi
Marmande
Bambino
Costoluto Fiorentino
Costoluto Genovese
Giant Belgium
Matina
Rosada F1
Saint Pierre
Canestino di Lucca
Sweet Olive
Alicante
Sioux
Ailsa Craig
San Marzano
Gold nugget
Purple Ukraine
Roma
Italian plum
Lucibell
10            
4
5
3
4
3
4
4
3
6
1
2
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
9.8          
10.0
9.6
10.0
9.0
9.0
7.8
9.0
7.7
8.5
10.0
9.5
9.0
9.0
9.0
10.0
8.5
10.0
9.5
8.0
8.0
9.0
8.0
8.0
9.0
8.0
7.0
8.0
8.0
7.0
7.0
6.0
5.0
3.0
3.0
9.9                
9.0
8.8
8.3
9.0
8.7
9.5
8.3
9.3
8.3
10.0
10.0
10.0
10.0
10.0
9.0
10.0
8.0
8.5
10.0
10.0
9.0
10.0
10.0
9.0
10.0
10.0
9.0
8.0
9.0
8.0
9.0
8.0
10.0
7.0
9.9          
9.5
9.2
9.2
9.0
8.8
8.6
8.6
8.5
8.4
10.0
9.8
9.5
9.5
9.5
9.5
9.3
9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
8.5
8.5
8.0
8.0
7.5
7.5
6.5
6.5
5.0
cordon            
bush
cordon
cordon
cordon
bush
cordon
bush
cordon
cordon
bush
cordon
cordon
cordon
bush
cordon
cordon
cordon
semi-bush
bush
cordon
cordon
cordon
cordon
cordon
bush
cordon
cordon
cordon
semi-bush
cordon
cordon
cordon
cordon
semi-bush
medium gold
cherry
cherry
medium round
medium round
small round
cherry
cherry
beefsteak
medium round
pear
medium yellow
cherry golden
medium round
cherry
cherry
medium round
mini pear yellow
beefsteak
cherry
beefsteak
beefsteak
beefsteak
medium round
plum
medium round
pear
medium round
medium round
medium round
medium round
plum
cherry golden
plum
plum
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: THE RESULTS!
Post by: Nige2Plots on January 20, 2011, 18:45
Thanks JayG for your time and effort in this Survey! Very interesting.
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: THE RESULTS!
Post by: JayG on January 20, 2011, 19:34
Thanks JayG for your time and effort in this Survey! Very interesting.

Thanks Nige!

Was beginning to wonder if tomatoes had somehow gone into a parallel universe beyond the reach of even the Hubble telescope!

(By the way, are you back to *2plots or still "*onepot"?)
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: THE RESULTS!
Post by: Nige2Plots on January 20, 2011, 19:50
Thanks JayG for your time and effort in this Survey! Very interesting.

Thanks Nige!

Was beginning to wonder if tomatoes had somehow gone into a parallel universe beyond the reach of even the Hubble telescope!

(By the way, are you back to *2plots or still "*onepot"?)
2Plots!  :ohmy: It's our AGM next month and then I get the best plot shield presented to moi 8)
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: THE RESULTS!
Post by: Paul Plots on January 21, 2011, 16:12
Thanks JayG for your time and effort in this Survey! Very interesting.

My thanks too...(must have taken ages of patient compiling).

Come sowing time there'll be a sudden huge rush of interest when those of us who have not bought this years seed suddenly have some speedy decision to make!  ;)
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: THE RESULTS!
Post by: joyfull on January 21, 2011, 16:20
well I'm pleased as well - especially as I have chosen to grow 100's & 1000's, so thank you JayG  :) xx
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: THE RESULTS!
Post by: Helen_uk on January 28, 2011, 13:46
Thanks for this, I hadnt read this post this morning, but I had done my own bit of research and from what i have grown before, so this year I'm going for:

Alicante (my Grandad bought me my first tomato plant 2 years ago and it was Alicante, he died recently so I thought I'd grow these again, they were lovely the first time round!)
Principe Borgehese - an italian middling between chery and full size tomato from what Ive read.
Couer De Beouf - apprently arguably the best Beef Tomato?!!

I'm also going to be having a look for some seeds similar to some baby plum's they sell in M&S Santorini or something, they are so sweet and lushious!!

Good luck everyone, I hope for a better season this year as I had a lot of splitting last year!!
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: THE RESULTS!
Post by: cheshirecheese on January 29, 2011, 14:23
I've only just found this thread - wish I'd known, as I'd have willingly contributed to the original survey!  Anyway, in case it's still of interest, my own two favourites are Tigerella because they seem to grow/produce well for me, they look pretty and they taste great!  Also Sungold - once you get the hang of telling whether they're ripe or not, they're really sweet and tasty, and also prolific.  We usually grow four or five varieties and tend to grow them in the greenhouse because we need all the space we can get in the veg patch: the smell is wonderful when you walk in there, especially if the sun's shining - it's a bit like going into a sweet shop, and difficult not to eat as many as you pick!  :D
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: THE RESULTS!
Post by: Togalosh on February 06, 2011, 17:34
I've not had that much time or success to choose 2 but for sure;

San Marzano     Yield 8    Flavour 10

all with no juice - excellent for cooking sauces..yum!
Title: Re: Home-grown Tomato survey: THE RESULTS!
Post by: mumofstig on February 06, 2011, 18:02
I'll lock this post as the voting has finished  :)