Hybrids

I planted 4 Hybrid among these were 2 Celebreties, 1 Better Boy, 1 Merced. The Merced shut down quite early while the other three went on until they got the mad fungus that I seem cursed with. Hybrids are all so standard, in a blind taste test I gave myself I was unable to distinguish between any of the hybrids and a grocery store tomato
. I'm giving up on all Hybrids for next year.

Heirloom

Golden Peach A-

I was unimpressed with the size. 2" Diameter (on some average 4") was expecting 4" at least from all. The fuzzy cover was unique and fun and the flavor was fantastic. Very late variety and loves the heat. I think I might just do this one again because it's so different

Resinstreabue (spelling?) B+

One giant rush of fruit, over 100 right at the same time. Then several dozen a week to the point I got tired of this. A great change of pace from the sweet 100 lot out there. This should satisfy all your small salad mater needs for a year.

Yellow Pear A

My favorite variety year in and year out. A true staple. Can't beat the production. A very invasive vine. By August I had yellow pears snaking their way into cages 6 feet away!!

Tomatillo F

This is qualified by the fact that nobody told me, even at the store that you need two to get any production. I just figured it wasn't liking the soil/temp and pulled it out for a fall bush that is still struggling. Does draw in some interesting pollinating insects though.

Brandwine A-

Overrated a bit, but a better taste than the Hybrids. The yankees kept going on and on about this variety on gardenweb.com and I bought the hype. Maybe for all the popularity it's lost some of it's originality.

I honestly didn't do much research or work this year into what I was growing. These all sound interesting. Where can I find out more?

Go to the GardenWeb Growing Tomatoes forum. The majority of folks on that forum grow heirloom tomatoes rather than hybrids. You can get some good info, especially if you focus on the tomatoes that do well in the south.

One of the expert posters on that forum is Carolyn Mahle (sp). She has published a book about heirloom tomatoes. I haven't bought it, but those who have seem to love it.

There are lots of Brandywine tomatoes, not all the same and most not the one that is raved about as being the best tomato ever. Brandywine is not considered to be an outstanding tomato for the south. And it isn't highly productive. If you decide to grow Brandywine, look for the Suddeth variety. A few internet outlets carry it.

Cherokee Purple is an outstanding heirloom tomato that does well in the south. It produces huge tomatoes fairly early in the season. It is our favorite for flavor. It tends to crack, but just cut around the cracks and enjoy. It tends to produce a moderate amount of tomatoes and then play out. It will not produce all season.

San Marzano is a great plum (roma type) tomato for sauces and canning. It is very productive.

For hybrids, I like Celebrity. It produces a large amount of big, tasty tomatoes. And it continues to produce over a long time. This summer it continued to produce for the entire summer and still has some tomatoes.

When your tomatoes play out in mid to late July, it's a good time to cut them back drastically. With any luck they will leave back out and provide you with another crop of tomatoes in the fall.

Marlyn

Sungold- great cherry type tomato with great taste and very productive.

I have found Cherokee Purple and Brandywine to be very disappointing. Poor production from the purples and poor flavor from Brandywine.

Green Zebra- wonderful taste and production, even throughout the Summer heat.

Arkansas Traveller, very good taste and wonderful production through the Summer heat.

Aunt Ruby's German Green- poor production, good taste.

Black Krim- moderately productive, great taste.

Mountain Pride- better than good production, good taste.

Yellow pear- takes over the garden, you just can't kill it off, adequate taste, wonderful production.

Mortgage Lifter --- Didn't get as large as I hoped but were big with few seeds. When they are finally finished with the first big batch of tomatoes, it is probably a good idea to pull them up and plant something else. They WILL flower again but there is not enough time for a second batch to mature.

An observation: The plants with garlic growing around them seemed to produce better.

Heirlooms:
Brandywine, OTV: I was surprised to see that others didn't get good flavor out of these; I've had great luck with this tomato. Granted the production was not very high, but the flavor was awesome in mine.

Costoluto Genevese: I didn't like this one. Hard fruit. Pretty tasteless.

Black Krim: Smaller than I was expecting, but knowing me, I didn't read how big they were supposed to get when I bought the seed LOL. Kinda boring flavor. Bland.

Hawaiian Currant: Tiny little tomato that I thought tasted great! Sweet when really ripe, tart when just nearly red. Very productive.

Hybrid:
Super Sweet 100 Hybrid: Very sweet, very productive tomato. Loved this one.

Most hybrids have really been bland tasting to me. High production, no flavor.

This year, I'm probably going to plant Brandywine, Hawaiian Currant, SS100, and am going to experiment with Peacevine Cherry and Hawaiin Pineapple. I may try a couple I saw in previous posts too.

We grew Arkansas Traveler and Cherokee Purple this year from seed of 2003. Very good results. We also grew Czech Bush-not that great. Hope this helps.