Favorite tomatoes

[General Schvantzkoph]

It's time to plant some seeds. Looking for suggestions for tomato varieties. My personal favorite is the Sun Gold, what are you favorites?

[Bill who putters]

[mjciccarel]

Sugary. I have them all winter. They are small as in Cherry like

[Billy]

For a cherry tomato, I like "Blond Kopfchen". It's a little slow getting started, but is survives the fall rains better than anything else I've grown, which gives it a long growing season. Then there is Stupice (stew-peachy) a 2", 55 day tomato which is my first tomato of the season, and for large tomatoes I like Striped German (low acid, good taste for sandwiches), and Caspian Pink which comes in a few days before Brandywines, which only do well for me in warm years (in other words, not recently). The last few years, I've put down clear plastic sheeting to increase the soil temps, which has kept my harvest a couple of weeks ahead of my neighbors.

[General Schvantzkoph]

I've ordered Blond Kopfchen and Caspian Pinks from Tomatofest. To bring the order up their minimum I added some of their new varieties, Amy's Sugargem, Santiago and one that they listed as a favorite cherry, Isis Candy.

I do much better with cherry varieties because they tend to mature quickly. I don't have a lot of sun so the larger varieties frequently don't mature by the time I have my first cold snap.

[General Schvantzkoph]

I think I've seen Sugarys at one of my garden centers, I'll look for them this year.

[Malcom "Mal" Reynolds]

Sweet100 Black Krim

and I'm trying a variety of other cherry tomatoes

[General Schvantzkoph]

Sweet 100s have done well for me, Black Krims haven't. I'll look into Currants, I haven't heard of those before.

[Farm1]

[allen73]

Cherry Gold : compact determinate plants recommended for smal pots and indoor windowsill

Red Robin : Tiny plants that bear clusters fo fruit. Recommended for container growing, both indoors and outdoors.

Sweetie : A sprawling indeterminate that produces clusters of sweet, cherry-sized red fruit. Not hybrid, seeds can be saved, an open-pollinated alternative to many of the hybrids available.

These tomatoes I have grown in my *'vegetable gardening'

* and planning to grow Bush Beefsteak and Supersteak.

[Pat Kiewicz]

favorites?

SunSugar (orange cherry) Aunt Gertie's Gold (golden beefsteak) Kosovo (pink oxheart) Royesta (standard red)

[mjciccarel]

te:

The seeds came from Tomato Growers Supply Company originally. I have used seeds from the tomatoes for 3 years now. MJ

[The Cook]

Here are some of the cherry tomatoes I have grown with success.

From Tomato Growers Supply:

Dr. Carolyn -- a white Green Grape Black Cherry Window Box Roma -- A patio tomato

From TomatoFest: Black Plum Grape Yellow Grape

Totally Tomatoes:

Yellow Jelly Bean Jelly Bean Hybrid

[Billy]

Last time I looked, Tomatofest had a $25 minimum, and they are pricey to boot. It is convenient though, because they have most of the varieties (cultivars) of tomatoes.

[gregz]

I've ordered pepper seeds from these folks. I always see neat stuff on their Facebook.

[zxcvbob]

Better Boy. I know it's not sexy, but the fruits are big and tasty and the yield is good. I save the seeds even though it's a hybrid. I also like Principe Borghese for drying (they taste good fresh too.)

-Bob

[Billy]

Thanks for the heads up.

[The Cook]

When I ordered from them in 2010 my order was $18.80 plus $3.95 shipping. I saw nothing on their site today that stated a minimum order. I could have missed it. I try to order enough to make the postage worth while.

[Billy]

I guess I was mistaken mistaken about a $25 minimum. It seems their minimum today is $15 which it must have been in 2007, when I made my last purchase from them for $18.75.

Select from 600 varieties of Heirloom Tomatoes ($15.00 minimum order required)

I avoid buying from them unless they have something I desperately want, which they haven't for about 5 years now. They have a very good site, which has pictures and information on many different tomatoes.

Their prices seem high though, e.g. Tomatofest Marmande $3.95

Reimer Seed Marmande $2.50

Maybe they give you more seeds. I see that Johnny's seeds run around $3.50

If you're growing tomatoes this year, you may want to download a Power Point Presentation at

[little turtle]

Lots of good varieties out there. I like the old varieties like Rutgers, Marglobe and so on. I still remember eating lunch in the garden with just a salt shaker. Corn on the ear and ripe tangy flavorful tomatoes. We smeared a little butter on the corn and it was all we wanted.