What are the best tomatoes you have ever grown?

[Collector]

The best tomatoes I have ever grown are whichever ones I have in the garden that are actually going to get ripe for me. I'm not too picky .

Im with thistle, the ones I am growing right now will be great if We dont have a disaster of some sort!

 

[Jared77]

Our favorites so far are Lemon Boys, and Early Girls. Both are VERY prolific, have excellent flavor and we don't have issues ripening in zone 5 either. Hope this helps.

 

[RidgebackRanch]

Pretty much all of last years tomato plants were very sick from over watering, but there were a few Amana Orange and Pineapple tomatoes that made it.

I must say the few Pinapple tomatoes were the best tasting, so we plaqnted some more this year in hopes of having some to make hot sauce and salsa with.

 

[Jared77]

Your pineapples ripened in zone 4? I saw them and thought about it, but opted to do Black Krims instead. Next year I think I'll have to try some.

 

[baymule]

Last year we had drought and the garden burned up. We couldn't water it enough and it just burnt from the top down. The first year we had the garden we bought Celebrity and they were prolific and tasted good. This spring we again bought Celebrity plants and again they were outstanding. I dehydrated for the first time and the Celebrity made very sweet dried tomatoes. I also planted Black Krim and they are soooooo good! But they don't produce like the Celebrity has. I also plant the black cherry tomato from Baker Creek and they are like candy morsels. They produce like mad and are very good.

 

[plainolebill]

We also live in a tomato challenged area so the selection of tomatoes that will actually ripen and produce is limited. Jet Star has done well for us so we've continued to grow them as our main crop tomato for 15 years. I planted a Moskvich this year but my initial impression is that it's fruit is about the same size as Stupice, less plentiful and later.

My wife and I had BLT sandwiches with our first ripe Jet Star yesterday (after pruning away the part a slug had drilled into)

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

My family have grown the same tomato for more than 20 years. It is a hybrid called Terrific, but last year we could find any started plants nor could I find the seed. We grew Rutgers and Celebrity, and they were awful. So I spent much of last year looking for different varieties to try and bought some Cherokee Purples and Opalka's due to several rave reviews. Well I found the Terrific seed this year and ordered them as my family were still unconvinced to change and we found started plants too. So they planted 30 Terrific's and I planted 4 Cherokee Purples, 4 Opalka's, and 4 Chadwick Cherry. Hands down the Cherokee Purple are the best tomato I've ever tasted, they are very large, but they got blight really quick. Next year I'll plant them a little differently to help with this because they are a wonder tomato in my opinion (which is limited).

The Opalka's are a very tasty tomato, but they are a winner for canning. Very productive, meaty tomato. Some of the tomatoes weighted over 2 pounds and it has the blight but is still producing and growing new vines and taking over the Cherokee Purple tomato cages. Easy to peel and can. Another winner in my opinion and I will be growing more of these and giving them more space to keep producing next year.

The Chadwick's did not do well at first until I discovered the drainage problem, but they have taken off and are producing tons of cherry tomatoes. I love canning them in my salsa because they add a tartness that I like. They are extremely productive, but the best tasting cherry to me is still the Husk Cherry Red by Bonnie. They are more sweet.

The 30 tomatoes in the big garden have produced tons of tomatoes (Terrific's). We have well over 200 quarts canned and are giving away the 2nd crops to friends and other family members. If you can get them, they are a good producing plant and have good tomatoes, but they are very juicy. The opalkas are a good canning tomato because I don't need to cook them down to make Italian style sauce so much, so I get more yields off my efforts.

So it depends on what you're looking for. I will be planting more opalkas for canning and cherokee purples for eating. No more Terrific's for me. Next year I want to try Sun sugar or Sun gold cherries, because of things I've read online.

Mel

 

[RidgebackRanch]

Your pineapples ripened in zone 4? I saw them and thought about it, but opted to do Black Krims instead. Next year I think I'll have to try some.

It was late August by the time they were ripe. There were only five of them, but they were larege and wonderful. We are going to keep trying regular tomatoes unit we crack the code on having resonable success. Until then we sort of rely on cherry and pear varieties to have enough for salsa and hot sauce.

 

[sparkles2307]

Striped Roman and Cuor di Bue are our favorites and do really well for us. I used old seed for my striped romans this year and only have 2 plants with a very few fruits... I'll be saving seed this year.

 

[HotPepperQueen]

How old was your seed? I have a bunch of tomato seeds left over from this year and i've been storing them in an airtight container in my dark storage room.

Striped Roman and Cuor di Bue are our favorites and do really well for us. I used old seed for my striped romans this year and only have 2 plants with a very few fruits... I'll be saving seed this year.