Contrary Tomatoes

[digitS']

What tomato variety has given you trouble but you still grow it, or intend to grow it?

I just commented on splitting cherries. I can first say that I grew Yellow Pear through 4 seasons. It always had trouble with splitting (although DW liked them). The final season that I grew Yellow Pear, I don't believe I harvested a single one that was not split! I have no intention of ever growing it again.

Sun Sugar is a nice golden cherry and splits next to never . However, it isn't quite as sweet and flavorful as Sungold. Sungold will spit, and yet, I must have grown it for 20 seasons, or close to it.

Any and all varieties - which one will you patiently "put up with."

Steve

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

Amish paste. It is the first one to get diseases but I still plant it because I love its thick flesh and it makes amazing salsa! Next year I must resist the urge to grow. But I probably will

 

[flowerbug]

sweet 100s split a lot but we keep growing them. will probably keep growing them.

 

[Zeedman]

Over the years, I've grown a few tomatoes with problems - mostly cracking, or susceptibility to BER. But thus far, I've yet to encounter a variety whose attributes made it worth growing in spite of its liabilities. There are so many different tomatoes out there; it may take some searching, but you can nearly always find something better.

 

[ducks4you]

Yellow pear. But, I should say that I bought the plants several times, and they were always sour. Maybe those that are started from seed taste better. Also, I was reminded watching Mid American Gardener, that different varieties, from different growers produce different results as to taste, AND as to disease resistance.

 

[flowerbug]

i was just reminded in my reading that while a variety may be resistant that doesn't always mean it won't get infected anyways.

 

[digitS']

It would surprise me if you have more trouble with splitting than I do, @flowerbug . Well, maybe ... lots of excess water at times?.

I once had a neighbor gardening and her sprinklers put so much water on my tomato plants that the fruits of the mild varieties became nearly tasteless. I was already inclined toward split-resistant. She would water sooo often -- then complain about how much electricity her well pump added to her utility bill.

I finally vetoed Yellow Pear from the garden, @ducks4you .

There are differences in tastes in a household. That's actually been a good thing for me. I grew red fruited types only -- until I became frustrated that DW wouldn't eat red slicers.

I suspected that if they were more interesting and mild, she would eat those. Bingo. Then, I realized that I liked many of those, too! Inexperienced, @Zeedman .(She also learned to eat the big, red ones that way .)

Steve

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Pretty much EVERY non cherry tomato is contrary for me. No matter the type, it will make one to two smallish tomatoes and then die. And that's if I coddle it in a pot, in the ground, none of them produce anything. That's why I went through my species tomato phase, I thought wild one would be tougher and more likely to produce.

The problem of course is that, taste wise, I like green tomatoes best and there aren't that many green cherry tomatoes (green grape doesn't do well for us) I keeping setting my hopes on Green Zebra Cherry (hoping I will get the best of both worlds) but as yet it hasn't performed.

This year all I have is some unidentified black striped cherry (according to the label that was on the vial) and those may be from a store mix (and as I recall not very good)

 

[ninnymary]

First of all cherry tomatoes don't produce as much for me as they should or as they produce for others. Never grown grape or pear ones. Actually I'm not that fond of cherry tomatoes! haha. I grow them mainly for the kids to snack on while we are outside.

Grew Candyland, a currant type and they were the size of peas! Never again.
Broke up with Sungold because I personally don't think they are as sweet as others claim and hated the slitting.
Tried Sweet 100 but few of them and wasn't sweet enough for me.
Sunrise Bumble Bee is too tart for me and didn't do very well. May try it again cause the picture sure is pretty, haha.

I must confess that my tomatoes didn't produce as much as other years nor were they as big. I think my soil is depleted so I will really add compost, manure, and maybe plant a cover crop this fall.

Mary

 

[digitS']

In @Zeedman 's thread, I said that the garden has red cherries, yellow and ivory cherries that resist splitting. The ivories are Coyote and they really do split, fairly often.

I checked some notes, they were first in my garden 6 years ago. One year was a miss because I imagined that since they volunteer so well that the Coyote could be direct-seeded. It absolutely didn't work; since not a single seedling emerged.

The seed that was used this year was not from the plant that I had in the garden because the one with the Coyote label was a tiny, red cherry! Obviously, a product of cross pollination. No, there was another volunteer off in the weeds, over the perimeter path from the garden area! Those seeds all came up in the greenhouse but they took their sweet time about it! I'd learned not to put that Coyote seed in the middle of a community container - everything else will be inches taller than them, hiding down near soil level.

I finally decided to commit myself to either appreciating their flavor, or not. They are quite different, remarkably so. DW does not like them. I decided that, Nah, they just aren't what I really like in a tomato flavor.

Wouldn't you know, DD was out to the garden recently and I asked her to try a couple. What does she think of them? She says that she likes Coyote, a lot! Well, I guess that they can be in the greenhouse next spring, yet again. One thing that occurred to me is that since they volunteer so well, I should collect seed that is from fully, fully mature fruit that has fallen off the plant. Maybe that will be the answer to their slow emergence. Contrary Coyote

Steve