Whats more important to you when selecting a tomato variety

[Jared77]

size of the individual fruit or total number of fruit?

Lets say there's a variety that tastes the same but comes in 2 different varieties. A more productive but smaller individual sized tomato (say 4-6oz), or one that produces a bigger overall tomato (say 10-12oz) but less of them total on the vine. And lets throw out the geography of I can't grow a big tomato either. Lets imagine you live in a place where you can grow most varieties of tomatoes.

Which would you choose if you had to choose 1 and why?

 

[897tgigvib]

Beauty, flavor, and history are important. What some call ugly though I may call pretty. Flavor so much goes with aroma that almost the sliced aroma is a better way to put it. History does not have to be long to be good. But long history is good too.

Sizes of two different accessions of the same variety? That's a rare thing, but suddenly given the choice of one or the other? Might go for the prettier looking one.

 

[MontyJ]

That's a tough question to answer. I think it depends on what you plan to do with the tomatoes in question.

You know what I do with 90% of my tomatoes. I rarely eat them fresh. Believe it or not, I'm not real crazy about fresh tomatoes. Kinda hard to believe huh? However, cook them bad boys up in soup or sauce or something and it's on! I love big chunks of tomatoes in spaghetti sauce, lasagna, and especially my homemade chicken noodle soup. And so, since I can most of mine, I'm looking for a certain production value. I prefer a medium to large fruit with a heavy first crop, followed by a few smaller crops.

The brandywines I am growing this year are just too darn big. I was a little disappointed with production earlier in the season, but they have come on strong since. The problem is fruit size and shape. Most are over a pound, and some nearing two pounds. Couple that with the heavy ribbing and it makes it difficult to peel and cut them with any kind of speed. I'm also not completely thrilled about the color either. Even though these are red brandywines (versus the pink variety) they are not the red I'm looking for.

The Rutgers I am trying this year are a smaller tomato, but aren't really out-producing the brandys when it comes to numbers. They are much easier to peel and cut, and also have a better shape and color. As long as I can combine them with the brandys, I get a nice color in the jar. Since I'm not a connoisseur of tomatoes, I don't have a problem with mixing two completely different varieties. Heck, they all taste the same to me.

In the past, I have nearly always used Big Boy and Better Boy as my main crop canners. They produce good shape, heavy numbers and the right color, all in the time frame I am looking for. But, I want to get away from hybrids. The closest I have come to those varieties is the Delicious. Unfortunately, it has a stem end cracking problem that just drives me nuts. So the search continues.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Montys right. It depends on your goals and how you use them.

I plant a cherry tomato near the garden gate for my fresh eating. I trellis it on the fence so I dont even have to go into the garden to get one since half grows in the garden and half outside. The rest are mainly for sauce or for friends and relatives.

I handle mine differently than Monty too. I have to remove all seeds so mine go through a Squeezo Strainer/Food mill. I dont worry about peeling them because the skins come out in that process. I also dont go for one huge harvest but just keep them in the freezer until I get so many I have to make room for more. That way I can also better handle timing around corn, green beans, and other stuff. I made my last batch in November last year, long after the frost killed them off. I needed room to put some chickens in the freezer.

I core them, cut out the bad parts, and rake out as much gel and seeds as I can before I freeze them. I understand his problems with the cracking and bad spots at the stem end and blossom end with his method. With me its not so important because I just cut them out.

I grow mostly a paste tomato since Im after sauce. They are denser with more pulp and less seeds and gel. If allowed to ripen they do taste like tomatoes. I also grow a few open-pollinated tomatoes, this year Brandywine, Jubilee, Carbon, and Cherokee Purple, partly because it is fun and partly to get additional flavors. I can taste a difference in the individual varieties. My wife says she can taste the difference in the sauces I can based on which of the open-pollinated I mix with the paste but I cant. They come on at different times so I use different proportions in different batches.

I tend toward the larger sizes with more steady production. The way I handle them it takes about as long to handle a small tomato as a larger one.

Monty, I know you said you are looking for a non-hybrid, but I suggest you look at a couple of Burpee hybrids, Big Mama and Supersauce. They just might meet your criteria pretty well. They are both indeterminate so you may not get that huge rush of production at one time like you do with the determinates, but I think youd be OK with how they produce.

 

[897tgigvib]

All this talk of Tomatoes is almost making me want to grow GOPHER ATTRACTORS again. I don't know, maybe if I made a special frame with gopher wire underground and white plastic all over the top to hide the plant completely it might work. Gophers can see and they use their eyes above ground to see where to tunnel to. They might not have 20 20 but they can see. Moles are the almost blind ones, but then, they are after worms and are into chewing plants off at the ground jjust because, well, maybe they are evil Lol! But gophers are the plant eaters, and the ones around here are tomato connoseurs.

 

[baymule]

I have grown mostly hybrids so I would have something that could live at least part way through the summer heat. This year, I did all heritage tomatoes. I have not found the Holy Grail........I guess that's the whole point, it is supposed to be a never ending quest. :/ We eat a lot of fresh tomatoes, I dehydrate and can them too. Size doesn't really matter that much, but I guess I would go with the smaller tomato over the huge 1 or 2 pounder. Waiting on the behemonth to ripen would drive me nuts.

 

[thistlebloom]

I would go for quantity over size. We eat a lot fresh in salads and sandwiches and salsa. I freeze like Ridge, then in the winter I can make a nearly fresh sauce. Flavor is important to me so I would have to factor that in. I would be willing to trade a little less productivity for flavor. But hopefully I can find the one that meets all of those criteria. Like Bay said, it's a quest.

 

[hoodat]

I enjoy a good slice of tomato on a sandwich or chopped in a salad but the most important thing for me is to get enough canned to last me till next years crop comes in. Size doesn't matter as much as total number of tomatos for canning purposes. There are a thousand uses for canned tomatos.

 

[ninnymary]

I also go for quantity over size. As long as it's not cherry size I'm happy.

Marshall, I don't think you answered the question. Beauty was not a choice.

Mary

 

[Ridgerunner]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Looking at his avatar, I dont think he has his glasses on.