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gardeningRight, so, people seemed to be interested in tomato reviews. Like I said before, I live in the California Bay Area; USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 9a/9b, Sunset Zone 15. These reviews are merely my experiences, so feel free to disagree if I have slighted your favorite tomato. ^_^
I'll just toss this photo up here for reference.
Stupice: This Czech heirloom tomato is my staple tomato. I've grown it every year for four or five years now. The plant is an exuberant potato-leaf vine, so you definitely want to stake it up or it will fall over and smother everything in its path. It produces a prolific crop of medium-small fruit born, which grow in clusters (if you thinned them they'd probably be bigger, but I find they're perfectly sized for canning whole.) The fruit are red, with a pleasantly meaty texture and very good flavor - more sweet than tart. They're great raw or cooked, and absolutely phenomenal sliced thin and baked on flatbread. From my experience, Stupice seems to be a fairly bug- and disease- resistant plant. I have grown these both in raised beds and in large containers, and they did well in both. Stupice is an early tomato, and will continue producing all summer, and even into the fall if the climate is mild. Seeds for Stupice are available from pretty much any seed company. I've had good luck with Botanical Interests and Seeds of Change.
Sungold: Sungold is an orange cherry tomato, and my other staple tomato plant, which I've grown for three years, I think. The vines are fairly upright, as tomatoes go, and open - which makes it easier to find the fruit. Though you can grow Sungold without caging or staking it up, I would recommend doing so anyway. Like most cherry tomatoes the golden-orange fruits, which average about 3/4 inch in diameter, grow in clusters. They are sweet, tangy, and very flavorful - completely different from most yellow cherry tomatoes, which I tend to find tasteless and boring. This is another very prolific tomato - I once made two quarts of orange tomato sauce just to use up a surplus of cherry tomatoes. Sungold also does well in both raised beds and large containers (I was using old recycling bins.) Sungold is another fairly early tomato. Seeds are available from all sorts of seed companies (though because it is a hybrid you won't find it at Baker Creek Heirlooms.)
Mortgage Lifter: Mortgage Lifter is a big tomato - plant descriptions say the fruit can be up to four pounds. Mine were usually a large handful of tomato (how very exact...) I grew this for two years before abandoning it to make more room for exotic varieties from Baker Creek. The vines are large and fairly floppy; the fruit also large, pinkish, frequently streaked with yellow. The tomatoes have few seeds, making them a good sandwich tomato, and the plant is reasonably prolific. The flavor is good. I did notice that bugs tended to ignore the Stupice and Sungold plants and flock to the Mortgage Lifters instead. Once again, you can find seeds for Mortgage Lifter all over the place.
Crnkovic Yugoslavian: I will admit I bought this tomato mostly for the unpronounceable name and because it came from Yugoslavia. It is the slowest tomato I have ever grown, but instantly became one of my new stables the moment I bit into one. The vines are tall and thick. Crnkovic is classified as a pink tomato - though it looks pretty red to me. The fruit bear a superficial resemblance to supermarket tomatoes - almost perfectly round, glossy, and red - but the resemblance ends there, as the flavor is intense and very tangy. The tomatoes are firm, with a thicker skin than most, and grow in clusters. I ended up eating most of them out of hand. The plants did fairly well in a seven-gallon nursery pot. Seeds for Crnkovic are slightly harder to find - Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds carries them, and it looks like other heirloom seed places do as well.
Green Zebra: Last year my poor Green Zebra was in too small a pot and in the shade, and it still did quite well. The vines are vigorous, with dense, dark green foliage; the mature fruit striped green and chartreuse. The flavor is great - intensely sweet and tangy, more fruity than many tomatoes. The only downside is that the fruit are well camouflaged against the leaves, and it can sometimes be hard to tell when they're ripe. Seeds for Green Zebra are widely available.
Fox Cherry: This is a red cherry tomato. The vines are rangy with open foliage. The fruit are about an inch in diameter, brilliant red, with a good, tart flavor. Last year my Fox Cherry was in too small a pot (I moved mid-planting season, hence all the container gardening) and I think it suffered for that - the yield was pretty small. The flavor was good enough to warrant a second chance, though, so I'll report back later in the summer. This is another slow-growing tomato. Seeds are available at Baker Creek Heirlooms.
Amish Paste: Amish Paste is, big surprise, a paste tomato, like the Roma. The vines were long and very floppy - definitely a variety to cage or stake - and the foliage sparse. The fruit were about the same size as a Roma; the flavor was pleasant but nothing special. The yield was decent. Last year I grew this in a container, so maybe it just isn't a container variety.
Purple Russian: As much fun as it is to announce that you're growing Purple Russians (your friends will be baffled) this plant was a disappointment. The vines are vigorous, with dark green foliage, and definitely need to be staked or caged, or they will flop over and grow along the ground. The fruit are elongated ovals, three inches long, kind of purple-red, and fairly prolific. Unfortunately I also found them to be mealy and bland, so I won't be growing them again. Seeds seem to be fairly widely available.
Paul Robeson: This was the biggest disappointment of my garden last year. The seedlings were initially vigorous, outstripping other varieties, but the plants were ultimately spindly little things, barley three feet tall. If I hadn't carefully caged them, they would have fallen over under their own weight. The yield was miserable: each plant (there were three) bore one large tomato, and then one or two smaller ones. I admit the fruit was gorgeous - deep red striped with green (Paul Robeson is called a black tomato) - and the first tomatoes were quite large, their shape round and slightly flattened. Baker Creek describes the Paul Robeson as regularly winning taste tests with its superb flavor - God only knows why, if they taste like mine did. I found them watery and bland. Did I get defective seeds or something? I'm really curious to see what anyone else has to say, if they have grown Paul Robeson before.
That's everything, I think. This year I'm growing Stupice, Sungold, Crnkovic, Fox Cherry, Green Zebra, Gold Medal, Pink Grapefruit, Green Moldovan (I can't resist tomatoes from small European countries,) Malakhitovaya Shkatulka (a Russian green tomato,) and Pantano Romanesco. I will keep you updated!
I'll just toss this photo up here for reference.
Stupice: This Czech heirloom tomato is my staple tomato. I've grown it every year for four or five years now. The plant is an exuberant potato-leaf vine, so you definitely want to stake it up or it will fall over and smother everything in its path. It produces a prolific crop of medium-small fruit born, which grow in clusters (if you thinned them they'd probably be bigger, but I find they're perfectly sized for canning whole.) The fruit are red, with a pleasantly meaty texture and very good flavor - more sweet than tart. They're great raw or cooked, and absolutely phenomenal sliced thin and baked on flatbread. From my experience, Stupice seems to be a fairly bug- and disease- resistant plant. I have grown these both in raised beds and in large containers, and they did well in both. Stupice is an early tomato, and will continue producing all summer, and even into the fall if the climate is mild. Seeds for Stupice are available from pretty much any seed company. I've had good luck with Botanical Interests and Seeds of Change.
Sungold: Sungold is an orange cherry tomato, and my other staple tomato plant, which I've grown for three years, I think. The vines are fairly upright, as tomatoes go, and open - which makes it easier to find the fruit. Though you can grow Sungold without caging or staking it up, I would recommend doing so anyway. Like most cherry tomatoes the golden-orange fruits, which average about 3/4 inch in diameter, grow in clusters. They are sweet, tangy, and very flavorful - completely different from most yellow cherry tomatoes, which I tend to find tasteless and boring. This is another very prolific tomato - I once made two quarts of orange tomato sauce just to use up a surplus of cherry tomatoes. Sungold also does well in both raised beds and large containers (I was using old recycling bins.) Sungold is another fairly early tomato. Seeds are available from all sorts of seed companies (though because it is a hybrid you won't find it at Baker Creek Heirlooms.)
Mortgage Lifter: Mortgage Lifter is a big tomato - plant descriptions say the fruit can be up to four pounds. Mine were usually a large handful of tomato (how very exact...) I grew this for two years before abandoning it to make more room for exotic varieties from Baker Creek. The vines are large and fairly floppy; the fruit also large, pinkish, frequently streaked with yellow. The tomatoes have few seeds, making them a good sandwich tomato, and the plant is reasonably prolific. The flavor is good. I did notice that bugs tended to ignore the Stupice and Sungold plants and flock to the Mortgage Lifters instead. Once again, you can find seeds for Mortgage Lifter all over the place.
Crnkovic Yugoslavian: I will admit I bought this tomato mostly for the unpronounceable name and because it came from Yugoslavia. It is the slowest tomato I have ever grown, but instantly became one of my new stables the moment I bit into one. The vines are tall and thick. Crnkovic is classified as a pink tomato - though it looks pretty red to me. The fruit bear a superficial resemblance to supermarket tomatoes - almost perfectly round, glossy, and red - but the resemblance ends there, as the flavor is intense and very tangy. The tomatoes are firm, with a thicker skin than most, and grow in clusters. I ended up eating most of them out of hand. The plants did fairly well in a seven-gallon nursery pot. Seeds for Crnkovic are slightly harder to find - Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds carries them, and it looks like other heirloom seed places do as well.
Green Zebra: Last year my poor Green Zebra was in too small a pot and in the shade, and it still did quite well. The vines are vigorous, with dense, dark green foliage; the mature fruit striped green and chartreuse. The flavor is great - intensely sweet and tangy, more fruity than many tomatoes. The only downside is that the fruit are well camouflaged against the leaves, and it can sometimes be hard to tell when they're ripe. Seeds for Green Zebra are widely available.
Fox Cherry: This is a red cherry tomato. The vines are rangy with open foliage. The fruit are about an inch in diameter, brilliant red, with a good, tart flavor. Last year my Fox Cherry was in too small a pot (I moved mid-planting season, hence all the container gardening) and I think it suffered for that - the yield was pretty small. The flavor was good enough to warrant a second chance, though, so I'll report back later in the summer. This is another slow-growing tomato. Seeds are available at Baker Creek Heirlooms.
Amish Paste: Amish Paste is, big surprise, a paste tomato, like the Roma. The vines were long and very floppy - definitely a variety to cage or stake - and the foliage sparse. The fruit were about the same size as a Roma; the flavor was pleasant but nothing special. The yield was decent. Last year I grew this in a container, so maybe it just isn't a container variety.
Purple Russian: As much fun as it is to announce that you're growing Purple Russians (your friends will be baffled) this plant was a disappointment. The vines are vigorous, with dark green foliage, and definitely need to be staked or caged, or they will flop over and grow along the ground. The fruit are elongated ovals, three inches long, kind of purple-red, and fairly prolific. Unfortunately I also found them to be mealy and bland, so I won't be growing them again. Seeds seem to be fairly widely available.
Paul Robeson: This was the biggest disappointment of my garden last year. The seedlings were initially vigorous, outstripping other varieties, but the plants were ultimately spindly little things, barley three feet tall. If I hadn't carefully caged them, they would have fallen over under their own weight. The yield was miserable: each plant (there were three) bore one large tomato, and then one or two smaller ones. I admit the fruit was gorgeous - deep red striped with green (Paul Robeson is called a black tomato) - and the first tomatoes were quite large, their shape round and slightly flattened. Baker Creek describes the Paul Robeson as regularly winning taste tests with its superb flavor - God only knows why, if they taste like mine did. I found them watery and bland. Did I get defective seeds or something? I'm really curious to see what anyone else has to say, if they have grown Paul Robeson before.
That's everything, I think. This year I'm growing Stupice, Sungold, Crnkovic, Fox Cherry, Green Zebra, Gold Medal, Pink Grapefruit, Green Moldovan (I can't resist tomatoes from small European countries,) Malakhitovaya Shkatulka (a Russian green tomato,) and Pantano Romanesco. I will keep you updated!