Poring over the seed catalogs... and there are a bazillion varieties of tomatoes that I *could* try.

Looking for suggestions. What are your favorites, and why do you like them best?

So many tomatoes just don't taste like tomatoes used to. I am looking at catalogs too, and thinking of maybe trying a couple of the heirloom varieties...I hear they are really tasty.

Here in California I like the cherrys, they are sweet. I'm sad that the REAL monster Beefsteak tomatoes can't be grown here, all we have is a sad cross that is labeled Beefsteak. Real Ox Hearts are also almost unknown out here.

Some of the older ones have a true tomato taste, but are hard to find. One of my Grandmother's old ones (Pink and yellow stripes) I've tried for years to grow from seed sent by cousins back in WV, they sprout and then die.

I usually get the "Heirloom" tomatoes from the grocery and when cutting them save the seeds. The crosses don't come true from seeds, which might be a good thing. Might actually get a good one that would be profitable to grow. When I find one I like, I can take cuttings and have them winter over in a sheltered spot and then have a good start on the summer.

I like Big boy. They are nice and sweet and taste like a tomato should. They make a wonderful sauce that tastes fresh even after canned but it is not a thick paste like sauce, even when reduced down considerably. It is also a wonderful tomato for eating off the vine. It is not an heirloom but it is my favorite.

I grow 2 types...sweet 100's for the little ones...and Early Girl for the big ones...they have a good flavor.
I tried a seedless one last year because Mom can't have anything with seeds....but it had no taste...will not try again.

Mr. Stripey!!! YUMMY

I really like the Ox Heart tomatoes if you can find the seeds. They're huge, tasty and slightly pinkish. Great for eating and canning. I've been happy with most of the heirloom varieties. They do have more flavor than the new hybrids. Happy gardening.

Me too! ...make the best BLT's!

I buy the Roma's. I make a ton of spaghetti sauce so they are the best. I make my own fresh tomato pizza- the less juice for me the better.

However, I love to take a tomato off the vine, rip a piece of skin off, put a little salt on and eat it, warm from the vine.

We use natural fertilizer so our produce grows great. The soil has mushroom soil in it too for the nutrients.

I don't garden anymore, but when I did we planted Early Girls.

I love the grape tomatos, don't like cherry ones:)

Burpee Sweet 100's. Start only one or two plants. My last plant was over 8 ft tall and 6ft wide; I had it tied to the chain link fence. The family of 4 and our family of four had a hard time keeping up with eating them. They got to keep and eat any tomatoes on their side of the fence. We got cucumbers in return. :)

Sweet 100's....bite sized and just like putting a piece of candy into your mouth...they are addicting!

I like the early girls because of the acidity and they usually make a hearty crop.

Heirloom tomatoes definitely taste better to me! I also love the Ox Heart variety...we order from Baker Creek Seed Company, http://rareseeds.com/

I'm still trying to figure out the best, I can tell you that I DIDN'T like "Italian Ice" last year - very little flavor. I always plant yellow pear and sweet 100. Still learning what I can't live without as far as large ones;)

I alwasy plant Better Boy...it is my main crop tomato. I also like one called Brandy Boy, which is a hybrid of Brandywine (it has great heirloom flavor, but more disease resistant)
Cherry tomatoes..I like sungold or suncherry and sweet million...they both do super and hold well on the plant and disease and crack resistant....plus very sweet, which I tend to like.

Here in So. Cal. we plant the "Early Girl". They are good tasting and get rather large. Believe it or not we have tomatoes on the vine right now, but they are not as large as they can get. Did pick some for Christmas dinner. One plane it really growing but no blossoms yet.
We have them planted in whiskey barells on the south side of the house. Haven't had freezing temperature yet and lots of sun so I think the tomatoe plans are confussed as to what season it is.

Love, love, love the purple tomatoes. Most specifically the Purple Cherokee. They have a smoky kind of flavor. Yum!

Lori

I always plant Early Girls. They have a wonderful flavor and they not only fruit early, but continue to fruit the whole growing season. I also try several others that are available and have found some I like (Celebrities did well last year), but Early Girls are my only mainstay. I also plant 1 or 2 Sweet 100's, which is plenty! I always get carried away with planting tomatoes and usually have around 30 - 40 plants each year. I can tomatoes, tomatoes and okra and homemade soup, eat a many as I can and give the rest away.

I wantto try some of the heirlooms too. I have tried Mr. Stripys, but they didnt do well here. I always do Early Girls, and I always get some type of cherry tomatoes.

Plum Plum Plum - great for sauces!

I love the Sweet 100s also. Here in the heat, I can plant them early and they mature fast. It gets too hot to grow the larger ones, although every year I try. I did two heirlooms last year, without success.

Love the sungold for cherry tomatoes. For years I have used Celebrity for the big tomatoes. They take the heat here and are disease resistant -- always a problem in our high humidity and heat.

I usually plant the Early Girls, Big Boy, and try a couple of others just to check out and always a cherry or grape. The last Grape tomato I planted was a yellow and was the most flavorful, tender skinned and tasty.

Most of the time I grow Better Boys which are protected.

I am a huge gardener and have grown about every tomato there is! Just some advice, Heirloom tomatoes do not produce like regular tomatoes. They bear a lot later and in very small amounts! If u r planning on putting up Salsa, juices or canned tomatoes use the regular dependable tomatoes!!!!!! A few of the Heirlooms better than others for reliablilty, the Oxhearts and Green Zebras r not bad. Different tomatoes grow better in different areas. I live in Zone 5, Missouri area. Better Boys, Big Boys, Beef Steaks all do well here. Talk to ur local Greenhouses or neighbor and ask what they recommend.

I loved the Watermelon Beefsteak - it grew so big, one slice covered a whole slice of bread or large bun for sandwiches... I love the Romas for tomato sauce, pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, and even thick juice. The Early Girl is good for just slicing and eating - and the grape tomatoes for salads... just my favorites!

I planted a few Heirloom German ones last year, and they were SOOO good, but I cant remember the name. They were HUGE and really dk red, almost purple, and the plants looked like potaoes. ANyone have a clue what they might be? They had German in the name.........

I love the little pear tomatos ! they're like eating candy, and they look like little tiny lightbulbs.
We usually have those a cherry tomato plant and a beefsteak;
this past summer a Roma plant snuck into our yard from some where.... way on the other side of the yard, we let it grow along the ground, it went crazy!

I do 1 favorite every year, and always add 1 new variety to see If there is one better. I always grow the Big Beef variety, and this year I am trying "Applause", it is supposed to have a lot of the diseases under control.

next to fabric, seeds are my fav thing! I have the new Baker Creek Heirloom Seed catalog, www.rareseeds.com - I love all tomatoes! Try and get 1 pkt of seed in every tomato color: red, green, stripe, orange, yellow, white, and black! My SO works out of state and last spring I turned the kitchen into my greenhs! lol! Its good I don't mind microwave food! Just make sure you get tomato seed for your area. I live in a hot humid south now, so you want plants that can take the climate where you are. baker Creek sells a bucket of regular seed pks, 15 var of veggies 30 pks in all for 55$, and one of 25 type veggies, 60 full size pks for 99$ they send you these set up for north or south state plants. Since I garden, this yr I'm buying the big bucket - I spend at least that much and more on individual seeds, so I planned ahead and saved up the money and try it this way. (Oh, I think Brandywine tomatoes are great) Go online and look thru their site, thses are really nice people and they sell a wonderful seed, trying to save old time veggies and plants - no hybreds

Depends on what you're using them for. For sauce, Romas. For eating, heirlooms. But I plant what grows in my area.

I usually stick with heirlooms - Brandywines are my favorite, because they are huge and have lots of flavor.

We love Mountain Fresh tomatoes. Great for eating and making tomato juice, and making salsa.

I grow several types, maybe cause I can't make a decision?? No, really, I grow cherry for out of hand eating and salads, roma or roma-type for canning/putting up, and a larger for sandwiches and such. Usually something like early girl. I have not had good success with the really large ones, though maybe that's due to my microclimate--too wet, not hot enough for long enough.

We've gone to growing mostly heirlooms, because they taste like a tomato should! For eating fresh, Brandywines are delicious. For making salsa or tomato sauce, I like Amish Paste. They're a meaty tomato like Roma, but a lot larger so you don't have to peel as many to yield the same amount.

I usually try a couple of heirlooms each year and the traditional Roma, Lemon Boy, Beef Steak varieties. I buy mostly from Johnnies Fine Seeds, they have a web site and a great catalog.

Since we have a fairly short growing period here in Maine I always get some 4th. of July tomato's from Burpee's and then for real flavor I get Prudence Purple heirloom. The 4th. of July up here is ready by the end of July and the Prudence Purple has the best flavor of any tomato I've ever had.

Oh, it was painful to read about all the big tomatoes and varieties. Here in western Washington state, every year is iffy. This last year was about the worst for growing tomatoes that I've experienced in the 15 years I've lived here. A cold, wet spring that lingered into summer. Honestly, half the time last year I couldn't remember what season we were in. We had a few hot, sunny days in there, but hardly enough. Once the rains start up again in September, all the vines go black, no matter how full of green tomatoes they are. (And I've tried every method of "ripening" green tomatoes; nothing ever works for me.)

When I lived in So. Calif., where I grew up, I once kept a couple of Early Girl vines going for two years! When they were finally over, and I had to buy a supermarket tomato, I couldn't believe the lack of taste. I used to plant Sweet 100's (before Sweet Millions were available); six plants in 5 gallon pots, and I could barely give the tomatoes away, there were so many. I've always tried to garden in whatever dirt I had available, and in pots if nothing else, but this PNW climate frustrates me a lot of the time.

I actually felt better last year when I attended a King Arthur Flour demo in my city and learned that everybody in my area had a bad tomato year. Usually, others' misfortunes don't please me at all, but this time I felt at least that I'd done all I could.

So, each year I try something new and something that's worked. I rely heavily on the "date to maturity" because I've found that anything advertised as taking over 70 days is a waste of time in my climate (thus, none of the truly big tomatoes are possible); this includes, unfortunately, most of the paste-type tomatoes. And I also buy starts from Territorial Seeds in Oregon (www.territorialseed.com) because they have a good variety, I need the headstart, and don't have room for many plants. Also, I hate to start a lot of seeds and then have to "sacrifice" the little plants I can't give away. My mom always said I was too tender-hearted. LOL! Unfortunately, I've found more and more lately that a plant advertised in the catalogs as 65 days might show up with a tag that says 80 days.

Anyway, if anybody's still with me, I try not to suffer envy when I hear about your beefsteaks and heirlooms, which also mostly take 80 days or more, but wish me some sunshine this summer!