If you could only grow one tomato .....

[JennieAtkinson]

............. what would it be?

Tomatoes have not done well here for the last three years, so I'm going to cut down and just grow three plants, but I'm going to grow each of them in a large pot in the greenouse, rather than a grow bag to see if a better root system will help.

Soooooo ........ going through the catalogues there is SUCH a choice and I'm struggling to decide ........ so what would you recommend if you could only grow one?

[smallblueplanet]

What do you use your tomatoes for most?

[sewer rat]

Jennie
I'm not growing any toms this year but I had several that did well for me in the tunnel in spite of the poor summer and the blight - Black Russian, Golden Sunrise and Ailsa Craig performed well and Yellow Pear was outstanding.
In my greenhouse at home, Kimberley also did really well.

[bramble]

I would have to pick Ferline Jennie. It has a good resistence to blight and other tomato related diseases. It also has a very good flavour.
My second would be a cherry, probably Sweet 100 or something similar.
And the third would probably be a yellow one.
Thats just my opinion mind. Each to their own.
Good luck Jennie whatever you decide. Hopefully the coming summer cannot be any worse than the one just past.

[pigletwillie]

Ferline or bloody butcher, both tasty and prolific.

[momol]

It is really difficult choice Jennie... But since all my tomatoes failed this year ( blighted), I was left with the hybrid type which taste nice but not "wow". I did manage to harvest several pink brandywine tomato, for now, will vote for the pink Brandy wine tomatoes.

Happy New Year,

Momol

[veg4681]

How about going by tomato colours ,
one black (black russian, black prince, black brandywine, black krim, black cherry etc),
one red (stupice, rose de berne etc) and
one yellow (yellow pear, galina, golden sunrise etc) or
orange (sungold, outdoor girl).

One of them at least a cherry sized tomato, then a medium sized tomato and then a beefsteak type (caspian pink better for cooler climate). Mind you there are green, white and purple tomatoes too but I thought they might be too extreme for mentioning.

[smallblueplanet]

don't forget the stripey ones too

[valmarg]

I'm not a great cherry tomato fan, so it wouldn't be gardeners delight.

My favourites are the plum and beefsteak varieties.

Of these are beefsteak Mountain Pride, and plum variety Olivade.

I would find it impossible to pick one of the two varieties, but if I had to it would be the Mountain Pride

Every year OH says 'we won't grow so many tomatoes this year' and every year I think 'Oh yes we will' (In best pantomime style).

valmarg

[gojiberry]

I don't have the space for traditional tomatoes and grow all mine in hanging baskets. I find Tumbling Tom an excellent one and it did fight off the blight last year. There is also a yellow Tumbling Tom if you want variety.

[SarzWix]

The one tomato I have grown with no problems for 3 years is Sungold - they're happy outdoors or in, produce even in rubbish weather, and have never had a touch of blight. However they wouldn't be my 'one choice' because they're too small to cook with. I think I'd go with San Marzano, which did fairly well last year despite a late sowing, and they didn't get blight.
I'm going to try ShirleyF1 this year, in an attempt to get a decent tomato-ey tomato

[pigletwillie]

I grow lots of Shirley Sarz, about 30 plants and find it very good indeed.

[smallblueplanet]

I don't have the space for traditional tomatoes and grow all mine in hanging baskets. I find Tumbling Tom an excellent one and it did fight off the blight last year. There is also a yellow Tumbling Tom if you want variety.

Garden Pearl are good too.


Its no good I can't choose just one, it'd be an average for eating and cooking and conditions and I want to try and eat the best!

So at the minute I really like Matina a good tasty, easy to grow, red tom. Ananas Noire as a 'strange' tom, very tasty and unusual. Gardeners Delight for a high quantity, long cropping cherry-type tom. Stupice for a tasty early.

So thats not bad I only chose 4 from about 18 varieties I've got.

[veg4681]

I don't have the space for traditional tomatoes and grow all mine in hanging baskets. I find Tumbling Tom an excellent one and it did fight off the blight last year. There is also a yellow Tumbling Tom if you want variety.

My Tumbling Tom did so poorly as it was mostly my fault for transplanting them when they were perfectly settled in one pot and never really recovered from that and although they produced some tomatoes, it was awful tasting but I was comparing it with the taste of Sungold which I was also growing.

I have thought of giving up on Tom for 2008 but I do wonder now if tomato taste is greatly affected by the quality of the plants...it must be.

[Biscombe]

For taste Cherokee Green!