Tomato reviews likes & dislikes 2015 - 2020

[Small pumpkin]

I've not had the best year with my tomatoes, if I'm honest.
I'm going to be ruthless with my growing list this year.
Ovi's Romanian giant - never again ( didn't produce one edible fruit )
Black Russian - not as productive or as big or firm as normal, but will grow again
Pink Brandywine - not growing again, I've tried for the last 3 years and not been impressed
Black pineapple - very impressed with this, big fruit, flavour good and very juicy. Growing again
Ferline - production poor, not growing again
Sweetie - has done well but not growing again to similar to another variety I'm keeping
Shirley - has done quite well, flavour disappointing, not growing again
Kenilworth - not done to bad. He may get a second chance next year
Gardeners delight - I like him, growing again
Dancing with smurfs - not good production, not growing again
Sweet baby - yes yes yes, growing again
Latah - triffid, not growing again
Cyril's choice - he will be getting a second chance
Cherry - producing quit well, flavour disappointing, not growing again
Black krim - not done well this year but has in the past, not growing again because to similar to Black Russian
Tumbling yellow - slow starter but has done well, flavour good, growing again.

[Scoot]

I've not had the best year with my tomatoes, if I'm honest.
I'm going to be ruthless with my growing list this year.
Ovi's Romanian giant - never again ( didn't produce one edible fruit )
Black Russian - not as productive or as big or firm as normal, but will grow again
Pink Brandywine - not growing again, I've tried for the last 3 years and not been impressed
Black pineapple - very impressed with this, big fruit, flavour good and very juicy. Growing again
Ferline - production poor, not growing again
Sweetie - has done well but not growing again to similar to another variety I'm keeping
Shirley - has done quite well, flavour disappointing, not growing again
Kenilworth - not done to bad. He may get a second chance next year
Gardeners delight - I like him, growing again
Dancing with smurfs - not good production, not growing again
Sweet baby - yes yes yes, growing again
Latah - triffid, not growing again
Cyril's choice - he will be getting a second chance
Cherry - producing quit well, flavour disappointing, not growing again
Black krim - not done well this year but has in the past, not growing again because to similar to Black Russian
Tumbling yellow - slow starter but has done well, flavour good, growing again.

Where'd you get your black pineapple seeds from?

[Small pumpkin]

Nicky's nursery
I was disappointed with the lack of black or yellow on the fruit as the name suggests but they are still a bit different.

[Scarlet]

I think "black" tomatoesalways have those muddy green shoulders.
Nice looking fruit though SP. how much does it weigh? Or have you eaten it?

[BUFFS]

I think "black" tomatoesalways have those muddy green shoulders.
Nice looking fruit though SP. how much does it weigh? Or have you eaten it?

the indigo rose go completely black but I found their skins tough, or that may be our consistently c*** summers..

[Jimmy]

My favorite is Sun Gold followed by Rosada.

A question, has any of you Tomato Aficionados tried Tomato Wine ?
Jimmy

[Scarlet]

the indigo rose go completely black but I found their skins tough, or that may be our consistently c*** summers..

I don't group those "anthocyanin" blue/black tomatoes (indigo rose, dancing with smurfs) in with true black tomatoes (black cherry, Black Russian etc) the colouring for those blue/black toms are just skin deep (also seen in the leaves/stems) and only on the side exposed to the sun - when cut they are just red inside.
Whereas the black toms that we are all familiar with when cut often have a distinct green hue mixed in with the darker Mahogany/muddy Browns/deep purple bits
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_tomato

I always grow a blue/black tomato for a bit of fun but they taste nothing like the real deal black cherry toms etc.

[Scarlet]

My favorite is Sun Gold followed by Rosada.

A question, has any of you Tomato Aficionados tried Tomato Wine ?
Jimmy

Fo you mean BrandyWine toms Jimmy?
My kids love Sun gold...

[Jimmy]

Fo you mean BrandyWine toms Jimmy?
My kids love Sun gold...

I have a glut of toms and remember somewhere you can brew wine from them ?

[maverick451]

Sakura



I grew quite a lot of modern cherry varieties this season to see which did best for me, this variety has an AGM so I thought id give it a go, what I like about Sakura is the fruit are a large cherry size which just seems really a prefect size to snack on, the taste was sweet, maybe not quite as sweet as sungold or Apero but not far off, the plant was vigorous and the it has cropped quite heavily, this variety is definitely one the cherry varieties im going to stick with

Earliness 8/10
Health and vigour 8.5/10
Taste 8.5/10
Will I grow next year - Yes definately

[hamamelis]

This year was my Big Tomato Trial ('cos I just got a greenhouse).
Unfortunately, the blight hit early and hard.

My results were as follows:

Broad Ripple Yellow Currant:
Earliness 8/10
Heath and vigour 8/10
Taste 7/10
Will I grow again- maybe

Gardeners' Delight

Earliness 8/10
Health and vigour 10/10 (Only plant to avoid the blight)
Taste 10/10
Will I grow again- yes

Black Russian (also valid for Purple Calabash)
Earliness -dunno
Health and vigour- dead
Taste- dunno

Will I grow again- no. No seeds!

Red Cherry

Earliness 9/10
Health and vigour 9/10
Taste 8/10

Will I grow again, maybe.


Super Marmande

Earliness 6/10
Health and vigour 8/10
Taste 7/10

Will I grow again - probably not.

Tigerella (aka Mr Stripy)

Earliness 8/10
Health and Vigor 9/10
Flavour 7/10

Will I grow again- probably not.

Kalinka

Earliness 10/10 (first to ripen by over a week, though the others were in a greenhouse and it was not!)
Health and Vigour 7/10 (probably due to taking plant camping for a week)
Flavour 8/10

Will I grow next year- yes

Orange Paste

Earliness 9/10
Health and Vigour 6/10 (same as Kalinka, but suffered worse from blight)
Taste n/a (cooking variety, got one fruit before the blight flattened it)

Maliniak

Earliness -still not ripe
Health and vigour 9/10
Taste -?

Will I grow again, dunno!

[SaraJH]

We are only growing a few varieties in this, our first year but observations so far are:

Red cherry
Health and Vigour: 9/10
Taste: 9/10 - just the right balance between sweet and tart
Grow again: Definitely

Sungold
Health and Vigour: 9/10
Taste: 7/10 - far too sweet for me but I can fully understand the popularity
Grow again: No

Tigerella
Health and Vigour: 8/10
Taste: 10/10 - absolutely love these, perhaps because I've only ever previously eaten supermarket toms
Grow again: Definitely

[Penellype]

Mountain Magic One of the ones I have been waiting for.

Earliness 7/10
Health and vigour 10/10
Taste 7/10 - much better than expected from the first tomato grown outdoors at my friend's.
Will I grow again - yes definitely.
Blight resistance - none of my tomatoes have yet died of blight, but this variety (and Ferline) have survived longer outdoors at my friend's than any other outdoor tomato I have grown there in the last 3 years (Shirley, Sungold, Belle all succumbed to blight before producing any fruit).



4 varieties of tomato in this photo. At the back left, Ferline (review to come) which has wilted under the weight of large fruit. Back right, Mountain Magic, strong and healthy with large trusses of ripening fruit. Front left Roma (review to come), never good outside and looking unhappy. Front right Legend - see below.

Legend

Earliness 1/10
Health and vigour 0/10
Taste no idea
Will I grow again - not if you paid me to.

History:
5 seeds sown in propagator in March in identical conditions to 6 other varieties. The packet of seed was new. Of all of the varieties, 3 seeds didn't germinate at all - all 3 of these were Legend.
The 2 surviving plants were weedy and pale looking. They grew more slowly than the other varieties which I put down to them being a bush variety. One of them became badly bent and distorted and this plant was planted in a gro-bed with other varieties in my friend's greenhouse, where it was nibbled by slugs and soon died.
The surviving plant was planted outdoors as in the above photo. It did actually grow into a biggish bush, and for a while looked healthy. However it is now very yellow and has managed to produce a pathetic 5 tomatoes, none of which are yet turning red. Even Roma, next to it, which I find very hard to grow outside, has more fruit on it.

What a waste of time, effort and space!

[snowbunny]

Oooh, good thread. As with everything in my garden, my toms were affected by lack of water and probably too intense sun (Spain). Next year, they'll have more water and I'm thinking of shading them. This really affected both the look of the plants and the crop, as well as the fact I got loads of tomatoes splitting. Still, I'll try to ignore the failings due to my first year's learning curve in this report.

Gardener's Delight
Earliness 9/10
Health and vigour 7/10
Taste 7/10
Will I grow next year - Yes, to see if I get a better crop with better conditions

Moneymaker
Earliness 9/10
Health and vigour 7/10
Taste 7/10
Will I grow next year - Probably not. I'd rather try something more exciting.

Black cherry
Earliness 10/10
Health and vigour 8/10
Taste 10/10
Will I grow next year - Definitely, I loved these. Absolutely bursting with flavour.

Sunbelle
Earliness 10/10
Health and vigour 7/10
Taste 10/10
Will I grow next year - Yes definitely. Sweet and tasty, gorgeous.

Roma
Earliness 8/10
Health and vigour 6/10
Taste 6/10
Will I grow next year - No. Disappointing flavour and size for fruit, with very few fruit on the plant.

[maverick451]

Black Opal



A modern black cherry tomato, large multi braching trusses, I actually found a bit like grapes it was better to remove some fruit from each truss otherwise they didnt all develop to a good size, taste didnt blow my mind, it was a pleasant taste with that slightly earthy/smoky black tomato taste, I will grow this variety next year as when picked they looked great in salads contrasted against the other cherry tomato colours. I had no problem with disease.

Earliness 7.5/10
Health and vigour 8/10
Taste 7/10
Crop - 10/10 absolutely loads and loads.