Too much choice

[ugley_matt]

Am i the only one that gets overwhelmed with the choice of which variety to buy and sow?
Do i really need to choose from 30 varieties of tomatoes? Just tell me which ones are the tastiest and that will do me. All the catalogs have pretty much the same description for each one, so just how do you decide? Its not like you can change your mind mid way through the season, get it wrong and thats a years growing wasted.

[Nicos]

Needless to say I'd be goooogling for comments ( or of course asking on here!) for a better flavour description, but also which plants grow best in my soil and micro climate and resistant to my local diseases and pests.

One person grows toms for salads ( may prefer acidic or sweet, thinner skins, or a selection of colours!) , another for making passata ( a less seedy tomato)

Some peeps have a particular hobby interest in one type of plant and enjoy 'fiddling' and pampering it...maybe for show quality.
Some peeps just want cheap , healthy food and don't specifically care about the flavours available.

You may not like the choice you make this year - so need to choose something very different next year.

And so....30 tomato varieties suddenly doesn't seem a huge choice does it?

[AkionTotocha]

There's a lot of choice to appease everyone - lots of gardeners don't want to grow the same tomatoes every year, some people might rave about one kind that others hate. Plus the joy in gardening is trying new things, if you do the same things every year, what's the point?

Why are there so many different kinds of clothes?

There are four kinds of tomato as far as I'm aware: cherry, medium/salad/standard, beefsteak, and cooking. What kind you want to eat will determine the varieties you want. Where you want to grow them will narrow this down even more, and how much vertical space you can give them will leave you with 1-5ish toms from the main companies.

Stay away from Amishland seeds, I reckon 100's of tomato varieties, all seem drool worthy (no idea how to order them though)

[ESBkevin]

The flavour comes from the rich soil, ever noticed how bland commercially grown supermarket tomatoes are? Use sterile soil and artificial feed and get great fruit but no flavour.

[Alison]

The flavour comes from the rich soil, ever noticed how bland commercially grown supermarket tomatoes are? Use sterile soil and artificial feed and get great fruit but no flavour.

Many supermarket toms aren't grown in soil at all. The lack of taste though is mainly down to the fact they're picked early and grown for relatively guaranteed uniformity and size. They're also varieties which don't bruise and split.

[Small pumpkin]

Do i really need to choose from 30 varieties of tomatoes?

No........ You grow one of each

[muddled]

You can always ask on here.

My vote (tomato wise) would be for tigerella....Very tasty (I like acidic toms) and an easy one to grow, looks pretty in a salad bowl and holds its shape in a frying pan.

There; what next? Beans?

For pole beans I choose cherokee trail of tears, They're easy, tasty, and sound cool when people ask what you're growing!
(well.....these things matter to me )

[Thelma Sanders]

so just how do you decide? Its not like you can change your mind mid way through the season, get it wrong and thats a years growing wasted.

I grow one plant of a few varieties of tomato each year. That way I gradually narrow it down to the ones that I most like the taste/yield/growth of. (You can always recycle seeds by swapping with others for the ones you won't grow again)

So far it's narrowed down to Black Cherry, Nectar Rose and Black Sea Man, with Rio Grande for cooking. These have proved their worth over several years, now.

New ones to try this year are Jaune Flamme, Blush and Riesentraube - here's hoping they're worth growing next year

Climbing beans, I always grow Cosse Violet beans (they seem to be a little more wind resistant than the green varieties)

[veggiechicken]

No........ You grow one of each

I'm not even trying to limit myself to 30
I sowed 140 cabbages last year - lots of varieties - hoping to find a favourite. Still waiting to taste one and I won't know what it is as the labels are missing. Probably do exactly the same again this year!

I agree about the descriptions in seed catalogues being meaningless - just waffle really. Trust the Grapes' recommendations - not the retailer's hyperbole.

[Guest]

I try to grow lots of different varieties as I love the variation. Deciding tends to be more of a lucky dip/ what takes my fancy at the time of sowing.

As for catalogue descriptions - being told 'everything tastes great and wonderful and is something you must grow' is really annoying and unhelpful, especially where fruit comes to mind

[Lumpy]

I suppose the one good thing about so many varieties of everything is that it gives me hours of reading during the winter as I mooch around the many seed catalogues.

Except for radish (French Breakfast) and Parsnips (Countess) everything this year is an unknown,

I am building up to try Dances With Smurfs.

[KittyColdNose]

You can always ask on here.

My vote (tomato wise) would be for tigerella....Very tasty (I like acidic toms) and an easy one to grow, looks pretty in a salad bowl and holds its shape in a frying pan.

There; what next? Beans?

For pole beans I choose cherokee trail of tears, They're easy, tasty, and sound cool when people ask what you're growing!
(well.....these things matter to me )

I'm also growing Cherokee trail of tears and for press it's Lord Leicester (whispers* I don't really like fresh tomatoes).

[Scoot]

I'm growing 12 different varieties this year. 10 of them i have never tried before. I'll pick out the ones i like and not bother with the other ones next year and try some other different ones next year. It's basically trial and error for me this year and i can't blooming wait

[vixylix]

This is exactly what the vine is for! (well part of)

Half the fun for me is trying different varieties each year - although rather like VC I lose the label / dont label at all and then end up with no idea what variety it is. I'm happy though

[Kirk]

For tomato's I guess 30 varieties are about right.
I grow some of the "current" ones, they are very small and just good fun. A few of the Garden Pearl sized ones and a couple of the sort of normal sized ones. Then a couple of the biggies. Small ones are for salads, normal for slicing with Mozorella and the big ones for stuffing.

So that is 4 based on size alone, add in a bit of variety at the normal sized ones and easily 6.

Throw in I have the choice of red, yellow, black/purple and the option start growing.

Ideally it would be say 2 plants of each. So I would have to consider 10-12 plants I suspect, not impossible or overly difficult. Peppers are not so much of a problem but I will end up with about 8 plants of 4 varieties.

If you need a pollinator for anything then you almost have to have 4 plants as that gives 2 plants of 2 varieties.

Another "problem" is that to get say 2 plants you are likely to plant 4 seeds. Fine if 2 germinate but if all 4 germinate you have double the amount. So plant all 4, bump off 2 or give 2 away.